iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of abbreviations vi List of tables and figures vii INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rationale for the study 1 1. Aims and objectives of the study 2 1. Scope of the study 3 1.
Methods of the study 3 1. Significance of the study 4 1. Design of the study 5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 6 1. Listening and teaching listening in the foreign language classroom 6 1.
Needs analysis in language teaching 12 1. Materials evaluation in language teaching 20 1. Materials adaptation in language teaching 28 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 32 2. Description of the context 32 2.
Description of the participants 34 2. Methods of data collection 34 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Methods of data analysis 37 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 39 3. Students’ listening needs 39 3.
Evaluation of the current in-class listening materials for first-year ELT students as 46 perceived by the Ss and Ts 3. Significance, limitations of the research and recommendations for further study 67 References 69 Appendices I LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL English as a foreign language ELT English Language Teaching ESL English as a second language ESP English for specific purposes FELTE The Faculty of Foreign Language Teacher Education L1 First language L2 Foreign language / second language ME Materials evaluation NA Needs analysis PSA Present situation analysis S(s) Student(s) T(s) Teacher(s) TSA Target situation analysis ULIS University of Languages and International Studies VNU Vietnam National University, Hanoi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Title Page Figure 1.1: Systematic approach to designing and maintaining language curriculum 16 (Brown, 1995) Figure 3.1: Ss’ overall opinions on their main listening problems 40 Figure 3.2: Ts’ overall opinions on their Ss’ main listening problems 41 Figure 3.3: Comparison between Ss and Ts’ opinions on Ss’ main listening problems 41 Figure 3.4: Comparison between Ss and Ts’ opinions on Ss’ main listening problems 42 Figure 3.5: Ss’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials 48 for first-year ELT Ss in terms content Figure 3.6: Ts’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials 49 for first-year ELT Ss in terms of content Figure 3.7: Ss’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials 50 for first-year ELT Ss in terms of recordings Figure 3.8: Ss’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials 50 for first-year ELT Ss in terms of recordings Figure 3.9: Ss’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials 51 for first-year ELT Ss in terms of topics LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com viii Figure 3.10: Ts’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials 52 for first-year ELT Ss in terms of topics Figure 3.11: Comparison between Ss and Ts’ opinions on the aspects of the current 53 in-class listening materials for first-year ELT Ss Figure 3.12:Comparison between Ss and Ts’ opinions on the aspects of the current 53 in-class listening materials for first-year ELT Ss Table 1.1: NA / initial assessment components (Brindley, 1984) 17 Table 2.1: Assessment in the “listening – speaking 1” course 34 Table 3.1: Opinions of Ss and Ts on Ss’ listening proficiency and attitudes towards V the importance of listening skill Table 3.2: Ss and Ts’ opinions on Ss’ main listening problems VII Table 3.3: Opinions of Ss and Ts on Ss’ wants in learning listening skill VII Table 3.4: Coding for listening needs interview transcript – question 1 VIII Table 3.5: Coding for listening needs interview transcript – question 2 IX Table 3.6: Ss and Ts’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials for XIV first year ELT Ss Table 3.7: Ts’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials XV for first-year ELT Ss in terms of objectives Table 3.8: Ss and Ts’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials XV for first-year ELT Ss in terms of layout / graphics LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ix Table 3.9: Ss and Ts’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials XVI for first-year ELT Ss in terms of content Table 3.10: Ss and Ts’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials XVII for first-year ELT Ss in terms of recordings Table 3.11: Ss and Ts’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials XIX for first-year ELT Ss in terms of topics Table 3.12: Coding for listening materials evaluation interview transcript XX Table 3.13: Ss’ performance in listening tasks – theme “employment” XXVII Table 3.14: Ss’ performance in listening tasks - theme “holidays and festivals” XXVII LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Rationale for the study As an input skill, listening plays a crucial role in Ss’ language development. According to Krashen (1985), a language is acquired by understanding the linguistic information people hear.
Morley (2001: 70) claims that on average, people can expect to listen “twice as much as we speak, four times more than what we read and five times more than we usually write”. The significant role of listening in communication and language learning is also recognized by other researchers such as Dunkel (1991), Anderson and Lynch (1988). This skill can be considered as a very important input in foreign language learning; therefore it deserves sound attention from teachers (Ts) and learners. Having spent two years teaching in the English Division 1, the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education (FELTE), University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS), Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU), the author has had a number of informal talks with students (Ss) about their studies.
Many complaints and worries came from their difficulties and the lack of self-confidence in their own ability and performance in listening comprehension. Their mid-term and end-of-term test results also showed that to many Ss, listening skill was a bigger challenge than other three English learning skills. The results showed that many Ss did well with the reading, speaking and writing tests with some having maximum scores (i. However, they were not as successful with the listening tests.
The scores for these tests were far lower than those for the other three ones, with some Ss scoring very low. This indicates that a lot of attention should be paid to helping Ss improve this skill. It is undeniable that materials play a crucial role in language teaching and learning. According to Hutchinson and Torres (1994: 3), materials are “an almost universal element of *English language+ teaching.
Millions of copies are sold every year, and numerous aid projects have been set up to produce them in *various+ countries”. Tomlinson (2003: 2) suggests that materials “include anything which can be used to facilitate the learning of a language.” He also claims that the needs and wants of the learners should be taken into consideration when designing materials. Many researchers (Nunan, 1988; Peacock, 1999; Richards, 2011; Rubdy, 2003) share the same idea with him. From this point of view, Ts should identify learner expectations and attitudes about how languages are learned and also explain the reasoning behind classroom methods in order to reduce any gap between learner and teacher beliefs.
This is a valuable source of data for Ts in designing, evaluating and adapting materials. The importance of materials evaluation has been recognised by many researchers and experts in foreign language teaching such as Ellis (1997) and Robinson (1991). They claim that materials LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 evaluation should be carried out not only to choose among the available materials the most suitable for one’s particular situation but also to determine whether the chosen ones work for that situation after having been used for a period of time. It can also bring general insights into how Ts use materials and suggest directions both for materials development and professional development activities.
The listening materials used for first-year English majors at FELTE, ULIS, VNU have been employed in the “listening - speaking 1” course since 2006. Some changes have been made to them based on informal feedback from some Ts at the end of the course. During the end of term meetings for English division 1 (which is in charge of the implementation of the course), Ts are requested to give comments on the materials they have been using during the semester. The criticism that they make is discussed among all Ts and based on the final conclusion, the necessary changes will be made to the materials for the next school year.
However, no research has been done on a bigger scale to find out how Ss and Ts evaluated the materials. As Ferris (1998) stresses, it is important to use both student and faculty informants when looking at the needs and difficulties of ESL Ss in various academic settings. This would help to provide a well-rounded picture of the academic needs of those Ss whose first language is not English. Therefore, to the author’s mind, a study with reflection of both Ts and Ss on the current materials will bring more validity and reliability to the materials evaluation.
Because of the given reasons, the author decided to use a needs-based approach to discover how the Ss and Ts evaluated the current in-class listening materials in order to help the Ss improve their listening skill. Aims and objectives of the study This study aims to analyze and evaluate the listening materials for the first semester for first-year English majors FELTE, ULIS, VNU by seeking answers to the following questions: 1. What are the first-year English majors’ needs when learning listening skill at FELTE, ULIS, VNU in Ss and Ts’ perspectives? 2. To what extent do the current listening in-class materials for the first semester meet their needs in Ss and Ts’ perspectives? 3.
Scope of the study Due to the small scale of the study as well as the limitation of time, this study focuses on evaluating the current listening materials for the first semester for first-year English majors at FELTE from the perspectives of the users of these materials (i. Ss and Ts taking part in the listening-speaking 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 3 course school year 2010-2011). The materials to be evaluated include in-class materials in the form of handouts delivered to Ss in each lesson and CDs containing listening recordings for the tasks in the handouts. Teacher’s pack with suggestions for lesson plans and supplementary materials are not included in this study.
Participating in the research are 100 first-year English majors of the school year 2010-2011 and 12 Ts in charge of teaching listening skill in the first semester. The evaluation took place in the first semester of the school year 2010-2011 from September 2010 to January 2011. Methods of the study Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were employed in the research using the following tools: Questionnaires Two questionnaires on needs analysis were delivered to 100 Ss and 12 Ts at the beginning of the first semester of the school year 2010-2011 to collect the information about the Ss’ listening needs. Two questionnaires on materials evaluation were delivered to the Ss and Ts at the end of the semester to ask them about their evaluation of the listening materials used during the semester.
After two random listening lessons, two questionnaires were delivered to 50 Ss chosen randomly from 100 participants. They were used to collect information about the difficulties they encountered while doing the tasks in these lessons. Further explanation for this set of questionnaires is presented in Comment [YUN1]: Hang 2: đây là questionnaire ạ. Em có giải thích rõ tại sao lịa dùng questionnaire chapter 2, “methodology”.
sau khi dự giờ vào chương 2 – methodology ạ. Follow-up interviews At the beginning of the first semester of the school year 2010 - 2011, an interview was conducted with 10 Ss randomly chosen among the participants to collect information about their listening needs.