TABLE OF CONTENTS Content Page Sub-cover page Statements of the authorship. ii Table of contents .1 List of abbreviations .5 List of tables .6 List of figures .2 Purposes of the Study .4 Scope of the Research .5 Structure of the Study .14 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Clarification of Basic Concepts .2 The Relationship between Prediction and Listening Comprehension .1 The Importance of Prediction in LC Lessons .2 The Benefits of Predictions .3 Implementing a Prediction Activity.1 Prediction Based on the Topic .2 Prediction Based on The Key Words .3 Prediction Based on The Exercises Designed for The While Listening and Post Listening Period.4 Prediction Based on The Speakers and Their Relations .5 Prediction Based on The Topic Sentence .6 Prediction Based on The Grammar Structures .7 Prediction Based on The Semantic Markers. Prediction Based on Knowledge of Intonation and Stress .9 Prediction Based on Knowledge of Discourse .10 Prediction Based on The Stock Formula of The Language .11 Prediction Based on The Pictures Given .3 Problems in Implementing PAs in LC and Solutions .4 Review of Previous Studies Related to the Topic .1 Methodology of the research .1 Quantitative research methods .2 Qualitative research methods .2 Data Collection Tools .41 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .1 Introduction to the Chapter .2 Students’ Attitudes towards the Use of PAs in Their LC Classes .1 Reasons Why Students Liked or Disliked PAs .2 Students’ Most Favorable PAs .3 Kinds of Listening Tasks in Which Students Liked to Make Predictions 46 2 4. Students’ Preference of Class Organization.
Students’ Frequency of Making Wrong Predictions. Students’ Feelings When Being Corrected .7 Students’ Expectations from Teachers’ to Have Good Predictions. Summary of Results Related to Students .3 Teachers’ views on the Use of Prediction Activities in Their LC Classes .1 Teachers’ Perceptions of Predictions in Listening Comprehension .2 Teachers’ Perceptions of Kinds of Prediction Activities .3 Teachers’ Perceptions of the Importance of PAs in LC .4 Teachers’ Perceptions of the Benefits of Prediction Activities .4 Teachers’ Conduct of Prediction Activities .1 Prediction Activities Teachers Liked to Use .2 The Reasons Why Teachers Used PAs .3 The Frequency of Teachers’ Using PAs .4 The Approximate Percentage of Teachers’ Applying PAs in Listening Lessons in the Textbook .5 Kinds of Listening Tasks Teachers Often Assign.6 Teachers’ Evaluation of Students’ Participating in PAs .7 Kinds of Class Organization the Teachers Often Used .8 Teachers’ Procedure of Organizing the Prediction Section .9 Teachers’ Dealing with Students’ Mistakes in Prediction Section .10 Problems Teachers Often Faced .11 Teachers’ Solutions to Enhance the Use of Prediction Activities .1 Things Often Activated before A Prediction Section Is Carried Out .2 Things That Teachers Often Do to Help Students Make Good predictions .3 Teachers’ Helping Students Train Their Prediction Skill .4 Teachers’ Making Prediction Activities More Effective. Summary of Results Related to Teachers .83 3 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS.
Introduction to the chapter. Summary of the Key Findings. What are the students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ use of prediction activities in their listening lessons?. What are the teachers’ views on the use of prediction activities in their listening lessons?.
How do the teachers conduct prediction activities in listening comprehension classes?. For School Administrators. Limitations of the Study. Recommendations for Further Study.
Classroom Observation Sheet. Teachers’ Interview Schedule. Students’ Interview Schedule. P16 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS PAs : Prediction Activities L2 : The Second Language LC : Listening Comprehension PK : Prior Knowledge PS : Prediction Section 5 LIST OF TABLES Tables Page Table 4.
Reasons Why Students Liked PAs. Reasons Why Students Disliked PAs. Students’ Most Favorable PAs in LC Classes. Students’ Expectations from Teachers’ to Have Good Predictions.
Teachers’ Perceptions of Kinds of PAs in LC. Teachers’ Perceptions of the Benefits of PAs in LC. Prediction Activities Teachers Liked to Use. Teachers’ Use of PAs in The Three Stages of the Listening Lessons.
Teachers’ Procedure of the Prediction Section. Problems Teachers Often Faced. Teachers’ Ways of Training Students’ Prediction Skill. Teachers’ Solutions of Making PAs More Effective .80 6 LIST OF FIGURES Figures Page Figure 4.
Kinds of Listening Tasks in Which Students Liked to Make Predictions. Students’ Preference of Class Organization. Students’ Frequency of Making Wrong Predictions. Students’ Feelings When Being Corrected.
Teachers’ Perceptions of Predictions in Listening Comprehension. Teachers’ Perceptions of the Importance of PAs in LC. The Reasons Why Teachers Used PAs. The Frequency of Teachers’ Using PAs.
The Approximate Percentage of Teachers’ Applying PAs in Listening Lessons in the Textbook. Kinds of Listening Tasks in Which Teachers Often Asked Students to Make Predictions. Students’ Attitudes in Participating in PAs. Kinds of Class Organization Teachers Often Used.
Teachers’ Dealing with Students’ Mistakes in Prediction Section. Things Often Activated before A Prediction Section Is Carried Out. Things That Teachers Often Do to Help Students Make Good predictions. Time When Teachers Help Students Train Their Prediction Skill.
78 7 ABSTRACT Prediction is a basic strategy in which listeners use their prior knowledge- the knowledge of the topic, the listening context, the text-type, the culture or other information stored in long-term memory as schemata - to understand a text. This metacognitive strategy plays an important role in teaching and learning English listening comprehension (LC) and it has been highly recommended. This research is an investigation into the use of prediction activities (PAs) in listening classes at some high schools in Dak Lak province. The participants of the study were 18 teachers and 191 students from two high schools in Buon Ho Town, Dak Lak province.
The study focused on three issues: (1) the teachers’ views on the use of prediction activities in their listening lessons; (2) How the teachers conduct prediction activities in LC classes; (3) the students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ use of PAs in their listening lessons? The overall findings from the questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations showed that teachers and students are in favor of PAs. However, despite the comparatively high-level understanding of the importance and the benefits of PAs, teachers’ frequency of using PAs remains not high, especially in while-listening and post- listening stages. The results also showed that the teachers just use simple PAs and certain kinds of class organization in certain stages of the listening lesson. As a result, the study tried to indicate some problems from the teachers and the students and challenges from the using PAs effectively.
The study then teachers with several implications for the use of PAs at high schools in Dak Lak province and these implications can be considered as suggestions for the use of PAs in LC in general. 8 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter introduces the situation of English teaching and learning listening comprehension (LC) in Vietnam which serves as the fundamental basis for the study. This chapter also provides the theoretical and practical reasons for the researcher to carry out the study. Additionally, the aims of the research, the research questions and the scope of the research are included.
The structure of the study is presented in the last section of the chapter.1 Rationale According to Wilt (1950), Martin (1987) & Strother (1987) (cited in Malkakwi (2010), in our daily life, listening accounts for 45 percent of the time people spend communicating while reading 16 percent, speaking 30 percent and writing 9 percent. This entails that listening is an important skill that needs paying much attention to. The importance of listening in language learning is therefore worth considering. In the new general curriculum passed by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) of Vietnam in 2007, English is a compulsory subject at both lower and upper secondary levels.
It is also introduced at primary level from form 3 to form 5. One of the three aims of Vietnam’s English Language Teaching is that, at the end of the upper secondary level, students will be able to use English as a means of communication at a certain level of proficiency in four macro skills-listening, speaking, reading and writing (MOET, 2007). Therefore, nowadays, listening skill plays an important role in the learning and teaching of English though there are no listening tests in the graduate national examination and the university entrance exam. In reality, at high schools, the focus on this skill is completely neglected by both teachers and students.
In fact, in the two high schools investigated, listening tests are not paid much attention to in examinations or if so they are mainly included as a small part (Teachers’ Interview- April 15th, 2012). Furthermore, if it 9 were to be prioritized some day, it is not easy to learn or teach this skill. According to Anderson and Lynch (1988b) (cited in Nunan, 1998), there are three principal categories that cause difficulties for listeners. They are the type of language, the purpose in listening and the context in which listening takes place.
They states that the difficulties of the listening tasks was influenced by (1) the organization of information (2) the familiarity of the topic (3) the explicitness and sufficiency of the information (4) the type of referring expressions used (5) whether the text described “static” relationship or dynamic relationship. In short, there are certain reasons that make listening a difficult task. In my Dak Lak province, a remote mountainous area, the situation seems to be worse. This is the province that has low results in the national graduate examination, especially in English.
For example, in 2010, the number of students who got average mark in English accounted for 37%. In 2011 and 2012 the situation is not much better. Most teachers said that their students often got low marks in English tests. Listening skill seems to be more challenging to my students at Hai Ba Trung High School.
In 2010, the number of students who got average mark in English in the national examination accounted for 35% and in 2011 50. The reason for this is students’ low level of students’ proficiency. To help the students, we, teachers of English, often have regular seminars about teaching the English language, many of which are related to teaching listening skill. During the seminars, the teachers show their concern about their students’ capacity of learning English, especially listening skill.
Most of the teachers consider teaching listening really challenging. We discuss problems we have met in our listening teaching and try to find out solutions which have been put into practice. However, we still have “dead” listening classes due to students’ “sleepy status”. The lower the students’ language levels are, the more difficult we meet.
This situation is really challenging to me as well as my colleagues at high schools of the remote mountainous region- Dak Lak Province. 10 As a teacher of English, like my colleagues, I have had an unpleasant feeling to admit that my students’ English listening skill is not good. I myself have experienced disappointing listening lessons in which students do not know how to overcome their difficulties when listening and neither do I - their teacher, who does not know how to help them out. As a result, the students seem to be useless, appearing inattentive and even falling asleep.
Back to my days at high school, I felt bored whenever we had listening classes. Although I loved English, I listened attentively and eagerly first but later I felt asleep. As a result, I could not get the answers to the teacher’s questions about the listening text because I cannot learn anything from my listening. One day, before playing the tape as usual, our teacher showed a picture on the board and asked us to predict what we were going to listen to.
Like my classmates at that time, I was attracted to the prediction and I became curious whether my prediction coincided with what happened in the listening text or not.