MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ NGO THI MEN EXPLORING ONLINE LEARNING MATERIALS FOR LISTENING SKILL DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY OF FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Languages HUE, 2015 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES --------------------------- NGO THI MEN EXPLORING ONLINE LEARNING MATERIALS FOR LISTENING SKILL DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY OF FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.11 SUPERVISOR: PHAM HOA HIEP, D. Ed HUE, 2015 i BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ----------------------------- NGÔ THỊ MẾN NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG TÀI LIỆU HỌC TRỰC TUYẾN ĐỂ PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NGHE: TRƯỜNG HỢP SINH VIÊN NĂM MỘT TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ HUẾ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.11 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS. PHẠM HOÀ HIỆP HUE, 2015 ii STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.
Signature NGO THI MEN iii ABSTRACT This study aims to explore first year students’ perceptions about the use of online materials for learning and improving their English listening skill outside the classroom. The methods used for the data collection include interviews and questionnaires. Twenty-four questions were given to 100 students and four questions were given to 10 teachers. In depth interviews were conducted with 10 students and 5 teachers at Hue University College of Foreign Languages.
The findings show that (1) most students acknowledged the importance and necessity of using online materials to practice the listening skill, (2) using online materials to practice listening skill outside classroom were interesting and useful, (3) all students were aware of the usefulness and effectiveness of online materials for learning and improving listening skill out of class, (4) all students had a positive tendency of using three types of online materials (audio materials, videos materials, and human voice) to practice listening skill. Based on the findings, it is recommended that (1) students should spend much more time to practice listening skill, (2) students should know how to choose the online materials suitable for their level, (3) students should ask for help from the teachers to make better use of online materials, (4) students should imply three types of online materials to develop their learning listening skill effectively, (5) teachers should help students by introducing and guiding them some practical and reliable online materials, (6) teachers should also give student some strategies to make better use of online materials for practicing listening skill effectively, (7) teachers should raise students’ awareness of the benefits of online materials for their self-study. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would have never been able to complete my research project without the guidance, the help and the encouragement from many people. First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr.
Pham Hoa Hiep, who has supported me throughout my thesis with his patience and acknowledge. Actually, his guidance and feedback helped me during the time of the study and writing of this thesis. I have been extremely lucky to have a great supervisor who cared so much about my work. Besides my supervisor, my sincere thanks also go to the teachers and the first year English students at Hue University College of Foreign Languages who took part in this research.
Their enthusiasm and agreement for my data collection have helped my project be completed. My thesis would not been completed without the help from my close friends for their generosity in time, advice, support and encouragement. Last but not least, I am deeply grateful to my partner, Yushi, and especially my beloved parents and sisters for their unconditional support, both financially and emotionally. They have always given me strength and encouragement during the hardest time in my master’s program.
I love all of you so much. v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AUS: Australia BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation CEFR: Common European Framework Reference CNN: Cable News Network EFL: English as a Foreign Language ESL: English as a Second Language HUCFL: Hue University College of Foreign Languages IELTS: Internationals English Language Testing System TCP/IP: Internet Protocol TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language TOEIC: Test of English for International Communication TV: Television UK: United Kingdom USA: United State of America VOA: Voice of America vi CONTENTS STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY. v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vii TABLES OF CONTENTS.
x FIGURES OF CONTENTS. xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Background and rationale of the study. Aims and research questions of the study.
Significance of the study. Scope of the study. Structure of the thesis .5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. The Internet and its impacts on English Language Learning.
Definition of online materials. Advantages and disadvantages of online materials. Advantages of online materials. Disadvantages of online materials.
Online materials as an educational tool in language programs. Listening skill and its place in English language learning. The importance of listening skill. Characteristics of listening.
Reasons for using online materials to practice listening skill. Definition of self-study. Self-study listening skill. Types of listening materials.
Some available and useful online materials to practice listening skill. Research site and participants .30 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. Students' awareness of the online materials for practising listening skill. Students’perception about listening skill.
Students’ awareness of using online materials to practice listening skill. The positive aspects of online learning listening materials. Disadvantages of online learning listening materials. Types of online materials that can help them improve listening skill.
Human Voice as a type of online materials. Audio materials as a type of online materials. Video materials as a type of online materials. The importance of guiding students about choosing suitable materials .The necessity of asking students to do portfolio to make them use online learning materials effectively.
The difficulties in guiding students to use online learning materials.59 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH. Restatement of the rationale of the study. Summary of the findings. Contributions of the study.
Online learning materials. The use of online materials in learning English outside classroom. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further studies.
68 ix TABLES OF CONTENTS Table 3. Summary of the questionnaires. The reliability Statistics of the students’ questionnaires. Students’ awareness of using online materials to practice listening skill.
Using online materials to practice listening skill are useful and interesting. The usefulness of online materials for practicing listening skill. Advantages of online learning materials. Online materials are richer than any other materials.
Disadvantages of online learning listening materials. Types of online materials. Audio materials as a type of online listening materials. Videos as a type of online materials for practicing listening skill.
Teachers’ strategies to help student use online learning materials better. Difficulties in guiding students to use online learning materials better. 58 x FIGURES OF CONTENTS Figure 4. Students’ perception about listening to be the most difficult skill.
Students’ perception of using online materials to practice listening skill34 Figure 4. Necessity of using online materials to practice listening skill. Using online materials to practice listening outside class & in the future. Online material is an excellent language learning environment.
Online materials help to improve other things. Online materials as learning tool. Disadvantages of online learning listening materials. Difficulty in choosing online materials.
Difficulty in lacking of teachers’ instructions. Communication with the English speakers. Audio materials as a type of online listening materials. Teachers’ view of the importance of guiding students how to choose online materials suitable with their level.
The necessity of asking students do portfolio to make them improve listening skill and to use of online materials better. 55 xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Background and rationale of the study It cannot be denied that English language is the most popular and widely used around the world. With the help of technology, English has been playing the most important role in many different fields including science, economy, politics, medicine, and education.
More and more people would like to learn English with many different purposes such as getting a good job, working in foreign companies, travelling abroad or even immigrate to other countries where English is considered as the native or second language. Being able to use at least one foreign language has become an extremely important requirement in the context of Vietnam’s accession to the market economy along with being a member of ASEAN and World Trade Organization. English has become one of the most important certificates or subjects in the Vietnamese educational curriculum in recent years (Le & Barnard, 2009). For those reasons, awareness of the importance of learning English in our society today, people always try to find many different ways to learn English effectively.
However, for many students, it is likely that they learn English because it is a compulsory subject in their curriculum. In fact, English is introduced as a compulsory subject of all the schools from elementary schools to universities. Therefore, teaching and learning English has also become more and more pressing and necessary. An important question for the learners themselves is how to make use of advantages from the Internet and other media for practicing listening skill outside class without the help of teachers? In the era of information technology explosion nowadays, learning English can be easier and more effective.
There are many marvelous tools or programs supporting for learning English such as computers, televisions, smartphones, Internet, online resources and so forth. In the learning and teaching process, the update on information and materials is very necessary to both teachers and students in dealing with the requirement and development of the society today. With the assistance of the Internet, number of online material resources can help students 1 practice English skills effectively. In addition, in the development of the teaching and learning process, the role of teachers and learners has changed.
The teachers no longer play the authority in class. They are facilitators and instructors who give the ways to help the learners explore and acquire the knowledge by themselves. Students themselves have to responsibility for their learning. They not only receive knowledge from their teachers, but also find their own ways to expand the outside knowledge such as finding the materials from the Internet, watching television or going abroad, etc.
However, it is very difficult for many of them to find the right ways and the right materials among thousands of materials to learn English language efficaciously. Additionally, learning English language requires the learners to master four skills at the same time. They include listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Nevertheless, for most leaners, among these four skills, it seems that listening is often considered to be the most difficult and important skill to be acquired.
It is difficult because there are many different voices or accents of English speakers around the world, even among the native speakers. Also, it is because to react exactly the speakers’ speech, we need to understand what the speakers are saying or what the situations focus about. Especially, listening is one of the most important skills to the learner since it is considered as a great tool to input the language data (Rost, 1994).