VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ****** ĐỖ THỊ THÚY A STUDY ON PROBLEMS 10TH GRADE STUDENTS AT HUNG YEN HIGH SCHOOL ENCOUNTER WHEN DOING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH LISTENING EXERCISES AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS (Nghiên cứu về những vấn đề học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Hưng Yên gặp phải khi làm những câu hỏi nghe hiểu trong phần bài tập nghe tiếng anh và một số giải pháp khắc phục) M. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.111 HANOI - 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ****** ĐỖ THỊ THÚY A STUDY ON PROBLEMS 10TH GRADE STUDENTS AT HUNG YEN HIGH SCHOOL ENCOUNTER WHEN DOING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH LISTENING EXERCISES AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS (Nghiên cứu về những vấn đề học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Hưng Yên gặp phải khi làm những câu hỏi nghe hiểu trong phần bài tập nghe tiếng anh và một số giải pháp khắc phục) M. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60. Nguyễn Hòa HANOI - 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I - Đỗ Thị Thúy, a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (TEFL) hereby state that I accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master‟s Graduation Paper deposited in the library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper. Signature Đỗ Thị Thuý i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This section brings me a favourable chance to express my profound indebtedness to a number of people whose invaluable support and encouragement were of great help in the completion of my thesis. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Nguyen Hoa, for his insightful guidance, constructive advice as well as critical comments during almost one year of the research process.
Without his tireless support, this thesis could not have been completed. Secondly, my special thanks go to my respected colleagues at Hung Yen high school for their kindness of saving me much time to pursue the study. I would also like to acknowledge forty tenth graders at Hung Yen high school for their full participation and cooperation during the data collection process. Last but not least, my special words of thanks are sent to my beloved family and my roommates in the hostel of ULIS, VNU for their constant encouragement, inspiration and unconditional love.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT The present study entitled “A study on problems 10th grade students at Hung Yen high school encounter when doing comprehension questions in English listening exercises and some suggested solutions” was conducted to examine the difficulties of tenth graders at the local high school when dealing with English listening comprehension questions in the course book 10 and also give some pedagogical implications for the teachers at the research site. The study used questionnaires and interviews for the collection of quick, valid, and updated data from the respondents. There were four prevailing problems which coincidentally emerged from both questionnaires and interviews namely new words, fast speech rate, speakers‟ unclear pronunciation and inability to recognize words that students already know. From these findings, some suggestions were given to help the teachers improve their teaching of listening comprehension skills at high school.
iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Declaration. iii Table of contents. iv List of abbreviations. vii List of charts.
Aims of the study. Significance of the study. Scope of the study. Method of the study.
Design of the study .4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Definition of key terms. Listening comprehension questions .6 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Pragmatic understanding questions.
The process of listening comprehension. Review of previous studies .11 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODS 2. Context of teaching and learning English at Hung Yen high school. Data collection methods.
Semi-structured interview. Data collection procedures. Data analysis methods and procedures .19 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3. Data from the questionnaires.
Data from the interview. Summary of the study. Limitations of the study .39 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Suggestions for further studies.
I vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L2: Second language EFL: English as a Foreign Language MOET: Ministry of Education and Training vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1: Message-related problems Chart 2: Speaker-related problems Chart 3: Listener-related problems Chart 4: Physical setting problems viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com INTRODUCTION The initial chapter encompasses five sections. Starting with the rationale, it continues with setting the research‟s aims, its significance, scope and method, followed by the design of the study in the last section. Rationale No one can deny the great important role of listening. According to Gilakjani and Ahmadi (2011), “of the total time spent on communicating, listening takes up 40- 50%, speaking 25-30%, reading 11-16%, and writing about 9%”.
Likewise, Stepanovienė (2012) and Wolvin and Coakley (1988) claimed that listening was the skill most frequently used in both the classroom and daily life. Remarkably, Tomoko Kurita (2012) considered listening as “the heart of language learning” because it makes significant contributions to the development of other language skills. Specifically, it helps enhance vocabulary, develop language proficiency and improve language usage (Barker, 1971). Moreover, as Stepanovienė (2012) noted, “students‟ ability to comprehend written material through reading as well as to express themselves through speaking and written communication are directly related to students‟ maturity in the listening phase of language development”.
Likewise, according to Dunkel (1986), developing proficiency in listening comprehension is “the key to achieving proficiency in speaking”. In spite of its significant role, listening has been regarded as the most difficult language skill by L2 learners so far (Hasan, 2000; Graham, 2003). Many authors share the same opinion that all the L2 learners face problems when listening to the target language (Velička 2007, Kavaliauskienė 2008 and Abedin 2010). Some obstacles have been discovered by various studies of such authors as Goh (2000), Stepanovienė (2012), Hamouda (2013), Wu (2013).
1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com However, none of the researchers above investigate students‟ problems in a particular kind of listening tasks. In addition , their research subjects are mainly students of tertiary level, not high school students. As an effort to fill in the gap, the current study is conducted on “problems that 10th grade students at Hung Yen high school encounter when doing comprehension questions in English listening exercises and some suggested solutions”. Specifically, the study will pinpoint common difficulties of English learners when they deal with short-answer questions.
This kind of listening task is chosen because it is one of the three most common listening tasks in the current tenth grade textbook namely short-answer questions, gap filling and True/ False questions. Moreover, according to Supornsirisin (2007), “the question-answer approach is one of the most frequently used ways of giving language practice in the classroom. Similarly, in testing listening skills, very often a teacher gives students questions in order to test their listening ability”. Further, the survey results (see Appendix 2) showed that the local students found short-answer questions the most problematic.
This survey‟s finding was also in accordance with that of Le, S. By investigating problems of 10th graders at Hung Yen high school when they deal with short-answer listening comprehension questions, the researcher hopes to offer some new and useful information that the predecessors have not found out. Aims of the study The research is conducted to pinpoint most common difficulties, underlying reasons and then generate pedagogical implications for the local teachers to overcome the existing drawbacks. With these aims, the study finds answers to the following research question: What are the problems that 10th graders at Hung Yen high school encounters when doing comprehension questions in English listening exercises? 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Significance of the study The awareness of problems that students encounter when doing English listening comprehension questions in the listening exercises would benefit teachers. First, they will know what hinders their students‟ listening comprehension most in this kind of exercise. Then, they can modify their teaching methods and take necessary treatment measures to improve their students‟ listening ability. Scope of the study Due to time constraints, instead of dealing with all kinds of exercises available in the current English course book of grade ten, the study only focuses on short- answer questions.
Besides, the investigation is carried out with a modest sample of forty tenth grade students at Hung Yen high school. Method of the study The selected methods are qualitative and quantitative data analysis. First, the questionnaire is used to get information about problems that students face when they deal with short-answer listening comprehension questions. Then a semi- structured interview will be applied to elicit hidden reasons for students‟ difficulties and some possible solutions to overcome those perceived drawbacks.
Organization of the study The study consists of three parts. In the first part, the author gives the reasons for choosing the topic, the research‟s aims and a brief description of its significance, scope, method and organization. Nextly, the second part includes three chapters. Chapter one covers an in-depth review of the literature.
Chapter two clarifies the research methods while chapter three demonstrates the findings and further discussion. Lastly, the summary of the research, pedagogical implications, limitations and suggestions for further studies are discussed in the Conclusion part. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter gives an overview of the literature related to the present study. In the chapter, definitions of key terms (listening, listening problems and listening exercise), selected theoretical background about listening comprehension questions and the process of listening comprehension are respectively presented.
Then comes the review of problems that L2 students face in English listening comprehension. Definition of terms 1. Listening There are many different ways to define listening. Despite some slight variations in its definitions, listening can be generally understood as “a language skill involving a wide range of “sub-skills”.
It is more than simply hearing; it is “decoding” sounds and understanding the meaning behind those sounds.” (Forseth, 1996) It should be added that English learning process includes four skills namely writing, speaking, reading and listening. The last skill can be also referred to as listening comprehension, “the skill of being able to understand the oral messages that people transmit” (Landa & Santos 2003). Listening comprehension is, then, a complete process that a learner hopes to acquire when she or he manages the listening skill successfully. Listening problems In the current study, the author adopts Goh‟s (2000) definition of listening problems as “the internal and external characteristics that might interrupt text understanding and real-life processing barriers directly related to cognitive procedures that take place at various stages of listening comprehension” (as cited in Hamouda, 2013).
4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Listening exercise Oxford dictionary defines “exercise” in two senses. First, it is “an activity requiring physical effort, carried out to sustain or improve health and fitness”. Second, it is “an activity carried out for a specific purpose”.
In this paper, the term will be understood in the second meaning. Particularly, “exercise” is “a task set to practise or test a skill”. The following section will further discuss the concept of “a task” to have a full understanding about “listening exercise”.