VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ THỊ THẢO A SURVEY ON THE PERCEPTIONS OF STUDENTS AT THANH LIEM A HIGH SCHOOL OF THE BENEFITS OF PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES IN LEARNING LISTENING SKILLS (Nghiên cứu khảo sát về nhận thức của học sinh Trường THPT Thanh Liêm A đối với lợi ích của các hoạt động tiền nghe hiểu đối với việc học kĩ năng nghe) M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD : ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60.0111 HANOI – 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ THỊ THẢO A SURVEY ON THE PERCEPTIONS OF STUDENTS AT THANH LIEM A HIGH SCHOOL OF THE BENEFITS OF PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES IN LEARNING LISTENING SKILLS (Nghiên cứu khảo sát về nhận thức của học sinh Trường THPT Thanh Liêm A đối với lợi ích của các hoạt động tiền nghe hiểu đối với việc học kĩ năng nghe) M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD : ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60. TRẦN THỊ THU HIỀN HANOI – 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Statement of authorship I certify that the minor thesis entitled “A survey on the perceptions of students at Thanh Liem A high school of the benefits of pre-listening activities in learning listening skills” is the result of my own work. It is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Education. This minor thesis or any part of the same has not been submitted for any other universities or institutions.
i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENT To complete this thesis, I have benefited a great deal of useful and practical support from a variety of people. First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr. Tran Thi Thu Hien, my respected supervisor, for her close and experienced guidance, encouragement and invaluable detailed critical feedback in the process of completing my thesis. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the M.A lecturers who have been teaching K20 M.A course in Vietnam National University - University of Languages and International Studies and the post-graduate staff for their contributions to the success of the course.
My sincere thanks are also for all teachers of English at Thanh Liem A high school for their help in answering the interview questions, for their constructive suggestions to this research, and for their willingness to share their relevant problems with me. I wish to convey my thanks to the students of classes 10A1, 11A6 and 12A7 I have visited in order to gather information for survey questionnaire and observed. Without their help, this study would not have been successful. Finally, I am grateful to my family for their love, care, tolerance and encouragement.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This research focuses on the perceptions of students at Thanh Liem A High School of the benefits of pre-listening activities in learning listening skills. With a desire to study and analyze the benefits of pre-listening activities to improve listening skill and introduce them to the teachers at Thanh liem A high school, the author has found out related researches as the theory background of the thesis. From that, the researcher has enough reasoning base to support and protect the thesis. The data are collected from survey questionnaires for 100 students, observation of three classes and interview with six teachers.
The results show students’ preferences and comments on the pre-listening activities in three textbooks. From major findings of the study, the author mentions recommendations for implementing pre-listening activities, significance of the proposed research supporting for teaching in this school, pedagogical implications from the findings, limitations of the study and suggestions for further research. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Statement of authorship i Acknowledgement ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of abbreviation vii List of tables and charts viii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Aims of the study 1 3.
Scope of the study 2 5. Significance of the study 3 7. Structure of the study 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT 3 Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4 1. Theory of listening 5 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Definition of listening and listening comprehension 5 1. Definition of listening 5 1. Definition of listening comprehension 5 1. The process of teaching and learning listening lesson 5 1.
Factors make listening difficult 6 1. Pre-listening activities 6 1. Definition of pre-listening 7 1. Pre-listening activities 9 1.
Benefits of pre-listening activities in learning listening skills 9 1. Summary 10 Chapter 2: CURRENT SITUATION OF TEACHING AND 13 LEARNING ENGLISH AT THANHLIEM A HIGH SCHOOL 14 2. The listening materials 15 2. The teaching and learning English at TLAHS 16 2.
Summary 17 Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHOD 17 3. The participants 18 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Instruments of collecting data 19 3. Data collection procedure 19 3.
Summary 19 Chapter 4: FINDINGS, DISCUSSION AND 20 RECOMMENDATIONS 21 4. Discussion of the results collected by means of the survey questionnaire 22 4. Students’ attitude towards listening skill 4. Students’ perceptions of pre-listening activities 22 4.
Students’ opinion about the necessity of using pre- listening activities 22 4. Students’ opinion about the teacher’s frequency of 23 using pre-listening activities 4. Students’ preference for teacher’s applying pre- 23 listening activities 4. Students’ benefits from pre-listening activities 25 4.
Students’ point of views about pre-listening activities in the textbooks 4. Students’ suggestions for the changes of pre-listening 27 activities in the textbooks 30 4. Discussion of the results collected by means of the classroom observation 31 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Discussion of the results collected by means of the interview 4.
Teachers’ attitude towards listening skill 32 4. Teachers’ opinion on pre-listening activities in the textbooks they are teaching 33 4. Teachers’ frequency of teaching pre-listening 35 4. Teachers’ opinion on benefits of pre-listening activities in 35 teaching and learning listening skill 4.
Encouraging students to learn listening skill from the beginning stage of listening 36 4. Improving teachers’ teaching method in pre-listening stage 37 38 4. Improving the pre-listening activities in the text books 4. Summary 38 PART C: CONCLUSION 38 1.
Summary of the study 39 40 2. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study 43 43 References 44 Appendices 45 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com viii Appendix 1 I Appendix 2 I Appendix 3 V Appendix 4 X XI List of abbreviation IT: Information Technology NCLRC: the National Capital Language Resource Center SLA: Second Language Acquisition TLAHS: Thanh Liem A High School VNU: Vietnam National University LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ix LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Tables Page Table 1: Students’ opinion about the necessity of using pre- listening activities 23 Table 2: Teacher’s frequency of using - listening activities 25 Table 3: Students’ preference for teacher’s brainstorming activities 27 Table 4: Students’ preference for pre-teaching new vocabulary 28 Table 5: Students’ preference for introducing the content of the listening passage 29 Table 6: Students’ preference for types of questions 29 Table 7: Benefits of pre-listening activities 30 Table 8: Students’ point of views about pre-listening activities in the textbooks 31 Table 9: Students’ suggestions for the changes of pre-listening activities in the textbooks 32 Charts Chart 1: Students’ perception on the importance of listening skill 22 Chart 2: Students’ attitude toward learning listening skill 23 Chart 3: Students’ preference for discussing technique 28 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale One of the most important elements necessary to acquire a language is listening skill. Not only in terms of the first language, but also of the second language, listening skill is of primary importance for listeners to receive the messages.
"We can expect to listen twice as much as we speak, four times more than we read, and five times more than we write. Like learners elsewhere in Viet Nam, learners at Thanh Liem A high school encounter great difficulties in learning listening skills. They can hardly receive spoken messages if they fail to take listening input. Therefore, pre-listening activities play a crucial part in easing learners’ anxiety before learning listening lessons and help motivate students’ interests in learning listening skills.
Many researchers have shed light on the effectiveness of pre-listening activities. A research by Hong, L. T (2006), investigated on pre-listening techniques to motivate students at Lomonosov upper-secondary school to improve the listening skills. According to the study, sometimes the students were not highly motivated by the pre-listening techniques that the teachers applied.
The differences between teachers’ and students’ preferences for pre-listening activities still existed. Another research related to pre-listening stage was done by Huyen, N. She investigated the effects of pre-listening activities on the listening performance of 10th grade students at Nguyen Gia Thieu High school, Hanoi. The findings of the study showed some pre-listening activities used by the teachers had good effects on the students’ listening comprehension.
In addition, Ha, M. (2010), also studied on effectiveness of appropriate pre-listening activities on 10th-form students’ English listening comprehension. Both teachers and students really appreciated pre-listening activities in motivating students learning listening skills. These studies concerned benefits of pre-listening activities on learning listening LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 skills of students at different schools.
However, the 11th and 12th-form students have not had opportunity to show their perceptions on this stage of listening skills yet. From the observation and personal experience as a high school teacher of English, the researcher has realized that each learner has his own attitude and approach to learning listening skills. Although the design of new English text books is task-based and four practice skills, many students focus on learning reading and grammar. They do not pay much attention to learning listening skill because they think this skill is not necessary for them in national examinations and because listening in one-way situations is difficult for them to comprehend when they do not have any opportunity to interact with the speakers.
The researcher is always haunted by the question that what method deals with listening skill more effectively and how pre-listening activities play a role in learning listening of learners at Thanh Liem A high school. For all the above reasons, the researcher would like to conduct a survey on the students’ perceptions of the benefits of pre-listening activities in learning listening skills. It is also hoped that the study will make some suggestions for the teachers and learners to improve the teaching and learning English especially listening skills at school. Aims of the study The study aims at investigating students’ attitude towards the benefits of pre- listening activities in learning listening skills.
To be more specific, the objectives of this study are: - carrying out an investigation on students’ perceptions of applying those benefits to teaching and learning listening skills in grade 10, 11 and 12 at Thanh Liem A High school, Ha Nam province LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 3 - studying and evaluating benefits of pre-listening activities in listening lessons - giving some suggestions to increase the effectiveness of applying pre- listening activities in promoting students’ learning English It is hoped that the findings from this study will have some benefits to teachers and students at TLAHS. Research questions To reach the aims mentioned above, the general research questions below will be addressed: 1. What are TLAHS students’ attitudes towards pre-listening activities in their learning listening skills? 2. What do the students perceive of the benefits of pre-listening activities to their learning listening skills? 3.
What are the effective pre-listening activities to students? 4.
