VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG USING NOTE-TAKING TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE 9TH GRADE STUDENTS’ LISTENING SKILL AT SAO VANG SECONDARY SCHOOL Sử dụng các kỹ thuật tốc ký để phát triển kỹ năng nghe cho học sinh khối 9 trường THCS Sao Vàng M. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.111 Hanoi - 2014 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG USING NOTE-TAKING TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE 9TH GRADE STUDENTS’ LISTENING SKILL AT SAO VANG SECONDARY SCHOOL Sử dụng các kỹ thuật tốc ký để phát triển kỹ năng nghe cho học sinh khối 9 trường THCS Sao Vàng M. Minor Programme Thesis Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60. Mai Thị Loan Hanoi - 2014 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION I, Nguyen Thi Phuong, certify that this thesis is the result of my own study and the substance of this research has not been submitted for degree to any other university or institution.
Hanoi, November 2014 Student Nguyen Thi Phuong i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I would like to send my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Mai Thi Loan, for her valuable guidance, helpful advice, recommendation, and encouragement during the time I tried to complete this minor thesis. Without her supervision, this work would never have been possible. My deepest thanks also go to my colleagues at Sao Vang secondary school who are willing to help me during three months of conducting my research.
I would like to thank all the teachers of Post-Graduate Department for their valuable lectures, whose knowledge is the foundation for my thesis. Finally, I would like to express my biggest love and thanks to my family for their unconditional contributions during the time I conducted my research. It was my parents and my husband who gave me the will to complete this challenging work. ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT This study aimed at investigating the exploitation of note-taking techniques on enhancing students’ listening skill.
The participants consisted of thirty 9th grade students and two teachers of English at Sao Vang secondary school. The questionnaire and the interview were designed to figure out the benefits of teaching listening through note-taking techniques, possible difficulties students encounter and teacher’s strategies in teaching listening with the use of note-taking techniques. Findings from questionnaires and interview revealed that the teachers and students well perceived major benefits of note-taking techniques. Besides, they encountered several challenges in taking notes.
Some suggestions for improving students listening competence have also been given. Hopefully, the study would contribute a small part to the improvement of English teaching and learning with the use of note-taking techniques. iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL English as Foreign Language ULIS University of Languages and International Studies VNU Vietnam National University iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Students’ opinions toward effectiveness of the application of note-taking techniques. 21 Figure 2: Students’ perceptions of the benefits of note-taking skills.
22 Figure 3: Students’ perceptions toward difficulties in applying note-taking techniques in learning listening. 23 Figure 4: Students’ evaluation on teacher’s strategies of teaching listening using note- taking techniques. 24 Figure 5: Students’ preference of note-taking techniques. 25 Figure 6: Students’ opinions on activities to improve their note-taking skill in listening lessons.
26 Figure 7: Students’ expectations about teacher’s instructions to take notes. 27 v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. iv LIST OF FIGURES.
v TABLE OF CONTENTS. vi PART I: INTRODUCTION. Rationale of the study. Aim and objectives of the study.
Scope of the study. Methodology of the study. Significance of the study. Design of the study.
3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT. 5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definitions of listening. Listening comprehension process.
Language learners’ difficulties in listening comprehension. Note-taking techniques. Definitions of note-taking. Techniques of note-taking.
11 vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Review of related studies. The setting of the study. Curriculum and textbook.
Restatements of research questions. Questionnaire for students. Interview for teachers. Data collection and analysis procedure.
19 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS. Questionnaire for students. Students’ opinions toward the effectiveness of the application of note-taking techniques. Students’ perceptions of the benefits of note-taking techniques.
22 vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Possible difficulties in applying note-taking techniques inlistening lessons. Students’ evaluation on teacher’s strategies of teaching listening using note-taking techniques. Students’ preference of note-taking techniques.
Students’ opinions on activities to improve their note-taking in listening lessons. Students’ expectations about teacher’s instruction to take notes. Interview for teachers. The benefits of note-taking techniques in teaching listening.
Teacher’ perceptions toward the possible difficulties. Strategies to improve students’ listening competence through note-taking techniques. Limitation of the research. Suggestion for further studies.
39 viii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: Questionnaire for students (Vietnamese version). I APPENDIX 2: Questionnaire for students (English version). IV APPENDIX 3: Interview for teachers (Vietnamese version). VII APPENDIX 4: Interview for teachers (English version) .V APPENDIX 5: Transcript of the interview.
APPENDIX 5: Samples of notes. ix TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Rationale of the study Listening is an important part as well as an essential means of language acquisition. In the mid twentieth century, Bloomfield (1942: 2) ever declares that: “One learns to understand and speak a language primarily by hearing and imitating native-speakers”.
Although this saying a little looks down on the written language, it is true to assume the indispensable role of listening skills in learning English. Lundsteen (1979: 3) also affirms that listening is the first language skill to appear. In chronologic order, children listen before they speak, speak before they read, and read before they write. From this point of view, the importance of teaching listening can well be seen and it is now regarded the first and foremost skill to be acquired in learning a new language.
For being a complex phenomenon, teaching listening has caught the attention of many researchers (Brown (2007), Hayati and Mohmedi (2009), Hinkel (2006), Vandergrift (2007)) and teachers in pursuit of finding ways for classroom instruction, especially in learning strategies exploiting listening. Referring to language learning strategies, Chamot (2005: 21) believes that learning strategies are procedures that facilitate learning and are conscious and goal-driven. Less successful students can be taught strategies to help them become better language learners. Among various learning strategies, note-taking is a cognitive strategy which students use to write down key words and concepts in abbreviated verbal, graphic or numeral forms to assist performance of language tasks (Chamot (1989: 16)).
Spires and Stone (1989: 39) hold one opinion that note-taking is an important skill that helps learners rehearse the lecture content and can serve as a memory device that can help them to remember parts of the contents that were not included in the notes themselves. Note-taking is also the master key to manage many kinds of English listening tasks. All the aforementioned conditions drive the author to carry out the research “Using note-taking techniques to improve 9th grade students’ listening skill at Sao 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Vang secondary school”. Hopefully, this study will make a small contribution to improving listening skills for grade 9th students at Sao Vang secondary school.
Aim and objectives of the study The aim of this study is to explore the exploitation of using note-taking techniques to enhance students’ listening skill. In order to achieve the aim, the writer focuses on: finding out the benefits of applying note-taking techniques in listening lessons for grade 9th students; identifying the possible difficulties encountered by students at Sao Vang secondary school in learning listening with the use of note-taking techniques; proposing strategies to teach listening skill using note-taking techniques. Research questions In order to achieve the aim, the study was carried out to address the following research questions: 1. What are the benefits of applying note-taking techniques in listening lessons? 2.
What are the difficulties encountered by the students at Sao Vang secondary school in learning listening with the use of note-taking techniques? 3. What should teachers do to improve students’ English listening skill with the use of note-taking techniques? 4. Scope of the study Acquiring listening skill is a vast issue in language learning. However, due to the limit of time, experiences and knowledge, this study touches upon only some note-taking techniques which are used in teaching listening skill and cannot cover all the listening techniques in teaching and learning.
Methodology of the study In order to achieve the aim of the study, the study was carried out by some steps as follows: Firstly, a survey questionnaire was delivered to students to: 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com find out the benefits of using note-taking in teaching and learning English listening skill; identify difficulties encountered by students in learning listening lessons using note-taking techniques; survey students’ expectation toward teacher’s strategies in teaching listening with the use of note-taking techniques. Secondly, personal interviews with two teachers were conducted in order to: survey teachers’ perception on applying note-taking techniques in teaching listening; find out teacher’s difficulties in applying note-taking techniques in teaching listening; study teachers’ strategies in teaching listening skill with the use of note-taking techniques. After the data were collected, they were categorized and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively to obtain the realistic results. To end with, based on analysis of survey results and references, some pedagogical implications and suggestions in order to improve teaching and learning English listening using note-taking techniques will be proposed.
Significance of the study This study points out the benefits and difficulties in applying note-taking in listening lessons. More importantly, it offers some suggestions for teachers to enhance students’ English listening competence through the use of note-taking techniques. Hopefully, the findings and recommendations of this study will be of some help to the improvement of the teaching and learning listening skill at Sao Vang secondary school. Design of the study This paper is organized into three main parts as follows: 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Part I: Introduction: This part presents the rationale of the study, aims and objectives of the study, research questions, scope of the study, methodology of the study, significance of the study and design of the study Part II: Development: This part is divided into three chapters.
Chapter 1 serves as the theoretical background for the study, presenting the concepts and relevant theories. Chapter 2 deals with the methodology of the study. Chapter 3 presents the findings and analysis of the data collected. Part III: Conclusion: This last part of the study recaps the major findings of the study and deals with some suggestions for improving students’ listening competence with the use of note-taking techniques.
In addition, it also poses several directions for future research. 4 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter will provide the theoretical background for the study. Firstly, the definition of listening, listening classification, the listening comprehension process and language learners’ difficulties in listening comprehension were given. Then, the definition of note-taking, methods of note-taking and its benefits were provided in the following part.
Finally, some related studies are reviewed as the background for the research. Definitions of listening Listening plays a crucial role in our daily life in general and in acquiring a language in particular.