BANKING ACADEMY OF VIETNAM FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------o0o----------- GRADUATION THESIS SENIOR ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS' BENEFITS AND DIFFICULTIES USING PODCASTS TO IMPROVE LISTENING SKILL: A SURVEY AT BANKING ACADEMY OF VIETNAM Supervisor : M.A Tran Thi Thu Thuy Student name : Bui Phuong Anh Class : K21ATCA Faculty : Foreign Languages Student code : 21A7510001 HANOI 2022 17014128964901000000 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, Bui Phuong Anh, hereby strongly confirm that this whole graduation thesis entitled “Senior English-majored students' benefits and difficulties using podcasts to improve listening skill: A survey at Banking Academy of Vietnam” is the production of my original research work. This paper is based on my reading and comprehension of the original text. All the sources either cited or quoted in this paper are fully acknowledged in “References''. This paper has not been submitted to any institutions but only Banking Academy of Vietnam.
Hanoi, May, 2022 Bui Phuong Anh i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I could not have finished this work if I had not received great support and guidance from my supervisor, Ms Tran Thi Thu Thuy (MA). She has been a really patient and caring supervisor, ma’am. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to her for always pushing me forward and giving me the best advice. I want to express my thankfulness toward my friends and all the students under the Faculty of Foreign Language of the Banking Academy of Vietnam for participating in the investigation.
Without their unmeasurable help, I could not have made my research become what it is called, literally. Also, I would like to send my sincere thanks and gratitude to my family, my mom, my dad and my little sister who have been by my side and encouraged me throughout the stressful making period of this paper. ii ABSTRACT Application of podcasts in language learning has been executed for many years since the advent of this means of media. Specifically, using podcasts to learn listening is one of the most common practices that students studying English can have access to.
Realizing the above mentioned facts, the author decided to conduct this thesis. This research aims to investigate how ATC students approach and regard podcasts, especially the already available ones that can be easily found online nowadays, as a material to gain better listening skill in English. Furthermore, the difficulties they confront when processing this material is also brought into investigation. To serve for the investigation, this research is utilized with a questionnaire which records the responses of 113 ATC students who completed three Listening courses and data is processed and analyzed in quantitative method.
The questionnaire mainly includes questions for students to give information about their access to podcasts, self-evaluation the listening benefit of podcasts and list out their drawbacks of practicing listening with podcasts. The result of this research shows that most students realized that podcasts are free source for improving their listening skills. However, they mostly suffered from being overwhelmed by the huge amount of information delivered in the podcasts. Key words: podcasts, listening skill, English-majored students.
iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vi LIST OF FIGURES. vi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION.
Background of the study. Objectives of the study. Significance of the study. Scope and limitation of the study.
Structure of the study. 4 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definition of listening skill. Importance of listening skill.
Strategies of learning listening skill. Difficulties of learning listening skill. Definition of podcasts. Types of podcasts.
Podcasts in language learning. Podcasts in learning listening skill. Use of podcasts in learning listening skill. Benefits of podcasts in learning listening skill.
Difficulties of podcasts in learning listening skill. 17 CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. Research setting and participants. Data collection instruments .2 Description of Survey Questionnaire.
Procedure of data collection. Validity and reliability. 24 CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS. Podcasts access of English-majored students at Banking Academy.
Benefits of using podcasts to learn listening skill. Difficulties of using podcasts to learn listening skill. 30 CHAPTER V: DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS. Podcasts access of English-majored students at Banking Academy.
Benefits of using podcasts to learn listening skill. Difficulties of using podcasts to learn listening skill. 35 CHAPTER VI: CONCLUSIONS. Summary of results.
47 v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BA Banking Academy CALL Computer-Aided Language Learning EFL English as a Foreign Language ESL English as a Second Language FI French Immersion L2 Second language LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4. Devices used to access to podcasts Figure 4. Time (per week) spent on listening to podcasts Figure 4. Students’ acknowledgement of podcasts in improving listening skill Figure 4.
Mean range of rating scale of the survey Figure 4. Benefits of using podcasts to learn listening skill Figure 4. Students’ willingness to continue using podcasts to learn listening skill Figure 4. Difficulties encountered when using podcasts to learn listening skill vi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION This chapter gives a dedicated introduction about the background information, reasons for the topic decision, objectives, significance as well as scope and limitation of the study.
Background of the study Being able to use English proficiently is the common goal of students who major in English as a second language. One key factor is to have high competence in listening skill. You can only give good outputs when you process the input thoroughly. However, listening skill is considered as a hard-to-achieve skill by the relatively major number of EFL learners.
Although English-majored students are offered standardized courses in essential language skills in college, the amount of class time is limited and not enough for students to have further practice at school. Students would have to self-learn the skills outside the classroom to further improve their skills. Furthermore, non-native learners have to face the issue of finding the ultimate sources for their learning as most of them do not have the opportunity to be surrounded by native speakers – the best environment to learn listening skills. Since non-native learners also receive teaching from non-native teachers, students tend to reach out for learning sources that are created by native speakers.
Thanks to the development of high technology in the 21st century, people can easily get exposed to other nations' cultures through media. It is commonly seen that learning through movies and music is constantly shared as a strategy to learn language, especially for English listening skill. It can be argued that English is one of the most popular international languages. Besides, developed countries whose official languages include English like America and The UK usually have their media flourished in all kinds and forms.
These facts imply that there are huge sources of English listening materials offered through online access. In recent years, new tools, especially technology related ones, have been applied in learning languages, especially in learning listening skills. One of them is the newly rising podcasts. Podcasts, first introduced in 2004, are soon mentioned as a strategy 1 to learn languages.
Podcasts have become a common means to practice and enhance necessary skills in English nowadays. Podcasts are an increasing kind of media that offers aural input. Therefore, they have a high chance of being used in learning listening skill, especially as a self-practice outside of the classes. The listening skill in general is a hard-to-achieve skill toward senior EFL students at BA.
There are numerous recent studies conducted by alumni about the problems EFL students at BA have encountered when learning this skill. Taking initiative in practicing is the common advice when students want to improve their language skill. There are numerous ways for students to practice listening on their own. From the observation of the author, who is also an English-majored senior at BA, students have reached out for different sources for listening.
Living in the year of 2022, college students tend to possess mobile devices that are utilized with audio playing features, and English-majored seniors at Banking Academy are not exceptional to this. Students tend to be regular visitors of streaming platforms such as YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, TED or broadcasting websites and apps like BBC, CNN where they go for English music and videos. Podcasts are also published on these platforms; therefore, students can get acquainted with podcasts very easily. As a result, podcasts become a source for listening for English-majored students.
Objectives of the study There are two main objectives in this study. Firstly, the research aims to investigate the benefits that podcasts bring to students in the Faculty of Foreign Language at Banking Academy when they are used to learn listening skill. Secondly, the research aims to clarify the difficulties the students can encounter during the process of using podcasts to learn listening skill. Some solutions will be recommended to help reduce the difficulties.
The research is executed with the expectation that students are able firstly to regard podcasts as a beneficial tool for self-learning listening skill; and secondly to determine the limitations of the use to find a better approach. Also, it is expected that teachers can use this research as a reference and a recommendation for teaching and learning methods to obtain a better performance in listening. Research questions As stated in the objectives of the study, there are two categories to be figured out: the benefits and difficulties of using podcasts in improving listening skill of senior English-majored students at BA. To achieve this goal, two research questions are specifically addressed as bellow: 1.
What are the benefits of using podcasts to improve listening skills? 2. What are the difficulties of using podcasts to improve listening skills? 1. Significance of the study Listening skill is considered a difficult English skill for EFL students. This study is hoped to contribute in helping not only EFL students but also the educators in minimizing the burden of teaching and learning listening skill.
According to the study's results, it is expected that EFL students and teachers may be more aware of the benefits of podcasts for improving listening skills. As a result, it can be encouraged to think about using the method in listening lessons. Eventually, regulators, educators, and professors will find this information beneficial in developing instructional curricula for pupils. Moreover, since this study investigated the use of podcasts without academic instructions from teachers among students, it is also encouraged that the practice can be considered as an effective self-learning method for students, especially those in colleges.
Scope and limitation of the study The study refers to the benefits and drawbacks of utilizing podcasts to learn listening skills among senior students majoring in English at Banking Academy's Faculty of Foreign Languages who had completed all three listening courses. As a result, the focus was on establishing the method's advantages and disadvantages. A survey was done to gather information about the benefits and problems they are aware of. To meet the study's goal, the research data would be examined.
However, due to several limitations on time, references, and the researcher's understanding, the research paper has several drawbacks. To begin with, the mismatch in the actual and expected number of participants, which are 113 and 150 3 respectively, can lead to less persuasive results. Secondly, the close-ended questions were applied for most of the questions in the research questionnaire, including questions of the benefits and difficulties, which can make it difficult for the author to discover predetermined benefits and difficulties and gain fully reflected. Finally, due to the problematic pandemic circumstances, the author was unable to use additional research tools such as interviews and listening tests to produce a more detailed study conclusion.
Structure of the study This study is consisted of five main chapters as follows: Chapter I - Introduction lists out all of the following content: background information, reasons for the topic decision, objectives, significance as well as scope and limitation of the study.