THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MAI THI HAI HA AN INVESTIGATION INTO APPLYING QUESTIONING TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS AT THE COLLEGE OF MECHANICS AND METALLURGY Điều tra về ứng dụng phương pháp đặt câu hỏi trong việc dạy kĩ năng nghe tại trường Cao đẳng Cơ Khí-Luyện Kim M.A THESIS Field: English linguistics Code: 8220201 THAI NGUYEN- 2018 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MAI THI HAI HA AN INVESTIGATION INTO APPLYING QUESTIONING TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS AT THE COLLEGE OF MECHANICS AND METALLURGY Điều tra về ứng dụng phương pháp đặt câu hỏi trong việc dạy kĩ năng nghe tại trường Cao đẳng Cơ Khí-Luyện Kim M.A THESIS (APPLICATION ORIENTATION) Field: English linguistics Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Dr. Nguyen Thi Quyet THAI NGUYEN - 2018 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is my own work. The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission, and have not been published elsewhere. Author Mai Thi Hai Ha i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I gratefully acknowledge the encouragement and support of many individuals in assisting me to accomplish this study.
First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr Nguyen Thi Quyet, my supervisor, for her invaluable guidance, comments, correction, and most of all her kind encouragement throughout the work. Without her help, this thesis would not be finished. I also would like to express my sincere thanks to teachers of Foreign Language Department for their kind encouragement and suggestions. I am appreciative of all my teachers and my students at The College of Mechanics and Metallurgy where I have gathered information for my study.
Without their help, this study could not have been successful. I am indebted to my family members whose support and encouragements greatly contributed to the completion of my study. Mai Thi Hai Ha ii ABSTRACT This study was conducted to investigate the application of questioning techniques in teaching listening skills at The College of Mechanics and Metallurgy. Questioning techniques are used at pre-listening stage to improve students’ listening comprehension skills.
There were 38 students who take part in the study. They were divided into two groups: the control group with 18 students and the experimental group with 18 students. Each group studied the same lessons. The experimental group was taught with the application of questioning techniques at pre-listening stage designed by the researcher.
Students at The College of Mechanics and Metallurgy are taught English at A2 level with average scores. Before applying questioning techniques, two questionnaires are delivered: one is for students and the other one is for teachers of English. Questionnaire for students was made to find out the problems students encounter in learning listening as well as their expectations from the teachers to help them increase their listening comprehension. Questionnaire for teachers mainly focused on teaching methods in teaching listening skills.
After that, a listening comprehension pretest was carried out for both groups to check students’ listening ability. After the pretest results, the treatment was performed by the researcher to improve the listening comprehension skills of the experimental group. The treatment was taught for eight weeks. At the end of the treatment, a posttest was delivered to each group to examine the effect of the treatment on developing the students' listening comprehension skills.
The main statistical results of the study showed that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental group in the posttest in comparison with that of the control group. It was concluded that the application of questioning techniques at the pre- listening stage was effective in improving the listening comprehension skills for students at The College of Mechanics and Metallurgy. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP…………………………………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………….
iv LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES…. vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Objectives of the study……………………………………………. Scope of the study…………………………………………………….
Method of the study………………………………………………. Design of the study…………………………………………………….… 3 CHAPTER 2: THEORICAL BACKGROUND 2. Definition of listening……………………………………………. The nature of listening comprehension……………………….
The difference between Hearing and Listening…………. Active listening and passive listening………………………. Stages in a listening lesson………………………………………………. Pre-listening stage…………………………………….
While-listening stage…………………………………………………… 14 2. Post-listening stage………………………………………………. Problems in learning listening skills in another language………………. Problems related to the listeners…………………………….
Lack of concentration and attention…………………. Lack of prior knowledge and proficiency……………………………. Lack of students’ motivation…………………………………………. Problems related to unfamiliar contents……………………………….
Problems related to various native accents……………………………. Obstacles from learning facilities……………………………………… 19 2. Questioning techniques in teaching English listening skills……………… 20 2. Definition of questioning techniques…………………………………… 20 2.
The important of questionings ……………………………………. Types of questions………………………………………………. Application of questioning techniques in teaching English…………. Reasons for applying questioning techniques in teaching English…… 25 2.
Guidelines for classroom questioning……………………………. Ways of exploiting applying effective questioning techniques in English teaching……………………………………………. The study setting…………………………………………. Data collection instruments ………………………………….
Listening Comprehension tests…………………………………. Applying questioning techniques at pre-listening stage……. Data collection procedure………………………………………………… 35 3. Data analysis……………………………………………………………… 36 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.
Statistical results from teachers’ and students’ questionnaires…………… 38 4. Personal information about students and further information……. Problems encountered by the students in learning listening skills…. Problems from the students………………………………………….
Problems from listening materials………………………. Problems from physical settings……………………………………… 43 4. Students’ expectations in term of teachers’ methodology……………… 45 4. Statistical information about teachers………………………….
Statistical results from students’ pretest and posttest………………. 47 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 5. Summary of the key findings………………………………………. Limitations of the study……………………………….
Suggestions for further research……………. XIII vi LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES LISTS OF TABLES Table 3.1: Listening topics and questioning techniques Table 4.1: Problems from the students Table 4.2: Problems from listening materials Table 4.3: Problems from physical settings Table 4.4: Technique application in teaching listening Table 4.5: The control and experience group’s pretest and posttest results LISTS OF FIGURES Figure 4.1: Pretest and posttest results of the control group Figure 4.2: Pretest and posttest results of the experimental group vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale English has become an international language that is used in many countries in the world as a second language or a foreign language nowadays. Vietnam is one of the countries using English as a foreign language.
English plays an important part in all fields of our society. English is a compulsory subject at school and a mean of communication at work. People who want to get a good job must be good at their majors and English as well. Learning English focuses on not only grammar as we did in the past but also other skills like listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Language learning depends on listening. Listening provides the aural input that serves as the basis for language acquisition and enables learners to interact in spoken communication. Listening is the most critical communication skill; however, little listening instruction may be due to the lack of preparation, time or material. In addition, teachers, because of different reasons, seldom teach listening comprehension skills.
Rebecca (1993) says, “Listening is a fundamental language skill, but it is often ignored by foreign and second language teachers”. While the other three language skills receive direct instructional attention, teachers frequently expect students to develop their listening capability by osmosis and without help. Therefore, the listening skill should be a major area of concern to teachers and students of a second or foreign language. Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process.
Listening is a key to all effective communication. Without the ability to listen effectively, messages are easily misunderstood. As a result, communication breaks down and the sender of the message can easily become frustrated or irritated. Therefore, students need to have good techniques in learning listening skills, which helps them have more confidence in practicing English in real life.
In order to help students learn listening better, the teacher’s preparation before teaching listening is very important. There are many ways to help students 1 concentrate on the lesson before listening. Therefore, the researcher would like to apply the techniques to raise the quality of teaching and learning listening skills in particular and English in general. Because listening is very important in the communication process, the researcher carries out the study “An investigation into applying questioning techniques in teaching listening skills” with the hope that students will find out the good ways in order to improve their English listening skills.
In other word, the study would focus on listening skills and techniques which help students prepare well for their listening tasks i. pre-questioning techniques. Objectives of the study The study has been set up to help students improve their English listening skills through questioning techniques. To meet this aim, the study was carried out with a view to fulfilling the following objectives: - To investigate the problems that students often face in learning listening skills - To find out the impacts of the application of questioning techniques in teaching listening skills - To give implications in applying questioning techniques in teaching and learning English 1.
What are problems students often face in learning listening skills? 2. What are the impacts of the application of questioning techniques to help students improve listening skills in learning English? 1. The scope of the study Listening is one of the important skills that learners who study English need to develop. In this study, the participants are limited to non-major English students who study English as a foreign language and teachers of English who teach English at The College of Mechanics and Metallurgy.
The study was designed to investigate questioning techniques that are employed for non-major English students at the College of Mechanics and Metallurgy. The method of the study In order to explore and analyze the problems that students often face in learning English listening skills and the impacts of the application of note taking strategies for teachers and students to teach and learn listening skills, tests and survey questionnaires are used to collect the data. Questionnaires will be used as a main instrument to investigate students’ problems in learning listening skills and the strategies that they often use to improve their listening. Tests, divided into a pre- test and a post-test, are carried out to evaluate the students’ listening comprehension ability before and after employing listening strategies.
Design of the study The thesis is divided into five chapters: Chapter 1- Introduction - includes the rationale, the objectives, the research questions, the scope, and the design of the study. Chapter 2 - Theorical background - covers the information about definition of listening, the problems in learning listening skills, stages of listening tasks and theories of pre-questioning techniques for developing listening skills which are reviewed to set up the theoretical framework for the investigation in the next chapter. In chapter 3, the study is presented. It includes the study setting, participants, data collection instruments, applying questioning techniques at pre-listening stage, data collection procedures and data analysis.
Chapter 4 contains the findings of the study and discussion. The last chapter contains conclusions, implications and limitations of the study as well as suggestions for further research. 3 CHAPTER 2: THEORICAL BACKGROUND 2. Definition of listening Listening is a vital component of the oral communication, or the interactive process in which the individual takes the roles of speaker and listener through a verbal and non-verbal component.
Listening is also an essential part of the communication process. Students spend the majority of each school day listening and much of what students know is acquired through listening. It is a term daily used without giving it much thought. Yet, listening is a vital mental capacity one of the principal ways through which we understand and take part in the world around us Rost (1994, p.7) says: “Listening is considered to be a part of oracy, a capacity to formulate thought verbally and to communicate with others, so it is the skill that underlines all verbal communication” Sharma (2011, p.13) defines “Listening skills are essential for learning since they enable students to acquire insight and information, and to achieve success in communicating with others.
