VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ LAN ACTIVATING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE IN IMPROVING LISTENING SKILLS OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS KÍCH HOẠT KIẾN THỨC NỀN ĐỂ NÂNG CAO KĨ NĂNG NGHE CHO HỌC SINH TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG M. Minor Programme Thesis Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60.10 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 NGUYỄN THỊ LAN ACTIVATING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE IN IMPROVING LISTENING SKILLS OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS KÍCH HOẠT KIẾN THỨC NỀN ĐỂ NÂNG CAO KĨ NĂNG NGHE CHO HỌC SINH TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG M. Minor Programme Thesis Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60.10 Supervisor : Dr, Huỳnh Anh Tuấn Hanoi – 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I, hereby, certify the thesis entitled “Activating prior knowledge in improving listening skills of high school students” is the result of my own research for the Minor Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Language and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, and this thesis has not, wholly or partially, been submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions. Hanoi, 2013 NGUYEN THI LAN i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge my deep gratitude to all those who have supported me in doing this independent study.
Firstly, I would like to express my greatest appreciation to my supervisor, Dr. Huynh Anh Tuan for his valuable time and useful guidance towards the completion of this study. Secondly, I am extremely grateful to the staff members of the Faculty of Post - graduate studies for their helpful lectures. My special thanks are also sent to my lecturers, my friends, my classmates, as well as my colleagues for their invaluable comments and criticism and also for their continued interest and encouragements.
Thirdly, I appreciate the assistance and cooperation given to me by teachers and students at Giao Thuy B high school. Without their sincere participation, this paper would not have been possible. Last but not least, I want to express my deepest gratitude to my beloved people, my parents, my husband and my children for their love, care, tolerance and encouragement. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT In recent years more and more studies have focused on language learning strategies and their importance, especially learning strategies in listening skill.
Sharing the same concern, this research aims at providing some information relating to the perception of activating prior knowledge in improving listening skill to high school students. Firstly, the author briefly reviewed some literature concerning this issue. Then data were collected by two instruments, namely questionnaires for both students and teachers, and class observations. Nine teachers and 221 students in grade 10 and 11 were sampled.
The Microsoft Excel was undertaken to analyze the data. The final results indicated that the teachers and students had inadequate knowledge about the role of activating prior knowledge in listening lessons. The study also showed the difficulties that students encounter due to lack of prior knowledge in listening. Lastly, the study offered some implications for activating students’ prior knowledge in teaching and learning listening skill.
iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration ………………………….iii Table of contents…………………………………….iv List of tables and figures……………………………………………….vii PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Aims and objectives of the study…………………………………. Scope of the study…………………………………………………. Significance of the study …………………………………………….
Design of the study………………………………………………………. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW I. Theories on listening comprehension 1. The concepts of listening comprehension.
The processes of listening comprehension …………………………. Theories on activating prior knowledge in the pre- listening stage 1. Definitions of activating prior knowledge in the pre- listening stage……,,8 1. Roles of activating prior knowledge in the pre- listening stage …………,9 1.
Activities to activate prior knowledge in the pre- listening stage. Factors affecting the choice of pre-listening activities.1 Definitions of schema. Characteristics of schema.13 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Types of schema.
Data collection methods………………………………………. The questionnaire for the teachers………………………………. The questionnaire for the students…………………………. Data collection procedure 2.
The setting of the study. Participants’ background information………………………………. Data analytical units. DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 3.
DATA ANALYSIS OF THE TEACHERS’ SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE AND THEIR PERFORMANCE IN CLASSROOM OBSERVATION SHEET.The teachers’ attitudes toward the difficulties that high school students encounter when their prior knowledge is not activated. The situation of applying the techniques of activating prior knowledge in the pre-listening stage at Giao Thuy B High School. Teachers’ comments on the roles of activating prior knowledge in pre- listening activities… ………………………. DATA ANALYSIS OF THE STUDENTS’ SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE AND THEIR PERFORMANCE IN CLASSROOM OBSERVATION SHEETS.
The students’ attitudes toward the difficulties that they encounter when their prior knowledge is not activated.28 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The students’ attitudes toward the situation of applying the techniques of activating prior knowledge in pre-listening stage at Giao Thuy B high school. Students’ comments on the roles of activating prior knowledge in pre- listening activities……………………………………………………….35 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 4. BENEFITS OF ACTIVATING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE TO TEACHING LISTENING 4.1 For the teachers…………………………………………….
For the students………………………………………. To the curriculum designers ……………. To the teachers……………………………. Raising awareness of the role of pre listening activities……….
Exploiting background knowledge…. Improving pre-listening activities in the material. Using pre-listening activities appropriately and flexibly. To the students…………………….
CONCLUSIONS REVIEW OF THE STUDY…………………………….44 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY………………………………….45 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH…………….I vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Tables Table 1: Teachers’ remarks about activities used to motivate students’ prior knowledge in the pre listening stage (appendix 3, page V) Table 2: Students’ attitudes toward activities teachers carry out in the pre listening stage. (appendix 3, page V) Figures Figure 1: Teachers’ comments on the difficulties in activating prior knowledge in pre-listening stage (appendix 4, page VI) Figure 2: Teachers’ comments on the difficulties students encounter if their prior knowledge is not activated in the pre-listening stage (appendix 4, page VI) Figure 3: Teachers’ comments on the frequency of activating student’s prior knowledge (appendix 4, page VII) Figure 4: Teachers’ remarks about the problems when motivating prior knowledge (appendix 4, page VII) Figure 5: Teachers’ remarks about the importance of activating prior knowledge in the pre-listening stage. (appendix4, page VIII) Figure 6: Teachers’ remarks about the benefits of activating students’ prior knowledge. (appendix4, page VIII) Figure 7: Students’ opinions whether it difficult when listening to a lesson if prior knowledge is not activated or not.
(appendix4, page IX) Figure 8: Students’ opinions about the difficulties students encounter when their prior knowledge is not activated. (appendix4, page IX) Figure 9: Students’ attitudes toward the currency of being motivated prior knowledge in the pre listening stage. (appendix4, page X) Figure 10: Students’ attitudes toward the duration of the pre listening stage for activating prior knowledge. (appendix4, page X) vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Students’ comments on the importance of activating prior knowledge in the pre-listening stage.(appendix 4, page XI) Figure 12: Students’ comments on the benefits of motivating prior knowledge. (appendix4, page XI) viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Rationale Listening comprehension is a fundamental language skill. Nunan (1988:1) stated: “Listening is a basic skill in language teaching.
Without listening skill, learners will never learn to communicate effectively”. In many ESL and EFL situations, listening is a big challenge for both teachers and learners in their teaching and learning. Students of English in ESL and EFL situations have difficulties in comprehending spoken language due to many reasons which may range from their inadequate background knowledge, their limited reservoir of vocabulary and grammatical structures, their lack of preparation for the task etc. Foreign language learners have particular needs to be adjusted or tuned in - the term Underwood, 1989, rather than being plunged straight into a listening task without any orientation to it.
Therefore, pre-listening activities are crucial to good second language learning and teaching. During this critical phase of the listening process, teachers prepare students for what they will hear and what they are expected to do. Pre-listening activities help students make decisions about what to listen for and, subsequently, to focus attention on meaning while listening. Pre-listening activities have been carried out in listening lessons at Giao Thuy B High School.
However, they are quite not effective. One of the reasons is assumed to be students’ background knowledge not being activated. Consequently, many students understand very little of what they are supposed to listen to. As a teacher of Giao Thuy B High School, in the hope of improving the listening skills of my students, I have decided to do the following research entitled: “Activating prior knowledge in improving listening skills of high school students”.
Aims and objectives of the study The study aims at helping high school students improve their listening skills by activating their prior knowledge. In order to achieve the aim, the study has to fulfill the following objectives: 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com - investigating problems that SLL in general and high school students in particular encounter while listening when prior knowledge is not activated in the pre-listening stage - exploring the process of activating prior knowledge by the teachers and students in the pre-listening stage at Giao Thuy B High School - finding out teachers’ and students’ comments on the role of activating prior knowledge in the development of listening skill - giving some suggestions for successful implementation of activating students’ background knowledge to help ease the difficulty of listening 3. Scope of the study Various forms of support and factors have a valuable role to play in teaching listening skills but the researcher’s particular concern in this research is activating prior knowledge in pre- listening activities which interferes with the students’ ability to demonstrate the level of listening comprehension. More specifically, the author concentrates on the difficulties in pre-listening activities that teachers and students at Giao Thuy B high school have to cope with.
Based on that, some recommendations are given for teachers to improve their pre-listening activities to activate students’ background knowledge to cope with their listening problems in the class. Significance of the study As one of the uninvestigated issues in teaching listening for high school students in Vietnam, the present study on activating prior knowledge in pre-listening stage will make certain contributions to the development of listening skills among high school students. The study is at the same time hoped to benefit teachers, educationists and researchers of related fields. • For the students, the results of the study will give impact to the improvement of their listening.
The student knows how to make full use of background knowledge to become an effective listener. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com • For English teachers, the findings of this study will give valuable and useful information on the implementation of the teaching of listening. The study firstly will help teachers to realize the role of pre-listening activities and know how to adapt in different lessons. • The educationists may base on the implementation of pre-listening stage to make necessary changes in terms of curriculum, facilities to exploit pre- listening activities to the full.
• The research will serve as the foundation for further related researches. Other researchers may also take the strengths and weaknesses of the study into account to better theirs. Research methodology In order to seek answers to the research questions, a survey research is adopted in this research. Survey questionnaires and classroom observations are the two main instruments to collect the data.
The data from the observations are of great assistance to ensure the validity of the information gathered from the survey questionnaire. The observations were done through the checklists.