VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ******************* ĐỖ THỊ PHƢƠNG NGUYÊN A Study on Using English Songs in Teaching Listening Skill to Improve the Efficiency and Motivation for First-Year Non-English Major Students at Hai Duong Medical Technical University Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng bài hát tiếng Anh trong việc dạy kỹ năng nghe để tạo động lực và nâng cao hiệu quả cho sinh viên không chuyên Anh năm thứ nhất Trƣờng Đại học Kỹ Thuật y tế Hải Dƣơng M. MINOR PROGMAME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 0111 Hanoi – 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ******************* ĐỖ THỊ PHƢƠNG NGUYÊN A Study on Using English Songs in Teaching Listening Skill to Improve the Efficiency and Motivation for First-Year Non-English Major Students at Hai Duong Medical Technical University Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng bài hát tiếng Anh trong việc dạy kỹ năng nghe để tạo động lực và nâng cao hiệu quả cho sinh viên không chuyên Anh năm thứ nhất Trƣờng Đại học Kỹ Thuật y tế Hải Dƣơng M. MINOR PROGMAME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 0111 Supervisor: Dr. Mai Thị Loan Hanoi – 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I certify that the thesis titled: ―A study on using English songs in teaching listening skill to improve the efficiency and motivation for first-year non-English major students at Hai Duong Medical Technical University‖ is the result of my own work.
I have provided fully documented references to the work of others. The material in this thesis has not been submitted for assessment in any other formal courses of study. Hanoi, August 2014 Mai Thi Loan, Ph.D i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The thesis is finished with the support of many individuals, and thus, is collection of numerous intellectual minds, sympathetic hearts, contemplative moments, and prolonged engagement. First of all, I deeply appreciate my supervisor, Dr.
Mai Thi Loan. I am able to finish my master thesis due to her thorough reading, critical comments, invaluable suggestions, various sources of references and previous corrections on my writing. Additionally, I would like to offer my sincere thanks to all the teachers and students of Hai Duong Medical Technical University for their willingness to help me to complete the collection of necessary data for the study. Finally, special gratitude is extended to my family and my close friends who have encouraged and supported me in every stage of this study ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This study investigates whether the using of English songs in teaching listening skill to non-major students is effective or not and discusses some suggestions of how to use English songs in teaching listening skill in classroom.
To achieve the aims of the thesis, the author used the following data collection instruments: survey questionnaire for teachers, survey questionnaire for students, and tests for students. The results and findings point out the benefits of using English songs in teaching listening, some criteria to choose appropriate songs for teachers when teaching listening. And some tasks the teachers should design to teach students with the use of songs. In conclusion, songs can be a good material for the use of teaching listening for students.
iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L1: first language L2: second language Std. Deviation: Standard deviation HMTU: Hai Duong Medical Technical University EFL: English as Foreign Language iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Chart 1: Students‘ attitude towards English songs .20 Chart 2: Students‘ improvement after they had been taught with the use of songs .21 Chart 3: The frequency of using songs to teach listening skill .25 Chart 4: Kind of task(s) the teachers usually designed to teach students with the use of songs.27 Chart 5: Raw marks in listening (pre - test) .31 Chart 6: Raw marks in listening (post - test) .32 Table 1: The benefits of learning listening through the use of English songs .21 Table 2: Students‘ favorite activities while they are listening to English songs .23 Table 3: Reasons that students listen to English songs .24 Table 4: Teachers‘ opinion about some advantages of using songs in class.26 Table 5: Teachers‘ opinion about some disadvantages of using songs in class .26 Table 6: Criteria for selecting songs of the teachers.27 Table 7: The sources for teachers to select songs.28 Table 8: Frequency distribution (pre - test) .30 Table 9: Mean and Std.31 Table 10: Frequency distribution (post - test) .32 Table 11: Mean and Std deviation (post - test) .33 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .iv LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES .v TABLE OF CONTENTS.vi PART A: INTRODUCTION. Rationale of the study.
Aims and objectives of the study. Scope of the study. Significance of study. Design of the study .4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW.
Definition of listening. Types of listening. The difficulties in learning listening skill. Definition of motivation.
Types of motivation. The importance of motivation in listening classes. Songs as a motivator for students to listen. Review of related studies.
Setting of the study. Teachers‘ background information. Students‘ background information. Teaching and learning condition at HMTU.
17 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Questionnaire for teachers. Questionnaire for students. Data collection and analysis procedure .19 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS.
Questionnaire for students .1 Students‘ attitude towards English songs .2 The improvement of students‘ listening after they had been taught with the use of songs. Students‘ opinion about the benefits of learning listening through the use of English songs. Students‘ favorite activities while they are listening to English songs. Reasons that students listen to English songs.
Questionnaire for teacher .1 The frequency of using songs to teach listening skill. Teachers‘ opinion about advantages of using songs to teach listening skill. Teachers‘ opinion about disadvantages of using songs to teach listening skill. Kind of task(s) the teachers usually designed to teach students with the use of songs.
Criteria for selecting songs of the teachers. The sources for teachers to select songs. Data analysis and findings .30 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Major findings from the research.
Research question 1: What are the benefits of using songs to teach listening skill to students?. Research question 2: Which tasks should teacher design to teach listening to students with the use of songs. Research question 3: What are criteria to choose appropriate songs in teaching listening in classroom. Limitations of the study.
Suggestions for further study. I APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS. I APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS. V APPENDIX 3: PRE – TEST.
VII APPENDIX 4: POST - TEST. X APPENDIX 5: SAMPLE TASKS. XIIIIII viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study Among four skills of English, listening is often considered the most challenging for students due to the complex and subtle nature of listening comprehension in second language (L2) or foreign language.
It takes much time and effort to make progress in this skill. At Hai Duong Medical Technical University, many students are afraid of learning listening and they often say that they do not want to learn listening. Like many other teachers, I think that this problem can only be solved by finding an answer to the question: ―How to help students change from the feeling of fear to the one of interest when they are doing listening?‖ However, interest is something very unstable and unpredictable because it depends on many factors such as: the content of the subject, the necessity of it, the method of the teacher, or even the weather of the day. That explains the reason why it takes teachers a great effort and trial to maintain the students‘ interest in the lesson and avoid the boredom also.
Research shows that there are some main ways to hold students‘ interest such as: audio-visual aids including objects, flash cards, pictures, overhead projector transparency, film, video, and language activities like games, songs, story-telling, projects. Of all the items, songs seem to be the most available and easiest to exploit. Therefore, the author chose English songs as the means to do a research to improve the efficiency and motivation for first-year non-English major students at Hai Duong Medical Technical University. Aims and objectives of the study The study aims at finding out benefits of using English songs in teaching listening skill to non-major students, finding out the tasks the teacher should design to teach listening to students with the use of songs, and discussing criteria to choose appropriate songs in teaching listening in classroom.
To be more specific, the objectives of this study are to: - investigate the positives sides of using English songs in teaching listening skill to non-major students; - find out the tasks teachers should design to teach students with the use of songs; 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com - work out criteria to choose appropriate songs in teaching listening in classroom. Research questions With these aims, the researcher carries out this study to answer the following questions: (1) What are the benefits of using songs to teach listening skill to students? (2) Which tasks should teachers design to teach listening to students with the use of songs? (3) What are criteria to choose appropriate songs in teaching listening in classroom? 1. Scope of the study In this study, the author intended to use famous love songs to teach listening for non – major students at the pre – intermediate level at HMTU. Songs may include many types such as: classical, pop, jazz, rap, traditional, love songs, etc.
This research just focuses on the use of famous loves songs that have soft music with quite simple words, catchy tunes and are easy to listen to. Significance of study The study is hopefully useful for students and others of concerned. Students will be motivated to learn listening with the use of songs and they will be able to memorize the lessons easily. Besides that, the use of songs may help them to disappear their boredom in learning.
The study also provides the teachers with the benefits of using English songs to teach listening skill at HMTU. Methodology All comments, remarks, assumption and conclusion of the study were based on the data and analysis. Data collection for analysis in the study was gained through the following resources: - Survey questionnaires for teachers and students. - Tests for students.
Design of the study The paper was designed with three parts as follows: Part A: Introduction presents the rationale of choosing the topic, the aim and objectives of the study, the scope of the study, significance, methods and design of the study to be applied. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Part B: Development composes of three chapters: Chapter 1: Literature review sets up some theoretical backgrounds that are relevant to the purpose of the study: the definition of listening skill, types of listening, the difficulties in learning listening skill, the definition of motivation, types of motivation and its importance in listening classes, songs as a motivator for students to listen. Chapter 2: Method of the study mentions setting of the study and research design including participants and data collection. Chapter 3: This chapter includes data analysis and findings Part C: Conclusion deals with major findings of the research.
Limitations of the study and some suggestions for further study were also included in this chapter.