VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ------------------- NGÔ THỊ HÀ DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILLS THROUGH GAP-FILL TASKS FOR THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT (NGHIÊN CỨU NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG NGHE QUA HOẠT ĐỘNG NGHE ĐIỀN THÔNG TIN CÒN THIẾU CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT KHÔNG CHUYÊN ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC TÀI NGUYÊN VÀ MÔI TRƯỜNG HÀ NỘI) M. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 6014.0111 HANOI – 2013 z VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ------------------- NGÔ THỊ HÀ DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILLS THROUGH GAP-FILL TASKS FOR THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT (NGHIÊN CỨU NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG NGHE QUA HOẠT ĐỘNG NGHE ĐIỀN THÔNG TIN CÒN THIẾU CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT KHÔNG CHUYÊN ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC TÀI NGUYÊN VÀ MÔI TRƯỜNG HÀ NỘI) M. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 6014. HOÀNG VĂN VÂN HANOI - 2013 z DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis is the result of my own research and that the substance of the thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution.
Hanoi, December, 2013 Ngô Thị Hà i z ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis has been accomplished with the help and encouragement of many people. I would like to express my deep gratitude to all of them. First and for most, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. His profound knowledge in both linguistics and language teaching methodology has been of great benefit to me.
Without his precious guidance, insightful comments and suggestions, and invaluable encouragement, my thesis might not have been finished. I would also like to send my deep thanks to the staff of the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies for their help and to all the lecturers for their interesting lectures and supports, which are really useful for this research. Besides, my special thanks should also be expressed to my colleagues and students at HUNRE. Their cooperation brought great contribution to the success of my study.
Last but not least, my sincere thanks were sent to my family and my friends for their encouragement and moral supports. Without them beside me, I might not have completed the research. ii z ABSTRACT This research was conducted with the purpose to investigate the effect of using gap- fill tasks on developing students‟ listening skills. The study was carried out in form of an action research.
The subjects of the study were 45 first-year non-English major students from class DH2K1 of Hanoi University of Natural Resources and Environment (HUNRE). Data were collected through talks with students and colleagues; document analysis (course books and results of the first semester); teaching and learning diaries, and pre and post tests. The research was conducted during nine weeks. Initial investigation of the study showed that almost students at HUNRE found listening challenging and many difficulties perceived by students were revealed.
Among those, the biggest problems were of the unsuitability between the listening tasks and students‟ level. To better the situation, an action plan was made with focus on using gap-fill tasks to help students develop their listening skills. The intervention was fairly successful in improving students‟ listening skills. Their listening ability was upgraded and they also felt more interested in listening lessons.
Basing on the findings of the research, some conclusions were drawn out. Recommendations, limitations and suggestions were also discussed. It is hoped that the present study will be helpful for English teachers who share the same wish to help students solve their problems in learning listening skills at HUNRE. Ngô Thị Hà iii z LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS HUNRE: Hanoi University of Natural Resources and Environment L2: second language TESOL: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages GE: General English ESP: English for Specific Purpose NCE: New Cutting Edge MA: Master PhD: Doctor of Philosophy iv z LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLE CHARTS Chart 1: Students‟ results of the first semester Chart 2: Results of the pre-test Chart 3: Results of the three meetings Chart 4: Students‟ comments about vocabulary of the recordings Chart 5: Students‟ comments about the grammar‟s difficulty of the recordings Chart 6: Students‟ comments about the length of the recordings Chart 7: Students‟ comments about the speed of the recordings Chart 8: Students‟ comments about the level of tasks‟ difficulty Chart 9: Students‟ comments about their accomplishment of the tasks Chart 10: Results of the post test Chart 11: Students‟ improvement through tests.
TABLES Table 1: List of topics conveyed in each module of the course books Table 2: List of listening tasks in each module of the course books. v z TABLE OF CONTENT Page Declaration. iii List of abbreviations. iv List of Charts and Tables.
v Table of Content. vi PART I: INTRODUCTION .Rationale of the study.Aims of the study .Scope of the study .Design of the study. 3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT. 5 CHAPTER I: LITERARUTE REVIEW.
Definitions of listening and listening comprehension. Listening skills in learning a foreign language. Difficulties in learning listening skills. Definition of task.
Types of listening tasks. Gap-fill tasks. Gap-fills tasks in learning listening skills. Types of gap-fill exercises or tests.
17 CHAPTER II: THE METHODOLOGY. Context of the study. An overview of teaching and learning English at HUNRE. Facilities and learning condition.
Course books analysis. Data collecting instruments. Talks with colleagues and students. The research procedure.
Phase 2: Action Planning. Phase 3: Taking Action. Phase 5: Specifying Learning. 25 CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS.
Analysis of the text book. Analysis of talks with colleagues. Analysis of talks with students. Analysis of the students‟ results of the first semester.
Analysis of the pre-test. Taking action phase. Results of the exercises in four meetings. Results of learning diaries.
Results of teaching diaries. Results of post-test. Action research evaluation. Students‟ improvement through tests.
Students‟ involvement in listening tasks. Major findings and discussions. Effect of gap-fill tasks on developing students‟ listening skills from perspective of the students. Effect of gap-fill tasks on developing students‟ listening skills from the perspective of the teacher.
42 PART III: CONCLUSION. Limitation of the study. Suggestions for further study. I viii z PART I INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale of the study The role of English as “global language” has now been asserted with many eloquent testimonies of its usefulness and contributions in many fields of life such as science, technology, culture, education, economy, entertainment and so on. English has helped people closer in „global village‟ (Nguyen, T., 2008) and helped them broaden their knowledge as well. With its wide use as the dominant language in media, books, etc, English has brought people many chances to get to know about other countries and their cultures, literature works, traditions, etc., thus, broaden their knowledge with the help of the common and popular language. English is used as the most common language in external communication of many fields.
Since “Đoi moi” with “opened” policy, Vietnam has been “closer” to the dynamic outside world. Vietnamese people now can easily access information, entertainments, books, science, and high technology which are usually in English. Businessmen, tourists, scientists, etc. come to Vietnam bringing with them many chances to help develop the country in many aspects.
Most of them often use English in communication that makes the use of English in Vietnam more and more widely and important. In the Educational System of Vietnam, English has now been a compulsory subject in curriculums in schools and universities. English is considered not only an interest or a favourite subject but also practical and great demand for students for their higher study as well as for their success in the future. Thus, “its study is considered as an academic pursuit” (Nguyen, T.
In learning English for communicative purposes, learning skills receives great interests. Although each of the four skills – reading, listening, writing, speaking, has their own characteristics and they are challenging in their own way, listening is considered the most challenging skill. The factors that affect the students‟ listening ability are various, they may come from the students themselves (their background knowledge, motivation, interest…), from the learning context, from the learning material, or from teaching syllabus. 1 z In attempt to improving students‟ listening skills, I have decided to carry out a study namely “Developing Listening Skills through Gap-fill Tasks for the First Year Non-English Major Students: an Action Research Project at Hanoi University of Natural Resources and Environment” 2.
Aims of the study The main purpose of this research is to study the effects of using gap-fill tasks on improving the students‟ listening skills at Hanoi University of Natural Resources and Environment (HUNRE). The specific objectives of the study are: - To figure out difficulties perceived by students in learning listening skills. - To find out effective ways to help improve students‟ listening skills. - To investigate whether doing gap-fill listening tasks can help students improve their listening skills from students and teacher‟s perspectives.
Research questions In order to obtain the objectives of the study, the following research questions were formulated: 1) What are the difficulties experienced by the first – year students at HUNRE in learning listening skills? 2) What should be done to improve the students’ listening skills? 3) To what extent do gap-fill tasks help the first-year students at HUNRE improve their listening skills, from both students’ and teacher’s perspectives? 4. Scope of the study With the limit of a minor thesis and due to the limited knowledge and time, I could just carry out the investigation on a small scale. This action research was conducted for only nine weeks with three listening lessons and in the context of 45 first-year students at HUNRE in the second semester of the academic year 2012- 2013. In additions, as aforementioned, this study focuses on using gap-fill exercises to teach listening skills to the above students.
Hence, the results of this study is limited to the above teaching context and participants. Methodology 2 z To realize the objectives of the study, both qualitative and quantitative methods are used. The data for the study were collected through the following instruments: - Talks with colleagues and students: were conducted at the very beginning of the study to identify students‟ problems in learning listening skills. - Document analysis 1: the analysis focuses on listening tasks in the course books to see whether they are suitable with students level and interests or not.
Then some adjustments could be made to match students‟ level and interests. - Document Analysis 2: The analysis of students‟ results of the first semester was conducted to have deeper understanding of students‟ right competence in English. - Pre-test was designed to find out the students‟ listening skills through gap-fill tasks, before taking the action. - Learning diaries were done by students (with clear instruction of the researcher) to record their comments on the tasks and exercises as well as the effectiveness of the lesson, the difficulties perceived by the students during the lesson, and their general comments on the learning listening skills through gap- fill tasks.
- Teaching diaries were written after each lesson to record the students‟ reaction or performance in learning listening skills through gap-fill tasks. The diaries also record the effectiveness of the lesson, the difficulties occurred during the lesson in the perspective of the teacher. - Post-test was designed to find out the students‟ listening skills through gap-fill tasks, after taking the action.