VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HẢI A STUDY ON FACTORS AFFECTING LISTENING COMPREHENSION OF THE ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCE (NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG YẾU TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG TỚI KHẢ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG THPT TẠI TỈNH BẮC NINH) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Hanoi - 2018 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 HẢI A STUDY ON FACTORS AFFECTING LISTENING COMPREHENSION OF THE ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCE (Nghiên cứu những yếu tố ảnh hưởng tới khả năng nghe hiểu của học sinh lớp 11 tại một trường THPT tại tỉnh Bắc Ninh) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Supervisor: Mai Thị Loan, PhD Hanoi - 2018 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I certify that the minor thesis entitled “A study on factors affecting listening comprehension of the eleventh grade students at a high school in Bac Ninh province” is the result of my own work and has not been submitted in any form for another degree or diploma at any universities or other institutions. Hanoi, 2018 Student Nguyễn Thị Hải i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge my truthful gratitude to my supervisor, Dr.
Mai Thi Loan for her thorough reading, critical comments, invaluable guidance and precious corrections of the thesis. It was her acute guidance that has enabled me to find the right way to complete this study. I also would like to express my sincere thanks to my colleagues at the school, who have been willing to answer my interviews. I appreciate the assistance and cooperation of the students in classes from the eleventh grade at the chosen school.
My special words of thanks are sent to my family, especially my husband who has given me constant encouragement and support throughout my research work. Hanoi, 2018 ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT The study is concerned with factors affecting listening comprehension encountered by the eleventh students at a high school in Bac Ninh province. The main purposes of the study are to find out the factors affecting students‟ listening comprehension and to offer some solutions to help students overcome their affective factors. The instruments used in the study were questionnaire and interviews.
The questionnaire was designed for 100 students and the interviews were carried out with both three teachers and 10 out of the 100 students at the chosen school. The results showed that learners encountered various kinds of affective factors on listening problems which were divided into four categories: factors related to the listening text, factors related to the speakers, factors related to the listener, and factors related to physical settings. From the findings of the research, some suggestions were proposed for teachers to help their students overcome those affective factors such as designing suitable listening materials, encouraging students to use top- down strategies and encouraging prediction. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.
iii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLE .ix PART A: INTRODUCTION. Rationale of the study. Aims and objectives of the study. Scope of the study.
Method of the study. Significance of the study. Organization of the study. 5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Definition of listening .2 Importance of listening .1Definitions of listening comprehension .2 Process of listening comprehension.1 Definition of listening strategies .2 Classification of listening strategies .4 Potential affective factors on listening comprehension .5 Solutions to overcome affective factors on listening comprehension .1 Helping students with vocabulary .2 Helping students get familiar with different accents.
15 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.4 Using the tapes and radios with good quality .5 Activating background knowledge .6 Combining “intensive listening” with “extensive listening”; focusing on listening .7 Combining listening with other skills .8 Evaluate listening effectiveness regularly and further improve listening approaches .6 Review of previous related studies .1 Previous studies overseas .2 Previous studies in Viet Nam .1 Restatement of research questions .2 The setting of the study .4 Data collection instruments .5 Data collection procedures .6 Analysis of data. 27 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS .1 Questionnaire for the students .1 Learners’ perceptions of factors related to listening text .2 Learners’ perceptions of factors related to listeners. 30 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.3 Learners’ perceptions of factors related to speakers .4 Learners’ perceptions of factors related to physical settings .5 Learners’ opinions of solutions to overcome those factors .2 Interview with the students.1 Students’ answers about factors on the students’ listening comprehension .2 The students’ suggested solutions to overcome those factors .3 Interview with the teachers .1Teachers’ answers about factors on the students’ listening comprehension .2 Teachers’ suggested solutions to overcome those factors .2 Findings and discussion .1 Designing suitable listening materials .2 Arousing interest and motivating students to attend to the spoken message .3 Using pictures and visual aids .4 Encouraging students to use top-down strategies .5 Encouraging cooperative listening .6 Encouraging students’ accurate pronunciation. Limitations of the study.
Suggestions for the further research. I vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. VIII vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLE Figure 1: Learners‟ perceptions of affective factors related to listening text. 27 Figure 2: Learners‟ perceptions of affective factors related to listeners.
29 Figure 3: Learners‟ perceptions of affective factors related to speakers. 30 Figure 4: Learners‟ perceptions of affective factors from physical settings. 31 Table: Learners‟ opinions about solutions to overcome those affective factors. 32 viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABBREVIATIONS L2: Second Language EFL: English as a Foreign Language ESP: English for Special Purposes ix LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale of the study Nowadays, English has become an international language and it is used in communicating with people all over the world. Therefore, learning English has been regarded as a vital demand for a huge number of people in Vietnam in particular and for millions of people in the world in general. In language learning, listening, together with speaking, writing and reading is one of the four language skills. Listening relates to any communicative activities of human.
Conversations will take place only when we understand our interlocutor says. Undeniably, listening is very important in man‟s interaction. Gilakjani and Ahmadi (2011) are also among the writers who early noticed the importance of listening. Gilakjani and Ahmadi (2011) reported data on how people spend their communicative time: of the total time devoted to communication, 40-50% is spent on listening, 20-30% on speaking, 11-16% of reading, and 9% on writing.
From the data given above, it can be understood that listening skill plays a great role in the process of communication. In spite of the fact that listening is now well recognized as a critical dimension in language learning, it still remains one of the least understood processes. When the amount of research done in all four skills and the curricula of most foreign language programs are considered, listening skill has attracted the least attention. According to (Morley, 2001), during many decades, researchers used to regard listening as a passive skill.
However, since the 1980s, it has been accepted as an active skill. Throughout the 1990s, attention to listening in language instruction increased dramatically. Although people pay more attention to listening, it is still regarded as the most difficult for learners, especially for second language learners. The current researcher has taken some surveys on the ability of listening and affective factors on listening comprehension among the eleventh students at a high school in Bac Ninh province and has found that these students have many troubles in their listening skill.
Many students perform poorly and some of them seem uninterested in 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com listening lessons and unwilling to listen to the recordings. The question arises here is what affective factors the students face while they study listening skills. Therefore, in my point of view, it is necessary to find out the factors affecting students‟ listening and provide them with listening strategies completely and systematically so that their listening comprehension will make much progress. From these reasons, this research would be carried out to investigate affective factors on students‟ listening comprehension, and offer some solutions to overcome those factors.
Aims and objectives of the study The study aims at investigating the affective factors on listening comprehension among the eleventh students at a high school in Bac Ninh province. The objectives of this study are: - To find out the factors affecting listening comprehension of the eleventh students; - To offer some suggested solutions to overcome those affective factors. Research questions The present study focuses on answering the following questions: 1. What are the factors that affect the eleventh students‟ listening comprehension? 2.
What solutions can be suggested to overcome those affective factors? 4. Scope of the study Listening which consists of many sub- skills is paid a lot of attention by many researchers. This study is not an exception; however, the current study is concerned with only factors affecting listening comprehension, not other sub- skills. It is conducted at a high school in Bac Ninh province.
The participants taking part in the study are 100 eleventh grade students, not all the students of the school. Method of the study The study was carried out by some steps as follows: First, the questionnaire for students was employed to find out the factors affecting listening comprehension of the eleventh grade students. Moreover, the 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com students‟ opinions of the solutions that they and their teachers can do to overcome the factors were also revealed through the questionnaire. Second, interviews with both teachers and students were conducted to help the researcher gain deep information about the affective factors and the reasons behind them.
After all, the data was collected, sorted, and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively to obtain realized results. To end with, from data collected, recommendations for the solutions to overcome the affective factors were drawn out. Significance of the study The current study will help students identify the factors influencing their listening comprehension. Moreover, some recommendations will help the students choose the most suitable methods to learn listening and get over the affective factors to improve their listening ability.
Organization of the study The study is divided into three parts: Part A: Introduction, the researcher states the problem of the study, aims of the study, significance of the study, and scope of the study. There are three chapters in this part Chapter 1: Literature review, the researcher reviews the literature related to listening skill including definition of listening, importance of listening and process of listening, some theories about listening strategies in terms of definition and classification of listening strategies, affective factors on listening comprehension, and some previous studies on affective factors on listening comprehension. Chapter 2: Methodology, the researcher mentions the issues of methodology consisting of research questions, study design, participants, and data collection instruments consisting of questionnaire and interview, data collection procedures, and data analysis. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Chapter 3: Data analysis and findings, the researcher gives a detailed presentation of data and detailed description of data analysis.
This focuses on presenting, analyzing and discussing the results obtained from the study based on the questionnaire and interview questions.