VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS A STUDY ON THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE LISTENING SKILLS OF 10th GRADERS AT PHUC THO HIGH SCHOOL, PHUC THO DISTRICT IN HA NOI NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC YẾU TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN KỸ NĂNG NGHE CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT PHÚC THỌ, HUYỆN PHÚC THỌ TẠI HÀ NỘI Student : NGUYEN THUY HIEN Student code : 621241 Major : ENGLISH Supervisor 1 : NGUYEN THI KIM QUE, M.Ed Supervisor 2 : LE THI HONG LAM, MA Hanoi – 2021 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS A STUDY ON THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE LISTENING SKILLS OF 10th GRADERS AT PHUC THO HIGH SCHOOL, PHUC THO DISTRICT IN HA NOI NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC YẾU TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN KỸ NĂNG NGHE CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT PHÚC THỌ, HUYỆN PHÚC THỌ TẠI HÀ NỘI Student : NGUYEN THUY HIEN Student code : 621241 Major : ENGLISH Supervisor 1 : NGUYEN THI KIM QUE, M.Ed Supervisor 2 : LE THI HONG LAM, MA Hanoi – 2021 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled A STUDY ON THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE LISTENING SKILLS OF 10th GRADERS AT PHUC THO HIGH SCHOOL, PHUC THO DISTRICT IN HA NOI submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor in English Language. Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis. Hanoi, 2021 Nguyen Thuy Hien Approved by SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name) Date:…………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT During the process of doing this graduation thesis, I have received many necessary assistances, precious ideas and timely encouragements from my teachers, family and friends. This thesis could not have been completed without the help, encouragement and support from a number of people who all deserve my sincerest gratitude and appreciation.
First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor – Mrs. Nguyen Thi Kim Que and Ms. Le Thi Hong Lam, the English teacher of Faculty of Foreign Language, who has always been willing to give me valuable advices and suggestions in order that I can complete successfully this study. I am so thankful to students of 10th graders at Phuc Tho High School for their whole – heart participation in the study.
I am equally indebted to my classmates for their suggestions and encouragements in the process of my study. Last but not least, my particular thanks are given to my parents for their encouragement and support which played an important role in my graduation thesis. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS.
v LIST OF ABBREVIATION. vi LIST OF TABLES. vii PART 1: INTRODUCTION. RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY.
AIMS AND OBJCTIVES OF THE STUDY. Aims of the study. Objectives of the study. SCOPE OF THE STUDY.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY. DESIGN OF THE STUDY. 5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES (AT HOME AND ABOARD).
Related research studies at home. Related research studies abroad. REVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. Definition of listening.
The importance of listening skills. Types of listening. Factors affecting listening comprehension. RESEARCH GOVERNING PRINCIPLES.
Principles/ criteria for data collection and data analysis. 16 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. FACTORS RELATED TO LISTENING TEXTS. FACTORS RELATED TO LINGUISTIC FEATURES.
FACTORS RELATED TO THE SPEAKERS. FACTORS RELATED TO LISTENERS. FACTORS RELATED TO THE FAILURE TO CONCENTRATE. FACTORS RELATED TO THE PHYSICAL SETTINGS.
RESULTS FROM INTERVIEWS. SUGGESTIONS ON IMPROVING THE STUDENTS LISTENING SKILLS. MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE STUDY. THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE LISTENING SKILLS OF 10 th GRADERS AT PHUC THO HIGH SCHOOL, PHUC THO DISTRICT IN HA NOI.
LIMITATIONS OF THE CURRENT RESEARCH. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH. 44 iv ABSTRACT Listening skill is one of the most necessary skills to communicate in the real life. In learning a foreign language, it is more and more important to learn this skill.
Everybody knows that in order to listen to a message is not as simple as hearing it, so the listener has to understand the message and respond in the right manner. The thesis will study the factors affecting the listening skills of 10th graders at Phuc Tho High School, Phuc Tho District in Ha Noi. Then, it would like to give some suggestions to help students enhance listening skills. Therefore, I applied the qualitative and quantitative methods to do the research.
So the collecting data instruments like questionnaires, interviews were used to do the study. v LIST OF ABBREVIATION EFL: English as a Foreign Language HUFI: Ho Chi Minh City University of Food Industry vi LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Criteria for judging the degree of problems .1: Factors related to listening texts .2: Factors related to linguistic features .3: Factors related to the speakers .4: Factors related to listeners .5: Factors related to the failure to concentrate .6: Factors related to the physical settings. 24 vii PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY It is undeniable that listening is a vital skill in the mastery of any language.
According to Nunan(1998), listening is the basic skill in language learning and without listening skill, learners will never learn to communicate effectively. In fact, more than 50% of the time students spend functioning in a foreign language should be devoted in listening. The same claim is supported by Hamouda (2013) who confirms that listening is a fundamental language skill in foreign language Because the key to acquire a language is to receive understandable language input. Without understanding inputs at a right level, any kind of learning cannot occur.
Rost (2002) also indicates that developing listening proficiency is the key to achieving proficiency in speaking. As a researcher, I would like to present the thesis title “A study on the factors affecting the listening skills of 10th graders at Phuc Tho High School, Phuc Tho District in Ha Noi” for several reasons. First of all, listening is the most important skill in communication in the real life. Listening and speaking are two major parts of communication.
They are closely interdependent. We are able to talk sensibly when we understand what is said to us. If we fail to understand spoken language, we may miss important information and respond in a funny way. Moreover, in learning a language, listening is a useful means of providing students with comprehensible input, which is an essential component of the whole language learning process.
And teaching listening skill in classroom helps students make transition from classroom English to real-life English more easily and effectively. Therefore, I would like to do this research to help the students and teachers pay more attention to listening skill. 1 Secondly, learning listening skill is the most difficult in learning a foreign language. Listening, like reading, is a receptive skill but it is often the most daunting for students.
When reading, a reader usually has more opportunities to refer back to the text to clarify understanding, which a listener can not do in most listening contexts such as TV programs, meetings, discussion, lectures or conversations. Last but not least, the reason for choosing this thesis title is that many students are not interested in learning listening skills. They find listening classes boring. On the other hand, practicing listening skill is difficult and it takes long time.
That is the reason I would like to identify the factors affecting listening skills and suggest some strategies to help students to study listening skill more excited and better. AIMS AND OBJCTIVES OF THE STUDY 1. Aims of the study The study is carried out in order to investigate the current state of learning the listening skills in Phuc Tho High School, Phuc Tho District in Ha Noi so that I could work out the factors affecting listening skill. Objectives of the study In the light of that general aim, some specific objectives are drawn up to outline of the study as follows: • To investigate the current state of learning listening skills in Phuc Tho High School, Phuc Tho District to find out the factors affecting listening skills.
• To propose some recommendations to help the students in Phuc Tho High School, Phuc Tho District enhance their listening skills. RESEARCH QUESTIONS The objectives of the research could be specified briefly into these research questions: 2 • What are some possible factors influencing 10th graders’ listening skills in Phuc Tho High School? • What should the students do to improve their English listening skills? 1. SCOPE OF THE STUDY Research subject: The factors affecting listening skill of 10th graders at Phuc Tho High School, Phuc Tho District in Ha Noi. Research Object: Learning listening skills of 10th graders at Phuc Tho High School, Phuc Tho District in Ha Noi.
Research scope: 80 students of 10th graders with B1.1 level according to the new textbook program of the Ministry of Education and Training at Phuc Tho High School, Phuc Tho District in Ha Noi. They have 3 periods of English per week. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This study is of great importance to 10th graders at Phuc Tho High School in Ha Noi. After the factors affecting their listening skills have been found out, they can focus on those factors to improve their listening skills.
In other words, teachers and students at Phuc Tho High School may be able to implement proper methods with an aim to raise students’ listening levels. Other learners of English may also find this study beneficial. DESIGN OF THE STUDY Apart from the acknowledgement, the abstract, references and appendices, this study consists of three main parts: PART 1 - INTRODUCTION presents the rationale of the study, aims and objectives of the study, research questions, the scope and the significance of the study. PART 2 - DEVELOPMENT is composed of 3 chapters: 3 Chapter 1 - LITERATURE REVIEW - provides theoretical background for the study including The definition of listening, The importance of listening skills, Types of listening, and factors affecting listening comprehension Chapter 2 – METHODOLOGY describes the methodology used in the research including the research methods, research setting/ context, data collection, and data analysis.
Chapter 3 - FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS - reports and discusses the findings of the study. PART 3 - CONCLUSION summarizes the main issues that have been addressed in the study, points out the limitations, draws pedagogical implications concerning the research topic and makes some recommendations to help the students improve their listening skills. 4 PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES (AT HOME AND ABOARD) 1.
Related research studies at home Duong and Chau (2018) conducted a study in Vietnam in which listening comprehension problems were addressed. The data collected from a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview were analyzed statistically and qualitatively. The results showed that the 115 English majors found listening texts (i. unfamiliar words, slangs, idioms, colloquial words, and complex sentence structures) the most dominant cause for their low listening comprehension.
Furthermore, speedy delivery, unclear pronunciation, different accents, anxiety, invisibility for speakers’ facial expression, and noise affected their listening comprehension. Quyen and Dan (2018) investigate first-year English major students at some universities in Mekong Delta and they state that students have to face lots of difficulties while learning listening comprehension. These main problems are related to listening materials, linguistic features, listening process, speakers, listeners, psychological characteristics and lack of concentration. They also claim that unfamiliar vocabularies, pronunciation and accent of speakers, the effect of tape recorder, lack of concentration and lack of practice are main causes of the problems.