VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES BÙI THỊ HẰNG AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE TEACHING AND LEARNING AT POST-LISTENING STAGE BY INTERNATIONAL STANDARD PROGRAM STUDENTS, ULIS-VNU (NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG DẠY VÀ HỌC Ở GIAI ĐOẠN SAU KHI NGHE CHO SINH VIÊN NHIỆM VỤ CHIẾN LƯỢC TRƯỜNG ĐHNN, ĐHQGHN) M. MINOR 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 STUDY BÙI THỊ HẰNG AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE TEACHING AND LEARNING AT POST-LISTENING STAGE BY INTERNATIONAL STANDARD PROGRAM STUDENTS, ULIS-VNU ((NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG DẠY VÀ HỌC Ở GIAI ĐOẠN SAU KHI NGHE CHO SINH VIÊN NHIỆM VỤ CHIẾN LƯỢC TRƯỜNG ĐHNN, ĐHQGHN) M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60. Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Quỳnh Hanoi- 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I certify that this thesis entitled: “An exploratory study on the teaching and learning at post-listening stage by International Standard Program students, ULIS-VNU” which is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, 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 any other formal course Bui Thi Hang Hanoi,2013 i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My words of thanks go to all the people who have contributed to the accomplishment of this graduation paper. First of all, it is with affection and appreciation that I would love to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, without whose valuable advice and enthusiastic guidance, this research would not have become a reality.
Secondly, I would be honestly grateful to Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, M.A my old teacher as well as my beloved colleague, who was very busy with her work but still spent precious time discussing and sharing her teaching experiences relating to my research field. Also, I owe a great debt to my family, teachers and friends for their continuous support, advice and encouragement whenever I was in need of. Last but not least, my sincere thanks are warmly sent to the teachers of ISP division and ISP students who enthusiastically and patiently helped me collect significant data for the study.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT The recent education reform, most obviously in ELT has brought a new identity to the teaching procedure of language skills, comprising three stages: Pre, While and Post stage. However, the importance of the post stage tends to be lowered as the optional part of an English lesson and poorly or even ineffectively carried out due to a number of factors. Post-listening stage is not excluded. In response to this depressing fact, “An exploratory study on the teaching and learning at post- listening stage by International Standard Program students, ULIS-VNU” was initiated, carried out and completed.
Taking into consideration the importance of post-listening stage as well as the research gap in this field, the paper focuses primarily on the current situation of teaching and learning at this phase, especially the utilization of follow-up activities, students‟ preferences and their perceived benefits of these activities. In an attempt to realize aforementioned objectives, this graduation paper is conducted by means of class observation, teachers‟ interview and survey questionnaire which are described in detail in chapter 3 after the theoretical background knowledge of the subject matter has been provided in chapter 2. The findings presented in chapter 4 reveal that post-listening activities have been widely conducted but not as effectively as expected mostly due to the lack of time and students‟ enthusiasm. The most preferable follow-up activities were reflection and creative tasks.
Also, there was a mismatch between teachers‟ objectives for post- listening stage and students‟ perceived benefits of the activities carried out during this stage. It is the great ambition of the researcher that this study will function as a useful reference for teachers of English who take interest in the subject matter. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TABLES CLT: Communicative Language Teaching ELT: English Language Teaching ISP: International Standard Program ULIS: University of Language and International Studies VNU: Vietnam National University Table 1: Post-listening form and activities in accordance with ISP teachers‟ objectives Table 2: Types of post-listening activities exploited in observed classes Table 3: Frequency of the utilization of post-listening activities Table 4: Students‟ preferences for post-listening activities. iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION.
Aims of the study. Methods of the study. Significance of the study. Scope of the study.
Organization of the study.6 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. The nature of listening. What is listening?. The process of listening.
The importance of listening skill in language teaching and learning. The relationship between listening and other language skills. The teaching of listening in Communicative Language Teaching Approach. Teaching listening procedure.
An in-depth overview of post-listening activities. Purposes of post-listening activities. Factors affecting the choice of post-listening activities. Forms of post-listening activities .15 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Integration in post-listening activities. Introduction of International Standard Program (ISP). Data collection instruments. Data Collection Procedures.
Data Analysis Procedure.22 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Research question 1- The general situation of teaching and learning at post- listening stage for ISP students in ULIS, VNU. Teachers‟ objectives for conducting post-listening stage. Duration of post-listening stage.
Types of exploited post-listening activities. Students‟ participation during post-listening stage. Teacher‟s perceived difficulties in conducting post-listening stage. Research question 2- Students‟ preferences for post-listening activities .31 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Research Question 3- Students‟ perceived benefits of post-listening activities 34 4. Recommendations for overcoming difficulties. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further studies.
I vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale The ultimate goal of teaching and learning English for International Standard Program students is learners‟ ability to use English for communicative purposes. In an attempt to obtain this aim, together with learning English grammar and pronunciation, students have chances to practice the four fundamental skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, among which listening makes a significant contribution to the process of language acquisition. In fact, the listening score of ISP students has always been disappointing and alarming.
The theory, which was initiated by Rixon (1981) as a result of Task-based Language Teaching and later supported by Underwood (1989), is that every listening section is subdivided into three main parts: pre-, while-, post-listening. Nevertheless, in reality, the problem is that the teaching and learning of listening skill for ISP students appear not to be effective as not all the teachers cover the three stages of a listening class, most notably the post-listening stage. The main focus of almost all listening lessons is to make students listen to the text with exercises to be completed during the while-listening stage. Noticeably, the post- listening stage is said to be ineffective and irrelevant to what students have listened to or even ignored in some listening classes notwithstanding that this stage is as important as all other stages.
In addition, most of the activities at this stage are initiated and controlled by the teachers and listening skill is frequently isolated from other language skills. In terms of pedagogical view, there has been a lack of proper research interests and investigations into the post-listening stage even though studies on pre-listening and while-listening strategies as well as activities have been constantly carried out. This stems partially from the inherent conception that the post-listening stage merely deals with checking listening comprehension exercises. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com The above-stated facts generate strong motivation in the researcher to conduct a study titled “An exploratory study on the teaching and learning at post-listening stage by International Standard Program students, ULIS-VNU”.
She desires to take a closer look into the current situation of teaching and learning listening, especially at post-listening stage among ISP students, ULIS-VNU. Her hope is also to figure out useful post-listening activities and possible solutions to teachers‟ difficulties during this stage. Aims of the study In carrying out this research, the researcher desires to explore two main issues. First, the study aims to investigate the real situation of teaching and learning at the post-listening stage among ISP students.
The goal is to find out the most commonly utilized post-listening activities, the length of this follow-up stage, the involvement of students as well as problems facing teachers while carrying out this stage. Second, the author would like to detect students‟ preferences for effectively- exploited activities at post-listening stage and their perceived benefits brought about by the activities conducted at this stage. These objectives can be achieved by answering the following research questions: What is the current situation of teaching and learning at post-listening stage among ISP students, ULIS-VNU? What post-listening activities do ISP students prefer? What do students perceive to be the benefits of post-listening activities? 3. Methods of the study 3.1 Subjects As mentioned in the title of the study, the surveyed participants were ISP students and teachers at Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
This research attempted to investigate three ISP groups of 70 students with the average of 23 students for each. These participants are supposed to achieve Band 6.0 for IELTS 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com test after one year being taught at ISP division. Moreover, the researcher also interviewed ten teachers who have been teaching these groups to enhance the reliability and validity of the study.2 Instruments With the aim of finding the answers to three research questions, the researcher used three different instruments namely Classroom Observation, Interview and Student Questionnaire at ISP division. * Classroom observation The researcher carried out ten listening class observations at ten chosen ISP groups.
In this study, scheduled-based observations were used to find the answer to the first research question of the current practice of post-listening stage among ISP students. * Interview The researcher also used the semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions to collect the information about different types of post-listening activities exploited by the teachers. Subsequently, on the basis of teachers‟ response and adaptation from Underwood‟s framework, the researcher made a list of follow-up activities which would be used in students‟ questionnaire to answer the second research question. Besides, the interview aimed at gaining more information about teachers‟ purposes set for the implementation of post-listening stage and the challenges facing them in this stage.
* Questionnaire Questionnaire was employed to seek the answers to the two last questions. The researcher distributed the questionnaire papers to 70 students of three ISP groups at medium level of English. In this study, all the questions and instructions were written in Vietnamese to avoid possible misunderstanding which might affect the accuracy of the outcomes. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Significance of the study As one of the under-researched issues in teaching listening for ISP students in ULIS-VNU, the present study on post-listening stage will make certain contributions to university students, teachers, educationists and researchers of the related fields. Firstly, as for teachers and students at ISP division, they may have an overall look into the current situation of teaching and learning at the post-listening stage. Besides, the teachers will certainly realize the difficulties facing them during this stage and students‟ preferences as well as perceived benefits of post-listening activities. This study is beneficial for students in the sense that they tend to become fully aware of the importance of the follow-up stage and their responsibilities to actively take part in this stage.