VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *************** PHÙNG THI ̣HẰNG A STUDY ON THE CAUSES OF THE STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LISTENING ANXIETY AT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI - 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES **************** PHÙNG THI ̣HẰNG A STUDY ON THE CAUSES OF THE STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LISTENING ANXIETY AT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr. Mai Thị Loan HANOI - 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “A study on the causes of the students’ English listening anxiety in University of Language and International Studies” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Teaching Methodology.
Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been utilized without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis. Hanoi, 2017 Phùng Thị Hằng i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Mai Thi Loan. In the absence of her help, encouragement and support, this thesis could not have been completed.
Not only did she provide me with invaluable guidelines but she also read and commented on numerous portions of the manuscript. I am indebted to all staff, professors and members the of Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Language and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi who taught me valuable and interesting courses and offered much help during my study at the University. I would also like to acknowledge my sincere thanks to all students at University of Engineering and Technology, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and all the people who have assisted my research work. I would like to thank my friends, my classmates for their advice and useful documents.
Finally, my special thanks go to my parents and my husband who have always given me their endless love, understanding and encouragement throughout the study. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Listening skill plays an important role in real- life communication as well as foreign language acquisition. Therefore, this study has been conducted to investigate the causes of English listening anxiety which non- major students face through their process of learning listening. The researcher conducted the study on 100 General English 2 (GE2) students of University of Engineering and Technology, Vietnam National University (VNU- UET).
The data have been collected via the questionnaire and interview. The questionnaire examined the sources for the students’ anxiety in listening activities and the measures for alleviating the situations. The interview enables the researcher to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the sources and solutions for the students’ English listening anxiety. The findings of the questionnaire and the interview identified three main sources of the students’ listening anxiety which are listening input, listener and physical setting.
From these findings, the potential solutions were also proposed such as self- study, providing comprehensible inputs, making listening purposeful for the students, exposing the students to various types of listening materials, introducing listening strategies, enhancing the students’ knowledge of vocabulary and offering good condition facilities. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATION.vii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES.
viii PART A: INTRODUCTION. Rationale for the study. Aims and objectives of the study. Scope of the study.
Method of the study. Significance of the study. Design of the study. 4 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW.
Review of previous related studies. Previous Studies overseas. Previous studies in Vietnam. An overview of listening comprehension.
Definition of listening comprehension. The significance of listening comprehension. The listening comprehension process. Overview of anxiety.
Definitions of anxiety. Types of anxiety. Foreign language anxiety. Causes of listening anxiety.
14 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Instructional approach for listening anxiety alleviation. Restatement of research questions. Setting of the study.
Participants of the study. Data collection instruments. Data collection procedures. Data analysis methods.
28 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS. Listening anxiety associated with input factors. Listening anxiety associated with listener factors. Listening anxiety associated with physical setting.
Students’ opinions of solutions to listening anxiety. Students’ expectation toward teacher and university. Students’ responses about the causes of listening anxiety. Students’ recommendation about solutions.
Discussions and implication of the research. Listening anxiety- provoking causes for VNU- UET Students. Implications of the research. 48 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Limitation and suggestions for further study. XII vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATION GE2: General English 2 UET: University of Engineering and Technology VNU: Vietnam National University, Hanoi FLA: Foreign language anxiety vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figures and Items Page tables Figure 1 Listening anxiety related to listening text factors 29 Figure 2 Listening anxiety related to speaker factors 30 Figure 3 Listening anxiety related to listener factors 31 Figure 4 Listening anxiety related to physical setting 33 Figure 5 Students’ opinion of solutions to listening anxiety 34 Table 1 Students’ expectation toward teacher and university 35 viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale for the study It is undeniable that listening skill is viewed as a vital skill to human being’s communication as well as language acquisition. Without human’s understandings about the language in which they are exposed to, communication will not take place.
Furthermore, of the four language skills, listening is one of the most crucial for language learning. It helps the learner to internalize the rules of the language and then facilitate the emergence of other skills (Vandergrift, 1997:168). Similarly, Rost (1994:141) emphasized listening is important in the language classroom because it provides input for the learner. Without understanding input at the right level, any learning simply cannot begin.
Vogely (1998) mentioned that listening is also the most frequently used skill in the language classroom. Listening skill is extremely vital for the lives of students since it is used as a means of learning at all phases of instruction. Besides, listening is used for more than any other single language skill in normal daily life. Rubin & Thompson (1994:85) viewed listening as the most significant of the language skills as people spend nearly 60% of their time listening.
Listening also gives people a chance to approach other language skills and help them enhance their general ability in it. The development of other language skills can be improved through this receptive skill. Over the past 10 years, communicative language approach has gained prevalence thanks to practical and effective features of learning foreign language. This fact puts a priority on learners’ ability to communicate.
However, a large number of learners are unable to communicate well in English due to partly their listening ability. Students of University of Engineering and Technology are no exception. In addition, psychological factors learners might experience such as apprehension, worry or even dread have an adverse effect on learners. Among these psychological problems, foreign language anxiety (FLA) tremendously interfered with learners’ foreign language learning as well as acquisition.
Aida (1994) considered FLA as a rather pervasive phenomenon impeding learners from achieving a high level of proficiency in foreign language. Oxford and Shearin (1996: 121- 122) stated that: 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com “FLA directly influences how often students use second language learning strategies, how much students interact with native speaker, how much input they receive in the language being learned (the target language), how well they do on curriculum- related achievement test, how high their general proficiency level becomes, and how long they preserve and maintain second language skills after language study is over…”. Alleviation of anxiety is a key to success in learning foreign language and second language. As mentioned above, listening skill is of primary importance in foreign language learning and acquisition.
During listening process, however, different factors may cause easiness and tension for language learners and interfere with students’ listening performance. Young (1992) stated that poor listening ability results from many factors such as immature teaching methodologies, ineffective listening strategies, insufficient emphasis on listening and students’ lack of vocabulary, but more increasingly important one is anxiety. In Krashen’s term (1985: 13), listening anxiety may act as an affective filter, which makes comprehension harder. The harder listening comprehension is, the more prevalent listening anxiety becomes present in the learner.
This creates a cycle which needs to be broken to allow for proper comprehension of what is being listened to. Despite its adverse effect in listening comprehension skill, there have not been so many researches on listening anxiety in particular up to now. As a teacher of English, from my own experience and observation, I have noticed that students frequently experienced FLA in general and anxiety in listening skill in particular. Additionally, the researchers of previous related studies recommended that more studies should be implemented to identify causes of listening anxiety and potentially overcome anxiety- related problems so that the learners’ abilities will be reflected accurately.
Therefore, I find it necessary to investigate the causes of students listening anxiety. From the findings of the study, the author hopes to examine the sources of listening anxiety, thereby proposing solutions to lessen the harmful effects of the students’ nervousness while listening. Aims and objectives of the study The aim of the study is to help students to alleviate their state of listening anxiety, 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com thereby improving their listening competence. The objectives of the study are: - To identify the causes which render GE2 students nervous and confused while listening to English.
- To propose some solutions to lessen students’ listening anxiety. Research questions The study is intended to explore the causes of students’ English listening anxiety at VNU-UET and address possible solutions to improve the situation. With this purpose, two following questions were investigated. What are the potential causes which render the GE2 students at VNU-UET anxious and confused during English listening process? b.
What are the possible solutions to lessen the students’ listening anxiety? 4. Scope of the study Despite the fact that there is existence of FLA in all four skills, my present research will just focus on the causes and possible solutions of students’ listening anxiety. The subjects of the study are non- major students at pre- intermediate level at VNU-UET. This study does not aim at all English non- major students and students at other levels of proficiency.
Besides, there is no teachers’ participation in this study. The collected data of the causes and solutions to listening anxiety are only from students’ opinions. Method of the study The research is conducted by certain steps as follows: To begin with, the survey questionnaire for students was employed to explore causes of anxiety during listening process. Besides, the students’ opinions of solutions that can be implemented to help them to overcome anxiety while listening were revealed through the questionnaire.
3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Next, personal interviews with students were carried out so that the researcher can gain more comprehensive insight into listening anxiety and explore the causes behind them. After that, the data was gathered, stored and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively to obtain realistic results.