VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES faculty OF POST-GRADUATE studies ------------------ ĐỖ THU HÀ A STUDY ON THE ATTITUDES OF 12TH GRADE STUDENTS IN LISTENING LESSONS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCE (Nghiên cứu thái đô ̣ của ho ̣c sinh lớp 12 trong giờ ho ̣c nghe Tại một trường THPT ở tỉnh Bắc Ninh) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD : ENGLISH METHODOLOGY CODE : 60.111 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 studies ------------------ ĐỖ THU HÀ A STUDY ON THE ATTITUDES OF 12TH GRADE STUDENTS IN LISTENING LESSONS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCE (Nghiên cứu thái đô ̣ của ho ̣c sinh lớp 12 trong giờ ho ̣c nghe Tại một trường THPT ở tỉnh Bắc Ninh) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD : ENGLISH METHODOLOGY CODE : 60. MAI THI LOAN Hanoi, 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION Do Thu Ha, hereby certify that my M.A thesis entitled “A study on the attitudes of 12th grade students in listening lessons at a high school in Bac Ninh province” is the result of my own research in the fulfillment of the requirement for Degree of Master of Arts at the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies – University of Languages and International Studies, Hanoi. I commit that this thesis has not been submitted anywhere for any degree. Hanoi, 2013 Đỗ Thu Hà i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr.
Mai Thi Loan, for her invaluable inspiration, assistance, guidance and encouragement during the time I have tried to complete this thesis. She has been willing to give help and advice whenever I expect. I wish to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to all lectures and the staff of Department of Post Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies, Hanoi for their interesting and helpful lectures and suggestions for the topic of my study. I am in debt of many authors’ works and ideas, which enhance me to complete my study with sharp evidences.
My appreciation and gratitude are also extended for the teachers and students of grade 12 at Que Vo 1 High School, who participated in doing the survey and responding to my interviews. Last but not least, I wish to express special thanks to my husband and my beloveds for their everlasting, care and encouragement. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT In recent years, though the importance of listening in English learning has been acknowledged by researchers and educators all over the world, there remained a sad reality of English listening learning and teaching at Que Vo 1 high school, Bac Ninh province. Most of the students possess negative attitudes towards learning listening skill.
The study aims at exploring the attitudes of 12th grade students, reasons for these attitudes and their expectation during their English listening learning and proposing some suggestions for teachers to enhance students’ positive attitudes in listening lessons. Three instruments, including questionnaires for students, class observations and interview questions with teachers, were employed to achieve the purposes of the study. The subjects involved in this study were 120 students, including 50 males and 70 females belonging to two different fields of study, namely Natural Science and Social Science. They were invited to participate in the survey questionnaire.
Besides, six teachers of English agreed to join the study to support the researcher better her research. It was induced in the study that most students of 12th grade at Que Vo 1 High School exhibited negative attitudes to learn listening skill, which resulted from the teachers’ behaviors, teaching methods and infrequent use of teaching aids, students’ lack of vocabulary, the gender and the field of study. Based on the findings, some suggestions were given to teachers with the hope that they will collaborate with the school to make certain positive changes to this problematic reality. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.
iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv PART A: INTRODUCTION. Aims of the study. The research questions.
Significance of the study. Scope of the study. Method of the study. Design of the study.
4 PART B: THE STUDY. 5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Theoretical background of attitude. Definition of attitude.
Aspects of language attitude. The role of attitude in language learning and teaching. Theoretical background of listening skill. Definition of listening and listening comprehension.
The listening process. Review of previous studies related to language learning attitudes. The setting of the study. The curriculum and text book.
Data collection instruments. 16 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Data collection procedure. 17 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION.
Data analysis on the questionnaires for students. Students’ attitudes towards learning English. Students’ attitudes towards learning listening skill. Students’ favorite English lessons.
Students’ perception on the importance of learning listening. Students’ amount of time practicing listening………………………………20 3. Students’ behaviors in listening lessons. Students’ feelings in listening lessons.
Students’ perception on factors affecting their attitudes towards learning English listening skill. Demotivational factors to learn listening skill of students. Motivational factors to learn listening skill of students. The teachers’ use of teaching aids and motivational strategies in listening lessons.
Students’ expectation on learning listening skill. Students’ anticipation from the teachers. Students’ anticipation with the teachers’ use of motivational strategies during listening lessons. Students’ expectation from the school.
Data analysis on class observations. Data analysis on teachers’ responses from the interviews. Summary of major findings. Findings from questionnaires for students.
Findings from class observations. Findings from interview questions with teachers. Suggestions for teachers. Recommendations for further studies.
43 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. XVIII vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION In this part, the researcher will present the rationale of the study, the aims, the research questions, the significance, the scope, the method and the design of the study. Rationale Over the last few decades, many researchers have paid more and more attention to students’ attitude, the role of students’ attitude towards language learning and teaching. It has been concluded in most of the studies that students’ attitude is an integral part of learning because there is a relationship between students’ attitude towards language learning and their language learning achievement.
Particularly, positive attitude could facilitate language learning while negative attitude may hinder it. Consequently, it is worth doing research on students’ attitudes towards learning a foreign language and factors affecting such attitudes in order to enhance their learning success and achievement. Besides, as listening skill, together with speaking skill, is considered the most important skills of the four basic skill in learning English, hence, to be able to listen and speak effectively is very essential for all English language learners. According to Hubbard, John, Thornton & Wheller (1995), (quoted from Pangsapa, 2006: 111), listening is even more significant than speaking when one wants to be a successful communicator in English.
Supposing that you master English speaking proficiency, you can still get failure in interacting with others and make them confused if you have a poor listening skill. However, the researcher has experienced the teaching career for six years, she has also had chance to work in two high schools where she has noticed that listening lessons have been neglected which results from the test – based teaching method. Particularly, most of the teachers ignore listening and speaking lessons in order to focus on reading comprehension, grammar and vocabulary. The students, therefore, merely spend most of their time learning what their teachers ask them, which includes new words, grammar rules to get good marks in their final exams.
Despite the crucial role of attitude and listening skill in language learning as 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com mentioned earlier, there have never been any researches on students’ attitudes towards learning listening skill, especially on this issue at Que Vo 1 High school. To conclude, the study proceeds from three main reasons, the first of which lies in the decisive role of students’ language learning attitudes in their learning success and achievement. Next, regardless of the importance of listening skill, it has been ignored at the researcher’ school, she thus wants to make some positive changes on this problematic reality. Lastly, the researcher has found that there have never been any researches on students’ attitudes towards learning listening skill at the selected school.
Aims of the study The study aims at: - Exploring the attitudes of 12th grade students towards learning English and learning listening skill - Investigating the factors affecting their attitudes in listening lessons. - Examining students’ expectation when learning listening skill. - Proposing some suggestions for teachers to foster students’ positive attitudes towards learning listening skill. The research questions With the given aims of the study, the study implies four research questions: 1/ What are the attitudes of 12th grade students at Que Vo 1 high school towards learning listening skill? 2/ What factors affect their attitudes? 3/ What do students expect during the listening lessons? 4/ What should the teachers do to enhance their students’ positive attitudes to learn listening skill? 4.
Significance of the study The study has been conducted with the expectation that the findings will help teachers of English at Que Vo 1 high school acknowledge the significance of listening skill in learning English, which forces them to spend more time and effort preparing listening lessons, giving students more interesting and effective classes. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Still, the researcher harbors the hope that the teachers will understand their students’ attitudes, study the reasons for such attitudes, from which they will know how to foster positive attitudes or motivation and eliminate negative attitudes of their students to help them obtain progress and fruitful achievements in learning English and English listening comprehension. Scope of the study The study was conducted at Que Vo 1 High School, Bac Ninh province. Because of limited time, it only focused on investigating the attitudes of 12th grade students in listening lessons, factors affecting such attitudes and students’ expectation during listening lessons.
The participants were students from three classes 12A1, 12A3 and 12A15, who were non – English major students and six teachers of English. Method of the study The study was carried out by some steps as follows: First, the survey questionnaire was delivered to students to find out their attitudes towards learning English and learning listening skill, affecting factors on such attitudes and their expectation during listening lessons. Second, class observation was made to study teachers’ teaching methods, and students’ performance in listening lessons. After that, personal interviews with six teachers were conducted in order to: - Survey their perception on the magnitude of learning listening skill in students’ learning English.
- Study their students’ involvement in listening activities. - Find out the difficulties in their listening teaching and their way of carrying out the lessons. - Exploring their own suggestions to strengthen their students’ positive attitudes in listening lessons. - Give teachers a chance to offer some proposals to increase students’ positive attitudes in listening lessons.
3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com After the data were collected, sorted and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively, realistic results were obtained. To end with, pedagogical implications for enhancing students’ positive attitudes in learning listening skill will be proposed based on the results found from all data collection instruments.