MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE ------------------------- NGUYEN THI DIEU HIEN IDENTIFYING ELEVENTH GRADERS’ LEARNING STYLES IN DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILL AT QUOC HOC HIGH SCHOOL MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION HUE, 2011 1 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE ------------------------- NGUYEN THI DIEU HIEN IDENTIFYING ELEVENTH GRADERS’ LEARNING STYLES IN DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILL AT QUOC HOC HIGH SCHOOL FIELD OF STUDY: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.10 MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR: Assoc. PHAN VAN HOA HUE, 2011 2 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ------------- NGUYỄN THỊ DIỆU HIỀN NHẬN BIẾT PHONG CÁCH HỌC TẬP NHẰM PHÁT TRIỂN KĨ NĂNG NGHE CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT QUỐC HỌC CHUYÊN NGÀNH: LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY - HỌC MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.10 LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ GIÁO DỤC HỌC NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: PGS.TS PHAN VĂN HÒA HUẾ, 2011 3 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine. The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates and have not been punished elsewhere. Author Nguyen Thi Dieu Hien 4 I would like to express my first debt of deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Phan Van Hoa Assoc.
PhD for his trusted guidance, generous help and deep encouragement in the fulfillment of this research paper. He was always by my side in moments of difficulties or obstacles. Whenever I lost my direction or will, he appeared in my mind and gave me energy, motivation and optimism to go on. Le Pham Hoai Huong and Dr.
Truong Vien, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for her enthusiastic encouragement and invaluable advice in the early stage of the development of the study. I am severely grateful to my dear friends: Mr. Manus and Mr. Peter Wanner for their precious constructive criticism and helpful support for the completion of my paper.
My truthful thanks go to my teachers at the MA in the Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching course in the academic year 2009-2011 for their devotion in teaching which stimulated all the students in the class to better their teaching profession and to my classmates for being sincere friends with me during our two school years together. The data collection for my research paper was supported by the teachers and eleventh graders at Quoc Hoc high school. Without their valuable contributions with real and truthful ideas, I could not do well with my research paper. I also want to thank the teachers and students who were willing to spend their time participating in the interviews.
Last but not least, there is no word deserved to express the gratitude to my family and my special friends who are always by my side, encouraging me and most importantly, give my more inspirations to finish the project with a sense of satisfaction. 5 TABLE CONTENT STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TABLE CONTENTS .1 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. 5 LIST OF TABLES. 6 LIST OF FIGURES.
7 LIST OF APPENDICES. Background of the research .2 Rationale for conducting the research. Purpose and significance of the study. Scope of the study and thesis outline.
14 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. Listening skill and its features. Definitions of listening. The importance of listening skill in communication.
Sub-skills involved in listening. The listening stages. The pre- listening stage. The while- listening stage.
The post- listening stage. Listening is both a top-down and bottom-up process. The principles for teaching listening. The top-down and bottom-up strategies.
Definition of learning styles. Background on learning styles. Classification of learning styles. Learning styles in developing listening skill.
Listening strategies and learning styles. The benefits of identifying learning styles in developing listening skill .3 Some difficulties in teaching listening skill in Vietnam. Kinds of research and research approaches. Data collection methods.
Data analysis methods. 46 CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Teacher‘s and students‘ responses on the necessity of identifying learning styles in developing listening skill. Learning listening skill from students‘ perspective.
Students‘ attitude towards learning listening skill. Students‘ thinking about learning listening skill. Students‘ and teachers‘ responses to identifying learning styles in developing listening skill. Teachers‘ responses to identifying learning styles in developing listening skill.
Students‘ responses to identifying learning styles in developing listening skill. The influences of learning styles in developing listening skill to eleventh graders at Quoc Hoc high school. Working with their teacher and its influences in learning listening skill .1 Students‘ thinking about the role of the teacher. Influences of working with teachers in learning listening skill.
Working with classmates and its influences in learning listening skill. Students‘ thinking about the role of the classmates. Influences of friends in learning listening skill. Working individually and its influences in learning listening skill.
Students‘ thinking about working individually. Influences of working individually in learning listening skill. Estimation of students on the level of influences of their typical learning styles .1: The level of passivity .2: The level of confidence and activeness .3: The level of creativity. The benefits that teachers and students will achieve from identifying learning styles in developing listening skill.
A comparison between students with and without learning style-based practices. Benefits that teachers achieve from identifying learning styles in teaching listening skill. Benefits that students achieve from identifying learning styles in developing listening skill. The realities of using learning style-based activities in developing listening skill.
Teachers‘ understandings about learning styles at Quoc Hoc high school. The support of teaching aids in listening class. Students‘ perception for using teachers‘ teaching aids in the teaching listening. The frequency of using teachers‘ teaching aids in the teaching listening.
Teachers‘ capabilities of designing and conducting learning style-based activities in developing listening skill. The realities of using learning style-based activities. Findings and Discussion of Experimental Study. Common learning styles in Eleventh graders‘ listening classrooms.
Adapting learning styles-based activities to develop listening skill .3 Students‘ responses throughout learning style-based activities in developing listening skill. 80 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS. Suggestion for further researches. 89 APPENDICES 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL : English as a foreign language 5 LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Learning activities to support each VARK learning style Table 3.1: Students‘ profiles among the experimental classes Table 4.1: Students‘ attitude towards learning listening skill Table 4.2: Students‘ thinking about the role of the teacher Table 4.3: Students‘ thinking about the role of the classmates Table 4.4: Students‘ thinking about working individually Table 4.5: Benefits teacher achieve from identifying learning styles Table 4.6: Benefits students achieve from identifying learning styles Table 4.7: The support of teaching aids in the listening class 6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1: Research procedure Figure 4.1: Students‘ thinking about learning listening skill Figure 4.2: Teachers‘ responses to identifying learning styles in developing listening skill Figure 4.3: Students‘ responses to identifying learning styles in developing listening skill Figure 4.4: Influences of working with teachers in learning listening skill Figure 4.5: Influences of friends in learning listening skill Figure 4.6: Influences of working individually in learning listening skill Figure 4.7: The level of passivity Figure 4.8: The level of confidence and activeness Figure 4.9: The level of creativity Figure 4.10: A comparison between students with and without learning style-based practices Figure 4.11: Teachers‘ understanding about learning styles Figure 4.12: The frequency of using teachers‘ teaching aids in the teaching listening Figure 4.13 : Teachers‘ capabilities of designing and conducting learning style- based activities Figure 4.14 : The realities of using learning style-based activities Figure 4.15: Students‘ learning styles profiles Figure 4.16 : Students‘ motivation throughout learning style-based activities 7 LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 1 : The VARK questionnaire Appendix 2A : Research questionnaire (for students) Appendix 2B : Bảng câu hỏi điều tra ( dành cho học sinh) Appendix 3 : Research questionnaire (for teachers) Appendix 4 : Interview Appendix 5A : Lesson plan 1 Appendix 5B : Tape script 1 Appendix 6A : Lesson plan 2 Appendix 6B : Tape script 2 Appendix 7 : Comment form 8 ABSTRACT The project ―Identifying the learning styles of eleventh graders in developing listening skill at Quoc Hoc high school” has been carried out with a view to provide the effectiveness of teaching and learning listening skill for eleventh graders.
It aims to find out (a) the necessity of identifying learning styles in teaching and learning listening skill; (b) the effects of identifying learning styles in teaching and learning listening skill; (c) the benefits in teaching and learning listening skill that teachers and students achieve from identifying learning styles; and (d) the realities of using learning style-based activities in developing listening skill. Qualitative and quantitative methods, used to collect and analyze observation, interview and questionnaire data from 90 students at eleventh grade and 10 teachers from Quoc Hoc high school, led to the identification of critical issues related to listening learning and teaching. The findings contain: (1) Most teachers and students are well aware of the necessity of learning styles and show positive attitudes towards identifying learning styles in developing listening skill; (2) Learning styles affect the results of learning listening skill differently; (3) Identifying learning styles brings considerable benefits to the area of teaching and learning listing skill; (4) Learning style-based activities are carried out with different frequency in the listening classes; and (5) Adapting learning style-based activities helps students develop their listening abilities better from Experiment Study. Based on the findings, some suggestions are drawn out not only for students to become successful learners with effective listening strategies but also for teachers to enhance students‘ listening capabilities.
Much effort is put forth by the research with the hope of contributing to the improvement of the process of learning and teaching listening skill at high schools. Background of the research The more a society is developing, the more important the role of foreign languages takes on. Besides the mother tongue, there are many different foreign languages that are being used in each country. Among them, English is the most widely used language in the world and it has been used in all spheres of public activity.
Because of its importance many countries have chosen English as the second language after their mother tongue and Vietnam is one of these countries. English is a compulsory subject, at present, and is taught at different levels of the educational system, from primary schools to colleges and universities as well as thousands of foreign language centers throughout Vietnam. English teaching involves four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Among them, listening is a difficult language skill to master through the teaching and learning process.
Our communication is based on listening because it is the foundation for effective interaction. Failure to listen is probably the cause of more interpersonal problems than any other aspects of human behavior. Much research has shown that listening is considered a complicated skill by a number of students at different levels. We cannot develop speaking skills unless we develop our listening skills; to have a successful conversation, students must understand spoken language.
The spoken language is also the language modality that is used most frequently. It has been estimated that adults spend almost half their communication time listening, and students may receive as much as ninety percents of their in-school information through listening to instructors and to one another. Often, however, language learners do not recognize the level of effort that goes into developing listening ability. According to language teachers, the reasons for this include both extrinsic aspects (such as teachers‘ instruction before listening, unclear tape scripts of listening, stress, etc.