VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIE S Y , FORMING AND DEVELOPINGLISTENING SKILLS IN ENGLISH FOR SIXTH AND SEVENTH GRADERS AT VIETNAM ,JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS i\ thesis submitted in partial fulfillm ent or the requirements lor the degree or ki aster 0 I' i\ rts (' n.so L) Submitted by NGU YEN TIll LAN TI IANII Acudcmic Supervisor LE '1'1 -11 TI IANI-I , Ph. Octobe r 2005 STATJF:MENT OF AUTHORSHIP r hereby certify tha t th is th e si s e n title d "Forming and Developin g Listening Skills in En g lish for Sixth and Seventh Graders at Vie tna m Junior High Schools" is my ow n wo rk. Thi s the sis ha s not be e n su b m itte d for th e a w ard of a ny de g re e o r d ip lo ma in a ny other in stituti on. Oc to ber 20 , 2005 Nguye n Th i Lan T hanh ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, my thanks go to Dr.
Le Thi Thanh. who ha s given me valuable and generous assistance over the lengthy period of researching and writing this thesis. Without her careful guidance and encouragement. I could not have finished this thesis.
Secondly, I am indebted to all my teachers for their helpful instructions during the course; to my Director who has given me the time and opportunity to complete my Ma ster studie s; and especially to Miss Sheila for her valuable revisions and suggestions for this thesis. Thirdly, I would like to thank all of my colleagues and the students for their help with data collection, and their cooperation and participation in the study. Finally, thanks go to my family. I would like to thank my parents who have givcn me much cncouragement and help; and to my husband for his support and understanding.
II ABSTRACT Vietnam e se stude nts have show n defects 111 the ir ah ility to listen to Eng lish. Listenin g compreh en sion on any kind of tes t see ms to be the most diffi cult part for which Vietn am e se stude nts a lwa ys ge t poor mar ks. Can we cre ate ways to form a nd de vel op listenin g s kills for Vie tna mese student s imm ediate ly from their hc ginniu g stages of le arnin g English to help the m o vercome the se defec ts? T hat is the qu e stion guid ing this the sis. which I ha ve e ntitled " f or ming a nd De ve lopi ng Liste ni ng Skills in Eng lish for Si xth a nd Sev e nth G rade rs a t Viet nam Ju nior High Sc hoo ls ".
As defined hy the j unio r high schoo l curr iculum. these stude nts ar c a ll ;It a he ginni ng leve l of Eng lish with limit ed or eve n no proficien cy in und ersta ndin g a nd spea king English. a nd lillie or no skill in readin g a nd writing Eng lish. My first a im in this the si s wa s II I desc ribe the ge ne ra l te ach ing a nd le arnin g situa tion of English in Vie tna m j unior high sc hoo ls.
a nd the co m mo nly used tea chin g method s. Thi s led me to loo k critica lly a t the typica l role s o f te ach ers in teachin g English. es pe cia lly in a listen ing class. since the laun ch o f the ne w seri e s of English te xtb ooks for stude nts a t j unior high schools.
To obta in informa tion relati ve to the ar ea s menti on ed in the g uid ing q ues tio n of the study. ~ de sign e d a survey usi ng a que sti o nnaire. an assessm ent of liste ning tc st ha se d O il t he co ntent of the tc xthonks. a nd a co-re Iation a I a na lysis for bo th s ixth an d se ve nth g ra de rs learnin g from the te xtbooks Ti en g /\ 11 11 O.
In additi on. in orde r 10 discove r the opinions a nd te aching methods o f te achers (If sixth a nd seve nth g rades. a q ue st ionn aire for the tea ch ers was e mploye d. I II The d ata co llecte d reveal ed valuable in formatio n whi ch could be o f benefit for teaching a nd le arn in g E ng lish.
First o f a ll, for mi ng a nd de ve lo p in g listening sk ills for beginn ers of s ix th a nd seventh grades is w hat we te a ch e rs ca n do o n ly when w e a re able to act as teache rs connecting s tude nts a nd the language. Secondl y, stude nts' re sponse s a nd performan ce o n th e list ening te st revealed that th eir list enin g a b ility w a s not in proporti on to th eir le arning time. So , forming and de velopin g list ening sk ill to geth er wi th o the r s ki lls ha s to be a n important part in any Engli sh tea ching program o f ES Lrr EFL. And fina lly , th ough te aching listenin g sk ill ,to junior hi gh sc hool stude n ts is a compl etely o new thing for junior high te ache rs, a nd is rather diffi cult for m any teach ers w ho a re used to te a chin g E nglis h th rou gh Vi etn am ese, te a chers ha ve show n th e ir efforts in appl yin g new m ethods in te a ching listen ing a nd s peak in g to lay a good fo unda tio n for beg inne rs o f Eng lis h a s a requ irem ent by th e M inis try of Ed ucatio n.
In a n a ttemp t to co ntri bute a sys te matic lo o k at the teachers' roles a nd s tude nts ' actua l per form an ce to ge nera l ins ti tu tio na l process o f for m ing a nd 1h th de vel op ing listeni ng sk ill for beg inn ers of 6 a nd 7 grades, the a uthor o f th is th e si s wi shed to o ffer a de pi ct ion (If th e se matte rs in th e a na lysi s and interpretation o f th e data co lle ct e d. M o st im porta n tly , reco m me nda tio ns we n: s ugge s te d ba sed on this perception. Be cause o f th e lim it of tim e a nd scope o f the s tudy , th ere must be limitati on s. Ho w e ver, be cau se te a chi ng listenin g s kill • to j u n ior high school s tude nts is a comple tel y ne w thin g w hich cau sed ma ny con trove rs ia l m atters, this s tudy ca n he use d o n both eva lua tive and instru ct ion al le vel s w he n there see m s to be ve ry few papers m en tio n te a ch ing l istenin g s ki lls III Eng lis h fo r V ietn a m e se jun ior hig h s tudent s in an effe ctive way.
IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Page St atement of authorship i Acknowledgements ,. ii Abstract iii T abl e of contents v List oftablcs viii List of figure s ,, , :\ Abbreviation s " :\i INTH.1 WilY I CIIOSE THI S TOPi C 2 0.2 AIMS OF TillS STI JJ)Y WITII AN OV ERVIEW OF TIlE TH ESIS 3 0.3 ORGANIZATION O F 'nu : STUDy .4 Chapter I BACKGROUND TO Tim STUDY 5 1.1 A SUMMARY O F GE NERAL LISTN EING PROBL EMS 5 1.2 A DESCRIPTION OF T EACIIIN G ENG LISH AND POP ULAR T EACHING METHODS USE D IN VIET NAM MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOLS 7 1.3 TEACHING ENGLISIIIN VIETNAM MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOLS IN 'n u: NEW CONTE XT 8 1.4 A SUMMARY OF TIENG ANII (j AND TIENG ANI! 7 SYLLABUS AND REQUIREM ENTS 9 Chapter 2 LITERATURE I~EVJEW JI 2. 1 DIFFERENT Or::FINITIONS OF LIST ENING 11 v 2.2 THE NATURE or LIST ENING , 12 2.3 LIST ENI NG IN /\ FO REIGN LANG UAG E 13 2.4 T HE RELATI O NSHIPS OF LIST EN ING TO OTH ER AS PECTS AND SK ILLS 16 2.1 Th e relation between liste ning and ot her aspects 1() 2.2 The relation between liste ning and speaking , 1R 2.3 Listening and Read ing , 19 2.5 FACTORS AF I'I:C rl NCi T i lE LISTE NING PROCT SS 21 2. 2 Thc spea ke r , , , , .3 T he conte nt , 22 2.5 Th e physical mechan ism of the ca rs 23 2.7 S UMMA Ry 27 C ha pte r 3 M ETHODOLOGY 29 3.
1 RESEA RCH Q UEST IONS 29 3.2 RES EA RCH D ES[Ci N .2 Instrum en ts: Question na ires. new textb ooks, listening assessme nt te st .3 Data co llection procedures 36 3.38 Chaptcr4 DATA ANALYSI S AND INTERPRETATION 39 4.1 RESPONS ES TO SU RVE Y QUE STI ONNAIRES 39 4.2 RESPONS ES TO THE LIST ENING ASSES SMENT T EST .3 RESPONSES TO TH E SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE S FROM SIXTH AND SEVE NTH GRADE T EACHERS 63 4.1 Teachers ' background information 64 4.2 Te achers' opinions and att itud es 65 4.3 Teach ers' prac tical meth ods for teaching the listening ski ll.4 SUMM ARy 74 Cha pter 5 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATION S 75 5.2 RECOMM EN DATIONS 78 5. 1 The roles of classroom teach ers 78 I. Serv ing as a bridge between the language and stude nts 78 2.
As a conductor creatingan effecti ve cla ssroom env ironme nt.3 SUGGETED APPLICABLE T ECHNI Q UES 82 5.1 Compr,ehens ion befor e produ ction 83 5.2 Intensive rep etiti on 83 5.3 Quick reactive production 84 5.4 SUMMARY 85 CONCLUSION 86 BIBLI OGRAPlly 88 APPENDIX 1 Ques tionnaire for stude nts ( in Vietn amese) 90 APP ENDI X 2 Q uest ionnaire for teachers ( in Vietn am ese ) 94 vii LIST OF TABLES C ha pte r 3 Ta ble 3. 1 Sum mary o f the s ample charac teri stics 32 Chapter 4 Ta ble 4. 1 Co mpariso n of percent of 6111 and ill graders' reported co m municat ive ability .2 Co mpa riso n OU)11l and i ll graders' opinio ns o f their textb ooks ' listenin g cha nne l A3 Ta ble 4.