Vietnam national university, Hanoi College of foreign languages Department of Post-graduate Studies --------- ®Æng ThÞ Thu Thuû A STUDY ON THE TEACHERS’ APPLICATION OF TASK-BASED METHOD AND THE 10TH FORM STUDENTS’ USE OF LEARNING STRATEGIES IN THEIR LISTENING LESSONS AT TRAN PHU HIGH SCHOOL IN VINH PHUC Nghi£n cøu vÒ viÖc ¸p dông ph-¬ng ph¸p d¹y häc giao nhiÖm vô cña gi¸o viªn vµ viÖc sö dông c¸c thñ thuËt cña häc sinh líp 10 trong c¸c bµi häc nghe t¹i tr-êng T.T trÇn phó - vÜnh phóc M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: English Methodology CODE: 601410 Hanoi, December 2008 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Vietnam national university, Hanoi College of foreign languages Department of Post-graduate Studies --------- ®Æng ThÞ Thu Thuû A STUDY ON THE TEACHERS’ APPLICATION OF TASK-BASED METHOD AND THE 10TH FORM STUDENTS’ USE OF LEARNING STRATEGIES IN THEIR LISTENING LESSONS AT TRAN PHU HIGH SCHOOL IN VINH PHUC Nghi£n cøu vÒ viÖc ¸p dông ph-¬ng ph¸p d¹y häc giao nhiÖm vô cña gi¸o viªn vµ viÖc sö dông c¸c thñ thuËt cña häc sinh líp 10 trong c¸c bµi häc nghe t¹i tr-êng T.T trÇn phó - vÜnh phóc M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: English Methodology CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR: Dr. ®ç TuÊn Minh Hanoi, December 2008 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS v TABLE OF CONTENTS vi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1 I. Aims and research questions of the study 2 II. Scopes of the study 2 IV.
Methods of the study 2 V. Design of the study 2 CHAPTER II : THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4 I. Innovations in language teaching method 4 I. Language teaching methods focusing on developing grammatical competence 5 I.
Language teaching methods focusing on developing communicative 6 competence I. Task-based Method – the strong version of CLT 10 II. Innovations in syllabus design 11 II. Synthetic syllabus versus analytic syllabus 12 II.
Tasks in task-based syllabus 15 III. Theory in listening 17 III. Definition of listening 17 III. Classification of listening 18 III.
Common methods in teaching listening 19 III. Three stages in a listening lesson 20 III. Foreign language learners’ listening problems 21 III. Foreign language learners’ listening comprehension strategies 22 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com vii CHAPTER III: FINDINGS, DISCUSSIONS AND SOLLUTIONS 25 I.
Data analysis, findings and discussions 27 II. The students’ performance in listening lessons 27 II. The students’ preparation for listening lessons 28 II. The students’ motivation before listening 29 II.
The student’s learning strategies used in listening lessons and their 30 experiences to listen effectively II. The frequency of the teachers’ activities to motivate the students before 32 listening II. The pre-listening activities 32 II. The frequency of using pair-work and group-work in listening lessons 33 II.
The teachers’ treatment with listening tasks 34 II. The combination of reading, speaking, and writing skills in listening lessons 35 III. Some possible solutions 36 III. More effective warm-up activities 36 III.
Facilitating the students with the language inputs before listening 37 III. More meaningful listening tasks 37 III. Using more pair-work and group-work in listening lessons 38 III. Using more reading, speaking and writing skills in listening lessons 38 III.
The students’ better preparation before listening 39 III. The students’ better learning strategies in listening lessons 39 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 41 REFERENCES I APPENDIX I Survey questionnaire (for students) III APPENDIX II Survey questionnaire (for teachers) V APPENDIX III The tape-scripts of listening texts VII APPENDIX IV Different kinds of tasks in listening lessons XVIII APPENDIX V Class observations XX TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT : Communicative Language Teaching L1: First language P-P-P: Presentation-Practice-Production L2: Second language SLA: Second Language Acquisition TBM: Task-Based Method TPHS: Tran Phu High School TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com v LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS TABLES Table 1: The students’ performance in listening lessons Table 2: The students’ preparation for listening lessons Table 3: The students’ learning strategies used in listening lessons Table 4: The pre-listening activities CHARTS Chart 1: The students’ motivation before listening Chart 2: The students’ learning experiences to listen effectively Chart 3: The frequency of teachers’ activities to motivate the students before listening Chart 4: The frequency of using pair-work and group-work in listening lessons Chart 5: The teachers’ treatment with listening tasks Chart 6: The combination of reading, speaking and writing skills in listening lessons TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 1 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION I. RATIONALE Together with the development of international relationships between Vietnam and other countries in the world, the need to learn English in our country is sharply increasing. English has become a compulsory subject in every Vietnamese school and university.
However, the fact in Vietnam shows that there is now not only an urgent lack of the number of people speaking English fluently somewhere but also an impressive demand for the quality of English teaching and learning in the whole Vietnamese education system. In order to solve these problems, we have no alternation but to apply innovations to the process of teaching and learning English in our country. Theoretically, the innovations in second language (L2) teaching and learning over the time have always based on the findings that come from Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Research. Moreover, they can take place in two parallel directions: changing in teaching method as well as in syllabus design.
The theories also state that there must be a mutual relationship between innovations in these two directions. They must be relevant to each other to contribute to the success of language teaching and learning. In the late twentieth century, we have witnessed the successful application of TBM in Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in many places all over world. In Vietnam, TBM has gradually replaced traditional teaching methods.
Together with the new textbook series, it has resulted in outstanding outcomes in teaching and learning English, especially in improving speaking and listening skills. However, we must confess that these outcomes are quite different when we observe various English classes in Vietnam. Being an English teacher at high school, I myself have seen not only the success of the new method and the new textbook series but also the difficulties and sometimes failures when applying them. One of these failures that attracts my most attention is my students‟ bad performance in listening lessons.
This explains why I choose to carry out a study on the use of the new method in teaching listening for my students in this thesis, which is hopefully designed to help my students to overcome the problems. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. AIMS AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS OF THE STUDY The study firstly aims to draw out the mutual relationship between the new method and the new textbook which ensures the success of our lessons. In addition, the thesis is designed to investigate the teachers‟ application of TBM and the 10th form students‟ use of learning strategies in their listening lessons at TPHS in Vinh Phuc.
Next, a comparison is made to test whether the application of the new method here is relevant to the new textbook. Last but far from least, the study is concluded with some solutions, which help these students improve their listening skill. In order to implement the study, two research questions are raised: (1) Whether the teachers‟ application of TBM and the 10th form students‟ use of learning strategies are effective in their listening lessons at TPHS in Vinh Phuc? and (2) Is there a close relevance between the teaching methods used to teach listening for these students and the textbook? III. SCOPES OF THE STUDY Due to the time limit as well as the lack of knowledge on the part of the writer , it is impossible to cover all aspects of teaching listening in this thesis.
Therefore, my study will only discuss the effect of using TBM in teaching listening, which is considered one the most important factors contributing to the success of each lesson. METHODS OF THE STUDY It is obvious that the thesis would not be in this form without qualitative method used during the writing process. First of all, the data were collected from two survey questionnaires, informal interviews with the teachers and classroom observations. The data, then, required systematical classification to put them into different parts.
Finally, logical contrastive analysis was of great help. DESIGN OF THE STUDY While this thesis generally presents the topic: “A Study on the Effect of Using TBM in Teaching Listening for 10th Form Students at TPHS in Vinh Phuc”, each of the chapters carries out its own task far different from that of the others. The first chapter states rationales for, aims, scope, method and organization of the study. The theoretical background in the chapter II covers issues most relevant to the topic.
The next one focuses on analyzing figures TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 3 and giving out some findings. We also find in this chapter some solutions to solve the given problems. Finally, the forth chapter concludes the study. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 4 CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Before studying the teachers‟ application of TBM and the 10th form students‟ use of learning strategies in their listening lessons at TPHS in Vinh Phuc, we should now have an overview of changes in language teaching and learning through out the history with two directions: innovations in language teaching methods and innovations in syllabus design.
INNOVATIONS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING METHOD It is necessary now to distinguish these three confusing concepts: approach, method and technique. A scheme was proposed by Edward Anthony (1963, pp. In his view point, approach is at the top, method is in the middle and technique is at the bottom of a vertically hierarchical line. Approach determines method, then method determines technique.
Here three concepts is distinguished clearly. However, the limited point of this distinction is that the hierarchical line only goes downward. The determination is only in one direction, there is no interaction between these three concepts. Richards and Rodgers (1986, pp.18-20) make this distinction quite clear.
In their point of view, approaches are views of the nature of language or language teaching. An approach is axiomatic. Whereas method is an overall plan for the orderly presentation of language material. A method is procedural.
No part of a method contradicts and all of the method is based upon a selected approach. And lastly, techniques are the actual activities the teachers do in the classroom. In the expression „innovations in language teaching methods‟, the term „method‟ is used with a broad meaning so that it takes over other terms. Looking at the flowered development of SLA Research and the history of language teaching methods in the past few decades, we can find that there is a close relationship between researches in SLA and the changes in language teaching methods, that is, the latter has reflected recognition of changes both in the kind of proficiency learners need and in theory of the nature of language and language learning, resulted from the former.
Based on the proficiency learners need, we can classify language teaching methods through out the history into two groups. The first group helps to develop grammatical competence and the second one communicative competence. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Language teaching methods focusing on developing grammatical competence Most of traditional teaching methods belong to the first group which concentrates on the development of grammatical competence, that is the ability to recognize and produce the grammar with a set of distinctive forms and rules, the lexicon and the phonology of a language and the ability to use them effectively in producing grammatically or phonologically accurate sentences in the target language.
Focusing on developing grammatical competence, traditional language teaching methods have undergone two different periods: focusing on meaning and on forms.