VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN MAI LIÊN A STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF DIGITAL STORIES ON STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION AT ELEMENTARY LEVEL Nghiên cứu ảnh hưởng của việc sử dụng các câu chuyện kỹ thuật số đối với khả năng nghe hiểu của sinh viên ở trình độ sơ cấp M. Minor Program Thesis Major: Theory and methodology in teaching English Code: 11045226 HANOI - 2018 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN MAI LIÊN A STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF DIGITAL STORIES ON STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION AT ELEMENTARY LEVEL Nghiên cứu ảnh hưởng của việc sử dụng các câu chuyện kỹ thuật số đối với khả năng nghe hiểu của sinh viên ở trình độ sơ cấp M. Minor Program Thesis Major: Theory and methodology in teaching English Code: 11045226 Supervisor: Nguyen Thu Hanh, Ph.D HANOI - 2018 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Declaration I certify that the work presented in this research report has been performed and interpreted solely by myself. I confirm that this paperis submitted in fulfillment of the requirement for the M.
Degree and has not been submitted elsewhere in any other form for the fulfillment of any other degree or qualification. Hanoi, 2018 Trần Mai Liên i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Acknowledgements This M.A thesis could not have been accomplished without the invaluable help, encouragement and support form a number of people who I would like to show my sincerest gratitude and appreciation. To begin with, I would like to express my greatest and deepest thankfulness to Mrs.Nguyễn Thu Hạnh, my supervisor, for her enthusiastic and precious guideline and advice throughout the duration of my thesis. Without her instruction and supervision, this thesis could not have reached the fulfillment.
Moreover, my honest thanks also come to studentsat Military University of Culture and Arts, especially students in experimental and control group who participated in my quasi-experimental research. Last but not least, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my familyand relatives who have always supported me and supplied the best conditions for me to complete this thesis. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Abstract Among the four skills of the English language, listening has been claimed to be the most difficult English language skill to a majority of Vietnamese students. Particularly, many students have trouble catching main ideas or dealing with listening comprehension tasks in their exams, especiallylistening A2 level is a really challenging test for university students.
This study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of Digital stories on helping students summarizing events and recognizing main ideas in doing listening tasks. On the basics of a quasi- experimental research, two groups of first-year students at Military University of Culture and Arts, who were learning English as a non-major subject, participated in this research in the role of the experimental group and control group. Student‟s diary, semi-structured interview and listening tests were employed to collect data for the research. Before the treatment, no significant difference was founded between both groups in their descriptive writing ability.
Due to the restricted schedule, the researcher could only pilot eight Digital stories in listening lessons for the experimental students, and the same two to teach students in the control group using traditional method. Interestingly, the post-test results indicated that experimental students who are taught with Digital stories attained higher in scores when doing listening tasks in terms of summarizing events and recognizing main ideas. Besides, via results gathered from diary and semi-structured interview, it revealed that although participants encountered with various problems related to their attitudes and engagement, the higher levels they had, the more they were interested in the innovation. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Table of contents Declaration.
iii List of tables. vi List of graphs. Significance of the study. Aims and objectives of the study.
Scope of the study. Structure of the study. 3 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Theoretical background of listening and listening comprehension.
Definition of Listening. Definition of Listening comprehension. Teaching Listening Comprehension. Theoretical background of Digital stories.
Definition of Digital stories. Types of Digital Stories. Digital Stories in Teaching Listening Comprehension. How to make a digital story.
Population and sample. 21 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Data collection instruments. Semi-structured interview .3 Listening comprehension Test.
Data collection procedure. Data analysis procedures. 28 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Data collected from diaries and semi-structured interview.
Data collected from listening tests. Pre-listening test. Post-listening test. A summary of the major findings.
Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further study. I v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com List of tables Table 3. Test of normality of data of the pre-test.
Group statistics of pre-test. Independent samples test of pre-test. Pre-test cross tabulation. Test of normality of data of the post-listening test.
Group Statistics of the post-listening test. Independent samples t-test of the post-listening test. Post-test cross tabulation. Effect size value.
44 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com List of graphs Graph 3. Mark frequency in the pre-test of both groups. Mark frequency in the post-test of both groups. Students‟ mean score in the pre-test and post-test.
43 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Rationale Listening is considered as a key role in communication. In fact, listening skills are acquired and developed naturally at pre-school. An effective mother tongue education at school makes it possible to raise students who can comprehend, synthesize and evaluate what they listen to.
Despite its critical role in language acquisition and effective communication, listening in educational environments does not get enough emphasis and is generally neglected. Wacker and Hawkins (1995) stated that listening skill is the most commonly used skill at a rate of 45% in daily life. Listening is the only comprehension skill used by individuals during their preschool period, and also in school, before they learn to read and write. However, the teaching of listening comprehension seems to be neglected and poorly taught aspect of English in many EFL programs (Mendelsohn, 1994).
EFL learners have serious problems in English listening comprehension due to the fact that universities pay more attention to English grammar, reading and vocabulary. Moreover, the progress made in English training and learning in Vietnam is behind the shift in ideology. Obstacles such as overcrowded classes and the ongoing overuse of traditional grammar-translation methods prohibit the country‟s language education from achieving its goal. In recent years, with the development of media and computer technology, educators have begun to make use of multimedia and technology to improve their teaching and consequently students‟ language learning as Chang (1991) put it the vast majority of the published research on the effectiveness of media and technology in language instruction is encouraging.
With the increase of more sophisticated multimedia technology, there is renewed interest in the complementary relationship of visual and auditory channels in listening comprehension (Brett, 1995; Felix, 1995). According to Brett (1995), digital storytelling for foreign language learning can provide a more realistic picture of the 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com new language and culture in the classroom, including not only linguistic but also paralinguistic features such as body language, gestures, prosody, etc., which help to convey meaning to the learners. It is believed that digital stories, if appropriately selected, can prove to be very useful in developing learners' listening skills. They tend to be visual, interactive and reiterative.
Usually, learners have to listen to and understand a simple order in order to proceed with the story by clicking on parts of the screen or the picture. The interactivity of Internet-based stories, we assume, may facilitate learning since children are actively involved in decoding and understanding the story (Donato, 1994). Students are allowed to proceed at their own pace which also affords a high level of individual control. The reiterative nature of the kind of stories used here could also help children progressively learn the foreign language.
Finally, gains in listening skills and understanding seem to bring benefits to improve children's reading comprehension. Inspired by the above mentioned theoretical views and noticing the lack of such a study in Vietnamese EFL learning context, the researcher set out to conduct a research entitled “A study onthe effects of Digital Stories on students' listening comprehension at elementary level” at a Military university in Hanoi. Significance of the study The study of using Digital Stories in listening comprehension lessons is the application of technology in English language teaching. The result of this study can support teachers in finding an effective tool to develop their students‟ listening skills.
This project is also expected to increase elementary students‟ motivation in the engagement of listening activities. Aims and objectives of the study 3. Aims of the study This study attempts to examine the effects that Digital Stories have on developing the understanding of spoken English by elementary students at a university in Vietnam. Hence, concentrating on the application of Digital Stories in teaching listening comprehension is expected to bring certain positive results.
2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Objectives of the study The study is designed: firstly, to investigate students‟ opinions of using Digital Stories in listening comprehension lessons; secondly, to find out to what extent Digital Stories can develop students‟ listening comprehension at elementary level. Scope of the study Within the scope of a minor thesis, the study only concentrates on the effects of Digital Stories on the teaching and learning 8 listening lessons. Added to that, due to the time limit and restricted scope of the paper, the author could only focus on two classes of freshmen at a Military university in Hanoi to carry out a quasi- experimental research as well as interviews.
Research questions The research seeks the answers for the following research questions: 1. What are students‟ opinions of using Digital Stories in listening comprehension? 2. To what extent is there a significant difference between the experimental and control group in their listening comprehension test results? 6. Research method This study employs both qualitative and quantitative approach, with a quasi- experimental design.
The practical access includes: conducting pre-test and post-test before and after the treatment respectively, studying students‟ diaries and carrying out semi-structured interviews with students in the experimental group. Structure of the study The thesis consists of the followings: INTRODUCTION This chapter includes the rationale, aims, objectives and scope of the study. Chapter 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND In this chapter, the author describes and synthesizes major theories as well as research studies related to the current study. More particularly, it provides different 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com theoretical constructs concerning to Digital Stories and listening comprehension along with review on previous related studies.
Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY This chapter provides a methodological framework for collecting and analyzing data. Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION In this chapter, data analysis and findings of the study are presented with the illustration of tables and charts. Chapter 4: CONCLUSION Summary of the major findings and suggestions for further research are presented in this part. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.
Theoretical background of listening and listening comprehension 1. Definition of Listening Listening has been defined by many researchers. Byrne (1986) defined listening as an active process and he added that when one listens to his mother tongue, understanding normally seems effortless because the experience of the spoken language is enormous.