VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES -----***----- TRƯƠNG THỊ DUNG DESIGNING TASK-BASED POST-LISTENING ACTIVITIES FOR TENTH-FORM STUDENTS AT LÊ VIẾT TẠO HIGH SCHOOL IN THANH HÓA (Thiết kế các hoạt động sau khi nghe theo đường hướng giao nhiệm vụ cho học sinh khối 10 tại trường THPT Lê Viết Tạo, Thanh Hóa) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Hanoi - 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -----***----- TRƯƠNG THỊ DUNG DESIGNING TASK-BASED POST-LISTENING ACTIVITIES FOR TENTH-FORM STUDENTS AT LÊ VIẾT TẠO HIGH SCHOOL IN THANH HÓA (Thiết kế các hoạt động Sau khi nghe theo đường hướng giao nhiệm vụ cho học sinh khối 10 tại trường THPT Lê Viết Tạo, Thanh Hóa) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Nguyễn Huy Kỷ, Ph.D Hanoi – 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching EFL: English as a Foreign Language SLA: Second Language Acquisition TBA: Task-Based Approach TBI: Task-Based Instruction TBLL: Task-Based Language Learning TBLT: Task- Based Language Teaching iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS 1. List of tables Table 1: Traditional classroom and TBLT classroom (Nunan, 2005) Table 2: The teachers‟ attitudes towards teaching task-based post-listening activities Table 3: The students‟ attitudes towards learning task-based post-listening activities Table 4: The teachers‟ opinions of the benefits of teaching task-based post-listening activities Table 5: The students‟ opinions of the benefits of learning task-based post-listening activities Table 6: The teachers‟ difficulties perceived in carrying out task-based post- listening activities Table 7: The students‟ difficulties perceived in learning task-based post-listening activities 2.
List of charts Chart 1: The teachers‟ methods to carry out post-listening stage Chart 2: Frequency of designing task-based post-listening activities Chart 3: Frequency of students‟ task completion v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. iv LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS. Objectives of study.
Methods of the study. Significance of the study. Scope of the study. Organization of the study.
5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definition of listening. The roles of listening skill in language teaching and learning. Procedure of teaching listening in classroom.
Pre-listening stage. While- listening stage. Post-listening stage. An in-depth overview of post-listening activities.
Purpose of post-listening activities. Some common post-listening activities. Factors affecting the implementation of post-listening activities. Task-based Language Teaching.
The nature of Task-based Language Teaching. Principles of the TBLT approach. 12 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Definitions of a task.
The TBLT approach in teaching listening at the post-listening stage. Designing of task-based post-listening activities. Significance of designing task-based post-listening activities. Principles for designing task-based post-listening activities.
The context for the research. The textbook: Tiếng Anh 10. Data collection instruments. Data collection procedures.
Data analysis procedures. Analysis of answers to questionnaires. Analysis of observation reports. Analysis of results from interviews.
21 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. The teachers and students‟ attitudes towards teaching and learning task-based post-listening activities. The teachers‟ attitudes. The students‟ attitudes.
Frequency of teaching and learning task-based post-listening activities and typical post-listening activities. 24 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Frequency of teaching task-based post-listening activities. Frequency of learning task-based post-listening activities.
The benefits of teaching and learning task-based post-listening activities. The teachers‟ opinions. The students‟ opinions. The difficulties of teaching and learning task-based post-listening activities28 3.
The teachers‟ opinions. The students‟ opinions. 31 CHAPTER 4:DESIGNING TASK-BASED POST-LISTENING ACTIVITIES. Design of task-based post-listening activities.
Evaluation of effectiveness of task-based post-listening activities. Results from class observations. Results from interviews. Recapitulation of major findings.
Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further studies. 41 APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS. I APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS (Vietnamese version).
III APPENDIX 3: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS (English version). V APPENDIX 4:SAMPLES OF TASK-BASED POST-LISTENING ACTIVITIES .VII viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com APPENDIX 5: CLASS OBSERVATION SHEET .XII APPENDIX 6: CLASS OBSERVATION SHEET 1. XIII APPENDIX 7: CLASS OBSERVATION SHEET 2. XIV APPENDIX 8: CLASS OBSERVATION SHEET 3.
XV APPENDIX 9: CLASS OBSERVATION SHEET 4. XVI APPENDIX 10: CLASS OBSERVATION SHEET 5.XVII APPENDIX 11: QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEWS. XVIII APPENDIX 12: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT. XIX ix LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale English as a foreign language has become one of the integral and compulsory subjects of our secondary school‟s curriculum so far. The ultimate goal of teaching and learning English is learners‟ ability to use English for communicative purposes. In an attempt to attain this aim, the implementation of the new textbook among high schools had made a remarkable change in English teaching and learning method. Besides learning basic English grammar and pronunciation, students have to master the four English macroskills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Among these skills, listening is considered as the most difficult one but makes a significant contribution to the process of language acquisition. In the new textbook 10, the listening lesson parallels three parts: Before you listen, While you listen and After you listen corresponding with three stages of listening section: pre-, while- and post-listening. Each stage covers one different aim and activities. The fact indicates that not all the teachers can cover the three stages of a listening class, most notably post-listening stage.
They often spend most time on while-listening in order to make students to listen to the text to complete the tasks given in text book. However, post-listening activities are important because they extend students‟ listening skill. Well-planned post-listening activities offer students opportunities to connect what they have heard to their own ideas and experiences, and encourage interpretive and critical listening and reflective thinking. As well, post-listening activities provide opportunities for teachers to assess and check students‟ comprehension, and clarify their understandings; to extend comprehension beyond the literal level to the interpretive and critical levels.
Besides the textbook Tiếng Anh 10 uses curriculum and syllabus with many designed-tasks so Task-based language teaching is appropriate to the extent that tasks serves as the means for implementing a methodological procedure. It is more student-centered, allows for more meaningful communication and often provides for practical extra-linguistic skill building. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com The above-mentioned facts honestly generate strong motivation in the researcher to conduct a study titled “Designing task-based post-listening activities for tenth-form students at Lê Viết Tạo high school in Thanh Hóa”. She desires to take a closer look into current situation of teaching and learning task-based post- listening stage, and then suggests some task-based post-listening activities with the hope of promoting the effectiveness of teaching and learning at this stage.
Objectives of study This study sets out to achieve the following objectives: To investigate the teachers and students‟ attitudes towards teaching and learning task-based post-listening activities. To find out benefits and difficulties teachers and students encounter in teaching and learning these activities. To propose task-based post-listening activities to help enhance students‟ learning as well as better teaching at this stage. Evaluation of effectiveness of these activities was given.
Research questions In order to achieve the above mentioned objectives, the following research questions are raised: What are the teachers and students‟ attitudes towards teaching and learning task-based post-listening activities? What are benefits and difficulties teachers and students encounter in teaching and learning task-based post-listening activities? Which task-based post-listening activities would be designed and how effective were these activities to teaching and learning at the post-listening stage? 4. Methods of the study To achieve the objectives stated, apart from descriptive, analysis, synthesis method, both qualitative and quantitative methods were mainly used. The interviews, questionnaires and class observations will be used to collect data for the analysis of the research. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Significance of the study As one of the under-researched issues in teaching listening for high school students in Vietnam, the present study on designing task-based post-listening activities will make certain contributions to high school students, teachers, educationists and researchers of the related fields. Firstly, the research provides the English teachers with the understanding of Task-based language teaching and advantages as well as disadvantages when applying it. The result of the research may help teachers to have an overall look into the current situation of teaching and learning task-based post-listening activities at the post-listening stage. The teacher will certainly realize the difficulties facing them while delivering task-based post-listening activities to their students.
Also, some task-based post-listening activities were proposed as references to help the teachers motivate their students in learning at the post-stage. This study is also helpful for students in the sense that they become fully aware of the importance of the follow-up stage and they will be motivated actively take part in this stage. Second, obstacles to the implementation of task-based post-listening activities may be motive for educationists to make necessary changes in terms of curriculum to design lessons with suitable topics and interesting post-listening tasks to enhance students in learning listening at this stage. Last, the research will serve as the foundation for further related researches.
Other researchers may also take the strengths and weakness of the study into account to better their study. Scope of the study Due to time constraint and other inconveniences, the research cannot cover all aspects related to listening skill as well as task-based language teaching approach. Therefore, the study mainly focuses on task-based listening activities designed for the post-listening stage for the tenth form students at Lê Viết Tạo High School in Thanh Hóa. The subjects of the study are limited only to 8 teachers of 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com English and 90 students, who have been working with English textbook 10 for a period of time.
Organization of the study The study is expected to consist of three main parts: Part A - Introduction - specifies rationales, objectives, research questions, methods, significances and scope of the study. Part B - Development - includes four chapters: Chapter 1 presents the reviewed literature underlying the subject matters involving listening skill in general and post-listening stage in particular; nature of task-based language teaching approach and principles for designing task-based post- listening activities. Chapter 2 discusses the methodology of the study, i. describes the study context, participants, instruments, procedures of data collection and procedures of data analysis.
Chapter 3 analyses findings of the current situation of teaching and learning task-based post-listening activities for tenth form students at Lê Viết Tạo High School. Chapter 4 deals with designing some task-based post-listening activities for tenth form students at Lê Viết Tạo High School and explore effectiveness of these activities. Part C - Conclusion - presents the recapitulation of major findings, psychological implications, limitations of the study and the suggestions for further studies. The study ends with the appendices.
4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter is concerned with the literature review of the research which includes an overview of listening skill, post-listening stage, Task-based Language Teaching approach and principles for designing task-based post-listening activities. Definition of listening Various definitions of listening have been proposed through the years but “there indeed appears to be no universally accepted definition” (Dunkel, 1986: 433) According to Underwood (1989:1), “Listening is the activity of paying attention and trying to get meaning for something we hear”. It is a complex process that allows us to understand spoken language.