VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ________________ TĂNG THỊ HỒNG MINH THE PROBLEMS FACED BY TEACHERS AND FIRST YEAR NON – ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT SAO DO UNIVERSITY IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL AND SOME SOLUTIONS (NHỮNG VẤN ĐỀ GẶP PHẢI TRONG VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC KỸ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN VÀ SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT KHÔNG CHUYÊN TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SAO ĐỎ VÀ MỘT SỐ GIẢI PHÁP KHẮC PHỤC) M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111 HANOI – 2013 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ________________ TĂNG THỊ HỒNG MINH THE PROBLEMS FACED BY TEACHERS AND FIRST YEAR NON – ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT SAO DO UNIVERSITY IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL AND SOME SOLUTIONS (NHỮNG VẤN ĐỀ GẶP PHẢI TRONG VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC KỸ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN VÀ SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT KHÔNG CHUYÊN TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SAO ĐỎ VÀ MỘT SỐ GIẢI PHÁP KHẮC PHỤC) M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014. Duong Thi Nu HANOI – 2013 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION I certify that this thesis is the result of my own study and that it has not been submitted to any other university or institution wholly or partially.
Hanoi, September 2013 Student Tăng Thị Hồng Minh i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Dương Thị Nụ from Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, University of Languages International Studies for her precious advices, insightful comments, patient guidance, criticism, corrections and support throughout my research. Without her help, this thesis would not have been accomplished. I would also like to thank all the lecturers of the Department of Post Graduate Studies, University of Languages International Studies for their useful lectures and materials which are of great values to my thesis.
I am also grateful to my colleagues, the non-English freshmen at Sao Do University for their assistance and valuable information during the process of preparing this research. Finally, I wish to thank all the support and encouragement of my family in time of difficulty and frustration. ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT Listening plays an important role in communication as it is said that, of the total time spent on communicating, listening takes up 40-50%; speaking, 25-30%; reading, 11-16%; and writing, about 9% (Mendelsohn, 1994. This study attempt to present listening comprehension problems encountered by lecturers and first-year students at Sao Do University at the same time pointing out the factors affecting learners‟ difficulties and the listening teaching difficulties.
The thesis is based on data collected from survey questionnaires. One hundred students and fifteen lecturers at Sao Do University have taken part in this study. In addition, interviews and class observation were applied as well to enhance the reliability and validity of the study. The results showed that learners encountered various kinds of listening problems which were divided into four categories: students‟ linguistic difficulties in learning listening, students‟ listening difficulties related to the listening text, factors related to the speakers, and factors related to the listeners.
From the findings of the research, some recommendations were presented to help them overcome the difficulties in learning and teaching. iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: INTRODUCTION. Aims of the study. Scope of the study.
Significance of the study. Methods of the study. Design of the study.3 PART II: THE DEVELOPMENT. 5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Theoretical background of listening.
Potential problems in learning and teaching listening .3 Previous studies on listening difficulties in Vietnam .13 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .1 The setting of the study .3 Data collection instruments .16 CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY .30 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDTATIONS .35 PART III: CONCLUSION. IX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS. X v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CHARTS Chart 1. Learners‟ perceptions of listening difficulties related to listening text Chart 2a.
Learners‟ perceptions of their linguistic difficulties in learning listening Chart 2b. Learners‟ perceptions of learning difficulties related to listeners Chart 3: Learners‟ perceptions of their listening difficulties related to the speakers Chart 4. Learners‟ perceptions of their listening difficulties related to the listening environment Chart 5. Teachers‟ assessment of listening task in the textbook Chart 6.
Teachers‟ perception of students‟ attitudes towards listening lessons Chart 7. Learners‟ expectations towards their teachers and teachers‟ opinions about how can help their students vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale It cannot be denied that learning and teaching English in Vietnam has gained a considerable improvement recently especially after Vietnam„s participation into WTO. The demand for English communicative proficiency is rising compared to that in the past.
While learning grammar and vocabulary were prioritized in the past, it is not the case at present. In recent years, communicational skills such as listening and speaking skills have been paid more attentions since they are the major key to international communication. Therefore, students‟ communicative competence has been stressed. At Sao Do University (SDU), as most other universities in Vietnam, communicative approach has been more and more applied in teaching and learning English; However, despite the teachers‟ and students‟ efforts, the students especially the non-English major freshmen often have a lot of difficulties in learning listening comprehension.
Most of students find listening so challenging for them to learn well while teachers find it so difficult to motivate students, make them eager and interested in listening lessons. After careful observation and practical teaching, I realized that the reasons for this situation seem to be popular to Vietnamese students such as lack of vocabulary, anxiety during listening, accents of speakers, etc. These problems make students demotivated in learning listening. Moreover, a certain number of researches have been conducted to investigate the problems in learning and teaching at SDU; none of them is about listening skills.
As a teacher of English, therefore, it is essential and motivating for me to conduct a research on the topic: “The Problems faced by teachers and first year non- English major students at Sao Do University in teaching and learning English listening skills and some solutions” with the hope to make a small contribution towards improving the quality of teaching and learning listening skill at SDU. Aims of the study Within the framework of minor thesis, the study is aimed: 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - To investigate the problems that first year non - English major students of SDU encountered in learning listening skills. - To identify factors causing the students‟ problems in learning listening skills. - To investigate the areas of difficulties faced by teachers at Sao Do University in teaching listening skills.
- To provide some suggested solutions to help students and teachers overcome these difficulties, improve the quality of teaching and learning listening comprehension at SDU. Research Question In order to achieve these aims, the study has three research questions as follows: 1. What are the problems faced by teachers and first year non – English major students of Sao Do University in teaching and learning listening skills? 2. What factors cause these difficulties to students and teachers? 3.
What are suggested solutions to improve teaching and learning listening skill? The study; therefore, focuses on seeking the answers for aforementioned questions. Scope of the study As a Ukrainian scholar once said “learning a second language is a long and complex undertaking”. Thus, problems in learning and teaching a second language are unavoidable. In the scope of this study, the writer„s typical purpose is to investigate the difficulties in learning and teaching to non - English major freshmen of SDU.
The study also offers some pedagogical recommendations to improve the current situation. Significance of the study The study provides an insight into problems in teaching and learning listening comprehension at SDU. Its findings may benefit both learners and instructors. For learners, they can perceive of their own listening difficulties; then, ascertain what should be the best learning strategies in the future.
Gradually, with the help of 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com teachers, they will be able to improve their listening competence. Learning from problems is really a good way in second language acquisition. As for teachers, the study provides them with teaching guidelines which have been inferred after careful observation and practical investigation to their teaching problems. The result of this study may also be used as the reference for teachers of other university who share the similar context.
Methods of the study This study will be conducted in quantitative methods. Survey questionnaires will be employed to collect data for reliable result with the participation of 100 first year non English - major students and 15 English teachers at SDU. In addition, informal interviews and class observation will also be exploited to collect further information. The data will be processed and analyzed carefully in order to draw out the final conclusions.
Design of the study This is the focus of the study and consists of three parts: - Part I: Introduction - presents the rationale, the aims, the scope, the significance, the methods and the design of the study. - Part II: Development - consists of 4 chapters: Chapter 1: Literature review - provides some theoretical background about listening comprehension, teaching listening skills, and problem with listening activities. Moreover, it reviews previous studies on listening problems encountered by second language learners in Vietnam context. Chapter 2: Methodology - in this part, the introduction of research method including research questions, data collection instruments are presented.
Chapter 3: The study - shows the procedure of carrying on the research and presents the data analysis result from survey questionnaires, interviews and class observation. 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Chapter 4: Findings and Recommendations - reports and discusses the findings obtained from the data, then proposes some solutions for teaching and learning improvement. - Part III: Conclusion - review of the findings, implications and limitations of the study and some suggestions for further research. 4 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART II: THE DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical background of listening 1.1 Definition of listening comprehension For many years, a lot of different proposed definitions of listening have been provided.
One of definitions we should consider is that of Emmert (in Emmert, 1994) According to Emmert (1994) Listening is more than merely hearing words. Listening is an active process by which students receive, construct meaning from and respond to spoken and or nonverbal message. Underwood (1989, 1) simplified the definition of listening to "the activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from something we hear” Mendelsohn (1994) defines listening comprehension as ―the ability to understand the spoken language of native speakers.'' Meanwhile, Buck (2001, 3) highlights the role of learners as interpreter who use both linguistic cues and nonlinguistic knowledge to achieve full comprehension. This point of view shares the ideas of Rubin.
Rubin (1995) conceives listening as an active process in which listeners interpret information which comes from auditory and visual cues in order to define what is going on and what the speakers are trying to express. Larry Vandergrift (1999) has a more detailed definition of listening comprehension. According to him, listening comprehension is a passive activity. It is a complex and active process in which the listener must discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, interpret stress and intonation, retain what was gathered in all of the above, and interpret it within the socio-cultural context of the utterance.