Vietnam national university, Hanoi University of languages and international studies Department of post graduate studies HOÀNG THỊ HỒNG NHUNG Demotivating factors in listening lessons of 10 grade students at No.1 lao cai High School NHỮNG YẾU TỐ GÂY MẤT HỨNG THÚ TRONG CÁC GIỜ HỌC NGHE CỦA HỌC SINH KHỐI 10 TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT SỐ 1 THÀNH PHỐ LÀO CAI A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Supervisor: Nguyen Quynh Trang, MA. Code: 601410 Hanoi, 2012 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND DIAGRAMS No. Table/diagram Content of table/diagram Page 1 Table 1 Descriptive statistics for students’ questionnaire 24 responses (N=110) 2 Table 2 Teacher’s techniques to motivate their students at 28 listening stages 3 Table 3 Reasons for overcoming demotivation in 31 listening. 4 Diagram 1 Research methodology.
20 6 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Candidate’s statement. iii List of tables and diagrams.iv Table of contents.v PART ONE: INTRODUCTION.2 Aims of the study.5 Scope of the study.6 Contribution of the study.7 Organization of the study.3 PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT.5 CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW.1 Overview of listening.1 Definition of listening .3 Listening in second language learning .2 Overview of motivation.1 Definition of motivation.2 Types of motivation.3 Characteristics of motivated students.3 Overview of demotivation.1 Definition of demotivation.2 Previous studies of demotivation.3 Characteristics of demotivation students.4 Possible demotivating factors in listening.16 7 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.1 Students- related factors.18 CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY.2 Participants of the study.3 Method of the study.1 Questionnaire for students.2 Questionnaire for teachers.3 Interview for teachers.5 Data collection and data analysis.22 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.1 Demotivating factors in listening.2 Teachers’ teaching strategies.3 Overcoming demotivation in listening.30 PART THREE: CONCLUSION.36 Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Appendix 3 Appendix 4 8 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Despite being aware the importance of English to career prospects, a large number of students seem to lose their interests in learning this international language. English has taken an important role in not only Vietnam but also countries around the world. In Vietnam, it cannot be deniable that one’s English proficiency has become his passport to a better job in all aspects of modern life.
In fact, Vietnamese students have learnt English through compulsory programs at school for many years. Despite teachers’ efforts and the shift from the traditional teaching methods to communicative language teaching, English is still considered as a compulsory subject that needs to be mastered and tested rather than a tool for communication. As a result, most of learners find themselves unable to use English for day-to-day communication after having passed the English national examination as a requirement for the General Education Diploma. Although “listening is fundamental to speaking skill” in second language acquisition (Nunan, 1997), students’ low proficiency in listening is deniable.1 Lao Cai High School, students are bored in listening lessons.
Most of the learners have passive attitudes in listening lessons because of underlying reasons that need to be investigated. A large number of researches have been conducted on language learning demotivation in general, but few studies have addressed possible demotivating factors in listening skill particularly. It is necessary for teachers to be aware of the possible demotivating factors that cause students lose their motivation in listening lessons. Hopefully, the major findings of the study will provide the teachers with students’ possible demotivating factors in listening lessons as well as factors that might assist their students to overcome demotivation.
With those factors in mind, they might 9 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com have more appropriate teaching method to help their students make process in listening.2 Aims of the study The study aims at investigating possible demotivating factors in listening lessons of the 10th grade students at No.1 Lao Cai High School. The main purposes of the study are summarized as follows: 1. To investigate main demotivating factors that reduce students’ interests in listening lessons. To explore techniques used by teachers of English to motivate their students in listening lessons.
To investigate factors that assist students to overcome their demotivation in listening lessons. 3 Reasearch questions This study aims to answer the following questions: 1. What are the dominant demotivating factors affecting students’ listening lessons? 2. What are techniques used by teachers to motivate their students in listening lesson? 3.
What are factors that assist students to overcome their demotivation in listening lessons? 1.4 Research methodology This study used both quantitative and qualitative methods. For quantitative method, two questionnaires were delivered to four teachers and 110 students. A semi structure interview for teacher was also conducted to collect data qualitatively.5 The scope of the study This study focused only on demotivation in listening lessons of student in grade 10 at No.1 Lao Cai High School. In details, the study was carried out to investigate students’ main demotivating factors in listening lessons, to discover techniques used 10 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com by teachers to motivated students in listening lessons and to discover main factors that assist students to overcome their demotivation in listening.
Contribution of the study This is one of the first studies discovering demotivating factors in a particular skill- listening. There have been a large number of studies on students’ demotivation generally in learning English as a second language such as Christophel & Gorham, 1992; Gorham and Millette, 1997; Kearney, Plax, Hays, & Ivey ,1991; Zang’s 2007; Ikeno, 2002; Arai, 2004; Falout & Maruyama, 2004; Hasegawa, 2004; Kikuchi, in press; Tsuchiya, 2004a, 2004b, 2006a, 2006b; Kojima, 2005. However, few studies focus on demotivating factors that prevent learners from enjoying studying English in a particular skill, especially in listening skill. The study’s contribution can be summarized as follows: Theoretically, this study will shed a light on research area that few researchers have addressed: demotivation in listening.
Practically, findings of this study will provide teachers of English at No.1 Lao Cai High School with deep understanding of demotivating factors encountered by their students in listening lessons so that they might have more appropriate teaching method. To students, the findings suggested some factors that might help them to recover their interests in listening. Organization of the study This study consists of three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion Part 1: Introduction This part presents the Rationale, Aim of the study, Scope of the study, Research questions, Method of study, and The content of the study. Part 2: Development This part consists of three main chapters.
11 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Chapter 1: Literature review This part presents theoretical background of motivation and demotivation, reviewing studies of demotivation in second language acquisition, and brief view on concepts of listening and demotivating factors in listening. Chapter 2: Methodology Research questions, participants, method of the study, instruments, data collection and data analysis are discussed in this chapter. Chapter 3: Research findings and discussion This chapter presents major research findings and discussion in details. Part 3: Conclusion This part presents conclusions and implications.
12 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Overview of listening.1 Definition of listening. Scholars claim that listening is a complex and active process. Wipf (1984) states that listening is an invisible mental process in which listeners must discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, interpret stress and intention, retain and interpret this within the immediate as well as the larger socio-cultural context of the utterance.
According to Rost (2002), listening is a process of receiving what the speaker actually says; constructing and representing meaning; negotiating meaning with the speaker and responding; and creating meaning through involvement, imagination and empathy.2 Listening processes According to Richard (1990), there are two distinct processes in listening: top-down and bottom-up, and listeners need to use both of them in their listening comprehension. Listeners apply “top-down” processes when they use prior knowledge to understand the meaning of a message. Prior knowledge can be knowledge of the topic, the listening context, the text-type, the culture or other information stored in long-term memory. Listeners use content words and contextual clues to form hypotheses in an exploratory fashion.
On the other hand, listeners apply “bottom-up” processes when they use linguistic knowledge to understand the meaning of a message. They build meaning from lower level sounds to words to grammatical relationships to lexical meanings in order to arrive at the final message. Listening comprehension is not either top-down or bottom-up 13 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com processing, but an interactive, interpretive process where listeners use both prior knowledge and linguistic knowledge in understanding messages. The degree to which listeners use the one process or the other will depend on their knowledge of the language, familiarity with the topic or the purpose for listening.
For example, listening for gist involves primarily top-down processing, whereas listening for specific information, as in a weather broadcast, involves primarily bottom-up processing to comprehend all the desired details. Byrnes (1984) emphasizes that context takes an important role in listening process. Research from cognitive psychology has shown that listening comprehension is more than extracting meaning from incoming speech. It is a process of matching speech with what listeners already know about the topic.
Therefore, when listeners know the context of a text or an utterance, the process is facilitated considerably because listeners can activate prior knowledge and make the appropriate inferences essential to comprehending the message. Therefore, teachers need to help students organize their thoughts, to activate appropriate background knowledge for understanding and to make predictions, to prepare for listening. This significantly reduces the burden of comprehension for the listener. In listening process, Richards (1990) states the learners need to be aware of the purpose of the task.
He differentiates between an interactional and a transactional purpose for communication. Knowing the communicative purpose of a text or utterance will help the listener determine what to listen for and, therefore, which processes to activate. Listeners listen selectively according to the purpose of the task. This determines the type of listening required and the way in which listeners will approach a task.
Interactional use of language is socially oriented, existing largely to satisfy the social needs of the participants such as small talk and casual conversations. Therefore, interactional listening is highly contextualized and two- way, involving interaction with a speaker. A transactional use of language, on the 14 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com other hand, is more message-oriented and is used primarily to communicate information, for example, news broadcasts and lectures. In contrast with interactional listening, transactional listening requires accurate comprehension of a message with no opportunity for clarification with a speaker.
Knowing the context and knowing the purpose for listening also greatly reduces the burden of comprehension since listeners know that they need to listen for something very specific, instead of trying to understand every word.3 Listening in second language learning According to Oxford (1993), the importance of listening in language learning has only been recognized recently. Vandergriff (1999) also states that listening plays an important role in audio-lingual methods. Students listen, repeat and develop a better pronunciation for speaking. Beginning in the early 70's, Krashen emphasizes the role of listening as a tool for understanding and a key factor in facilitating language learning.
Then, Feyten (1991) concludes that listening has emerged as an important component in the process of second language acquisition. Vandergrift (2002) states that listeners need to use metacognitive, cognitive and socio-affective strategies to facilitate comprehension and to make their learning more effective. Metacognitive strategies are important because they “oversee, regulate or direct the language learning process”. Cognitive strategies manipulate the material to be learned or apply a specific technique to a listening task.
Socio- affective strategies describe the techniques listeners use to collaborate with others, to verify understanding or to lower anxiety. Research shows that skilled listeners use more metacognitive strategies than their less-skilled counterparts (O'Malley & Chamot, 1990, Vandergrift, 1997a).