VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
  

NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH THE EFFECT OF TECHNOLOGY-ASSISTED TEACHING
ON 10
TH
FORM STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION:
A QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
AT NGOC HOI HIGH SCHOOL

( NGHIÊN CƯ
́
U NGU
̣
Y THƯ
̣
C NGHIÊ
̣
M VÊ
̀
TA
́
C ĐÔ
̣
NG CU Hanoi, 2011

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULITY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
  

NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH THE EFFECT OF TECHNOLOGY-ASSISTED TEACHING
ON 10
TH
FORM STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION:
A QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
AT NGOC HOI HIGH SCHOOL

( NGHIÊN CƯ
́
U NGU
̣
Y THƯ
̣
C NGHIÊ
̣
M VÊ


Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10
Supervisor : LAM THI PHUC HAN, M.A.

Hanoi, 2011
vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CALL: Computer Assisted Language Learning
EFL: English as a Foreign Language
ELT: English Language Teaching
ESL: English as a Second Language
IT: Information Technology
NHHS: Ngoc Hoi High School vii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Page
Table 1: Pre-test descriptive statistics………………………………………

application of Powerpoint presentations ……………………………………

32
Fingure 5: Change in percentage of students’ retention after the application
of Powerpoint presentations………………………………………………….

33
Table 6: Students’ opinions about the advantages of the Powerpoint
presentations in teaching and learning listening skill………………………

34

viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
Declaration……………………………………………………………………
iii
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………
iv
Abstract………………………………………………………………………
v
List of abbreviations………………………………………………………….
vi
List of tables and figures……………………………………………………
vii

1.1.4.2. While-listening stage………………………………………………
9
1.1.4.3. Post-listening stage………………………………………………….
10
1.2. Technology-assisted teaching……………………………………………
11
1.2.1. Definition of technology- assisted teaching……………………………
11
1.2.2. Role of technology in language teaching……………………………
11
1.2.3. Previous studies………………………………………………………
13
1.2.4. The application of Powerpoint in designing the activities of a listening

ix

lesson…………………………………………………………………………
15
1.2.4.1. Pre-listening………………………………………………………….
15
1.2.4.2.While –listening………………………………………………………
16
1.2.4.3. Post- listening………………………………………………………
17
CHAPTER 2: METHODS OF THE STUDY …………………………….
18
2.1 Background of the study………………………………………………….
18
2.1.1. Ngoc Hoi school and its teaching and learning conditions…………….
18

3.1.1. The results of listening tests……………………………………………
25
3.1.1.1. The results of pre-tests scores of the two groups ……………………
25
3.1.1.2. The results of post-tests scores of the two groups…………………
26
3.1.2. The results of the questionnaire………………………………………
28
3.1.2.1. Students’ assessment on the importance and the effectiveness of the
Powerpoint presentations in teaching and learning listening skill…………

29
3.1.2.2. Students’ assessment on their listening skill improvement………….
32
x

3.1.2.3. The benefits of the Powerpoint presentations in teaching and
learning listening skill………………………………………………………
34
3.2. Discussions on the study results…………………………………………
35
3.3. Summary…………………………………………………………………
37
PART C: CONCLUSION…………………………………………………
38
1. Summary of the main findings and conclusion……………………………
38
2. Pedagogical implications………………………………………………….
38
3. Limitations and suggestions for further research…………………………

second language (ESL) teaching is, therefore, a need and the most important one to make
the more effectiveness. The advantages of using the technology-assisted teaching in the
language classroom have been recognized by many researchers in applied linguistics. The
main one is considered to be its ability to present and immerse learners into complete
communicative situations (Lonergan, 1984). According to Hutchen (2004), the use of
technology-assisted instruction is widely applied in education to improve student
performance, learning and satisfaction. Another advantage is the ability of the technology-
assisted teaching to cover non-verbal aspects of communication and its cross-cultural
comparison potential (Stempleski & Tomalin, 1990). In addition, using IT tools in the
classroom allows differentiation of teaching and learning according to students‟ abilities,
learning styles and personalities.
To teach English more effectively, teachers and students need to approach various
types of IT tools such as computers, overhead-projectors, multimedia projectors and some
popular softwares in teaching as: Power point, Word processor,Window media. The
powerful IT tools, which can help teachers to expand the four walls of the tradditional
classroom and rebuild the class with many useful controlled and free activities for
communicative competence, are increasing in both quality and quantity.
I myself enjoy teaching English, especially teaching listening skill with the help of IT
tools and I find that students are interested in the lessons with the application of IT. I have
2

also tried using the technology-assisted teaching for the teaching of listening skill and
found it rather promising. However, there have still been some questions such as how
much does the technology-assisted teaching actually motivate students to learn? To what
extent does it affect students‟ listening comprehension in classroom? How should the
technology-assisted teaching be used in listening lessons to improve students‟ listening
comprehension?
These questions motivated me to carry out the study on “The effect of technology-
assisted teaching on 10th form students’ listening comprehension”. With this study, the
researcher mainly focused on carrying out a quasi-experimental research to investigate the

comprehension as measured by the difference between their pretest and posttest scores ?
2, How much do students perceive the benefits of technology- assisted teaching to their
listening comprehension ?
It is hoped that the findings of the study will be of benefit to the teachers at NHHS,
especially those who are engaged in teaching listening. The study can highlight some
effects that technology- assisted teaching can bring about to improve students‟ listening
comprehension and some benefits of technology- assisted teaching that students perceive
in listening comprehension. The findings of the study will also contribute to our
understanding of the role of technology in language teaching and learning in general.
4. Scope of the study
The research limits its scope to the teaching of listening skill in English using the
regular English text book 10 and to its participants of 10
th
form students at NHHS. The
choice of participants is simply a matter of convenience the researcher is teaching
listening for 10
th
form students at NHHS.
In this study, the term “technology” is used in a very narrow sense. In fact,
„technology‟ in this study refers to the use of the Powerpoint as a support to the teaching
and learning of listening comprehension in the researcher‟s school. She is fully aware that
technology is not synonymous with the Powerpoint, but she decided to use the term in this
restricted sense because this is a common way that technology is meant in her context.
5. Method of the study
To realize the objectives of the study , the main research method employed in this
study is a quasi- experimental design which according to Seliger and Shohamy (1989:136)
involves the three basic components of experiments: the population (the 10
th
form
students at NHHS), the treatment (Technology-assisted teaching) and the measurement of

the information of the research is presented. There are two main parts: Listening
comprehension and Technology-assisted teaching. The first part deals with definition of
listening comprehension, the importance of listening in second language learning, some
challenges of listening comprehension and stages in teaching listening, and the second one
refers to definition of Technology-assisted teaching, roles of Technology-assisted
teaching, some previous studies on the effect of Technology on students‟ listening
comprehension and the application of Powerpoint Presentation in teaching listening.
1. 1. Listening comprehension
1.1.1. Definition of listening comprehension
Enlish listening is now well recognized as a crucial role in language learning and
communication. Over the last two decades, with a new wave of interest in the
development of communicative competence in language teaching, listening
comprehension skills have ever received much more attention in language teaching
classrooms. Researchers have different views on the definition of listening
comprehension:
Underwood (1989: 1) puts a simple and easy-to-understand definition. According
to her, listening “is the activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from
something we hear.” Underwoord emphasizes the consciousness of listeners by using the
phrase “paying attention”. Besides, listening here does not stress the word level but the
meaning of the whole utterance.
Listening comprehension is defined by O‟Malley & Chamot (1989: 420) as
follows: “Listening comprehension is an active and conscious process in which the
listener constructs meaning by using cues from contextual information and existing
knowledge, while relying upon multiple strategic resources to fulfil the task requirement”.
Buck (2001: 247) provide a broader definition of listening comprehension:
“Listening is a complex process in which the listeners takes the incoming data, an
acoustic signals, and interprets it based on a wide variety of linguistic and non-linguistic
knowledge. The linguistic knowledge includes knowledge of phonology, lexis, syntax,
6


well. In additions, students spend most of their time listening to the teacher‟s lecture.
7

Nichols and Stevens (see Elkhafaifi, 2005: 505) reported that among four language skills
in language learning: listening is the most frequently used skill: 45% is devoted to
listening, 30% to speaking, only 16% to reading and a mere 9% to writing. Therefore,
listening is a fundamental and vital skill in the acquisition of languages (Nunan, 2002).
Thus, it is of vital importance that students should be taught to listen effectively and
critically. Given the importance of listening in language teaching and learning, it is
essential for language teachers to help students become effective listeners.
1.1.3. Some challenges of listening to the learners
Listening is usually a hard skill to master in one‟s own language as well as in
second language acquisition.There have been different views about factors that affect
listening comprehension:
According to Brown and Yule, there are four main groups of factors that cause
difficulty in listening comprehension. They are, in turns, the speaker, the listener, the
content and support.
“ there are four main groups of factors that cause difficulty in listening
comprehension. These are the speaker (that includes the numbers of speakers, the
speaker’s speed, and the speaker’s accents); the listeners (this consists of the roles
of the listeners, the level of response required and the listener’s interest in the
subject): the content (vocabulary, grammar, information structure and background
knowledge); and support (whether there are pictures, diagrams and visual aids ).
(Brown and Yule (1983:74)
Mary Underwood (1989: 16-19) draws out seven problems learner may encounter
when learning to listen: fast speed; unrepeated thing; the listeners‟ limited vocabulary;
failure to recognize the “signals”; interpretation; concentrate; and learning habit.In
addition, unfamiliar topic can interfere with the learner‟s concentration which is a major
problem in listening activity. According to Underwood (1989: 19), “If students find the
topic interesting, they will find concentration easier.” Interesting topic makes listening

listening phase are:
- to introduce and arouse interest in the topic
- to promote an active and flexible learning environment
- to help increase learners‟ motivation for learning
- to motivate learners by giving a reason for listening
- to provide some language preparations for the text
9

(Baker and Westrup ,2000;233 and Lewis & Hill, 1992; 195)
During this stage, teachers may use some activities such as: teacher giving
background information, the students reading something relevant, the students looking at
pictures, having discussions about the topic/situation, doing a question and answer session
or written exercises, following instruction for the while-listening activity and taking
consideration of how the while-listening will be done (Underwood, 1989: 31). These
activities may provide an oppotunity for students to gain some knowledge which help
them to follow the listening text more easily.
1.1.4.2. While-listening stage
This stage is the main part of a listening lesson aiming at facilitating learners‟
listening and checking their comprehension. Time allocation for this stage is nearly two
thirds of the whole lesson. According to Underwood (1989: 45-48), while listening
activities are what students are asked to do during the time they are listening to the text.
The purpose of while listening activities is to help learners develop the skill of eliciting
messages from spoken language. As developing the skills of listening for comprehension
is the aim, while-listening activities must be chosen carefully. The activities of this stage
have the following requirements. First, they should be interesting and carefully chosen to
help students feel like listening, so that they may want to carry out the activites. Second,
they should be things which most students can do.Thus, teachers should provide other
activities from textbook for slower classes and move from simpler tasks (listening for
getting key words/phrases, listening for main ideas, matching, deciding on true/false
information, numbering pictures, sequencing events…) to more complicated ones

listening tasks.The teachers may give an answer orally, show the answers on the board or
on the screen or ask students to check again the answers in the book. The second purpose
of post-listening activities is to reflect why some students have failed to understand or
miss parts of the passage. Another purpose of post-listening activities is to expand the
topic or the language of the listening text. Post-listening work can be more effective if
they are integrated with other skills like reading, writing or speaking skills. Generally,
students spend time practising designed post-listening activities in textbook, which means
summarising listening passages in spoken or written form, relating to students‟ own
experience and extending the topic to oral or written presentations. Therefore, what
students should do in this stage are:
. Doing evaluation: Students answer true–false questions or multiple-choice questions as
an evaluation of their understanding.
11

. Practising speaking: Students act out a dialogue, interview or discussion on topics
related to the text.
. Practising writing: Students write messages, postcards, letters, etc. on topics related to
the text.
The next section will refer to the Technology-assisted teaching which is applied to
teach English listening skill.
1.2. Technology-assisted teaching
This section will focus on the technology- assisted teaching. The section is
devided into four parts: the definition of technology- assisted teaching, the role of
technology in language teaching, the previous studies and the application of Powerpoint in
designing the activities of a listening lesson.
1.2.1. Definition of technology- assisted teaching
There are many ways to define the term Technology assisted-teaching. Some
teachers use this term to refer to any things that teachers can use in teaching, such as
media images, audio or digital devices. Some other educators use this term to “refer to the
application of computer or electronic equipments in the teaching and learning”

+ increases student motivation due to the interactive nature of the activities.
+ introduces a variety of print, audio, and visual materials that match different
student learning styles and preferences.
Using a computer, a teacher can also provide students with different kinds of
learning. Garrett‟s view is that the computer can provide textual support for listening
(transcripts, glossary help, structural clues), which is particularly valuable at pre-
intermediate lever of language study where literacy and knowledge for formal language
play a much greater role in comprehension.
In Vietnam, in applying IT, almost teachers and educators understand IT as the use
of PowerPoint, which is an incredibly popular piece of software, coming with Microsoft
packages. Teachers can use Powerpoint to create presentations to help explain different
topics and supply students with many kinds of tasks. The main purpose of Power Point is
to enable the user to create dynamic, informational slide shows through the use of text,
graphics, and animation. Slide shows created with the software are often displayed on
projection screens for training, or educational presentations. Additionally, the slides can
be arranged and printed as handouts for reference.With PowerPoint, teachers can make
charts, tables, and macros, and insert images, audio, video, and other multimedia files to
support for their teaching activities. Although PowerPoint has been around for years, it
13

has just begun to spread to schools and English Language Teaching (ELT) classrooms as
more and more classrooms and teachers have access to computers and the hardware to use
PowerPoint. Therefore, PowerPoint is becoming an increasingly popular medium in ELT
in the classrooms. (adappted from Nguyen‟s minor thesis -2010).
1.2.3. Previous studies
According to Hutchen (2004:3), the use of technology-assisted instruction is
widely applied in education to improve student performance, learning and satisfaction.
The results in his study indicated that technology-assisted instruction creates a rich,
effective, and efficient learning environment which increases student performance and
learning. Many other researchers share these ideas. Garrett, N (2009:717) says that

From the points of the previous researchers and educators about the effectiveness
of the technology applied in teaching, it is certain that application of Powerpoint
presentations in language teaching, especially the teaching of listening skill is very
necessary and useful.
1.2.4. The application of Powerpoint in designing the activities of a listening lesson
As a high school teacher, the author always tries to use the Powerpoint presentations
in teaching English, expecially in teaching listening skill. Below are some activities used
in three stages of a listening lesson: Pre-listening stage, while-listening stage and post-
listening stage. (Lesson plans: Unit11, Unit 12 and Unit 14 – Appendix 4).
1.2.4.1. Pre-listening stage
The aim of this stage is to help students to get familliar with the topic of the spoken
text, understand the background knowledge and stimulate students‟ interest by setting the
scene. Therefore, teachers can do this by pre-teaching some of the most difficult language
(new words/difficult grammar points/ structures). They can also encourage students to
make predictions about the content of the text by using games, crossword, or matching
activity.
Below are some activities used to pre-teach listening skill in unit 11 and unit 12
(English of 10
th
form) with the aid of the Powerpoint presentations.
In unit 11 (English 10
th
form) with the listening lesson is about “ National parks”,
Powerpoint sofware can be used to design some pre-listening activities in which students
look at some photographs of Cuc Phuong National Park and listen to a part of the song
(Cuc Phuong National Park) and guess the name of the place then speak about this place
using their own knowledge of the place.
15

Picture 1: Screen of pre-listening picture guessing designed with the use

16

1.2.4.2. While –listening stage
In this stage, students often listen to the text twice and do some tasks at the same time.
Therefore, with the help of Powerpoint , teachers can design many types of gap fill ( word
level, phrase level or sentence level), they needn‟t use the original tasks in the textbook.
For example, they can design the new tasks basing on the level of their students. Below is
one task in unit 11 (English 10
th
form).
Picture 3: Screen of while-listening gap fill designed with Powerpoint – unit 11
Task 1. Listen and fill in the missing information
Cuc Phuong National Park was officially opened in ________
Cuc Phuong is located _______________________________ Hanoi
In 2002, nearly ________________ visited Cuc Phuong
There are ______________different species of flora and
________ species of fauna
Nguyen Hue’s army was stationed in Quen Voi before
it made its ________________ on Thang Long
160 kilometres south west of
100,000 visitors
1960
about 2,000
surprise attack
450

With this software, teachers can also save time by showing the mistakes and the
correct answers on the screen. For some simple gaps, teachers needn‟t explain much
because they can use the marking and explaining functions. This save them more time to
do other activities.

activities in textbook, summarise listening passages in spoken or written form, relate to
students‟ own experience, and extend the topic to oral or written presentations. Basing on
the level of students, teachers can design suitable post-listening activities. For example:
Picture 5: Screen of post-listening summary designed with Powerpoint –unit 11
Work in groups. Complete the following table about
Cuc Phuong National Park.
1960
160 km south west of Hanoi
Ninh Binh, Hoa Binh,
Thanh Hoa
About 2000
450
Nearly 100,000
During the dry season( from
October to April)
Time of opening
Location
Provinces it belongs to
Number of species of flora
Number of species of fauna
Number of visitors(2002)
Best time of visiting

This table helps students a lot to present the content of listening text. Moreover, it is
easy for other students to follow the presentation.
Picture 6: Screen of post-listening summary designed with Powerpoint –unit 14
born/ 1940
played / Santos FC/ 1956
joined and won/ 3 world cups
After his retirement/ became

IT to their teaching to motivate their students to learn English.
In recent years, computer has been used in NHHS. A multi-functional room
equipped with a computer and a projector was built in 2004. This has made the application
of information technology into language teaching feasible. Therefore, all the teachers in
this school have been applying IT in their teaching to make their teaching lessons more
effective. In the year 2007, the school has invested much more in equipments for teaching
and learning. Actually, there are 5 classrooms which are equipped with the wifi network.
Each has one computer accompanied with loudspeakers, headphones, microphones, an
overhead projector and a PowerPoint screen, and a video player, which has changed the
ways of English Language teaching and learning. As a result, teachers can design
electronic lesson plans with visual illustrations and audio aids to teach their students. This