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

HÀ MINH TUẤN DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILLS FOR THE FIRST YEAR NON
ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY OF
AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY THROUGH ENGLISH SONGS

Phát triển kĩ năng nghe cho sinh viên không chuyên tiếng Anh năm thứ nhất
tại trường Đại học Nông Lâm Thái Nguyên thông qua các bài hát tiếng Anh
M.A MINOR PRORAMME THESIS
FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

Master of Arts (TEFL), accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention
and use of Master‟s thesis deposited in the library.
In terms of the condition, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the library
should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal
conditions established by the librarians, for the care, loan, or reproduction of the thesis.

Hanoi, August 2014
Signature Hà Minh Tuấn
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The completion of this study would have been impossible without the assistance of special
people. iii
ABSTRACT This study aims to develop listening skills for the first year non English major
students at Thai Nguyen university of Agriculture and Forestry through English
songs. To fulfill this purpose, 240 first year non English major students were
selected from 4 classes. These participants were then asked to answer the
questionnaire, take part in some formal and informal discussion, make a face to face
interview with the researcher about the use of English songs in class.
The study was carried out over four-month course. Data was gathered and analyzed
through charts and tables. Results revealed that the use of English songs made a
rather significant improvement to the students‟ listening skills. Some
recommendations are finally presented based on research finding.
Key words: English songs, first year students, listening skills v
TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION…………………………………
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………
ii
ABTRACT………………………………………………………………………
iii
LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS……………………………………………

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2.3.2 Using songs as motivator for students to learning listening skills……….
12
2.3.3 Tasks designed for listening texts…………………………………………….
14
2.4 Summary…………………………………………………………………………
15
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
16
3.1 The subjects…………………………………………………………………………
16

vi
3.2 Methods of data collection…………………………………………………
16
3.3 Procedures and methods of data analysis………………………………
16
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Findings
4.1.1 Students’ attitude towards listening skill……………………………………
17
4.1.2 The factors leading to students’ difficulty in listening skill…………………
17
4.1.3 Teachers’ attitudes towards using songs………………………………………
18
4.1.4 Students’ attitude towards using songs ………………………………………
19
4.1.5 The situation of using songs to teach listening skill…………………………
20
4.1.6 Reasons why students listen to English songs………………………………

Sub questions 1
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
According to the theory of language acquisition, listening is the first mode for
children to acquire a language (Peterson, 1991; Wulandari, 2011). It provides a
foundation for language and cognitive development. Hunsaker (cited in Bozorgian,
2012) found that children achieve more than three quarters of what they learn in
school through listening. Research has shown that improvement in listening skill
positively affects other language skills: reading, writing and speaking (Bozorgian,
2012). Listening is also one of the most important language skills throughout
human‟s life. It makes up the largest part of human‟s communication. As found out
by different researchers (Wilt, Rankin, Feyton cited in Wulandari, 2011; Ralph &
Stevens, Rankin cited in Bozorgian, 2012), people spend 45% of their
communicating time to listen to each other, while they spend only 30% speaking,
16% reading and 9% writing. That finding confirmed what Rivers and Weaver had
found (as cited in Morley, 1991) that the time people spend listening is twice as
much as speaking, four times more than reading and five times as much as writing.
Listening can boost or impede the communication process and the mutual
understanding among people because it provides the input for “all aspects of
language and cognitive development” (Wulandari, 2011, p. 15).
Listening skill has salient importance in not only the first but also second
language learning (Bozorgian, 2012). Listening serves as the bridge to speaking and
writing because it is an activity to gain information. Moreover, listening
comprehension is of more importance when it comes as the crucial step in

exposure to English may probably be through popular songs. Lynch (2005) points
out in his article that language teachers should use songs as part of their English
language teaching. Among the reasons given are that songs contain natural
language, are easily obtainable, and are natural and fun. He also states that a variety
of new vocabulary can be introduced as well as cultural aspects and even different
types of English accents. Songs can be selected to suit the needs and interests of

3
students. The lyrics of songs can be used in relating to situations of the world
around the students. Overall, he concludes that songs can offer an enjoyable
speaking, listening, vocabulary and language practice.
On the whole, songs are believed to be able to improve the current listening
teaching practice and develop students‟ listening comprehension.
Based on that rationale, the hypothesis for this study was formulated as
follows: Using English songs can develop listening comprehension skill for the first
year non English major students at TUAF in the academic year of 2013-2014.

2. Aims of the study
The main aim of the research is to help first year non English major students at
TUAF improve their listening ability through English songs. It first gives them an
overview of a suitable technique in learning listening and the significance of using
English songs to develop listening skill. Then, the thesis also aims at finding their
attitude towards the use of this technique in teaching listening skill, its benefits to
listening as well as English learning in general. Finally, it strives to suggest a
method to enhance listening skill and apply it in teaching and learning.
3. Research questions
This study aims at investigating the effects of using songs on improving
listening comprehension skill of first-year non English major students at TUAF, and
the impact it has on students‟ attitudes towards studying with this technique. It
attempts to address the following research questions:
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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is aimed at providing a theoretical background to this study. The
review of issues most relevant to the focus of the study will be included: concepts of
listening comprehension, listening process, listening difficulties and the use of songs to
help the listeners solve the problem in listening skills.
During the process of teaching and learning English, applying a suitable
method in teaching requires both teacher and learners have long lasting cooperation
and especially, the teacher should have high creativeness in giving his own
knowledge to the students. That “develop listening skills for the first year non
English major students through English songs” is a method in developing listening
skills to the students. The chosen English songs are one of the materials in teaching
listening skill because music can help learners remember quickly and create a long
lasting effectiveness. When information is spoken along with the rhythms, learners
will remember better. It is true that the rhythms and lyrics in music have an
enormous influence in helping learners save information.
Songs also give new insights into the target culture. They are the means
through which cultural themes are presented effectively. Since they provide
authentic texts, they are motivating. Prosodic features of the language such as stress,
rhythm, intonation are presented through songs, thus through using them the
language which is cut up into a series of structural points becomes a whole again.

 Connecting linguistic cues to paralinguistic cues (intonation, stress) and to
nonlinguistic cues (gestures) in order to construct meaning
 Using background knowledge and context to predict and then to confirm
meaning
 Recalling important words and ideas
(Rost, cited in Rosová, 2007)
From the points of view above, it is obvious that an able listener is capable of
integrating all these component skills.

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Underwood (1989) also says that “listening is the ability of paying to and
trying to get meaning from something we hear”. She explains that to listen
successfully to spoken language, we need to be able to work out what speakers
mean when they use particular words in particular ways on particular occasions, and
not simply to understand the words themselves. But listening is different from
hearing. Whilst hearing can be thought of as a passive condition, listening is always
an active process (Underwood, 1989). Actually, hearing is possible to hear sounds
without consciously engaging in the process. In contrast, in listening, the brain does
not automatically translate the words into message they are conveying. It involves
much more than assigning labels to sounds or words.
2.2 Listening skill in foreign language teaching
2.2.1 The importance of listening skill in foreign language teaching
It cannot be denied that we spend a large portion of our time listening because
it is a key element of the verbal communication. It has been estimated that adults
spend almost half their communication time listening, and students may receive as
much as 90% of their in – school information through listening to instructors or to
one another. However, in the past, reading and grammar skills were paid much
attention to while speaking and listening skills were taken for granted. As a result,
language learners did not recognize its importance in developing language skills.
Rost (1994) emphasizes the importance of listening for several reasons below:

Vietnamese language there is no stress on words because all words are root words
or single words, in English it can also be on the first or the second or the third or the
last)
* the „same‟ sounds (usually vowels) can be pronounced in several different ways
(break x weak x fear etc.)
* use of colloquial vocabulary in informal dialogues; grammar deviations; broken
syntax
* the pace of the recording or speech is the same for everybody - we can not replay
it anytime we want; in real-life listening we are usually exposed to the text only
once: “Written discourse is fixed and stable so the reading can be done at whatever

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time, speed and level of thoroughness the individual reader wishes. Spoken text in
contrast is fleeting, and moves on in real time. The listener - though he or she may
occasionally interrupt to request clarification must in general follow what is said at
the speed set by the speaker.” (Ur 2004, p 160)
* other factors such as poor acoustic conditions or noise can make the listening
activity even more stressful for the learners
To solve these problems, teachers should make the lessons more interesting to
motivate the students to listen by some interesting activities in class. One of the
activities is to listen to English songs. In relation to the students at TUAF- Foreign
Language Center who still feel it very difficult to understand the meaning of the
material after playing the tape for twice or three times in class. Songs seem to be the
suitable choice because the students will be stimulated and not be panic or worry
when they are learning listening.
2.2.3 Teaching listening skill according to CLT
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), derived from the late 1970s and
early 1980s, can be said to be the product of educators and linguists who had grown
dissatisfied with the audio-lingual and grammar-translation methods of foreign
language instruction. It can be understood as a set of principles about the goals of

motivate learning, relax people who are overwhelmed or stressed, make learning
fun, help people absorb material.
Due to its great value, music and songs have been taken into consideration as a
method to teach language as Medina (1993) says “it is currently a common practice
to use songs in the classroom to support second language acquisition” because
music can stimulate and motivate students to learn a new language. It is really a
language package that bundles culture, vocabulary, listening, grammar and a host of
other language skills in just a few rhymes (Inggris, 2008).
In the words of Lynch (2005), “songs are useful in the language learning
classroom”. Therefore, he points out 9 reasons why foreign language teachers
should use songs to teach EFL:
o Songs almost always contain authentic, natural language.

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o A variety of new vocabulary can be introduced to students through songs.
o Songs are usually very easily obtainable.
o Songs can be selected to suit the needs and interests of the students.
o Grammar and cultural aspects can be introduced through songs.
o Time length is easy controlled.
o Students can be experience a wide range of accents.
o Song lyrics can be used in relating to situations of the world around us.
o Students think songs are natural and fun.
(Lynch, 2005)
To share the same view, Davanellos (1999) says that “songs are not only fun,
they have a serious purpose for language learning”, he also suggests several good
reasons of using songs for teaching purposes. One of the reasons the students are
interested in studying is that they feel motivated as “enjoyable learning has to be
more effective than teacher-centred procedures” (Davanellos, 1999).
To sum up, songs not only play an important part in our life but are a useful
tool to learn in a foreign language classroom. So teachers of foreign language

meaning of a message. Practicing both of these processes is essential for developing
comprehension. Songs can be used to utilize these two processes. Also, researchers
have shown that music can change the brain waves and make the brain more
receptive to learning. Music connects the functions of the right and left hemispheres
of the brain so that they work together and makes learning quick and easy.
Krashen (1982) explains that optimal learning will occur if the affective filter
must be weak. According to his Affective Filter Hypothesis, a weak filter means
that a positive attitude towards learning is present. If the affective filter is strong,
the learner will not seek language input, and in turn will not be open to language
acquisition. The practical application of this hypothesis is that teachers must
provide a positive atmosphere conducive to language learning. Songs are one
method for achieving a weak affective filter and promoting language learning.

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In conclusion, songs are one of the best methods to teach and motivate
students to learn listening skill. So teachers should take advantages of songs to
stimulate and help students improve their listening skill.
2.3.3 Tasks designed for listening texts
There are various kinds of listening tasks. According to Ur (1984), possible and
applicable listening tasks should be:
- Dictation exercise:
This is common listening exercise which is usually practices in the earlier years of
school education. It requires students an integrative knowledge of the phonological,
syntactic and semantic systems of a language. To do this task, teacher gives students
handout, omitting some sentences of the text, then plays the tape and asks students
to listen to the text and write the missing sentences down.
- Ticking off items:
Learners tick beside the items: Learners tick beside the items that they hear in the
listening
- True/False:

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1 The subjects

The subjects of the study are the first year non English major students. Most of
the students come from the mountainous provinces of Vietnam. The chance for
them to learn English is not as good as those who live in big cities. Most of them do
not seem to concern about the importance of learning English because they focused
on the subjects they have to take when taking part in a university entrance
examination. When they enter the university, they fear English, they consider it a
difficult subject to learn. They are bored and passive in learning English. For most
of the students, is only understood as an obligatory subject in university curriculum.
3.2 Methods of data collection
The research adopted questionnaire and interview as means of data collection.
In addition, formal and informal discussions and small talks with teachers and
students to collect more data for this study were also conducted.
3.3 Procedures and methods of data analysis
The aim of the questionnaires was to collect data relating students‟ attitudes
towards listening skill, the reasons that caused students‟ difficulties in learning
listening skill, teachers and students‟ attitudes towards English songs and using
songs in teaching and learning listening skill, and the situation of using songs to
teach listening skill at TUAF. Basing on categories established, data was then
analyzed by using descriptive statistics (percentage) and qualitative statistics
(informal discussions, interview). Pie chart, graphs and tables were mainly
employed to analyze and compare figures. The information was gathered from two
questionnaires were presented and analyzed as in chapter 4, finding and discus
speaker‟s speed and were often left behind. As a result, they could hardly
understood what the speaker had said. Besides, limited vocabulary is another

17
important cause that makes listening difficult for the students.Unfamiliar to
speaker‟s accent and unfamiliar topics are also the main reason preventing them
from understanding the whole text. The chart below shows The reasons cause
students‟ difficulty in listening skill (Chart 2)
Why listening skill difficult?
20%
31%
44%
5%
Speaker's speed
Vocabulary
Few chance
Unfamilar topics

Chart 2: Why listening skill difficult?

4.1.3 Teachers’ attitudes towards using songs
To carry out the study, the researcher also got teachers‟ opinion about using
songs to teach listening skill mainly from the questionnaire and interview. Firstly,
when being asked about their attitudes about English songs, whether they liked or
disliked. All of them said that they (100%) liked listening to English songs.
However, when asked if they had ever used English songs to start at the beginning
and during a lesson in order to get students‟ desire from the lesson, some of them
said yes and others of them said they had never tried before. They said that they had
no ability to perform an English song, even though there were some in textbook.
They added that it is really a good idea to make use of English songs to teach