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

BÙI THỊ HẰNG

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE TEACHING AND
LEARNING AT POST-LISTENING STAGE BY
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD PROGRAM STUDENTS,
ULIS-VNU (NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG DẠY VÀ HỌC Ở GIAI ĐOẠN SAU
KHI NGHE CHO SINH VIÊN NHIỆM VỤ CHIẾN LƯỢC
TRƯỜNG ĐHNN, ĐHQGHN)

M.A. MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.10 Hanoi- 2013

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

BÙI THỊ HẰNG



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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My words of thanks go to all the people who have contributed to the
accomplishment of this graduation paper.
First of all, it is with affection and appreciation that I would love to express my
heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, without whose
valuable advice and enthusiastic guidance, this research would not have become a
reality.
Secondly, I would be honestly grateful to Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, M.A my old
teacher as well as my beloved colleague, who was very busy with her work but still
spent precious time discussing and sharing her teaching experiences relating to my
research field.
Also, I owe a great debt to my family, teachers and friends for their continuous
support, advice and encouragement whenever I was in need of.
Last but not least, my sincere thanks are warmly sent to the teachers of ISP division
and ISP students who enthusiastically and patiently helped me collect significant
data for the study.
this stage.
It is the great ambition of the researcher that this study will function as a useful
reference for teachers of English who take interest in the subject matter.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TABLES

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching
ELT: English Language Teaching
ISP: International Standard Program
ULIS: University of Language and International Studies
VNU: Vietnam National University
Table 1: Post-listening form and activities in accordance with ISP teachers‟ objectives
Table 2: Types of post-listening activities exploited in observed classes
Table 3: Frequency of the utilization of post-listening activities
Table 4: Students‟ preferences for post-listening activities.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1.2. Listening materials 18
2. Participants 19
2.1. ISP Teachers 19
2.2. ISP students 19
3. Data collection instruments 19
3.1. Classroom observation 20
3.2. Interview 20
3.3. Questionnaires 21
4. Data Collection Procedures 21
5. Data Analysis Procedure 22
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 23
1. Research question 1- The general situation of teaching and learning at post-
listening stage for ISP students in ULIS, VNU. 23
1.1. Teachers‟ objectives for conducting post-listening stage 23
1.2. Duration of post-listening stage 24
1.3. Types of exploited post-listening activities 25
1.4. Students‟ participation during post-listening stage 30
1.5. Teacher‟s perceived difficulties in conducting post-listening stage 30
2. Research question 2- Students‟ preferences for post-listening activities 31
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3. Research Question 3- Students‟ perceived benefits of post-listening activities 34
4. Summary 35
PART C: CONCLUSION 37
1. Conclusions 37
2. Recommendations for overcoming difficulties . 39
3. Limitations of the study 41
4. Suggestions for further studies 41
REFERENCES 43
APPENDICES I

exercises to be completed during the while-listening stage. Noticeably, the post-
listening stage is said to be ineffective and irrelevant to what students have listened
to or even ignored in some listening classes notwithstanding that this stage is as
important as all other stages. In addition, most of the activities at this stage are
initiated and controlled by the teachers and listening skill is frequently isolated from
other language skills.
In terms of pedagogical view, there has been a lack of proper research interests
and investigations into the post-listening stage even though studies on pre-listening
and while-listening strategies as well as activities have been constantly carried out.
This stems partially from the inherent conception that the post-listening stage
merely deals with checking listening comprehension exercises.
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The above-stated facts generate strong motivation in the researcher to conduct a
study titled “An exploratory study on the teaching and learning at post-listening
stage by International Standard Program students, ULIS-VNU”. She desires to
take a closer look into the current situation of teaching and learning listening,
especially at post-listening stage among ISP students, ULIS-VNU. Her hope is also
to figure out useful post-listening activities and possible solutions to teachers‟
difficulties during this stage.
2. Aims of the study
In carrying out this research, the researcher desires to explore two main issues.
First, the study aims to investigate the real situation of teaching and learning at the
post-listening stage among ISP students. The goal is to find out the most commonly
utilized post-listening activities, the length of this follow-up stage, the involvement
of students as well as problems facing teachers while carrying out this stage.
Second, the author would like to detect students‟ preferences for effectively-
exploited activities at post-listening stage and their perceived benefits brought about
by the activities conducted at this stage. These objectives can be achieved by
answering the following research questions:

research question. Besides, the interview aimed at gaining more information about
teachers‟ purposes set for the implementation of post-listening stage and the
challenges facing them in this stage.
* Questionnaire
Questionnaire was employed to seek the answers to the two last questions. The
researcher distributed the questionnaire papers to 70 students of three ISP groups at
medium level of English. In this study, all the questions and instructions were
written in Vietnamese to avoid possible misunderstanding which might affect the
accuracy of the outcomes.
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4. Significance of the study
As one of the under-researched issues in teaching listening for ISP students in
ULIS-VNU, the present study on post-listening stage will make certain
contributions to university students, teachers, educationists and researchers of the
related fields.
Firstly, as for teachers and students at ISP division, they may have an overall
look into the current situation of teaching and learning at the post-listening stage.
Besides, the teachers will certainly realize the difficulties facing them during this
stage and students‟ preferences as well as perceived benefits of post-listening
activities. This study is beneficial for students in the sense that they tend to become
fully aware of the importance of the follow-up stage and their responsibilities to
actively take part in this stage.
Second, since obstacles to the implementation of post-listening stage, along
with measures are clearly demonstrated in the research, educationists may base on
them to make necessary changes in terms of curriculum, facilities to exploit post-
listening activities to the full.
Last, the research will serve as the foundation for further related researches.
Other researchers may also take the strengths and weaknesses of the study into
account to better theirs.


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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter provides a detailed insight into theoretical background underlying
the subject matter involving the nature of listening, the teaching of listening viewed
by the Communicative Language Teaching approach and notably the post-listening
activities.
1. The nature of listening
1.1. What is listening?
First and foremost, there is an essential need to mention that listening here is
associated mainly with listening and understanding what we hear at the same time.
In fact, through the years, various definitions of listening have been proposed but
"there indeed appears to be no universally accepted definition" (Dunkel, 1986, p.
433).
Rost (1990) may be the person who defined listening in the most
comprehensible way: “Listening is one of fundamental language abilities that allow
users of language get not only information but also instruction.” (p. 82). In addition,
Brown‟s simplest definition stated that “Listening is the ability to identify and
understand what others are saying. This involves understanding a speaker‟s accent
or pronunciation, his grammar and his vocabulary and grasping his meaning”.
(Brown, 1994, p.151)
However, one of the most complete and detailed definition of listening is the

interactive process by which spoken language is converted to meaning in the mind.
Besides, H. Douglas Brown revealed in his research in 1994 that listening
comprehension is not only the process of sending and receiving sounds but also the
conscious process to send and transmit the message to the brain which will
influence the process of communication.
Probably the most detailed and comprehensive theory of listening process is the
one recommended by Wolvin and Coakly (1992). From their perspectives, listening
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is the process involving three basic steps: “receiving, understanding; judging and
responding” (p.40). The first step means listening to catch what speaker is saying.
After receiving the message, the listener must understand and interpret the
information. The next step is to judge whether the message makes sense and can be
reliable to believe in. The listening can not end without the last step: “responding”.
It is the form of feedback that completes the communication transaction and results
in the listeners‟ actions.
1.3. The importance of listening skill in language teaching and learning
In the era of mass communication, undeniably, it is of vital importance that
listening skill be taught in the teaching process and students be trained to become
effective and critical listeners.
Quite a few efforts have been made to reinforce the significance of listening in
everyday communication. According to Byrnes H. (1984), more than 40% of people
daily communication is devoted to listening, approximately 35% to speaking, 16%
to reading and only 9% on writing. In a report delivered by Rost (1990), it is
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 and to one another. In Harmer‟s words, “Listening is a
medium through which children, young people and adults gain a large portion of
their education, their information, their understanding of the world and of human
affairs, their ideals, senses of values and their appreciation” (Harmer, 2001, p.115).

skill incorporation appears to be a preferable choice in almost all lesson plans of
language teachers not only to provide a variety in classroom but also to allow the
recycling and revision of language taught separately in each skill. Thus, “An
integrated approach to learning enables students and teachers to participate in new
dialogues and pathways to learning”. (Tchudi & Mitchell, 1989, p. 36).
There is no doubt that improving listening serves as the base on which the
development of speaking, reading and writing abilities is formed. Listening is the
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first and foremost language art. It is true that babies start identifying sounds and
speech patterns before they are born. According to Peterson (1991), listening is also
a receptive skill which gives way to productive skills of speaking and writing.
Speaking is closely related with listening because one cannot speak until he/she
knows the sounds of the language and has some understanding that these sounds
represent things in the real world. In addition, whether ideas in written forms can
diversify depends on the great amount of language that learners speak and listen.
How the two receptive skills of listening and reading are correlated is worth
answering. Both of them are phases of language information acquisition and require
higher mental process. Peterson also assumes that if the child listened to a simple
story in his first reading book, he would have no difficulty understanding it.
All things considered, listening skill can reinforce the other three skills and they
are all inextricably linked with one another.
Wolvin and Coakly (1992) suggested that listening is the process involving three
basic steps: “receiving, understanding; judging and responding”. The first step
means listening to catch what speaker is saying. After receiving the message, the
listener must understand and interpret the information. The next step is to judge
whether the message makes sense and can be reliable to believe in. The listening
cannot end without the last step: “responding”. It is the form of feedback that
completes the communication transaction and results in the listener‟ actions.
2. The teaching of listening in Communicative Language Teaching Approach.

 How to communicate in the language
Under the light of CLT, the notion of three-stage format listening class and
integration of different language skills are first introduced. These issues will be
given further concern in the following parts.
3. Teaching listening procedure
One of the main advancements of research into listening strategies was the
understanding that a listening class could be divided into three main parts: Pre-
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listening, While-listening and Post-listening stage. Each phase is separately carried
out to “deal with listeners‟ problems in the listening process and help them build up
their skills and strategies for later real-life listening situations”. (Nunan & Miller,
1995, p.124)
3.1. Pre-listening
According to Underwood (1989), pre-listening is defined as a phase of
preparation or warm-up for listening in several ways. It is vital that students know
some details of what they are about to hear, why they are listening, how many times
they will hear the speech. Unfamiliar vocabulary should be elicited/pre-taught. In
other words, this stage supplies students with context, motivation, the purposes for
the forth-coming listening input and activates their background knowledge.
3.2. While-listening
While-listening stage is the focus of a listening class. During this stage, students
are given time to listen silently and independently without interruption, which
enables them to build up hypotheses with the help of well-designed listening
comprehension questions. Activities in this stage must follow the learners‟ specific
needs, instructional goal, listening purposes and learners‟ proficiency level.
“They can run a mental commentary on it; they can doubt it, talk back to it, or
extend it. They can rehearse it in order to remember it; that is, they repeat
interesting points back to themselves. They can formulate questions to ask the
speaker jot down key words or key phrases They can wonder if what they

students‟ learning by emphasizing that the information gained will be useful later
on. Generally, as proposed by Mowbray & George (1992), there are six main
purposes of this stage:
To check students’ comprehension, correct inaccurate concepts: Teacher helps
students correct their exercises and answer their wonderings about the task.
Through discussion and response activities, students are able to develop a clearer
understanding of the topic and of the listening experience.
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To scrutinize the relationship between prior knowledge and new ideas and
information gained through listening: Students' comprehension can be enhanced if
post-listening activities encourage them to make connections between what the
speaker says and their own knowledge and experience.
To invite and encourage student reflection and response: Students may be
either for or against the point of the speaker. However, it is essential that they stand
on their ground and give convincing reasons to protect their view
To extend and clarify comprehension beyond the surface meaning: to help
students „listen between the lines‟, evaluate the value of the information via analysis
of speaker‟s ideas.
To help students apply new information immediately: Thanks to these activities,
students tend to become attentive and active listeners instead of passively listening
to the recording as assigned.
To integrate listening with other language skill: Post-listening activities are
carried out in various forms: reading, writing and speaking in order to develop the
link between listening and other skills as well as help students move easily from
listening to other skill. (
4.2. Factors affecting the choice of post-listening activities
As specified by Brownell (1996), the teachers should take into account these
following factors before selecting the post-listening activity in their listening
lessons:

way where all four skills are focused. On the basis of a strong link between listening
and other language skills, methodologists recognize that one of the most important
principles of teaching listening is to combine listening with speaking or writing
(Tchudi & Mitchell, 1989, p.124). Why so? Listening is a receptive skill which
provides the support for productive skills. Production and reception are two sides of
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a coin and cannot be split. And if teachers give students chances to produce
something, the teaching of listening will be more communicative. Among the three
stages of a listening class, post-listening is probably the stage where the four-skill
link is clearly demonstrated and consolidated.
There is no doubt that post-listening integrated activities offer a number of
benefits. They practice and extend the learners' use of a certain language structure
and function; develop the learners' ability in the use of more than two skills within
real contexts and communicative framework. Moreover, integrated activities
provide a variety in the classroom and thus maintain motivation for students.
5. Related studies
The four English skills, namely reading, speaking, writing and listening have
continuously become the great concern for many researchers in recent years.
Concerning listening skill, the procedure of teaching listening comprising pre-,
while-, and especially post-listening phase has triggered a lot of research interest
and investment.
Rixon (1981) stressed the tremendous importance of after-listening stage since
it enables students to connect what they have heard to their own ideas or
experiences and extend their critical thinking.
Another study of Brownell (1996) investigates the most common activities
exploited in post-listening stage such as giving opinions, answering teachers‟
questions, critically analyzing the information and using the notes to summarize the
listening text. Also, the factors affecting teachers‟ choice of types of post-listening
activities are put forth including the amount of time, the combined skill, the work