VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES Phạm Thị Yến A sutudy on Teaching Listening Comprehension
to the 10
th
form students at Ly Thuong Kiet
high school Bac Giang.
Nghiên cứu về việc dạy kỹ năng nghe hiểu cho học sinh
lớp 10 trng THPT Lý Th-ờng Kiệt Bắc Giang

M.A. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60 14 10

HA NOI - 2010
iii
Table of contents

Acknowledgements Page
Abstract
Table of contents

List of abbreviations
List of tables and pie charts
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
1. Rationale 2
2. Aims of the Study 3
3. Methods of the Study 3
4. Scope of the Study 3
5. Design of the Study 3
chapter II - Literature review
1. Introduction 5
2.1. The definition of listening and listening comprehension 5
2.1.1. Definition of listening 5
2.1.2. Definition of listening comprehension 6
2.1.3 Listening Comprehension Process 7
2.2. Types of Listening 10
2.2.1 Listening in real-life 10
2.2.2 Listening in classroom 10
2.3. The importance of listening comprehension 11
2.3.1. Listening as the final goal of learning a language 12
2.3.2. Listening as a mean of acquiring language 12
2.4. What makes listening difficult 13

2.1. The importance of learning listening of the students at Ly Thuong Kiet
High School 26
2.2. The students’ difficulties when learning listening at school
( Question 4, 5,6) 26
2.2.1. Listening difficulties encountered by 10
th
grade students at
Ly Thuong Kiet High School 26
2.2.2. The expectations of the students towards teachers of listening skill

v
(question 5) 27
3. Students’ attitude after listening lesson. (Question 6,7 and 8) 29
4. Students’ need in learning listening 29
4.1. The students’ effort (question 9) 29
4.2. Teachers and their teaching methods (Question 10) 29
4.3. The things that school can do to help students in their learning English 31
II. The teachers’ questionnaire 31
1. Teachers’ views on the aims of teaching English at school 31
2. Teachers’ opinion about the aspects of language taught at school 32
3. Teachers’ opinion of teaching listening comprehension (question 3,4,5 and 6) 33
3.1. Teachers’ difficulties in teaching listening. (Question 4, 5 and 6) 34
3.2. Teachers’ activities to help students overcome the difficulties
in learning listening process. ( Question 7) 35
4. Teachers’ attitude toward class-listening activities
(Question 7, 8,9,10, 11 and 12) 36
4.1. Teachers’ opinions about three-listening stages (Question 7) 36
4.2. Teaches’ comments on the pre-listening activities in the textbooks
and their suggestions (Question 8,9) 37
4.3. Listening exercises teachers often have students practice in a


vii
list of abbreviations  CLT :Communicative Language Teaching
 LCT :Listening Comprehension Teaching
 LTK HS :Ly Thuong Kiet High School
 N :Number
 ESL :English as a Second language
 Ss :Students
 Ts :Teachers

Chapter 1: Introduction

1. Rationale

In the recent years, English language is described as an international language and the
need for communication between groups of people. It is not only the main language spoken by
native speakers but also the official language in many countries as well as an important
language in a lot of nations throughout the world. In Vietnam, where people are carrying out
the modernization and industrialization, English has become more popular and important.
Thus, Ministry of Education in Vietnam has considered English as a compulsory subject at
most upper secondary schools. However, how to teach and learn English effectively and how
to popularize it are not simple matters.

For most of students, English is always considered a difficult subject which has four skills:
Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing. In these skills, listening skill seems to be the most
difficult and weakest skills among students’ four language skills. The difficulties which hinder
students from developing their listening skills are various. Moreover, most high school
students have had listening practice in their classroom, but they may find themselves bored
with the listening tasks

For listening teachers, correspondingly, it is a difficult task to get students involved in
listening lessons. Nonetheless, just as other teachers do, listening teachers should create an
interesting and motivating learning environment on one hand; and on the other hand, they
must become aware of difficulties and problems facing their students, then, select the best
techniques to help them.

My school is Ly Thuong Kiet High School (LTK HS) in Bac Giang, which is a
mountainous province in the Northeast of Ha Noi. Teaching and learning listening there is
really a challenging job. In addition to the lack of well-equipped facilities, teaching listening
methods are quite new and unfamiliar to teachers. Another problem is students’ low levels of


3. Methods of the Study

To achieve the aims mentioned above, the reseacher chose the survey reseach, qualitative

3
approach, which involves two survey questionnaires, is employed to collect the data for the
study. The first survey questionnaires are for students, which dealt with students’ needs and
difficulties in learning listening. The second survey questionnaires are for teachers, which
aims to find out the real situation and the difficulties that teachers face in teaching listening
skill at LTK HS.

4. Scope of the Study

This minor study is conducted at LTK HS in order to perceive the real teaching and
learning listening skills of both teachers and 10th form students. The study focuses on
describing the problems and factors causing such challenges, for instance, facilities, students’
English listening proficiency and teachers’ methodology. The thesis also offers some
appropriate suggestions to better the current context. It was my intention to examine all the
seven teachers of the school and 8 classes with 380 students.

5. Design of the Study
The study is divided into five chapters which are summarized as follows:
The first chapter is introduction including a rationale for study, the aims, and the methods,
scope of the study as well as the design of the study.The second chapter is literature review
discussing the theoretical background, which is relevant to the purposes of the study.The third
chapter is on the study which gives a detailed description of how the study was implemented.
The fourth chapter is to report the data analysis. Discussion about the results is also made
in this chapter.
The final chapter gives the conclusion as well as some recommendations for the teaching


2.1.2. Definition of listening comprehension

There have been a large number of definitions for listening comprehension made by
methodologists. According to Anderson and Lynch (1988) listening is really a receptive skill

2
along side reading skills and the role of the listener is no longer passive but active. After a
period of listening, the learners are expected to be able to talk or write about what they have
heard, that is the objectives of listening comprehension. Therefore, "The role of the successful
listeners has to be thought as an active one" Anderson and Lynch (1988: 6). There has also
been the idea that listening comprehension is pointed out that listening comprehension is an
active process of constructing meaning and this is done by applying knowledge to the
incoming sound.
Another definition of listening and listening comprehension is pointed out that “Listening
comprehension is an active process of constructing meaning and this is done by applying
knowledge to the incoming sound” in which “number of different types of knowledge are
involved: both linguistic knowledge are involved: both linguistic knowledge and non linguistic
knowledge”. (Buck, 1984:31)
While Brown and Yule (1983) list the four degrees of comprehension on which listening
exercises can be constructed:(1) The listener can repeat the text.(2) The student should have
heard and understood the meaning of particular vocabulary items as that are used in that
text.(3) The student should be able to resolve anaphoric reference and to determine which was
referred to.(4) The student should be able to work out not only what is directly asserted in the
text, but also what is implied.

Therefore, the concept of listening and listening comprehension can be broadly defined as
everything that improves on the human processing which mediates between sounds and the
construction of meaning. When listeners are expected to attend to what they hear to process it,
to comprehend, to interpret, to evaluate and to respond to the incoming data. In order to do all


· Recording for storage

Brown also suggests the following two stages of information storage after the hearer has
successfully decoded the oral input: (1) The hearer determines whether information should be
retained in short-term the hearer. Short-term memory is appropriate, for example, in contexts
that simply call for a quick oral response from the hearer. Long-term memory is more
common when, say, hearer is processing information in a lecture. (2) The hearer deletes the
original form of the message in 99 percent of speech acts.

Important information, if any, is retained conceptually.

4

Based on the ways listeners process and comprehend what is heard, listening is said to be
existed of two underlying modes of language processing which interact in a cooperative
process, namely top-down and bottom-up processes (o)
Top-down Processing: It is listener based. The listener actively constructs (or. more
accurately. reconstructs) the original meaning of the speaker using incoming sounds as clues.
In this reconstruction process, the listener uses prior knowledge of the context and situation
within which the listening takes place to such of what he or she hears. Context and include
such things as knowledge of the topic at hand, the speaker and the relationship to the situation,
as well as to each other and prior events.
Bottom-up Processing: It is text based. This model assumes that listening is a process of
decoding the sound that one hears in a linear fashion, from the smallest meaningful units
(phonemes) to complete texts. According to this view, phonemic units are decided and linked
together to form utterances, and utterances are linked together to form complete, meaningful
texts. In other words, the processes are a linear one, in which meaning itself is derived as the
last step in the process.


been conducted aiming not only at seeking the ways to teach the listening skill effectively but
also trying to answer the question of what makes listening difficult.

In the eyes of many teachers and learners of English, listening is usually regarded as a
difficult skill. If they are asked to rank the four macro language skills: speaking, reading,
writing and listening in order of difficulty, listening skill will probably be one of those which
are put at the top of the list. They often complain people speak too fast, speakers pronounce
the words differently, or speakers often swallow the words.
Brown and Yule (1983:74) suggested that: “…there are four main groups of factors,
which can cause difficulty in listening comprehension. These are the speaker (that includes the
number of speakers, the speaker’s speech, and the speaker’s accents): the listener (this consists
of the role of the listener, the level of response required and the listener’s interest in the
subject): the content (vocabulary, grammar, and information structure and background
knowledge): and support (whether there are pictures, diagrams visual aids…)”

Anderson and Lynch (1988: 202) group the factors that confront listeners into three main
categories: the type of language; the purpose in listening; the context in which the listening

6
takes place. They did a lot of experiments and found that listening is difficult because of the
following factors: (1) The organization of information. (2) The familiarity of the topic. (3) The
explicitness and sufficiency of the information. (4)The type of referring expressions used. (5)
Whether the text described ‘static’ relationships (for instance, geometric figures) or dynamic
relationship (e.g. a car accident)

In summary, there are a number of factors that make listening difficult. The list ranges from
linguistic factors to non- linguistic factors such as the listeners and support. However, teaching
experience has told that students really panic when coping with the following factors:

2.3.1. The linguistic factors

One of the most apparent sources of difficulty for a learner of English is the way in which it
is pronounced. There are words, which are stressed when people speak, but there are words
that bear no stress. Stress is, from an articulator perspective, an aspect of this; some words lose
their clarity. The Pronunciation of English, therefore, can cause students problems in
recognition, and in comprehension (Rixon, 1986). The difficulty in recognition of words is
also caused by the phenomenon of elision and assimilation. Elision is the loss of sounds,
which occurs in rapid speech. Assimilation is the way in which most speakers modify
pronunciation to save effort.

These prosodic features of the English language as Brown (1994) exclaims, can be a terror
for some learners as mouthfuls of syllables come spilling out because of stressed points.
Another reason why listening to English is not easy is that the listeners are not used to the
rhythm and intonation patterns of the English language. Brown (1977); Ur (1984) Rixon
(1986) agree that the English system of intonation and rhythm can interfere with foreign
listeners’ understanding of spoken English.

2.3.2. The non – linguistic factors

2.3.2.1. Listener’s ability to concentrate

Concentration is essential in doing anything. Lack of concentration is really disastrous
because even a shortest break in attention can seriously affect comprehension (Harmer; 1991).
Concentration difficulty may fall on the topic of the listening. The listener will concentrate

8
easily if the listening topic is interesting enough. It is much easier if the topics are related to
family, personality or other social subjects.

It is, too, hard for listeners to concentrate if the material or the tape recorder is not good.
Certain varieties of the language and the length of the time listeners are required to listen are

further discussion on the three-staged model.

Summary

Chapter two has, in general, provided an overview of the relevant literature in the field of
the study. This chapter has discussed different views of listening and listening comprehension,
on which the author based to work out the definition of listening. The chapter has again made
it clear that listening is vital and more importantly, it has listed different linguistic and non-
linguistic factors that make listening a challenge.
1
Chapter III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

1.1. Introduction

This study attempts to investigate the difficulties encountered by the 10th form students
and the teachers as well as their needs in learning and teaching listening. It first starts with an
understanding about the school, then some information about the students and their learning
requirements are addressed. To achieve the aims mentioned above, two survey questionnaires
are conducted to collect data for the study. The first one is the survey questionnaire for
students at LTK HS in which designed to collect information on students’ needs and
difficulties in learning listening. The second one is designed for the teachers at LTK HS in
which they needs, the difficulties of the teachers are presented. Then, some techniques and
some suggestions to make listening lessons in the textbook less difficult are discussed.

2.1. The participants

2.2. The course book


Seven teachers who were teaching at the school invited to join the study. Their ages range
from late-twenties to thirty years old. All of them are female teachers and have the University
Bachelor’s Degree. All the teachers at LTK HS are experienced and enthusiastic in teaching.
They are willing to help their students overcome the difficulties in learning English although
they are still lack of experiences in teaching new English textbook.

3.1. The data collection instrument

There are a variety of methods that can be employed to collect data such as: questionnaire;
interviews; meeting; tests; observation and so on. Each method has its own advantages and
disadvantages. The researcher chose questionnaire because it is one of the most popular
instruments. Hence survey questionnaire was chosen to collect teachers and students’ opinions
and attitudes toward the importance of the listening comprehension and the difficulties and the
needs they experience when teaching and learning listening. The teachers and their students
would also have opportunities to reflect on their experiences of teaching and learning
listening. The information, therefore, would be more detailed and more accurate.

Questionnaires:

3

There are two sets of questionnaire with both close-ended and open-ended questions used
for both teachers and students. Questionnaires which are administered to seven teachers and
380 students in December are written in English.

* A questionnaire completed by the students

The questionnaire consists of eleven questions, which categorized four parts (see Appendix
1). Part I (question 1) aims at exploring the students’ views on the aims of learning English at

purpose, relevance and the importance of the study, as well as to clarify any questions that the
students had.

The data collected from the survey were read through to obtain a sense of the overall data.
They were then analyzed. The information was then displayed in forms of table and figures
while qualitative data from the open-ended questionnaire items were presented by quoting
relevant responses from the respondents.

4.1. Conclusion

This chapter presented the research questions, research methodology, instruments and the
data collection procedure and analysis. Given the aims and objectives of the study, the
researcher decided to use two survey questionnaires. By employing these questionnaires, the
researcher hopes to achieve triangulation and more reliable, valid data. Next chapter, chapter
four will present the data analysis and discussion.
1
Chapter IV: data analysis and discussion
I. Questionnaire for the students
1. Students’ views on the aims of learning English at school (Question 1)
Question 1 attempt to find out the aims of listening English identified by the students of the
school. The result of question 1 is presented in the table 1:
Option
Number of Ss
Percentage
Communicate effectively in English
98
25.7%

learning (Questions 2 and 3). The collected information is presented in table below.

20% Very important 48% Important 32% A little important