VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
*********************
VŨ THỊ THÀNH DINH

IMPROVING 11
TH
FORM STUDENTS’ LISTENING
COMPREHENSION THROUGH MODIFIED LISTENING
TASKS OF THE NEW TEXTBOOK ENGLISH 11 AT KINH
MON HIGH SCHOOL, HAI DUONG

(NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TRƯỜNG
THPT KINH MÔN, HẢI DƯƠNG THÔNG QUA VIỆC THIẾT CHỈNH LẠI
MỘT SỐ BÀI TẬP NGHE TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 11) M.A.MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
COMPREHENSION THROUGH MODIFIED LISTENING
TASKS OF THE NEW TEXTBOOK ENGLISH 11 AT KINH
MON HIGH SCHOOL, HAI DUONG

(NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TRƯỜNG
THPT KINH MÔN, HẢI DƯƠNG THÔNG QUA VIỆC THIẾT CHỈNH LẠI
MỘT SỐ BÀI TẬP NGHE TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 11) M.A.MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE : 601410
SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN THỤY PHƯƠNG LAN, M.A. HANOI - 2011

iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Candidate’s statement i

1.1.4. Factors affect students’ listening comprehension……………………………
5
1.2. Listening tasks………………………………………………………………….
6
1.2.1. Definitions of task …………………………………………………………
6
1.2.2. Criteria of a good listening task…………………………………………….
6
1.2.3. Types of listening tasks…………………………………………………….
7
1.3. Material adaptation………………………………………………………………
9

v
1.3.1. Definition of material adaptation………………………………………….
9
1.3.2. Reasons for adapting materials……………………………………………
10
1.3.3. Principles for adapting materials………………………………………….
11
1.3.4. Techniques for adapting materials………………………………………
11
1.3.5. Levels of material adaptation…………………………………………….
12
1.3.5.1. Macro adaptation…………………………………………………………
12
1.3.5.2. Adapting a unit………………………………………………………….
13
1.3.5.3. Adaptation of specific activities………………………………………
13

2.4. Summary……………………………………………………………………………….
21
CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
22
3.1. Initial data………………………………………………………………………………
22
3.1.1. Results from pre-listening test………………………………………………
22
3.1.2. Results from pre-action stage observations………………………………….
22
3.1.3. Results from students’ questionnaire 1………………………………………
24

vi
3.1.3.1. Students’ evaluation about listening skill and their own listening
competence…………………………………………………………………………
24
3.1.3.2. Students’ opinions about listening tasks in English 11……………………
24
3.1.3.3. Students’ feelings when doing listening tasks in English 11 ………………
25
3.1.3.4. Students’ evaluation about the effectiveness of listening tasks to their
listening competence……………………………………………………………….
25
3.1.3.5. Students’ preferences for listening tasks…………………………………
26
3.1.3.6. Students’ opinions about the way their teachers treat listening tasks………
26
3.1.4. Results from document analysis…………………………………………….
27

3.5.2. Students’ progress reflected through tests………………………………….
36
3.5.3. Summary of major findings and discussions…………………………………
36
3.5.3.1. The unsuitability of listening tasks in the textbook affects students’
listening comprehension…………………………………………………………….

36

vii
3.5.3.2. Students’ preferences for listening tasks………………………………….
37
3.5.3.3. Modified listening tasks could help improve students’ listening
comprehension………………………………………………………………………

37
PART III: CONCLUSION………………………………………………………
39
1. Conclusions……………………………………………………………
39
2. Recommendations…………………………………………………………….
39
3. Limitations of the study………………………………………………………….
40
4. Suggestions for further study…………………………………………………….
40
REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………
41

APPENDICES

Table 5: Students’ evaluation about the effectiveness of listening tasks ….
25
Table 6: Students’ preferences for listening tasks………………………….
26
Table 7: Students’ opinions about the ways their teachers treat listening tasks
26
Table 8: Topic in English 11……………………………………………
27
Table 9: Types of listening tasks in English 11…………………………
28
Table 10: Students’ involvement in the tasks……………………………
32
Table 11: Students’ evaluation about modified listening tasks …………
33
Table 12: Results of post-test……………………………………………
34
List of charts……………………………………………………………….

Chart 1: Students’ involvement in tasks before and after action plan……
35
Chart 2: Students’ progress reflected through tests ………………………
36
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

1. Rationale for the study
The years 2006, 2007 and 2008 marked a milestone in the ways of teaching and
learning English when the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) introduced the new
sets of English textbook English 10, English 11 and English 12 to school curriculum. The
aim of MOET is to develop students‟ communicative competence so as to meet the
demand of integration and globalization. That is the reason why in the new textbooks, four
skills including reading, speaking, listening and writing are put in priority and integrated.
Of the four skills mentioned above, listening is considered to be the most
challenging one. Most students find it hard to master this skill and soon feel bored with
listening periods. The reasons for this are various, such as uninteresting topics, fast speed,
students' poor pronunciation or lack of background knowledge and cultural understanding.
Eleven graders at Kinh Mon High School have encountered such a lot of difficulties
when dealing with listening lessons. However, after five years of teaching English 11,
I also discover that the listening tasks themselves are also a factor affecting students‟
listening comprehension.
It is obvious that suitable tasks make students more interested in the listening
passages and then help them develop their listening skills. Inappropriate tasks, on the
contrary, can demotivate students. In listening sections of English11, some tasks are too
difficult or too long and some are boring. In this case, it is necessary for teachers to modify
listening tasks to make the tasks more suitable and interesting for learners, even though it
is not an easy job for the teacher as modifying tasks means having to take many things into
accounts such as the objectives, the criteria or the student‟s needs. However, for the benefit
of students, it is worth doing so.
For the above reasons, especially for the researcher‟s desire to help her students better
at listening, the choice of the study entitled “Improving 11
th
form students’ listening
comprehension through modified listening tasks of the new textbook English 11 at Kinh
Mon High School, Hai Duong” is not accidental.


review which discussed theoretical background relevant to the purposes of the study. The
next one is the methodology which gives a detailed description of how the study was
conducted. The last chapter is to report the data analysis as well as the results of the study.
Part III: The conclusion: summarizes the action research. Then some
recommendations are proposed, some limitations of the study are pointed out as well as
some suggestions for further research are given out. 3
PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter involves different issues in the theories of the listening in a foreign
language, listening tasks and material adaptation.
1.1. Theoretical background of listening skill.
1.1.1. Definitions of listening.
In our daily life, outside the classroom, listening is used twice as often as speaking,
which in turn is used twice as much as reading and writing (River, 1981). Inside classroom,
the two often used skills are listening and speaking (Brown, 1994). Therefore, listening
plays an important role in the processes of learning and communication essential to
productive participation in life.
What is listening? Through years, various definitions of listening have been
proposed. Listening is more than merely hearing words. It is considered to be an active
process by which students receive, construct meaning from, and respond to spoken and or
nonverbal messages (Emmert, 1994).
Brown (1994) argues that listening is a skill in which to identify and understand what is
being said, listeners must comprehend “a speaker‟s accent or pronunciation, his grammar
and his vocabulary”.
Sharing similar ideas, Barker (1971) defines listening as “the selective process of attending
to, hearing, understanding and remembering aural symbols”
In short, no matter how variously listening is defined, it is obvious that listening is

classroom because it provides input for the learner. Without understanding input at the
right level, any learner simply can‟t begin”. He also argues that “Spoken language
including listening provides a mean of interaction for the learners. Because learners must
interact to achieve understanding access to speaker of the language is essential. Moreover,
learner‟s failure to understand the language they hear is an impetus, not an obstacle, to
interaction and learning”. Obviously, listening comprehension is an essential skill for
almost interaction. It is therefore the most primary medium for input in language learning
process and by speeding up the students' ability to perceive speech, the amount of input
they get will increase and thus aid students' language acquisition.
To conclude, given the importance of listening in language learning and teaching, it
is essential for language teachers to help students become effective listeners. 5
1.1.4. Factors affect students’ listening comprehension
It can not be denied that listening comprehension is a crucial skill that all learners
should acquire when learning a language. However, it is not easy to grasp. In fact, many
learners complain that it is the most difficult skill in comparison with reading, speaking
and writing. Why is listening comprehension so difficult and what factors affect learners‟
listening ability?
According to Brown and Yule (1983: 74), there are four main factors:
-The speaker: including the number of speakers, the speaker‟s speech speed and the
speaker‟s accents.
-The listeners: involving the role of the listener, the level of response required and the
listener‟s interest in the subject.
-The content: consisting of grammar, vocabulary, information structure and background
knowledge.
-Support: pictures, diagrams, visual aids, e.t.c…
Anderson and Lynch (1988) suggest five factors which make listening difficult as follows:
-The organization of information

interaction, and (c) a focus on meaning exchange; (2) a language learning endeavor that
requires learners to comprehend, manipulate, and/or produce the target language as they
perform some sets of work plans‟
Whatever task is defined, it is undeniable that in teaching and learning, tasks play a
vital role. With tasks, teachers and learners can measure the improvements.
1.2.2. Criteria of a good listening task
A good listening task in CLT approach has several features:
Goal: Establish a clear purpose for listening: to use language to accomplish a goal,
not to use language merely as language itself.
Input: Require listening to an authentic, connected piece of discourse
Activities: Activities must
- Reflect a subject or topic that will interest students.
- Provide a topic that is broad enough for every listener to approach from some angle
or understand.
- Involve in solving a true problem or relate to learners‟ own life.

- Allow enough time for listeners to respond to the listening task (written or oral) in some
meaningful way.
Learner role: A good listening task
- Motivates listeners to consider their knowledge of the topic.

7
- Allows Ls to use all of the language skills they have, rather than specific forms or
vocabulary, and tend to self-correct when they realize they need to.
- Allows listeners to make use of contextual and nonverbal cues.
1.2.3. Types of listening tasks.
In order to develop students‟ listening comprehension, understanding about kinds of
listening tasks is very important. Listening tasks are very diversified. However, according
to Ur. P. (1996), listening tasks can be classified by the natures of students‟ response.
 No overt response

Pictures: one picture or a series of pictures may be used. Sts are then asked to identify
pictures or components as they are referred to, either naming or ordering them in the order
in which they are mentioned
Maps: Using a map, students are asked to name a specific place as they listen. Besides
that, changes can be made. Sts have to listen and mark these changes.
Ground-plans: ground-plans are a kind of maps but single sketch can be interpreted in
many different ways relating to various listening tasks. Its advantages lies in its simplicity:
it can be very easy to trace.
Grids: a grid is simply a rectangle marked off into squares and used to display data. Sts
may be presented with an inadequately or inaccurately filled-in grid, fill in or correct the
information on the grid as they listen.
Family trees: family tree is a kind diagram. Students listen to stories or descriptions of
families, then identify family member relationship.
Graphs: Students are given a graph with some missing details. While listening to the
information, they fill in the missing details.
 Longer response
With longer response, listening tasks can be:
Answering questions: based on the content of the listening, students are required to give
longer and full answer to the questions.
Note-taking: students take notes of the talk.
Paraphrasing and translating: students use their own words to rewrite or retell the
listening texts either in the same language or in their mother tongue.
Summarizing: learners write a summary of the content of what they have just listened.
Long gap-filling: similar to a cloze exercise, the only difference is that the information to
be filled in the gap is longer.
Dictation is also a recommended kind of task which can boost learners‟ listening skills a
lot.

9
Predictions: after hearing the first part of an utterance or passage, students make a guess at

10
(1998) believes that adaptation means “reducing, adding, omitting, modifying and
supplementing.”
It is also quite necessary to differentiate the terms “adapting” and “adopting”.
Adaptation is a process subsequent to, and dependent on adaptation .In addition, while
adoption deals with the whole course book, adaptation is only concerned with the parts that
make up the whole. Last but not least, adoption is related to evaluation, but adaptation is
related to changing or adjusting various parts
In short, adaptation matches internal to external factors. It involves changing some
of the internal characteristics of a course book to better suit a particular circumstance.
1.3.2. Reasons for adapting materials.
Cunningham (1995) has pointed out that “Materials are not always clear regarding
the methodology they use in terms of „what‟ and „how‟ to teach. There are also cases of
inconsistency between stated and actual methodology. Moreover, course book cannot
relevant to all teaching/ learning contexts”. Hence, adapting materials is badly in need.
Teachers should adapt published materials according to their students‟ needs and
proficiency.
Besides that, it will be useful to compare our own reasons with those in the following list
(Proposed by McDonough and Shaw, 1993: 86).This list indicates some of the possible
areas of mismatch which can be dealt with by adapting in this study.
- Not enough grammar coverage in general
- Not enough guidance on pronunciation
- Not enough practice of grammar points of particular difficulty to these learners
- Subject- matter inappropriate for learners of this age and intellectual level
- The communicative focus means that grammar is presented unsystematically
- Amount of material too great/ too little to cover in the time allocated to lessons
- Too much/ too little variety in the activities
- Dialogues too formal, and not really representative of everyday speech
- Vocabulary list and a key to the exercises would be helpful
- Accompanying tests needed

 Modifying: „Modification‟ at one level is a very general term in the language applying to
any kind of change. In order to introduce further possibilities for adaptation, we should
restrict its meaning here to an internal change in the approach or focus of an exercise or
other pieces of materials. It is a rather important and frequently used procedure that is
like all other techniques; it can be applied to any aspect of „content‟. It can be sub-
divided into two kinds: rewriting and restructuring.

12
 Simplifying: When simplifying, teachers can make many elements of a language course
such as the instructions, explanations, exercises or activities become easier and more
accessible to learners.
 Re-ordering: Re- ordering refers to the possibility of putting parts of a course book in a
different order. This may mean adjusting the sequence of presentation within a unit or
taking units in a different sequence from that originally intended.
Tanner and Green (1998: 122) also propose four different techniques for adapting
materials. They are changing, removing, replacing and adding.
 Changing: Changing means making small changes to the existing material in the course
book to make the material more appropriate to students.
 Removing: Removing means that a course book‟ activity will be removed from the
lesson.
 Replacing: Replacing means that one activity in an area not covered sufficiently in the
book will be replaced by a more suitable activity.
 Adding: It means that the teacher can add an extra activity in an area not covered
sufficiently in the book
In short, there are a large variety of techniques which can be used to adapt a
material. However, the most commonly used ones may be modifying, replacing, adding
and simplifying. As a teacher of English, the researcher thinks that these techniques can be
used individually or in combination with others according to learning context as well as
students‟ level, needs and interests.
1.3.5. Levels of material adaptation.


14
CHAPTER TWO: THE METHODOLOGY

2.1. Research method of the study.
To carry out the research, action research (AR) was used.
2.1.1. An overview of action research
Action research is known by many other names: participatory research, collaborative
inquiry, emancipatory research, action learning or contextual action research. There are a
number of definitions of AR.
Action research is a form of collective self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in
social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own social or
educational practices, as well as their understanding of those practices and the situations
in which the practices are carried out… The approach is only action research when it is
collaborative, though it is important to realize that action research of the group is
achieved through the critically examined action of individual group members. (Kemmis
and McTaggart 1988: 5-6)
Simply, action research is “learning by doing”. It means that a group of people identify a


Step 1: Unfreezing: Faced with a dilemma or disconfirmation, the individual or group
becomes aware of a need to change
Step 2: Changing: The situation is diagnosed and new models of behavior are explored and
tested.
Step 3: Refreezing: Application of new behavior is evaluated, and if reinforcing, adopted.
Among the models of action research mentioned above, the research made up her
mind to choose Nunan‟s Action Research Cycle for this study because all the steps are
very clear and easy to follow.
2.1.3. Action research cycle and procedure for this research.
Action research was developed and carried out in the researcher‟s own class during 8
weeks from week 1 to week 8 of the first term. The subjects of the study were fifty grade
11 students who took part in the research from beginning to the end. Data were collected
from both the pre-action stage and during the action stage from week 1 to week 8 of this
study.
As stated above, Nunan‟s Action Research Cycle was adapted for this research.
However, due to time limited, only five steps were conducted as follow:
Step 1: Problem identification (week 1)
To identify the problem, the researcher spent one week observing her students, recording
classroom interaction in listening lessons in grade 11I, talking to students and discussing
with colleague teachers.

16
Then, the researcher found out that the majority of students at Kinh Mon High school in
general and in grade 11I in particular were uninterested in listening lessons. During the
listening lessons, they often just sat silently, listened to the tapes with the hope to complete
the tasks in the textbooks. This led the researcher to the first research question: „What
makes students uninterested in listening lessons?
Step 2: Preliminary investigation (week 2)
This investigation would allow students to express their opinions on listening

teaching diaries.
 Action implementation (week 5-7)
In this step, the action plan was applied in three lessons and lasted three weeks. Each
lesson lasted 45 minutes. This aimed at studying the effects of the modified listening tasks
on improving students‟ listening comprehension. The action implementation was carried
out by the researcher with the participation of fifty students of class 11I at Kinh Mon
Upper- Secondary School and one observer who was invited to observe the class during the
listening lessons.
 Collecting data (week 5-7)
Also from week 5 to week 7, three listening lessons using the modified listening
tasks were observed. Three teaching diaries were composed. In addition, questionnaire 2
for students (appendix 3) was filled by students themselves after each listening lessons.
Finally, a post-listening test (appendix 6) was followed up to measure students‟
improvement
Step 5: Evaluation (week 8)
In this step, the data collected in weeks 5-7 which reflect students‟ listening
comprehension improvement in listening lessons using the modified listening tasks were
analyzed. The analysis was done to indicate how the modified listening tasks affected on
students‟ listening comprehension, what the researcher has learnt as well as what
experiences can be drawn from these lessons. Analyzing the post data helped answer the
second research question „How can the modified listening tasks help improve students‟
listening comprehension in the listening lessons?‟
2.2. Data collection instruments.
In order to do this action research successfully, pre and post data were collected by
using qualitative and quantitative method with pre and post tests, survey questionnaire,
classroom observations, document analysis (listening tasks) and teaching diaries.
2.2.1. Pre- test (Appendix 1) and post- test (Appendix 6).
Testing was chosen as a mean of collecting data for this study firstly because test results
can be empirically documented. Furthermore, testing is a quite reliable way to assess