VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
ĐÀO THỊ HỒNG YẾN A STUDY ON THE APPICATION OF TOP-DOWN TECHNIQUES IN
TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS TO ENGLISH NON-MAJOR 10
TH

GRADE STUDENTS AT TAM DUONG HIGH SCHOOL

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP “TOP-DOWN” TRONG
GIẢNG DẠY KỸ NĂNG NGHE CHO HỌC SINH KHÔNG CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH
LỚP 10 TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT TAM DƯƠNG)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

DECLARATION

I hereby, certify the thesis entitled “A study on the application of top-down
techniques in teaching listening skills to English non-major 10
th
grade students at
Tam Duong high school” is the result of my own research for the Minor Degree of
Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam
National University, Hanoi. The thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any
other universities or institutions. I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the
library can be accessible for the purposes of study and research.
Hanoi, 2014 Đào Thị Hồng Yến ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


The research was implemented to investigate the effect of top-down techniques
in teaching and learning to the English non-major 10
th
grade students of Tam Duong
high school. In this research the investigator attempted to apply top-down techniques
in teaching listening to improve the 10
th
grade students‟ listening skills. Two tests and
a questionnaire survey were used as the powerful instruments to collect data. After
that the data was analyzed and contrasted to check how top-down techniques can help
to enhance students‟ listening skills. At the end of the research, the investigator
proposed some suggestions to improve the learning and teaching listening skill at
Tam Duong

iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, TABLES AND CHARTS

ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………… iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, TABLES AND CHARTS…………………… iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS ……………………………………………………… v
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Scope of the study 3
4. Significant……………………………………………………………… 3
5. Design of the study 4
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 6
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 6
1.1. Theory on listening 6
1.1.1. Definitions of listening 6
1.1.2. Listening process………………………….…………………………7
1.2. Teaching listening skills 7
1.2.1. Stages of a listening lesson 8
1.2.1.1. Pre-listening 8
1.2.1.2. While-listening 9
1.2.1.3. Post-listening 10
1.2.2. Top-down process……………………….…………………………12
1.3. Factors that make listening difficult in learning a foreign language 14
1.4. Summary 16
CHAPTER II: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 18
2.1. Research approaches 18
2.2. Research setting 19
vi

2.3. Participants…………………………………………………… ………20
2.4. Research types 20
CHAPTER III: THE STUDY………………………………………………… 21

and cooperation between people all over the world. With the rapid use in the fields of
science, technology, culture, education, economy and so on, the need of teaching and
learning becomes one of the most significant problems in each nation including Viet
Nam.
Recently, the number of people who would like to learn and become a master in
English in their fields become more and more increasing, especially when Viet Nam
adopted the policies to integrate with other countries all over the world, teaching and
learning English is not only a personal concern, but it also becomes one of the
noticeable nation‟s problems. Moreover, English also affirms its important role by
becoming a compulsory subject at high school and universities. Thus, the teaching and
learning English is one of the most crucial issues for not only students and teacher but
also our society. However, the teaching and learning English is seriously influenced by
the traditional methods such as Grammar Translation Method, or Audio-lingual
Method and so on which mainly focus on the grammar, vocabulary and structures; and
listening and speaking skills „seem to be forgotten‟ in high school.
The researcher has worked as an English teacher in Tam Duong high school
since 2011. With her experience in teaching English at high school, she realized
some reasons which made her have a strong motivation to do this study. Although
in class, students are taught and follow the English course book offered by the
Ministry of Education and Training Department, in which each unit is designed to
be composed of five parts - reading, listening, speaking, writing and language focus;
assessment and testing only aim at students‟ knowledge of English grammar along
with reading or writing. Therefore, they have encountered many difficulties in
learning listening and speaking English.
2

In addition, when students studied at primary school or secondary school,
teaching listening seems to be ignored. They even don‟t have enough essential
equipment for their listening lessons as qualitative records or cassettes, stereos.
Instead of using stereo, their teacher often read tape script for them in listening

listening activities using top-down listening techniques. The final aims is
formulating pedagogical implications and making suggestions for improving the
teaching and learning of the listening skill at Tam Duong high school. The focus of
the paper was directed toward high school students because the problems in
listening have their origins in high school where few students have been the
recipients of listening teaching. Thus, these high school students have difficulties in
learning English not only at present, but also in the future if they can‟t find the
solutions for it.
In order to find out the answer for the study, two research questions was
conducted as following:
Research questions
1. What is the effect in terms of English language learning with the application
of applying top-down techniques in teaching listening for English non-major
10
th
grade class?
2. What are the learner´s perceptions regarding listening activities using top-
down techniques in an English non-major 10
th
grade class?
3. Scope of the study
In this study, the researcher intends to use top-down techniques to help
English non-major students who are at grade ten in Tam Duong high school, can
overcome their difficulties in learning listening skills, not using the other kind of
techniques. These techniques were conducted over a period of time with 8 weeks
and were applied in the three stages of a listening lesson: pre-listening; while-
listening and post-listening. The sample populations are 35 students from class:
10A10.
4. Significance of the study
First of all, this study brings benefits for the researcher‟s professional

the purpose of the study.
- Chapter II: “Methodology”, indicates the setting, the participants, the methods
5

- Chapter III: “The study”, shows the way to collect data, the application of top-
down techniques on teaching and learning listening skill at Tam Duong high
school, the findings and some discussions.
Part C: Conclusion, summarizes the key issues in the study, giving the implications
of the study in which suggestions for improving listening skills to the students at Tam
Duong high school are proposed points out, the limitations and provides some
suggestions for further study.


of problems while they are listening and the result is that they cannot get any listening
experience from the teacher. For this perception, teaching listening, in the traditional
way, is thought as teaching listening for sounds not for meaning. Anderson and
Lynch criticized this view as inappropriate and inadequate.
7

On the other hand, alternative view considers the learner as an “active model
builder”. Listeners of this kind can combine the new information with their own
background knowledge to reach full comprehension of what has been heard. Both
researchers agree with this view, which emphasizes the active interpretation and
integration of listeners on incoming information.
According to Littlewood (1981), listening demands active involvement from the
hearer. In order to construct the message that the speaker intends , the hearer must
actively contribute knowledge from both linguistic and nonlinguistic sources. Only by
applying the knowledge of the language , can the hearer divide the continuous stream
of sound into meaningful units and only by comparing these units with the shared
knowledge between himself and the speaker , can the hearer interpret their meaning.
The nature of listening comprehension means that the hearer should be encouraged to
engage in an active process of listening for meanings, using not only the linguistic cues
but also has nonlinguistic knowledge.
1.1.2. Listening process
A variety insights into the listening process have been developed in the past
40 years by Richards (1983); Anderson (1983; 1985); Wolvin and Coalky (1985);
Underwood (1989); Buck (2000). Listening to spoken language has been
acknowledged in second language theory to consist of active and complex process
that determines the content and level of what is comprehended. These processes use
utterance as the basis for constructing meaning based propositional presentations
that are identified initially in short term memory and stored in long term memory.
Anderson (1983; 1985) differentiates comprehension into three interrelated
and recursive process: perceptual processing, parsing and utilizing. During a single

students with the purposes of listening, just as we usually prepare for real-life
situations.
Pre-listening stage consists of activities to help listeners get certain knowledge
related to listening text gradually. It is undeniable that learners will encounter
certain difficulties to do a listening lesson without being provided with the idea of
what they are going to hear. Even if the sounds or the words they hear are familiar,
9

they may still be unable to understand because they lack certain kinds of knowledge
of the topic, discourse or the relationship between the speakers. It is, therefore, of
great importance to let students know what to expect for the tasks before listening.
This kind of work is generally called pre-listening stage. According to Penny Ur
(1984), he states that “It would seem a good idea when presenting a listening
passage in class to give students some information about the content, situation and
speakers before they actually start listening”.
With the aim is setting-up certain knowledge before listening to help the
students get the most of what they are going to hear. The main purposes of this
stage, therefore, are:
+ To motivate students to pay more attention to the listening text.
+ To activate or build students' prior topical and linguistic knowledge. It is
important for students to be able to relate what they already know to the
speaker's content.
+ To help the students match what they hear with their stored knowledge by
activating their prior knowledge about the coming topics.
+ To set purposes for listening: When students set purposes for listening, they
become active listeners who listen for something, not to it.
These purposes can be achieved by one of the following activities: the teacher
introduces the listening topic, gives background information, gives clear
instructions for the while-listening activity; or the students are given guidance on
the structure of what they are going to hear, discuss the topic situation, look at

the students have succeeded in the task
To conclude, "Good while-listening activities help learners find their way
through the listening text and build up the expectation raised by the pre-listening
activities". (Mary Underwood, 1990:46).
1.2.1.3. Post-listening
Post-listening stage relates to the activities which are done after the listening
is completed. Some post-listening activities are extensions of the work done at the
pre-listening and while-listening stages and some relate only loosely to the listening
11

text itself. This stage is also very importance, with certain purposes as well as
activities.
According to Underwood (1989), the first purpose of post-listening activities is
to check how well the students understood and whether they have completed the
listening task. The teacher may give an answer orally, showing the answer on the board
or on the over-head projector or ask students to check again the answer in the book.
Students can work in pairs to check each other‟s answer or work in group to discuss
any problem related to the listening text. The second purpose of the post-listening work
is to reflect on 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. Students are asked to deal with activities which are more
or less general language learning activities. Sometimes, this does not mean that they
should not be done, but it should be recognized they do not give practice in listening
skill, although the additional language learning can well enable students to listen more
successfully in the future.The fourth purpose is to give students opportunity to consider
the manner and attitude of the speaker in the listening text. This is also important
because the listeners can see the aims of the speakers based on his/her attitude.
Additionally, the general factors listed in pre-listening and while-listening,
Underwood (1989) indicated that the attention should be given to the following factors
in selecting post-listening activities:

prior events.” (p. 239).
Anderson and Lynch (1988 : 11) refer to such listeners as “active model
builder.” To arrive at such listening comprehension, they suggest that three sources of
knowledge are needed: schematic or background knowledge, context and systemic
knowledge.
Exercises that require top-down processing develop the learner‟s ability to do
the following:
+ Use key words to construct the schema of a discourse
+ Infer the setting for a text
+ Infer the role of the participants and their goals
13

+ Infer causes or effects
+ Infer unstated details of a situation
+ Anticipate questions related to the topic or situation
The following activities develop top-down listening skills:
+ Students generate a set of questions they expect to hear about a topic, and then
listen to see if they are answered.
+ Students generate a list of things they already know about a topic and things
they would like to learn more about, then listen and compare.
+ Students read one speaker‟s part in a conversation, predict the other speaker‟s
part, then listen and compare.
+ Students read a list of key points to be covered in a talk, then listen to see
which ones are mentioned.
+ Students listen to part of a story, complete the story ending, then listen and
compare endings.
+ Students read news headlines, guess what happened, then listen to the full
news items and compare.
Peterson (1991, p.114-121) suggested several techniques for teaching listening
comprehension. Top-down techniques are more concerned with the activation of

- From a list of possible topics predict the topics
that people will discuss when they don‟t know
each other well. Listen to conversations and
note which are discussed.
- Listen to a series of process descriptions and
mark the picture that it tells about
Table 1.1: Some kinds of top-down exercises for beginners
1.3. Factors that make listening difficult in learning a foreign language
It is undeniable that listening is considered to be the most difficult among the four
skills. Therefore, there are a number of difficulties which students had encountered such
as different aspects of listening comprehension, factual or literal comprehension,
interpretation or critical listening. The followings are some potential problems that
should be paid attention to in order to help listeners feel self-confident to overcome them.
1.3.1. Inability to control over the speed of the speaker
In learning English, the greatest difficulty in listening comprehension is that
learners are not able to control the speed of the speaker. Learners often feel that the
utterances disappear before they can sort them out or they can get the message. When
they fail in sorting out the meaning of one part, the following will be missed. This can
lead to the ignorance of the whole chunk of discourse. Obviously they fail to listen.
15

1.3.2. Inability to concentrate
It is a major problem if learners lack concentration in listening work. This can be
caused by a number of things such as: the bad quality of machines, the poor quality of
listening materials. Other reason for loss of concentration is that the topic is not
interesting or not familiar and learners find it difficult to understand. Sometimes, listeners
easily lose their concentration, as they feel tired of making a great effort to hear word by
word. The break in attention, even very short, can seriously impair the comprehension of
the whole process of listening. Concentration of the listener is considered vitally
important in a successful listening lesson.

should have to look for activities and employ different techniques. Rost, M (1994)
stated that “language teachers need to provide various types of support to their learners
to help them develop listening skill. This includes talking to learner in the target
language, raising learners‟ awareness of their listening styles and strategies and
introducing a range of materials, speaking styles and listening situations”
Underwood (1989, p.22) indicates that teacher needs to provide planned and
systematic opportunities for their students to learn how to:
- determine what an utterance or conversation is about.
- establish who is talking and to whom.
- recognize the mood and attitude of the speakers.
Part of the teacher‟s role is to ensure that the lesson proceeds in an orderly and
productive way so that the students feel secure, relaxed and unthreatened by the
listening tasks.
1.4. Summary
The chapter has presented the relevant literature, which has helped to form the
theoretical and conceptual framework for the study.
Firstly, a number of concepts about listening comprehension are given according
to some leading scholars and types of listening are presented.
Secondly, the investigator has shown the way how to teach listening skills (focus
on the stages of listening lesson which includes three stages: pre-listening; while-
17

listening and post-listening) and introduces top-down process a way to help teaching
listening skill effectively.
Lastly, the difficulties which students may encounter when they listen are
presented to provide a general view for the readers. In addition, teacher‟s role is also
mentioned to confirm that teacher will do their best to help their students overcome
these difficulties in listening.