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

*********************

NGUYỄN THỊ QUỲNH ANH

USING DICTATION TO IMPROVE LISTENING SKILLS
OF GRADE 10 STUDENTS
AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN HA NAM PROVINCE

(Sử dụng chính tả để cải thiện kỹ năng nghe hiểu cho
học sinh lớp 10 tại một trường trung học ở Tỉnh Hà Nam)

M.A MINOR THESIS (Type I)
Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 8140231.01

Hanoi - 2019


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

NGUYỄN THỊ QUỲNH ANH

USING DICTATION TO IMPROVE LISTENING SKILLS
OF GRADE 10 STUDENTS

Văn Vân for his valuable guidance, encouragements, criticisms and correction
throughout my research. Without his help, this study would be far from finished. He
consistently allowed this paper to be my own work, but steered me in the right
direction whenever he thought I needed it.
I am greatly indebted to all my lecturers at Faculty of Post-graduate Studies
of University of Languages and International Studies – Vietnam National
University, Hanoi who have provided me an invaluable source of knowledge for my
completion of this thesis.
I would also like to thank fourty 10th grade students at a local school in Ha
Nam province. Without their passionate participation and input, the validation
survey could not have been successful.
I must express my very profound gratitude to my family and friends whose
unfailing support and continuous encouragement help me throughout my years of
study and the process of researching and writing this thesis. This accomplishment
would not have been possible without them.
Last but not least, I wish to thank my readers for their interest and comments
on the thesis.
Hanoi, October 2019
Author‟s signature

Nguyễn Thị Quỳnh Anh

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ABSTRACT
How to improve English listening skill effectively is always a topic that has
attracted much attention from language teachers. Students of English find listening
lessons difficult because they do not have appropriate methods to get over the
difficulties. As a result, this research attempts to look at one method called dictation

2.1.1. Definition of listening................................................................................6
2.1.2. The importance of listening ......................................................................7
2.1.3. Listening problems ....................................................................................8
2.2. Dictation ...........................................................................................................9
2.2.1. History of dictation ....................................................................................9
2.2.2. Definition of dictation ...............................................................................9
2.2.3. Characteristic of dictation .......................................................................10
2.2.4. Types of dictation .....................................................................................11
2.2.5. The advantages of dictation ....................................................................12
2.2.6. The disadvantages of dictation ................................................................14
2.2.7. Related studies .........................................................................................14
2.3. Summary........................................................................................................16
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CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ........................................................... 17
3.1. Research site .................................................................................................17
3.2. Research design .............................................................................................20
3.2.1. Initial relection ........................................................................................21
3.2.2. Planning ...................................................................................................22
3.2.3 Action and observation ............................................................................22
3.2.4. Reflection .................................................................................................25
3.3. The participants ............................................................................................26
3.4. Research questions........................................................................................26
3.5. The data collection instruments ..................................................................27
3.5.1. Pre- and Post-tests ...................................................................................27
3.5.2. Questionnaires .........................................................................................28
3.6. Method of data analysis................................................................................29
3.6.1. Quantitative data .....................................................................................29
3.6.2. Qualitative data ........................................................................................29

APPENDIX 2: Pre-Test .............................................................................................. VIII
APPENDIX 3: Dictation 1: Unit 1: Family Life............................................................XI
APPENDIX 4: Dictation 2: Unit 2: Your Body And You ........................................... XII
APPENDIX 5: Dictation 3. Unit 3: Music ..................................................................XIV
APPENDIX 6: Dictation 4: Unit 4: For A Better Community .................................... XV
APPENDIX 7: Dictation 5: Unit 5: Invention ............................................................XVI
APPENDIX 8: Post-Test ........................................................................................... XVII
APPENDIX 9: Questionnaires ..................................................................................... XX

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1: Listening practice task for dictation 4......................................................... XV
Table 4.2: The results of pre-test and post-test .............................................................. 33
Table 4.3. Student‟s response to the questionnaires ...................................................... 37

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LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 3.2 Action Research Model (Source: Kurt Lewin, (1934)) .................................. 21
Chart 3.2.3: Conceptual framework ............................................................................... 25
Chart 4.2: Students‟ mean score of average mark ......................................................... 36
Chart 4.3.1: Students‟ attitudes towards dictation ......................................................... 38
Chart 4.3.2. The benefits of dictation ............................................................................. 39
Chart 4.3.3. Student‟s difficulties when doing dictation................................................ 40


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can observe directly, listening is an abstract, intricate “process of hearing,
identifying, understanding and interpreting spoken language” (Lewis, 2007). Many
students have significant problems with listening. The speed, the reduced forms, the
use of intonation, and unfamiliar accents, all ask learners at all levels a great deal of
practice. Therefore, the choice of the appropriate method is a great significance in
developing listening skills and student‟s overall language learning.
At a local high school where the researcher has been working, students‟ listening
skill presents a big problem that the teachers of English here have to deal with.
Several techniques have been applied to teaching and learning English, however,
most of them have not been appropriate and effective. One of the techniques to
improve listening comprehension which is recommended in many books about
teaching EFL in general and teaching listening comprehension, in particular, is
dictation (Celce-Murcia, 1995; Gilbert, 1996; Ur, 1991). According to researchers‟
opinion, dictation brings about a variety of benefits. For instance, Lightfoot (2004)
pointed out that dictation could be done with any level, depending on the text
carefully designed and applied and it could be graded for a multi-level class.
Montalvan (2006) maintained that dictation involved the whole class, no matter
how large it was. The dictation text can be completely prepared beforehand and
administered quite effectively by any inexperienced teacher. As a result, Pappas
(1977) regards dictation as a good means of improving learners‟ listening skill.
For grade-10 students‟ problems of poor listening comprehension and as one of
the teachers of English in this school, the researcher would like to improve the
students‟ listening skills and hope that this method can improve the students‟
listening skills. All considered, a study on “Using dictation to improve grade-10
students‟ listening skill at a high school in Ha Nam province” was conducted

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Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to achieve the aims
stated. The data collected for the study is analyzed from the results of pre-test and
post-test as well as students‟ survey questionaires.
Pre-test and post-test which have been examined to have an equivalent difficulty
level, are used to test students‟ listening skills before and after the project. The pretest is delivered to students before the intervention and the post-test is used to
collect the scores and then compare to the scores of the pre-test.
The qualitative research method through survey questionaires are conducted to
aim at finding out the students‟ attitudes towards dictation as well as their
comments on using dictation in the English lessons.
1.5. Significance of the thesis
In fact, dictation was generally applied in English teaching and learning, and
there has been a wide range of studies about the implications of this theory.
However, there were a few studies about its effectiveness on improving listening
skills.
The findings of the thesis may serve as useful information not only for the
researcher, involved students but also for all language teachers. In particular, the
study is conducted to improve listening competence of grade-10 students at a local
high school. Therefore, the results of this study may be generalized to apply for
students at the same level in other schools. It is also hoped that the thesis will make
a contribution to the achievement in listening learning of students at different levels.
Besides, this study may also bring new insights into language teaching when
recommendations for other researches are stated with the hope of taking the most
advantages of the using dictation as a model for listening teaching.

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1.6. Design of the thesis
This thesis is divided into five chapters as follows:
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION provides the basic information such as the

crucial element of oral communication, or the interactive process. Listening is such
an essential part of the communication process. Students spent the majority of their
time at school listening and most of what students know is acquired through
listening. They can listen and express themselves orally to communicate with
others.
Myers and Myers (1988: 143) define that listening is not just hearing. It includes
understanding, paying attention, analyzing, evaluating the spoken messages, and
possibly acting on the basis of what has been heard.
Listening is the ability to identify and understand what the speaker is saying
through understanding his accent, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and
comprehension of meaning (Howatt and Dakin, 1974 ). (Rost, 1994) draws a
particular list of components to master when dealing with this skill:
- Discriminating between sounds.
- Recognizing words.
- Identifying stressed words and grouping of words.

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- Identifying functions (such as apologizing, suggesting, advising and so on) in
conversations.
- Connecting linguistic cues to paralinguistic cues (intonation and stress) and to
non-linguistic cues (gestures and relevant objects in the situation) in order to
construct meaning.
- Using background knowledge and context to predict and then to confirm
meaning.
- Recalling important words, topics and ideas.
- Giving appropriate feedback to the speaker.
- Reformulate what the speaker has said.
Rost (1994) insists on the fact that students must deploy all these sub-skills

Some students feel worried, stressed or even tired and bored when they miss
some words of the text because much information comes so fast. Therefore, they
cannot concentrate on the lessons. The teacher should encourage and explain to the
students that there is no need listening to every word but try to get keywords.
c. Need to hear thing many times
In order to understand, students need more than once to hear the text. For
difficult texts, teachers can give students opportunities to listen more times.
Besides, Goh (2000) reports that some listeners complain that they quickly
forget what they have heard and then they easily miss the following information.
To deal with the students‟ difficulties in learning to listen, the teacher has to
identify and classify those difficulties. Then to make the lessons more effective,
teachers must select and design appropriate materials.

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2.2. Dictation
2.2.1. History of dictation
Dictation is regarded as one of the oldest techniques introduced in the Middle
Age. It is known for testing progress in the learning of a foreign language. It was
used to transmit course content from teacher to students in both translation method
and traditional direct method.
2.2.2. Definition of dictation
David and Rinvolucri (1998) defines dictation as decoding the sounds of
(English) and recording them in writing. Dictation has been proved to be extremely
effective at all levels. It helps students to distinguish sounds and requires them to
transfer sounds into written words. It can be said that “dictation” is a process of
listening to something from the teacher and the students record it by writing down
in their notes.
In the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching Applied Linguistics, Richards

(2) Students can learn in groups by creating their own text. In other word,
students can learn by their own with the teacher‟s guide or example.
(3) It gives students opportunities to get practice in note-taking that is very
necessary in any course, especially in learning languages.
(4) Dictation attracts students‟ attention in listening lessons. Dictation requires
students to focus on the exercise or they will miss words.
(5) Doing dictation is a good chance for students to practice listening, gaining
vocabulary, grammatical points and distinguishing sounds.

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2.2.4. Types of dictation
Dictation can be classified into various types. Oller (1979), for example,
identifies five types of dictation: (i) standard dictation, (ii) partial dictation, (iii)
dictation with competing noise, (iv) dicto-Comp, and (v) and elicited imitation.
Standard dictation, according to Oller (Ibid.), is probably the most renown. Students
are required to write down what has been read by the teacher or played back from a
recording at a normal conversational speed. The students are given enough time to
challenge their short term memory. Partial dictation, also called spot dictation, is a
kind of standard dictation, but the students are given either the written version of the
text or the spoken one. The students must listen to the spoken text and fill in the
missing blank in the written version. Dictation with competing noise is rather
difficult because noise is added to the material. For example, the situation of the
communication is in public spaces or in the place where the television or the radio is
turned on. Dicto-Comp is a combination of two forms, namely dictation and
composition. The teacher reads the whole passage three times and then ask them to
write what they have heard after the third time as a reproduction. And elicited
imitation means that after listening to the material, students are asked to repeat or
recount what they have heard rather than write it down.

1. Dictation can help develop all four language skills in an integrative way.
2. It can help learn grammar.
3. Discussion helps to develop short-term memory.
4. Practice in careful listening will be useful later on in note-taking exercise.
5. Correcting dictation can lead to oral communication
6. Dictation fosters unconscious thinking in the new language.
7. Dictation is psychologically powerful and challenging.
8. Dictation can serve as an excellent review exercise
9. If the students do well, dictation is motivating.
10. Dictation involves the whole class, no matter how large it is.
11. During and after the dictation, all the students are active.

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12. Correction can be done by the students.
13. Dictation can be prepared for mixed ability groups.
14. Dictation can be prepared for any level
15. The students, as well as the teacher, can get instant feedback (if the exercise is
corrected immediately)
16. The dictation passage can (and should) be completely prepared in advance (it
also can be taped).
17. Dictation can be administered quite effectively by an inexperienced teacher.
18. While dictating, the teacher can move about, giving individual attention.
19.

Dictation exercise can pull the class together, for example, during those

valuable first minute.
20. Dictation can provide access to interesting texts, by introducing a topic, for

In addition, there are other disadvantages as follows. Alderson (1978a)
reports that the evidence concerning dictation is inconclusive and it is useful only as
a part of the battery of listening tests rather than a single solution. If the dictation is
not recorded on tape, the test will be less reliable, as there will be differences in, for
example, the speed of the text. The exercise can be unrealistic if the texts used have
been previously created to be read rather than heard. There is a close relationship
between the sounds and the spelling system. Therefore, in some cases, students
concentrate too much on single sounds and guess the single word but not the
meaning of the whole text. After that, with the limited memory span, the students
cannot retain what they have heard.
2.2.7. Related studies
Before this research, there were a number of the studies to explore the
relationship between dictation and listening skills as follows:
Firstly, the thesis was carried out by Nguyen Thi Minh Hang (2004) “English
Dictation Tests For First Year Students Of Business Administration Faculty, Hanoi
Foreign Trade University Problems And Solutions”. The research was done on 100

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FTU second year students of Business Administration Faculty (three classes) and 20
teachers teaching the first year students. To collect the data, the researcher used
both quantitative data (listening tests) and qualitative data (interview and
questionnaire). Based on the data analysis, it was found that the student‟s listening
comprehension was improved. It can be seen easily from the data that she showed in
her thesis.
Moreover, Ika Ratna Melawanti (2007) conducted a research entitled
“Dictation As a Testing Technique In Measuring The Student‟s Listening Skill”.
The population of this study was in one class consisting of 36 students having low
marks in listening tests of the fifth grade of