luận văn cao học tiếng anh

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ABSTRACT
Audio-visual aids, including animated films, have been considered a great
tool in language teaching, yet past research in Vietnam has not paid attention to
the use of animated films in English language teaching. This research was
carried out with the aim to see whether using animated films for EFL learners at
high school has any impacts on their listening comprehension development. In
the experiment, two groups, one control and one treatment, were set up. Before
and after the six week experiment, both groups were asked to do the pretest/post-test and to answer a pre-treatment and post-treatment motivation
questionnaire. During the treatment, the treatment group received six animated
film based lessons while the control group did not. The results showed that the
treatment group achieve higher level of listening comprehension and gained
greater motivation to study English.


ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Tran The
Ngoc Yen, who I believe is the most wonderful supervisor, for her valuable
direction, keen insight, precious orientation, warm encouragement, and
continuous support throughout this project. Her enthusiasm and positive
attitudes were sparkling in such a way that it helped to make my research a
serious yet fun task to fulfill.
I also wish to thank my Principal, Vu Tien Ca, who approved of my
research, my colleagues who would come along during the project right from the
first days I began it. Without that, it would have been harder for me to finish the
project.
I would also like to thank the board, teachers, and students at Tinh Gia2
High School for their cooperation and help.
Finally, I would like to delicate this work to my parents and family, who
have been always supporting me with love and sympathy.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT............................................................................................................................i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...................................................................................................ii
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................1
1.1 Rationale..........................................................................................................................1
1.2 Aims of the study.............................................................................................................4
1.4 Scope of the study............................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW.................................................................................6
2.1 Listening process.............................................................................................................6
2.1.1 Definition......................................................................................................................6
2.1.2 The nature of listening..................................................................................................7
2.1.3 Listening in foreign language.......................................................................................7
2.2 Listening comprehension...............................................................................................10
2.3 Assessing listening ability..............................................................................................12
2.3.1 Indicators of listening ability......................................................................................12
2.3.2 Methods to assess listening ability..............................................................................12
2.4 Teaching the listening skill............................................................................................14
2.4.1 Factors affecting EFL learners’ listening ability.........................................................14
2.4.2 Difficulties EFL learners have when learning listening..............................................15
2.4.3 Principles for teaching EFL listening..........................................................................15
2.4.4 Techniques for teaching EFL listening........................................................................17
2.5 Animated films in English language teaching...............................................................18


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2.5.1 Kinds of audio-visual aids..........................................................................................18
2.5.3 Principles for selecting animated films for EFL learners............................................20

2.5.4 The benefits of animated films for EFL learners........................................................21
3.1 Research questions.........................................................................................................24
3.2 Study setting...................................................................................................................24
3.3 Participants.....................................................................................................................24
3.4 Materials and instruments..............................................................................................25
3.4.1 Materials.....................................................................................................................25
Figure 1. Frame grab of TiengAnh123................................................................................27
3.4.2 Instruments..................................................................................................................27
3.5 Procedure.......................................................................................................................28
3.6 Pilot testing....................................................................................................................29
The pilot testing of the four texts for the pre-test and post-test:......................................30
Table 2.1: Minimum and maximum of general test.............................................................31
Table 2.2: Means and standard deviations of the general test of the two groups.................31
CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION...................................................................32
4.1 Results............................................................................................................................32
4.1.1 General English test results.........................................................................................32
Table 3: Statistical mark rate to two groups on the general test..........................................32
Figure 2: Pie charts for general test parallel of group 1.......................................................32
Figure 3: Pie charts for general test parallel of group 2.......................................................32
4.1.2 Pre-test and post-test results........................................................................................33
4.1.2.1 Results of pre-test....................................................................................................34


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Table 4.1: Statistical mark rate of pre-tests to two groups...................................................34
Figure 4: Pie chart for pre-tests of group 1..........................................................................34
Figure 5: Pie chart for pre-tests of group 2..........................................................................34
4.1.2.2 Results of post-test...................................................................................................35
Table 4.2: Statistical mark rate of post-tests to two groups.................................................35
Figure 6: Pie chart for post-tests of group 1........................................................................36

Figure 7: Pie chart for post-tests of group 2........................................................................37
4.1.3 Comprehension increases in the comprehension listening course..............................37
Table 5.1: Statistical results of pre-and post-tests to group 1..............................................38
Table 5.2: Statistical results of pre-and post-tests to group 2..............................................38
Table 5.3: Within-group comparison results for the experimental and control groups........38
Figure 8: The bar chart for the improvement after the treatment for the experimental group
..............................................................................................................................................39
Table 6. Experimental group’s reaction to the multiple-choice questions of survey...........40
4. 2 Conclusion....................................................................................................................48
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS...........................................................................................49
5.1 Summary of the main findings.......................................................................................49
5.2 Pedagogical implications...............................................................................................50
5.3 Limitations.....................................................................................................................52
5.4 Suggestions for further research....................................................................................53
REFERENCES....................................................................................................................55
APPENDIX A: Lesson Plan.................................................................................................63
Name of the film: THE LITTLE PRINCESS AND THE SEVEN DRARVES...................63


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Instructions.......................................................................................................................82
Instructions.......................................................................................................................83
/>Toni's had an accident..................................................................................................83
APPENDIX D: POST-TEST...............................................................................................84
Instructions.......................................................................................................................85
/>PARK FARM...............................................................................................................86
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------.......................86
LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: The focuses of pilot testing........Error: Reference source not found

Table 2.1: Minimum and maximum of general test. Error: Reference source
not found
Table 2.2: Means and standard deviations of the general test of the two
groups.................................................................Error: Reference source not found
Table 3: Statistical mark rate to two groups on the general test..........Error:
Reference source not found
Table 4.1: Statistical mark rate of pre-tests to two groups. Error: Reference
source not found
Table 4.2: Statistical mark rate of post-tests to two groups.................Error:
Reference source not found
Table 5.1: Statistical results of pre-and post-tests to group 1...............Error:
Reference source not found
Table 5.2: Statistical results of pre-and post-tests to group 2...............Error:
Reference source not found
Table 5.3: Within-group comparison results for the experimental and
control groups.................................................... Error: Reference source not found


vii
Table 6. Experimental group’s reaction to the multiple-choice questions of
survey.................................................................Error: Reference source not found


viii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Frame grab of TiengAnh123....Error: Reference source not found
Figure 2: Pie charts for general test parallel of group 1......Error: Reference
source not found
Figure 3: Pie charts for general test parallel of group 2......Error: Reference
source not found

Figure 4: Pie chart for pre-tests of group 1........Error: Reference source not
found
Figure 5: Pie chart for pre-tests of group 2........Error: Reference source not
found
Figure 6: Pie chart for post-tests of group 1.......Error: Reference source not
found
Figure 7: Pie chart for post-tests of group 2.......Error: Reference source not
found
Figure 8: The bar chart for the improvement after the treatment for the
experimental group............................................ Error: Reference source not found


1
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale
It goes without saying that English has developed into a world language.
It is considered international because of its significance in cultural aspects in not
only former British colonies but also in other countries due to integration.
Besides, English is regarded as global thanks to the dominance of the language
in this information technology age. It is a common knowledge that any modern
citizen of this rapidly growing twenty-first century mastering the English
language is determined to overpower those who do not. Still, there remain some
opponents of this trend who decide to go against the flow to probably avoid the
domination of the language and its culture. Notwithstanding, any practical and
serious thinking individual could easily tell how that conservative idea is hardly
working at this point now that English has been deeply rooted and undoubtedly
here-to-stay in our society. In other words, one, needless to say, greatly depends
on English to survive and thrive in this contemporary world.
The teaching and learning of English; therefore, has been immensely
concentrated around the globe. English language is even separated into four

distinctive skills to be easily taught to non-native speakers of English. As a
child, we learn to listen before we speak, so it is fairly clear that input should
come first before output. As a result, Reading and Listening are supposed to be
taught before Writing and Speaking. Novel movements in teaching English
language also share the same opinion on placing more attention to the
communicative purpose of the language by focusing on Listening and Speaking.
Yet, reality has showed inconsiderable improvement in learners’ listening skills
accompanied by a bitter truth of listening remaining a struggle for English
learners.


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The apparently undesirable situation of teaching and learning listening
skills has triggered a passionate need in every teacher or instructor of English
language to invent new ideas to combat the problem. As one myself, I have been
concerned enough to conduct a study on the effectiveness of using animated
cartoons as supplementary materials in enhancing students’ listening skills at
Tinh Gia 2 High School in Thanh Hoa province.
A number of studies have shown the positive influence of comprehensive
listening courses on students’ listening comprehension but there has not been
any research on what supplements of a comprehensive listening course will
cause the greatest increase and how comprehension increases will affect on
English learners.
This thesis explores the effects of the use of supplements of nominated
films to schedule comprehensive listening skill. A group of participants followed
the comprehensive listening course with one, two, three, and four sessions in a
week. Another group of participants allowed with the same period of time
without any supplement of animated films. The results were compared to see
which group gained the greatest increase.
It is essential for language teachers to help our students become effective

active listeners. It has been proved that By providing further active listening
practice such as supplements of animated films can learners improve their
comprehensive listening.
I have realized that animated films have not only humorous actions, funny
context us also communicative contents usefully and easy imitation. The lively
images and fascinating sound of animated films will attract student’s interest to
pay attention to listening while watching. With real and natural voices in
conversations, students will listen to characters’ intonation and can guess the
meaning of vocabulary through watching. That will make them enjoy and take


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an interest in learning to listen. The animated films are suitable for low-level
students and curriculum communication English.
The quality of teaching English should be enhanced much more than
before because of the available equipment of technology and teaching aids such
as internet, computers, projectors. Teaching listening skill is not a most difficult
task, so each teacher finds effective methods to teach. For these reasons I was
encouraged to take the course leading to Master of TESOL and to undertake the
innovation.
A more detailed description of the program is specifically elaborated in
the Methodology chapter.
According to Edisto (2012), learning materials could be regarded as
information or knowledge contained in various different media and formats to
support the purpose of learning and they should strictly follow the objectives or
requirements of educational curricula. Materials can also be informally and
briefly defined as things needed in order to do a peculiar activity. In every
syllabus of any subject learned at school, a set of fixed materials called
textbooks or course books is compulsory since it plays the key role in focusing
on the primary goals of the course. Teachers need to refer to the textbooks to

ensure that the important knowledge is properly covered. Similarly, course
books are necessary for students to be aware and keep track of their own intake
of information.
Ideally, learning materials are supposed to support, not to restrict students
and teachers. Thus, when teachers discover that the provided materials are only
partially helpful, they are allowed to determine how and to what extent a book
or other learning materials should be used in the classroom. It is little wonder
that supplementary materials can be considered as equally important as
textbooks. Supplementary materials are defined as any materials used addition
to textbook (Spratt, Paleness, and Williams, 2005: 114). They act as extra


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materials to supplement the fixed course books when there is a lack of suitability
and variety. In order to boost the motivation in listening classroom,
supplementary materials should be audio-visual. Moreover, to achieve the
practical purpose of listening class, supplementary materials had better have a
strong relation with the real world.
Possessing the two aforementioned characteristics of being audio-visual
and authentic, some animated cartoons are obviously the leading candidate for
the ideal supplementary materials for listening classes. It is also noteworthy that
cartoons should be maintained as supplementary materials since they help
illustrate as well as improve the natural or real use of English. However, they
should not replace pedagogically simplified materials as these guarantee the
accuracy of language use.
Moreover, teachers should pay attention to the level of difficulty while
selecting supplementary materials as both super-easy and over-challenging
materials may either discourage or demotivate learners. Consequently, students
might not work as diligently and fail to adequately meet the learning goals. In
short, appropriate level of difficulty in supplementary materials helps enable

students to do wonders in their English classes.
1.2 Aims of the study
The researcher primarily aims to figure out how the use of animated films
in EFL classroom increases students’ motivation and their listening
comprehension. As a result, recommendations are made to further improve the
effectiveness of the use of animated films in EFL classes at Tinh Gia 2 High
School, Thanh Hoa.
1.3 Research questions
In order to reach the aforementioned aim, the study focuses on finding the
answers to the two primary questions:


5
- Does the use of animated films have any effect on EFL high school
students' listening comprehension?
- Will the use of animated films help to increase EFL high school students'
motivation to study English?
1.4 Scope of the study
The focuses of the study are levels of motivation, students’ attitudes to the
use of movies in classroom and positive changes in their listening
comprehension. The researcher used only 1 grade 10-class at the same age and
of elementary and intermediate level of English, and four animated films to
carry out an action research study on the topic of using animated films as a
teaching aid instrument in EFL classroom for six-week period.
1.5 Thesis organization
The thesis consists of five chapters.
Chapter 1 is the introduction, which provides a brief introduction,
rationale, and an overview of the thesis
Chapter 2 is the literature review, in which previous research about the
nature of listening, the nature of listening comprehension, importance of

listening comprehension, difficulties of listening skill, and comprehension
listening materials as a supplement will be discussed.
Chapter 3 presents the methodological method of the experiment.
Chapter 4 deals with the findings and discussion about the result analysis,
which is a replication study of two issues in the research questions, and is also
extended in order to explore other effects and motivation of listening
comprehension materials.
Chapter 5 contains the summary of the main findings, implications,
limitations, and some suggestions for further research.


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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Listening process
There are two distinct processes involved in listening comprehension.
Listeners use ‘top-down’ processes when they use prior knowledge to
understand the meaning of a message. Prior knowledge can be knowledge of the
topic, the listening context, the text-type, the culture or other information stored
in long-term memory as schemata (typical sequences or common situations
around which world knowledge is organized).
Listeners use content words and contextual clues to form hypotheses in an
exploratory fashion. On the other hand, listeners also use ‘bottom-up’ processes
when they use linguistic knowledge to understand the meaning of a message.
They build meaning from lower level sounds to words to grammatical
relationships to lexical meanings in order to arrive at the final message.
2.1.1 Definition
Listening is not simply hearing and perceiving spoken sounds but a multistage process in which listeners actively grasp the facts and feelings by attending
to what the speaker says, to how the speaker says it, and to the context in which
the message is delivered.
Listening is an invisible metal process, making it difficult to describe.

Listeners must discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and
grammar structures, interpret stress and intention, retain and interpret this within
the immediate as well as the larger socio-cultural context of utterance (Wife,
1984). Roost (2002) defines listening, in its broadest sense, as a process of
receiving what the speakers actually says (receptive orientation); constructing
and representing meaning (constructive orientation); negotiating meaning with
the speaker and responding (collaborative orientation) and, creating meaning
through involvement, imagination and empathy (transformative orientation).


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2.1.2 The nature of listening
Listening is assuming greater and greater importance in foreign language
classrooms. There are several reasons for this growth in popularity. By
emphasizing the role of comprehensible input, second language acquisition
research has given a major boost to listening. As Roost (1994, p.141-142) poets
out, listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides input for the
learners. Without understanding input at the right level, any learning simply
cannot begin. Listening is thus fundamental to speaking.
Specifically, listening theory is about an active process in which
individuals focus on selected aspects of aural input, construct meaning form
passages, and relate what they hear to existing knowledge (O’Malley, Chabot,
Kipper, 1989: 418.) During the process of interpreting aural input, listeners
extensively deploy both linguistic knowledge (phonology, lexis, syntax,
semantics and discourse) and non-linguistic knowledge (knowledge about the
topic and about the context, and general knowledge about the world and real
life.)
River and Temporally (1978: 63) defined listening as a complex operation
integrating the distinct components of perception and linguistic knowledge. It is
not a passive but an active process of constructing a message from a stream of

sound with what one knows of the phonological, semantic, syntactic
potentialities of the language.
All in all, listening has been conceptualized in different ways and from
different points of view. However, the role of context-based listening is also
found and highlighted in many definitions.
2.1.3 Listening in foreign language
Listening is a complex, active process of interpretation, in which listeners
match what they with what they already know.


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Listening comprehension as a separate component of language learning
and instruction came into its own only after long and significant debate
regarding its validity. A large volume of research has demonstrated the critical
role of input, and particular ‘comprehensible input’ in language acquisition,
underlining the primacy of the role played by listening comprehension in second
language teaching.
Until recently, listening comprehension activity in foreign or second
language classroom was limited to testing listening comprehension. The
underlying rationale was that if students are successfully learning the target
language, they should automatically be able to decode the aural version of
structures and vocabulary they learn in their textbooks. Success at this decoding
was typically measured by correct response to WH (information) questions.
Responses to such questions tagged successful retrieval of information from an
aural text. Knowledge of target language syntax and lexis was deemed sufficient
to enable this retrieval and was ultimately the way how students were tested.
Listening is now treated as a much more complex activity and one that is the
cornerstone of language acquisition (Krashen, 1994)
Recognition of listening’s critical role in the language acquisition process

has greatly influenced contemporary language teaching practice. The view that
listening is an active and interactive process has, for example, cast the learners
in a role rather than the passive receiver of aural input (Rost, 1993). Classroom
emphasis is now on aural intake through active negotiation of meaning. In face
to face interaction, the listener, not just the speaker, engages in the active
making of meaning. It is believed that this mutual negotiation of meaning
between speakers activates the cognitive and socio-cognitive processes


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necessary for language acquisition to occur (Breen and candling, 1980; Pica and
Doughty, 1985)
Listeners use meta-cognitive, cognitive and socio-affective strategies to
facilitate comprehension and to make their learning more effective. Metacognitive strategies are important because they oversee, regulate or direct the
language learning process. Cognitive strategies manipulate the material to be
learned or apply a specific technique to a listening task. Socio-affective
strategies describe the techniques listeners use to collaborate with others, to
verify understanding or to lower anxiety. Research shows that skilled listeners
used more meta-cognitive strategies than their less-skilled counterparts
(O’Malley & Chamot, 1990, Vandergrift, 1997a). When listeners know how to
• analyze the requirements of a listening task;
• activate the appropriate listening process required;
• make appropriate predictions;
• monitor their comprehension;
• evaluate the success of their approach
they are using meta-cognitive knowledge for successful listening
comprehension, which is critical to the development of self-regulated learning.
Listening requires not only hearing and perception of sounds but also
understanding of the speaker’s intended message. Listening comprehension is
also described as an interactive, interpretive process in which listeners engage in

a dynamic construction of meaning with the involvement of linguistic
knowledge, background knowledge, meaning construction and responding. The
background knowledge, discourse competence as well as guessing ability
facilitate effective listening.


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2.2 Listening comprehension
Research has demonstrated that learners spend 40-50% of communication
time listening (Gilman & Moody, 1984), but the importance of listening in
language learning has only been recognized relatively recently (Oxford, 1993).
Since the role of listening comprehension in language learning was taken for
granted, it merited little research and pedagogical attention. Although listening
played an important in audio-lingual methods, students only listened to repeat
and develop a better pronunciation (for speaking). The role of listening has been
considered as a tool for understanding and a key factor in facilitating language
learning. Listening has emerged as an important component in the process of
second language acquisition (Fey ten, 1991).
Listening comprehension is not either top-down or bottom-up processing,
but an interactive, interpretive process in which listeners use both prior
knowledge and linguistic knowledge in understanding messages. The degree to
which listeners use the one process or the other will depend on their knowledge
of the language, familiarity with the topic or the purpose of listening. For
example, listening for gist involves primarily top-down processing, whereas
listening for specific information, as in a weather broadcast, involves primarily
bottom-up processing to comprehend all the desired details.
On one hand, research from cognitive psychology has shown that
listening comprehension is more than extracting meaning from incoming speech.
It is a process of matching speech with what listeners already know about the
topic. Therefore, when listeners know the context of a text or an utterance, the

process is facilitated considerably because listeners can activate prior knowledge
and make the appropriate inferences essential to comprehend the message
(Byrnes, 1984). Therefore, teachers need to help students organize their thought,
to activate appropriate background knowledge for understanding and to make


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predictions, to prepare for listening. This significantly reduces the burden of
comprehension for the listeners.
On the other hand, listeners do not pay attention to everything; they listen
selectively, according to the purpose of the task. This, in turn, determines the
type of listening required and the way in which listeners will approach a task.
Richards (1990) differentiates between an interactional and a transactional
purpose for communication. Interactional use of language is socially oriented,
existing largely to satisfy the social needs of the participants; eg., small talk and
casual conversations. Therefore, interactional listening is highly contextualized
and two-way, involving interaction with a speaker. A transactional use of
language, on the other hand, is more massage-oriented and is used primarily to
communicate information; e.g., news broadcasts and lectures. In contrast with
interactional listening, transactional listening requires accurate comprehension
of a message with no opportunity for clarification with a speaker (one-way
listening). Knowing the communicative purpose of a text or utterance will help
the listeners determine what to listen and, therefore, which process to activate.
As with the advantages of knowing the context, knowing the purpose for
listening also greatly reduces the burden of comprehension since listeners know
what they need to listen for something very specific, instead of trying to
understand every word.
In short, second language (L2) listening comprehension is a complex
process, crucial in the development of second language competence. Listeners
may use all of the above processes to comprehend. Guiding students through the

process of listening not only provides them with the knowledge by which they
can successfully complete a listening task; it also motivates them and puts them
in control of their learning. Therefore, teachers can help students develop their


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listening comprehension skill through these processes by designing appropriate
listening tasks and activities.
2.3 Assessing listening ability
For the two last decades, listening comprehension skills have begun to
receive a lot more systematic attention in language teaching classrooms. A wide
range of books, articles, and materials aimed at assisting teachers to develop
learners’ listening skills are now available, and a variety of comprehensionbased methodologies have been proposed. However, although many of the tasks
used for teaching listening are virtually identical to those which appear in tests,
assessment of listening ability has received relatively limited coverage in the
language testing literature.
2.3.1 Indicators of listening ability
Communicating orally (ability to learn oral language) addresses the
necessary skills and their prerequisites for the acquisition of oral language.
Purposes of communication addresses the use of oral language within our
social communications.
Conventions of language addresses the rules governing the sounds,
sentences and genres of oral language.
Ideas communicated addresses the meanings of words, sentences,
discourse and topics of language.
2.3.2 Methods to assess listening ability
The method used for assessing oral communication skills, including
listening ability depends on the purpose of the assessment. A method that is
appropriate for giving feedback to students who are learning a new skill is not
appropriate for evaluating students at the end of a course. However, any

assessment method should adhere to the measurement principles of reliability,
validity, and fairness. The instrument must be accurate and consistent, it must


13
represent the abilities we wish to measure, and it must operate in the same way
with a wide range of students.
Listening is usually defined as a receptive skill comprising both a physical
process and an interpretive, analytical process (Lundsteen, 1979). However, this
definition is often expanded to include critical listening skills (higher-order
skills such as analysis and synthesis) and non-verbal listening (comprehending
the meaning of tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures, and other nonverbal
cues).
Listening tests typically resemble reading comprehension tests except that
the student listens to a passage instead of reading it. The student then answers
multiple-choice questions that address various levels of literal and inferential
comprehension. Important elements in all listening tests are (1) the listening
stimuli, (2) the questions, and (3) the test environment.
The listening stimuli should represent typical oral language, and not
consist of simply the oral reading of passages designed to be written material.
The material should model the language that students might typically be
expected to hear in the classroom, in various media, or in conversations. Since
listening performance is strongly influenced by motivation and memory, the
passages should be interesting and relatively short. To ensure fairness, topics
should be grounded in experience common to all students, irrespective of sex
and geographic, socioeconomic, racial, or ethnic background.
In regard to questions, multiple-choice items should focus on the most
important aspects of the passage - not trivial details - and should measure skills
from a particular domain. Answers designated as correct should be derived from
the passage, without reliance on the student's prior knowledge or experience.

Questions and response choices should meet accepted psychometric standards
for multiple-choice questions.


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An alternative to the multiple-choice test is a performance test that
requires students to select a picture or actually perform a task based on oral
instruction. For example, students might hear a description of several geometric
figures and choose pictures that match the description, or they might be given a
map and instructed to trace a route that is described orally.
The testing environment for listening assessment should be free of
external distractions. If stimuli are presented from a tape, the sound quality
should be excellent. If stimuli are presented by a test administrator, the material
should be presented clearly, with appropriate volume and rate of speaking.
2.4 Teaching the listening skill
According to Underwood (1989, p.90), there are at least four common
methods of teaching second or foreign language listening: grammar translation,
grammar method, audio lingual method and task based method.
2.4.1 Factors affecting EFL learners’ listening ability
Of the four basic language English language skills, listening skill seems to
be the most complex skill to be acquired by students. Many authors have
mentioned this problem such as Underwood (1989), Ur (1996), Rost (1994) or
Lynch (2005) in their researches.
According to Underwood (1989), there are seven problems relating to
listening aptitude that students may come across: (1) lack of control over the
speakers’ speaking speed; (2) inability to get information repeated; (3) the
listener’s narrow vocabulary; (4) failure to catch the signals; (5) issues of
interpretation; (6) inability to concentrate and (7) established fixed learning
habit. She explained that these frustrating issues relate to students’ different

educational and cultural backgrounds. Students whose “culture and education
includes a strong storytelling and oral communication tradition are generally


15
‘better’ at listening than those from a reading and book-based culture and
education background”. Furthermore, “students for whom the stress and
cadence which occur in English are logically more familiar and have less
trouble than those whose own language is based on different rhythms and tones”
(Underwood, 1989). From that point of view, students in Vietnam whose
language is made of different tones encounter a great deal of difficulties in
learning listening skills. Despite the consequences, when teaching listening,
teachers should be able to expose students to “real-life situations” as they need
to teach students to listen with a purpose. One more pain lies in the lack of a
variety of listening materials which causes dullness and boredom in the
classrooms. Conventional textbooks and constructed audio files are not only
repetitive but also counter-productive when it comes to the long-term purpose of
learning listening skills. Learners need to develop certain interest in order to
obtain the integrative motivation to successfully master the skills. Inadequate
audio visual materials are mostly to blame in this situation.
2.4.2 Difficulties EFL learners have when learning listening
It can be seen second language learners at beginning level have to deal
with a great deal of difficulties in listening comprehension as listening is a
receptive.

Considering

various

aspects

of

listening

comprehension,

Underwood( 1989) points out the seven listening problems Goh (2002)
investigates listening comprehension problems in students in college EFL
studies. Findings include ten listening comprehension problems in relation to
three cognitive processing phases.
2.4.3 Principles for teaching EFL listening
Expose students to different ways of processing information: bottom-up
vs. top-down. To understand how people make sense of the stream of sound we
all hear, it is helpful to think about how we process the input. A useful metaphor


16
often used to explain reading but equally applicable to listening is “bottom-up
vs. top-down processing,” proposed by Rumelhart and Ortony (1977) and
expanded upon by Chaudron and Richards (1986), Richards (1990), and others.
The distinction is based on the way learners attempt to understand what they
read or hear. With bottom-up processing, students start with the component
parts: words, grammar, and the like. Top-down processing is the opposite.
Learners start from their background knowledge, either content schema (general
information based on previous learning and life experience) or textual schema
(awareness of the kinds of information used in a given situation)
Expose students to different types of listening. There’s an adage in
teaching listening that says: It’s not just what they are listening to. It’s what they
are listening for. Listeners need to consider their purpose. They also need to

experience listening for different reasons. Any discussion of listening tasks has
to include a consideration of types of listening. We will consider tasks as well as
texts. When discussing listening, text refers to whatever the students are
listening to, often a recording.
Teach a variety of tasks. If learners need experience with different types
of listening texts, they also need to work with a variety of tasks. Since learners
do the tasks as they listen, it is important that the task itself doesn’t demand too
much production of the learner. If, for example, a beginning level learner hears a
story and is asked to write a summary in English, it could well be that the
learner understood the story but is not yet at the level to be able to write the
summary. Tasks that require too much production can’t be done or can’t be done
in real time -and if students get the answer wrong, you don’t know if they really
didn’t understand, or if they did understand but didn’t know how to respond, or
if they understood at the time but forgot by the time they got to the exercise.


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All of this doesn’t mean, however, that we need to limit ourselves and our
students to only a few receptive “check the box” and “number the pictures”
exercise types. As mentioned before, half of the time people are speaking is
spent listening. At times, students need experience with production tasks. Our
students need exposure to a wide range of tasks in order for them to deal with
different types of texts and respond in different ways. Incorporating different
tasks also increases the students’ interest. If listening work in class follows too
narrow a pattern, it is easy for the learners-and the teacher-to lose interest.
2.4.4 Techniques for teaching EFL listening
In the diagnostic approach, teachers typically do some prelistening and
then have students listen to the text and perform a variety of tasks. Teachers
evaluate students’ comprehension based on the correctness of their responses
and proceed to the next activity. Implicit here is the focus on the result, the

product of listening in the form of correct answers. This approach tests students’
listening comprehension, informing them that they failed at certain points, but
does little to teach how to listen, that is, to help 12 Teaching Listening them
understand what went wrong with their listening and how it could be repaired.
Field (2008) calls for a diagnostic approach to listening, which allows teachers
and students to attend to listening difficulties and practice strategies to diminish
them. Characteristics of the approach are described as: (1) Using incorrect
answers to detect weaknesses, and designing activities to help, (2) Avoiding
listening tasks that require memorization, (3) Helping students develop a wider
range of listening strategies ineffective listeners rely on a single strategy, (4)
Differentiating between listening skills, (5) Providing top-down and bottom-up
listening practice.