A STUDY ON THE TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING LISTENING SKILLS TO 10TH GRADE STUDENTS AT HOA BINH ETHNIC BOARDING HIGH SCHOOL

Chapter three: IMPLICATIONS
3.1. SUGGESTED TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE LISTENING SKILLS TO 10
TH
GRADE STUDENTS AT HEBHS
The effectiveness of the using pictures and pair work/group work has been
described and approved in the experimental listening lessons in the previous chapter. In this
chapter, the investigator with the desire to help students listen to English more effectively,
would like to suggest some more techniques, which should be employed by the teachers to
improve their students’ listening skills. Moreover, the suggested listening strategies also
can help students achieve more success in listening comprehension.
3.1.1. Giving background information
As a whole, students will take a listening session more effectively if they are given
some background information about the topic, situation or context of the listening text. The
technique is usually performed by the teacher in pre-listening stage. Because in while-
listening, students may encounter some potential problems. For example, it can be
confusing for students to distinguish the words which have similar sounding like bed and
bad, see and sea, pat and pet, knew and new, etc. The homophones and homonyms in the
language are not many but as existing in listening, they may lead students to mishear what
the speaker saying. Therefore, if the students are provided the background information as
an overall view of the listening text, they will place the context into the consideration while
listening, this will help them to understand the listening text with less confusion. Moreover,
the native speakers often speak very fast, so if students are foretold about the overall view
of the listening passage, they can guess the meaning of the sentence or predict the missing
words according to what they expect or what they think may happen. The techniques can
“bring to the forefront” (Ur, 1996, p.113). Especially, giving background information can
draw students’ attention to the listening, encourage them to work together of known lexis
and syntax which will assist students to over come obstacles created from their infrequency
and inexperience in listening practice. However, the technique employed by the teacher
should be simple, brief and realistic to students which can both draw students’ attention and
arouse their interest as well as the curiosity from the listening text. The time for giving
background information can be from two to five minutes depends on the students’ English

knowledge level and the difficulty of the listening text.
For example: Unit 10
Task 1. Listen and number the events in the order you hear
a. A campfire near a heap of leaves may easily cause a forest fire
b. In late summer, fire is the greatest danger to forests, and sometimes people are
not allowed to go into them
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c. All of us must care for our great forests and save them from fire
d. It is an unpleasant thing to see a great forest fire.
e. A forest fire destroys valuable wood wildlife and good soil
(English 10, 2006, p.108)
Teacher: “You are going to listen to someone talking about a forest fire that can be
caused by people’ careless actions like leaving a campfire burning near a heap of leaves or
burning something for food in the forest, especially a forest fire can easily occur in the dry
season. A forest fire may make people’ life more difficult and awful. You will get more
details about forest fires from the listening in task 1. Now please read through the task 1
before you listen to the tape”
Giving background information like this before listening is really helpful to students for
completing the listening task.
3.1.2. Encouraging prediction and selection
Prediction and selection can be employed in the pre-listening or while-listening
stage. Listeners can improve their listening skills by predicting what the listening text is
about or what the speaker is going to say next. In order to encourage students to imagine
and predict what they are about to hear, teachers may tell students something about the
speaker(s) or the topic of the listening text. The technique can help students develop their
listening skills and this is also a good way to keep the class actively involved in a listening
lesson.
Predicting grammar: Before listening, students can be asked to predict the
grammatical structures that will be frequent in the listening text
Predicting vocabulary: Students can also be asked to make a list of words, phrases

that relate to the topic and may appear in the listening text. When students have a certain
vocabulary in their minds, they will be able more self-confident in a listening lesson.
For example: Unit 1 (English 10, 2006, p.16)
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In the task 1 of the listening lesson in unit one (English 10, 2006, page 16), students
will hear Mr. Lam, a cyclo driver in Ho Chi Minh, talks about his morning activities. The
pictures in the textbook on page 16 describe his activities. Listen to the tape, and then
number the pictures in the correct order. By asking students to look at the pictures and
predict what tense may be mostly used in the listening text, most students guess that Mr
Lam will use present simple tense to talk about his morning activities. Besides, students
may guess a list of words which relates to Mr Lam’s morning activities based on the
pictures. such as: get up, passengers, ride, park, routine, district, breakfast, etc. This will
help them find the listening task more interesting and less challenging.
3.1.3. Presenting essential items
It is very important for the teacher to be aweare of the special role of presenting the
essential to students in a listening lesson. New words, new grammar structures and
expressions which are essential for students to understand, are considered as essential items
in a listening lesson. However, sometimes teachers only need to present a particular word
which is so important that if students do not know this word, they may fail to catch the
main idea of the text. When presenting the essential items, the teacher should help students
know its pronunciation and its spelling. These are fairly obvious characteristics that should
be paid proper attention. The teacher needs to make sure that both these aspects are
accurately presented and learned. In presenting a grammar structure, it is necessary for the
teacher to be aware that good presentation should include both oral and written forms and
both forms and meaning. The teacher should avoid spending too much time on how to
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pronounce the new words or how to use the new grammar structures. Another important
thing is that before the listening lesson, teacher must be sure of word or structures that need
presenting.
However, each teacher has his/her own way to present the essential items and the

time for this technique also depends on the number of new words and structures that needs
to be presented. When the technique is used properly, it will bring great usefulness and
effectiveness in a listening lesson. It should be applied in the most of listening lesson
Students may find the listening tasks less difficult.
For example: In unit 12 (English 10 , 2006, p.128) students have opportunity to
hear a listening text about Van Cao-the very famous Vietnamese musician. Before
listening, the teacher should let students know some words which can be used to describe
Van Cao’s music such as: sweet and gentle, lyrical, rousing, solemn, etc. The teacher may
ask students to describe Van Cao’s music, student may think of some words in Vietnamese.
Then, these words can be quickly presented on the board with their spellings and meanings,
teacher reads aloud these words, students listen and repeat.
Moreover, the way of presenting new words in the second experimental lesson
(see appendix 4) is appreciated by students. Most of them feel comfortable and interested
in learning new words about the Statue of Liberty when the teacher uses card and picture to
present new words to them.
3.1.4. Giving dictations
Giving dictations to students is considered as one of the most effective and suitable
techniques to improve listening skills of 10
th
grade students at HEBHS. Some teachers think
giving dictation as an old-fashioned technique that should not be used nowadays. In fact,
teaching a foreign language for upper secondary school students should include this
technique. Giving dictations is like a bridge between written and spoken English through
listening. It not only helps students consolidate written structures, vocabulary but also is a
useful test of students’ listening comprehension. The technique can be applied effectively
when the teacher carries out the following steps:
Firstly, the teacher prepares the text which suits the students’ level. It is inadvisable
to choose a text with too many new and difficult words for students to dictate. Students
may be bored with dictating the text which is strange and irrelevant to their learnt lessons.
They often desire to widen their knowledge based on the general knowledge and what they

are interested in. Before giving dictation, it is important for the teacher to present the new
words or essential items by speaking out and writing them on the board. Moreover, the
teacher must be sure that all students know what they are supposed to do.
Secondly, the teacher should let students hear the text at least three times. The first
time, the teacher reads the text aloud at rather high speed, students listen only and get the
general idea of the listening text. The second time, the teacher reads the text, sentence by
sentence at normal speed, students listen and take notes. When dictating the passage to the
students, the teacher should go round and see how their students write it. The thirst time,
the teacher can read the whole text through again. This helps students correct their dictation
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themselves. After the dictation, the teacher should check students’ work and encourage
them by giving mark for the best ones.
For example: I have let students dictate the following passage which seems to be
suitable to 10
th
grade students at HEBHS. After dictation, most students are satisfied with
their work, they are interested in dictating the passages with popular topics which have
average length, simple expressions and grammar structures.
HELP YOUR DOCTOR TO HELP YOU
The leading causes of death in many countries are now heart disease, cancer,
accidents, flu, pneumonia, etc. Moreover cigarettes, alcohol, physical inactivity and
overeating also add to the causes of several of these killing diseases. Medicine has little
help to offer, however, to persons who cannot get rid of habits harmful to their health.
Surgery is the only means to offer any chance of survival for the people with lung cancer.
Although psychiatrists have tried to stop people from drinking, they have not been
successful. Neither have doctors. How then can our health be improved? The answer is
simple, though perhaps not very pleasing. Ordinary people can do it themselves. They are
able to make good advances in the prevention of disease.
If: The overweight could eat less
If: Drinkers could drink less

If: Smokers could stop smoking
If: Everyone could take a little more exercises
Then they could save more life years and get rid of those diseases. This would be
better than even the best and most expensive methods of modern treatments.
(English 12

, 1998, p.84)
From the dictation of this reading text, students can not only practise listening skills
but they can also improve their hand writing as well as increase their vocabulary related to
health care.
3.2. SUGGESTED LISTENING STRATEGIES FOR STUDENTS TO BECOME
BETTER LISTENERS.
It is necessary for the teacher to spend time on helping his/her students overcome
their listening difficulties in learning a foreign language like English. Field (1998)
proposed an approach to learners’ listening problems that should be taken into
consideration and suggested a series of exercises for practising listening. The teachers
should first identify students’ listening difficulties so that they can deal with each problem
specifically and effectively. In teaching listening, if the teachers pay attention to only those
areas that affect students’ comprehension most, they can use the limited teaching time more
profitably. Moreover, the teachers can help students improve their listening skills by
providing them with practice in perception of the selected sounds, content word
pronunciation of new words and intonation features. However, the practice in perception
alone will not be sufficient for preparing students to deal with listening for meaning.
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Therefore, it is essential that students should learn to adopt listening strategies which can
help or enhance their comprehension. According to Anderson (1995), there are three phase
models of language comprehension named perception, parsing and utilisation. Goh (1998)
suggests three groups of strategies based on those three phase models that help students to
become better listeners in learning English. They are cognitive, metacognitive and social-
affective. “Cognitive tactics act directly on the input to make sense of it; metacognitive

tactics manage cognitive process and difficulties during listening; social tactics involve
other people in achieving understanding; effective tactics manage unproductive emotions
during comprehension” (p. 71).
The following suggested types of practice in perception and listening strategies by
Goh(2000) can help students improve their listening skills. In fact, listening strategies are
vital for students’ success in listening, the more the students exploit listening strategies,
and the more successful they get in a listening lesson.
Types of practice for improve listening skills perception parsing utilization
I. Perception practice
1. Listen to how new vocabulary items are
pronounced
2. Write down content words from short passages
3. Identify the most prominent word in short
utterances
4. Identify meaning groups in sentences of varying
lengths
5. Identify tones and their communicative value
6. Identify common discourse markers and their
functions
7. Identify common phrasal verbs & their meaning
II. Listening strategy practice
Cognitive tactics
1. Infer missing or unfamiliar words using contexts
2. Predict general content before listening using
context & prior knowledge
3. Use prior knowledge to elaborate and complete
interpretation
4. Take short notes of important content words
5. Relate limited interpretation to a wider social /
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linguistic context
6. Relate one part of the text to another
7. Visualize scenes, objects, events etc, being
described
8. Reconstruct meaning using words heard
Metacognitive tactics
1. Preview contents in different forms
2. Establish purpose for listening
3. Listen selectively according to purpose

4. Pay attention to discourse markers
5. Pay attention to visuals and body language
6. Pay attention to tones and pauses
7. Monitor comprehension using contexts and prior
knowledge
8. Evaluate comprehension using contexts and prior
knowledge and external resources
9. Continue to listen for clarification in spite of
difficulty
10. Assess the importance of problematic parts and
decide whether to ignore them or actively seek
clarification
Social-affective tactics
1. Ask speaker for clarification and repetition
2. Paraphrase what speakers say to check
understanding
3. Learn to relax before and during listening
4. Encourage oneself to continue listening
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Note: The symbol (+) indicates the comprehension phase which can be facilitated by such
practice
Therefore, it is very necessary for students to make their listening both active and
conscious. Students should be active in processing information and conscious in processing
strategies.
3.3. Summary
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Some suggestions to improve the listening skills to 10
th
grade students at HEBHS
have been provided in this chapter. The effectiveness of using pictures and pair work/group
work has been approved in the experimental listening lessons. The teachers should employ
other suitable techniques for each listening task. Giving background information,
presenting essential items, encouraging prediction and selection are among of useful
techniques that may help students find the listening task less difficult. Besides, giving
dictation to students seems to be a helpful way for students at upper secondary school level
to enhance their ability in listening comprehension. This technique does not require any
modern equipment in teaching and learning, however, when it is used properly, students can

develop not only their listening skills but the other skills may also be improved.
Moreover, the teacher should adjust the time and effort to manage the class and
make their students more involved in the listening tasks. Students may need various
strategies in the three phases of a listening lesson. Being aware of these listening strategies
can help students become better listeners of English. So that, in teaching listening the
teachers should pay attention to the types of practice for improving listening
comprehension.
It can be said that both the teachers and students expect the success after each
listening task. Therefore, it can be helpful and necessary for them to consider the
suggestions in this chapter.
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