Nhận biết phong cách học tập nhằm phát triển kỹ năng nghe của học sinh lớp 11 tại trường thpt quốc học

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HUE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE
-------------------------

NGUYEN THI DIEU HIEN

IDENTIFYING ELEVENTH GRADERS’ LEARNING
STYLES IN DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILL
AT QUOC HOC HIGH SCHOOL

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

HUE, 2011
1


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HUE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE
-------------------------

NGUYEN THI DIEU HIEN

IDENTIFYING ELEVENTH GRADERS’ LEARNING
STYLES IN DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILL
AT QUOC HOC HIGH SCHOOL

FIELD OF STUDY: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY
OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
CODE: 60.14.10

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

SUPERVISOR: Assoc. Prof. Dr. PHAN VAN HOA

HUE, 2011
2


BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
-------------

NGUYỄN THỊ DIỆU HIỀN

NHẬN BIẾT PHONG CÁCH HỌC TẬP NHẰM PHÁT
TRIỂN KĨ NĂNG NGHE CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TẠI
TRƯỜNG THPT QUỐC HỌC

CHUYÊN NGÀNH: LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC MÔN TIẾNG ANH
MÃ SỐ: 60.14.10

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ GIÁO DỤC HỌC

NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC:
PGS.TS PHAN VĂN HÒA

HUẾ, 2011
3

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine. The data
and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with
permission from associates and have not been punished
elsewhere.
Author

Nguyen Thi Dieu Hien

4


I would like to express my first debt of deepest gratitude to my
supervisor, Phan Van Hoa Assoc. PhD for his trusted guidance, generous
help and deep encouragement in the fulfillment of this research paper.
He was always by my side in moments of difficulties or obstacles.
Whenever I lost my direction or will, he appeared in my mind and gave
me energy, motivation and optimism to go on.
To Dr. Le Pham Hoai Huong and Dr. Truong Vien, I would like to
express my heartfelt gratitude for her enthusiastic encouragement and
invaluable advice in the early stage of the development of the study.
I am severely grateful to my dear friends: Mr. Manus and Mr.
Peter Wanner for their precious constructive criticism and helpful
support for the completion of my paper.
My truthful thanks go to my teachers at the MA in the Theory and
Methodology of English Language Teaching course in the academic year
2009-2011 for their devotion in teaching which stimulated all the

students in the class to better their teaching profession and to my
classmates for being sincere friends with me during our two school
years together.
The data collection for my research paper was supported by the
teachers and eleventh graders at Quoc Hoc high school. Without their
valuable contributions with real and truthful ideas, I could not do well
with my research paper. I also want to thank the teachers and students
who were willing to spend their time participating in the interviews.
Last but not least, there is no word deserved to express the
gratitude to my family and my special friends who are always by my
side, encouraging me and most importantly, give my more inspirations to
finish the project with a sense of satisfaction.

5


TABLE CONTENT
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
TABLE CONTENTS ..................................................................................................1
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................... 5
LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................... 6
LIST OF FIGURES..................................................................................................... 7
LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................................. 8
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ 9
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...................................................................... 10
1.1. Background of the research ......................................................................... 10
1.2 Rationale for conducting the research .......................................................... 11
1.3. Research questions ...................................................................................... 13
1.4. Purpose and significance of the study ......................................................... 13

1.5. Scope of the study and thesis outline .......................................................... 14
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL
BACKGROUND ................................................................................................. 16
2.1. Listening skill and its features ..................................................................... 16
2.1.1. Definitions of listening ......................................................................... 16
2.1.2. The importance of listening skill in communication ............................ 18
2.1.3. Sub-skills involved in listening ............................................................. 19
2.1.4. Listening process .................................................................................. 20
2.1.4.1. The listening stages ........................................................................ 20
2.1.4.1.1. The pre- listening stage ............................................................ 21
2.1.4.1.2. The while- listening stage ........................................................ 22
2.1.4.1.3. The post- listening stage........................................................... 22
2.1.4.2. Listening is both a top-down and bottom-up process..................... 23

1


2.1.5. Listening strategies ............................................................................... 24
2.1.5.1. The principles for teaching listening .............................................. 24
2.1.5.2. The top-down and bottom-up strategies ......................................... 26
2.2. Learning styles ............................................................................................ 27
2.2.1. Definition of learning styles.................................................................. 27
2.2.2. Background on learning styles .............................................................. 29
2.2.3. Classification of learning styles ............................................................ 30
2.3. Learning styles in developing listening skill ............................................... 34
2.3.1. Listening strategies and learning styles ................................................ 34
2.3.2. The benefits of identifying learning styles in developing listening
skill .................................................................................................................. 36
2.3.3 Some difficulties in teaching listening skill in Vietnam ........................ 38
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ..................................................................... 40

3.1. Kinds of research and research approaches ................................................ 40
3.2. Research subjects ........................................................................................ 41
3.3. Data collection methods .............................................................................. 42
3.4. Data analysis methods ................................................................................. 44
3.5. Experimental study ...................................................................................... 44
3.5.1. Students‘ profiles .................................................................................. 44
3.5.2. Experimental procedures ...................................................................... 45
3.6. Research procedure ............................................................................. 46
CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ................................................. 48
4.1. Teacher‘s and students‘ responses on the necessity of identifying
learning styles in developing listening skill ....................................................... 48
4.1.1. Learning listening skill from students‘ perspective .............................. 48
4.1.1.1. Students‘ attitude towards learning listening skill ......................... 49
4.1.1.2. Students‘ thinking about learning listening skill ............................ 49

2


4.1.2. Students‘ and teachers‘ responses to identifying learning styles in
developing listening skill ................................................................................ 50
4.1.2.1. Teachers‘ responses to identifying learning styles in developing
listening skill ................................................................................................... 50
4.1.2.2. Students‘ responses to identifying learning styles in developing
listening skill ................................................................................................... 52
4.2. The influences of learning styles in developing listening skill to eleventh
graders at Quoc Hoc high school. ...................................................................... 53
4.2.1. Working with their teacher and its influences in learning listening
skill .................................................................................................................. 53
4.2.1.1 Students‘ thinking about the role of the teacher .............................. 53
4.2.1.2. Influences of working with teachers in learning listening skill ....... 55

4.2.2. Working with classmates and its influences in learning listening
skill .................................................................................................................. 56
4.2.2.1. Students‘ thinking about the role of the classmates ....................... 56
4.2.2.2. Influences of friends in learning listening skill ..................... 57
4.2.3. Working individually and its influences in learning listening skill ...... 58
4.2.3.1. Students‘ thinking about working individually .............................. 58
4.2.3.2. Influences of working individually in learning listening skill ....... 60
4.2.4. Estimation of students on the level of influences of their typical
learning styles .................................................................................................. 61
4.2.4.1: The level of passivity ..................................................................... 61
4.2.4.2: The level of confidence and activeness .......................................... 62
4.2.4.3: The level of creativity..................................................................... 63
4.3. The benefits that teachers and students will achieve from identifying
learning styles in developing listening skill ....................................................... 64
4.3.1. A comparison between students with and without learning
style-based practices ....................................................................................... 64
3


4.3.2. Benefits that teachers achieve from identifying learning styles in
teaching listening skill .................................................................................... 66
4.3.3. Benefits that students achieve from identifying learning styles in
developing listening skill ................................................................................ 68
4.4. The realities of using learning style-based activities in developing
listening skill ...................................................................................................... 70
4.4.1. Teachers‘ understandings about learning styles at Quoc Hoc high
school. ............................................................................................................. 70
4.4.2. The support of teaching aids in listening class ..................................... 71
4.4.2.1. Students‘ perception for using teachers‘ teaching aids in the
teaching listening ............................................................................................. 71

4.4.2.2. The frequency of using teachers‘ teaching aids in the teaching
listening ........................................................................................................... 72
4.4.3. Teachers‘ capabilities of designing and conducting learning
style-based activities in developing listening skill ......................................... 74
4.4.4. The realities of using learning style-based activities ............................ 76
4.5. Findings and Discussion of Experimental Study ........................................ 78
4.5.1. Common learning styles in Eleventh graders‘ listening classrooms .... 78
4.5.2. Adapting learning styles-based activities to develop listening skill ..... 79
4.5.3 Students‘ responses throughout learning style-based activities in
developing listening skill ................................................................................ 80
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS ................................... 82
5.1. Conclusion ................................................................................................... 82
5.2. Implications ................................................................................................. 85
5.2.1 Students .................................................................................................. 85
5.2.2. Teachers ................................................................................................ 86
5.3. Limitations .................................................................................................. 87
5.4. Suggestion for further researches ................................................................ 88
REFERENCES .......................................................................................................... 89
APPENDICES
4


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL

: English as a foreign language

5

LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1: Learning activities to support each VARK learning style
Table 3.1: Students‘ profiles among the experimental classes
Table 4.1: Students‘ attitude towards learning listening skill
Table 4.2: Students‘ thinking about the role of the teacher
Table 4.3: Students‘ thinking about the role of the classmates
Table 4.4: Students‘ thinking about working individually
Table 4.5: Benefits teacher achieve from identifying learning styles
Table 4.6: Benefits students achieve from identifying learning styles
Table 4.7: The support of teaching aids in the listening class

6


LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1: Research procedure
Figure 4.1: Students‘ thinking about learning listening skill
Figure 4.2: Teachers‘ responses to identifying learning styles in developing
listening skill
Figure 4.3: Students‘ responses to identifying learning styles in developing
listening skill
Figure 4.4: Influences of working with teachers in learning listening skill
Figure 4.5: Influences of friends in learning listening skill
Figure 4.6: Influences of working individually in learning listening skill
Figure 4.7: The level of passivity
Figure 4.8: The level of confidence and activeness
Figure 4.9: The level of creativity
Figure 4.10: A comparison between students with and without learning style-based

practices
Figure 4.11: Teachers‘ understanding about learning styles
Figure 4.12: The frequency of using teachers‘ teaching aids in the teaching listening
Figure 4.13 : Teachers‘ capabilities of designing and conducting learning stylebased activities
Figure 4.14 : The realities of using learning style-based activities
Figure 4.15: Students‘ learning styles profiles
Figure 4.16 : Students‘ motivation throughout learning style-based activities

7


LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix 1

: The VARK questionnaire

Appendix 2A : Research questionnaire (for students)
Appendix 2B : Bảng câu hỏi điều tra ( dành cho học sinh)
Appendix 3

: Research questionnaire (for teachers)

Appendix 4

: Interview

Appendix 5A : Lesson plan 1
Appendix 5B : Tape script 1
Appendix 6A : Lesson plan 2
Appendix 6B : Tape script 2

Appendix 7

: Comment form

8


ABSTRACT
The project ―Identifying the learning styles of eleventh graders in developing
listening skill at Quoc Hoc high school” has been carried out with a view to provide
the effectiveness of teaching and learning listening skill for eleventh graders. It aims
to find out (a) the necessity of identifying learning styles in teaching and learning
listening skill; (b) the effects of identifying learning styles in teaching and learning
listening skill; (c) the benefits in teaching and learning listening skill that teachers
and students achieve from identifying learning styles; and (d) the realities of using
learning style-based activities in developing listening skill.
Qualitative and quantitative methods, used to collect and analyze observation,
interview and questionnaire data from 90 students at eleventh grade and 10 teachers
from Quoc Hoc high school, led to the identification of critical issues related to
listening learning and teaching.
The findings contain: (1) Most teachers and students are well aware of the necessity
of learning styles and show positive attitudes towards identifying learning styles in
developing listening skill; (2) Learning styles affect the results of learning listening
skill differently; (3) Identifying learning styles brings considerable benefits to the
area of teaching and learning listing skill; (4) Learning style-based activities are
carried out with different frequency in the listening classes; and (5) Adapting
learning style-based activities helps students develop their listening abilities better
from Experiment Study.
Based on the findings, some suggestions are drawn out not only for students to
become successful learners with effective listening strategies but also for teachers to

enhance students‘ listening capabilities. Much effort is put forth by the research
with the hope of contributing to the improvement of the process of learning and
teaching listening skill at high schools.

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of the research
The more a society is developing, the more important the role of foreign languages
takes on. Besides the mother tongue, there are many different foreign languages that
are being used in each country. Among them, English is the most widely used
language in the world and it has been used in all spheres of public activity. Because
of its importance many countries have chosen English as the second language after
their mother tongue and Vietnam is one of these countries. English is a compulsory
subject, at present, and is taught at different levels of the educational system, from
primary schools to colleges and universities as well as thousands of foreign
language centers throughout Vietnam.
English teaching involves four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Among them, listening is a difficult language skill to master through the teaching
and learning process. Our communication is based on listening because it is the
foundation for effective interaction. Failure to listen is probably the cause of more
interpersonal problems than any other aspects of human behavior. Much research
has shown that listening is considered a complicated skill by a number of students at
different levels. We cannot develop speaking skills unless we develop our listening
skills; to have a successful conversation, students must understand spoken language.
The spoken language is also the language modality that is used most frequently.
It has been estimated that adults spend almost half their communication time
listening, and students may receive as much as ninety percents of their in-school
information through listening to instructors and to one another. Often, however,

language learners do not recognize the level of effort that goes into developing
listening ability. According to language teachers, the reasons for this include both
extrinsic aspects (such as teachers‘ instruction before listening, unclear tape scripts
of listening, stress, etc.) and intrinsic ones (for examples, uninteresting topics of
listening, the lack of motivation, and so on).

10


To second language learners, it seems to be frightening to learn a foreign language
that is not their mother tongue. The development of listening skill should get
considerable attention in our schools nowadays, but that does not appear to be the
case. Second language teachers have therefore been searching for ways to improve
students‘ listening ability, as well as to plant and nurture students‘ love for the
subject. Apart from innovations that have been made in teaching practices
themselves, so far many different supplementary tools have been applied, such as
listening comprehension, cooperative listening, etc. Each of these listening
strategies, when carrying out in the classroom, has its own benefits and also reveals
certain drawbacks. The search for better listening skill, as a results, remains an
ongoing process.
At the same time, listening is both a process and behavior for students. The process
is the manner in which individuals synthesize, analyze and evaluate information
they hear. The behavior, on the other hand, is affected by personal attributes such as
education, culture and gender. Listening is an important and integral component of
human interaction. Because it is so critical to interpersonal understanding, it is
essentially that there is a means of assessment for listening abilities.
1.2 Rationale for conducting the research
Firstly, listening is an important skill of communicative process and it takes a good
listener to create a good speaker. According to Saricoban (1999) in his research,
effective listening may ―save time, prevent problems and strengthen relationships‖.

Listening is no longer considered as ―a model for oral reading‖ (Rost, 1994, p.139),
but important on its own right (Harmer, 1997). Therefore, teaching and learning
listening skill in upper-secondary school are actually essential.
Secondly, different ways of learning of the students causes teachers to have some
difficulties in teaching listening process. English as foreign language (EFL) teachers
with the whole-hearted efforts always hope for the best in learning results of the
students. They try to be sensitive to each student‘s capability for learning new
material all the time. However, this is difficult when the teachers have to face up to
11


a classroom with students of different abilities. Each of the students has different
ways of learning that work best for them, thus the teachers‘ teaching styles cannot
match all of the students who have different learning styles. In addition, the
traditional language teaching and learning methodologies in many schools in
Vietnam tend to neglect the active participation of different types of students.
Generally, students in traditional Vietnamese classrooms are treated as identical
entities in terms of classroom involvement. This is one of the possible explanations
for the reason why we cannot generally develop effectively the diversified
potentials of the abilities of our students in an English listening classroom.
Thirdly, some learning strategies are specific to particular individuals, that is, not
every strategy works best for all learners, according to Djiwandono (2006). For
instance, a student in a class used ―imagining‖ strategy to understand a spoken
massage having to do with asking for and giving direction. Some students
commented that this strategy would never work for them; they would rather use
inferring strategy, which they claimed was also successful. Hence, Dijwandono
(2006) came to a conclusion that the differences among learners should be taken as
evidence that strategies vary in effectiveness, depending on the learner.
Finally, the mismatch occurring between the teacher and the student results in the
significant influences in students‘ motivation and attitudes toward the class and the

subject. To teach listening effectively, therefore, the language teachers must be
aware of how the students approach their learning in general and how they prefer to
develop their listening skill in particular.
With such problems, one of the effective approaches for a teacher to take is to
address a variety of students‘ learning styles within their teaching plans. Identifying
quickly students‘ learning preferences through a brief questionnaire administered at
the beginning of the course should be carried out. The students can understand their
preferred leaning styles and teachers can work effectively with them through
suitable teaching methodologies that motivate students‘ interest in English listening
and encourage them in active thinking and communication.
12


1.3. Research questions
Identifying learning styles can provide a basis for motivating individuals to alter
personal listening behavior, thereby teaching and learning listening skill that will be
more effective. Effective listening, in its turn, enhances communication. Seeing its
benefits to language teaching and learning, and considering the fact that this is still
new to the English teaching context at Quoc Hoc High school, I wish to conduct
this research to investigate the process of ―Identifying eleventh graders‟ learning
styles in developing listening skill at Quoc Hoc High School‖.
Specifically, this research aims to address the following questions:
1. What are the teachers‘ and students‘ responses to the necessity of identifying
eleventh graders‘ learning styles in teaching and learning listening skill at Quoc
Hoc high school?
2. How do learning styles affect teaching and learning listening skill of eleventh
graders at Quoc Hoc high school?
3. What are the benefits that teachers and students will achieve in teaching and
learning listening skill from identifying learning styles?
4. How do EFL teachers use learning style-based activities in developing listening

skill to eleventh graders at Quoc Hoc high school?
1.4. Purpose and significance of the study
This research aims to evaluate the current situations of EFL teaching and learning
listening skill, firstly, to eleventh graders at Quoc Hoc high school from the
perspectives of learning styles. Next, this study makes an effort to recognize the
various sets of students‘ learning styles and it also attempts to find out the benefits
of identifying learning styles in developing listening skill. Then, the research
discusses the influences of learning style factors on teaching and learning listening
skill. Finally, certain practical ideas to make listening learning more effective with
the application of learning style-based activities in the listening classroom will be
presented.
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Since students‘ learning preferences have yet to be identified in the teaching of
listening to eleventh graders at any high schools, I believe this will shed more light
on and achieve some inspirational effects in the area of teaching listening, as well as
give me new experiences in teaching listening skill as a foreign language teacher.
More importantly, through this research, I hope to introduce a type of listening
exercise is that based on learning styles theory, through which students have better
awareness of their personal preferences and utilize them in developing listening
skill. This in its turn is hoped to make listening become a more interesting subject to
eleventh graders.
1.5. Scope of the study and thesis outline
This study focuses on identifying learning styles of eleventh graders in developing
listening skill and creating effective listening activities to provide for these students
of diverse learning styles at Quoc Hoc high school. This research is limited to
students‘ practice of listening skill. The participants are eleventh graders, whose
listening ability is expected to be at pre-intermediate and intermediate levels.
The research paper will be composed of five main chapters as below. Chapter 1, the

introduction, presents the background information of the research, the rationale of
choosing the topic, the purposes of the study, the research questions and the scope
of the study.
Chapter 2 reviews a theoretical background of the subject matter. It consists three
main sections, including (1) listening skill, (2) learning styles, (3) and learning
styles in developing listening skill. The first section deals with the definition of
listening skill and its features. The second section is then divided into three parts,
namely definition of learning styles, background on learning styles and
classification of learning styles. The third section concludes with the learning styles
in developing listening skill.
Chapter 3 describes the research methodology used so as to achieve the
objectives of the study. It includes a brief description of the basic type of the

14


research, participants in the study, data collection tools, and data analysis and
experimental study.
Chapter 4 presents the findings and discussions for the study. The findings are
classified and interpreted into five categories, including (1) teachers‘ and students‘
attitudes towards identifying learning styles in developing listening skill, (2) the
influences of identifying learning styles in teaching and learning listening skill, (3)
the benefits in teaching and learning listening skill from identifying learning styles,
(4) the realities of using learning style-based activities in developing listening skill,
(5) and findings and discussions in experimental study.
Chapter 5 summarizes the main researched points and provides some pedagogical
implications, the limitations and suggestions for future research.

15

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
This chapter provides a theoretical background of the subject matter with three
sections. The first section discusses the listening skill and its features. Firstly, it
starts with the definitions of listening skill. The importance of listening skill in
communication is then mentioned. The following part focuses on sub-skills
involved in listening. The listening process is carefully discussed accordingly. The
final part of this section refers to listening strategies. The second section mentions
the aspects of learning styles. It includes definitions of learning styles, background
on learning styles and classification of learning styles. The last section of this
chapter discusses the learning styles on developing listening skill. There are three
parts in this section consist of listening strategies and learning styles firstly, the
benefits of identifying learning styles in developing listening skill then, and lastly
some difficulties in teaching listening skill in Vietnam.
2.1. Listening skill and its features
This section below illustrates listening skill with its definitions and importance, subskills involved in listening, teaching listening process and listening strategies.
2.1.1. Definitions of listening
Every day we listen to many different things in many different ways. They can be
conversations with a colleague, the TV news, or a new music CD. In our native
language, we seem to automatically know the ways and the purposes why we listen.
To language learners, listening is more challenging. It is a fundamental language
skill and has been defined by many authors.
Listening used to be viewed as receptive skill. That is, it requires a person to receive
and understand incoming information. Because listening is receptive, we can listen
to and understand thing at a higher level than we can produce. Therefore, people

16

sometimes think of it as a passive skill. This is a misconception because listening
skill has an ―active involvement‖ from the hearer‘s perspective.
Thomlison‘s (1984) definition of listening includes ―active listening,‖ which goes
beyond comprehending as understanding the message content, to comprehension as
an act of empathetic understanding of the speaker. Additionally, Ngee (1985), who,
based on his formal research, adds more details:
―In listening, the listener is actively engaged in the process of constructing a
message; how accurate his perception or understanding of the message
depends on his knowledge of the language as well as his knowledge of the
world. This knowledge further enables him to predict the probable content of
the listening text and select what is relevant to his purpose in listening‖
(p.59).
Similarly, Ronald and Roskelly (1995) clarify:
―Listening is as an active process requiring the same skills of prediction,
hypothesizing, revising, and generalizing that writing and reading demand;
and these authors present specific exercises to make students active learners
who are aware of the ―inner voice‖ one hears when writing.‖
Therefore, as Dobkin and Pace (2003) carefully introduce in their book
―Communication in a Changing World‖, active listeners choose to focus on the
moment, are aware of interactions as they unfold, respond appropriately, and resist
philosophical and psychological distraction (p.93).
Gordon (1985) also states that empathy is essential to listening and contends that it
is more than a polite attempt to identify a speaker's perspectives. Rather more
importantly, empathetic understanding expands to ―egocentric pro-social behavior"
that altruistically accepts concern for the speaker's welfare and interests.
Hirsch (1986) supports above idea in his research that span neurological responses
and interpretation of sound to understanding and assigning meaning by reacting,
selecting meaning, remembering, attending, analyzing, and incorporating previous
17

experience. He finds that listening is the attempts to define the process, explanations
of sequential phases in listening how sound is received, comprehended, and acted
upon; and generalist definitions that examine aspects of listening without
sequencing them or relating each to the others as part of a process.
Although the definition is expressed in different ways, most of the authors agree
that listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying. This
involves the understanding of a speaker‘s accent or pronunciation, his grammar and
his vocabulary, and grasping his meaning (Howatt and Dakin, 1974), constructing
the meaning, negotiating meaning, responding, creating meaning through
involvement, imagination and empathy (Rost, 1994). An able listener is capable of
doing these things simultaneously.
2.1.2. The importance of listening skill in communication
Listening is an important skill in learning a foreign language and its process has
been developed in the past 20 years. Language learning depends on listening since it
provides the aural input that serves as a basis for language acquisition and enables
learners to interact in spoken communication.
People gain a large portion of their education, their information, their understanding
of the world and of human affairs, their ideals, sense of values, and their
appreciation through listening. In this day of mass communication, much of it oral,
it is of vital importance that students are taught to listen effectively and critically.
However, it is the most common communicative activities in daily life: ―we can
expect to listen twice as much as we speak, four times more than we read, and five
times more than we write‖ (Morley, 1991:80). Therefore, listening is difficult but
necessary in all of communicative situations.
According to Zabava Ford, Wolvin, and Chung in their research in 2000, ―Listening
skill ranked first and second in importance, following instructions ranked first and
second in the frequency of use of the skill. Further, that listening is critical for
success in today‘s fast-changing, competitive, global organizations‖.

18


Undeniably, the value of listening in communication cannot be underestimated. As
Mathews, Spratt and Dangerfield observed in their research in 1991―If one of our
main aims to teach our students oral communication, then we have no option but to
give prominence to the development of listening skills as well. Communication
cannot successfully take place unless what is spoken is also understood‖ (p.60).
Listening plays an important role in learning a foreign language; therefore, it is
essential for language teachers to help students become effective learners. In the
communicative approach to language teaching, this means modeling listening
strategies and providing listening practice in authentic situation that helps learners
be likely to encounter when they use the language outside the classroom.
2.1.3. Sub-skills involved in listening
Listening is, in fact, a language skill which involves a wide range of ―sub-skills (R.
Forseth, C. Forseth, Ta & Nguyen, 1994). Willis (1981:134) lists a series of microskills of listening, which she calls ―enabling skills‖. They are:
 Listening for general information.
 Listening for the main idea: students listen to identify the overall ideas
expressed in the whole recording.
 Listening for details: students listen for groups of words and phrases at sentence
level.
 Listening for specific information: students listen for particular information at
word level.
 Listening for opinions: students listen to identify the attitude of certain speakers.
 Recognizing words.


Predicting: students try to guess key information contained in the recording

before they listen.

 Inferring meaning: students listen to identify the difference between what the
speaker says and what they actually mean.
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 Identifying emotion: students listen to identify the mood of certain speakers.
 Inferring relationships: students listen to identify who the people are in the
recording and what the relationship is between them.
 Recognizing context: students listen to aural and contextual clues to identify
where the conversation takes place, who is speaking, etc.
Rost (1994) also asserts in his research, ―Listening is the integration of sub-skills,
not the individual skills themselves.‖ He listed a large number of sub-skills. They
are discriminating between sounds, recognizing words, identifying stressed words
and groupings of words, identifying functions in a conversation, connecting
linguistic cues to paralinguistic cues and to nonlinguistic cues in order to construct
meaning, using background knowledge and context to predict and confirm meaning,
recalling important words, topics and ideas, giving appropriate feedback to the
speaker and reformulating what the speaker has said. Consequently, we can say that
listening is an umbrella term which covers many different skills. Effective listening
is the combination of these skills.
The teachers, language instructors always try to show students how they can adjust
their listening behavior to deal with a variety of situations, types of input, and
listening purposes in order to make an effective listening classroom. They help
students to develop a set of listening strategies and match appropriate strategies to
each listening situation. As a result, second language teachers always try to find out
the ways to improve students‘ listening competence and performance, as well as
students‘ love and enjoyment for the subject nowadays. Students‘ listening skill will
be improved more effectively if teachers aim to teach sub-skills, as well as global
listening comprehension.
2.1.4. Listening process

2.1.4.1. The listening stages
Listening is an invisible mental process and difficult to describe, as a result, it is
necessary to have a suitable teaching process to help students master this skill
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