designing a listening syllabus for grade 10 english gifted students at thai nguyen specializing upper secondary school = thiết kế chương trình nghe cho học sinh chuyên anh 10 trường thpt chuyên thái nguyên

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES


PHẠM TUYẾT LINH



DESIGNING A LISTENING SYLLABUS FOR GRADE 10
ENGLISH GIFTED STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN SPECIALIZING
UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL


THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH NGHE CHO HỌC SINH CHUYÊN ANH
10 TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN THÁI NGUYÊN


M.A. MINOR THESIS
FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60 14 10
SUPERVISOR: MAI THỊ LOAN, M. A





HA NOI - 2010


iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i
ABSTRACT ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v
LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES vi
PART I: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale of the study 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Research questions of the study 2
4. Significance of the study 2
5. Methods of the study 2
6. Scope of the study 3
7. Design of the study 3
PART II: DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4
1.1. Syllabus design 4
1.1.1. Definition of syllabus 4
1.1.2. Types of syllabus 5
1.1.3. Steps in designing a syllabus 6
1.2. Needs analysis 7
1.2.1. Definitions of needs analysis 7
1.2.2. Reasons for choosing need analysis 7
1.2.3. Components of need analysis 7
1.2.3.1. Target needs 7
1.2.3.2. Learning needs 8
1.3. An overview of listening comprehension 8
1.3.1. Definitions of listening comprehension 8

1.3.2. Listening strategies 9
1.3.3. Listening process 10
CHAPTER 2: FINDINGS AND DATA ANALYSIS 12
2.1. Questionnaire 12
2.1.1. Aims of the questionnaire 12
2.1.2. Participants 12
2.1.3. Findings and data analysis 12
2.1.3.1. Learning situation 12
2.1.3.2. Student’s needs 15
2.2. Listening test 18
2.2.1. Aims of the listening test 18
2.2.2. Participants 18
2.2.3. Findings and data analysis 18
2.3. Interview 19


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2.3.1. Aims of the interview 19
2.3.2. Participants 19
2.3.3. Findings and data analysis 19
2.3.3.1. Teaching situation 19
2.3.3.2. Teachers’ needs 20
2.3.3.3. Currently used materials 22
2.4. Summary 25
CHAPTER 3: A PROPOSED SYLLABUS 26
3.1. Introduction 26
3.2. The proposed syllabus 26
3.2.1. The descriptions of the syllabus 26
3.2.2. Goals and objectives of the syllabus 26

3.2.2.1. Goals of the syllabus 26
3.2.2.2. Objectives of the syllabus 27
3.2.3. Time frame 27
3.2.4. The content of the syllabus 28
3.2.4.1. The topics of the syllabus 28
3.2.4.2. The listening skill 28
3.2.4.3. The listening tasks 29
3.2.4.4. Grammar 29
3.2.4.5. Vocabulary area 29
3.3. The proposed syllabus 30
3.4. A sample unit 34
3.5. Suggestions 34
3.5.1. Suggestions for teaching methods 34
3.5.2. Suggestions for assessment of students 34
3.6. Summary 35
PART III: CONCLUSION 36
1. Summary of the study 36
2. Limitations and suggestions for further research 37
REFERENCES 38
APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS I
APPENDIX 2: THE INTERVIEW FOR TEACHERS OF ENGLISH V
APPENDIX 3: LISTENING TEST VI
APPENDIX 4: RESPONSES TO THE QUESTIONNAIRE VIII
APPENDIX 5: RESPONSES TO THE QUESTIONAIRE IX
APPENDIX 6: RESULTS OF THE LISTENING TEST X
APPENDIX 7: RESPONSES TO THE INTERVIEW XI
APPENDIX 8: A SAMPLE LISTENING UNIT XII

v

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

TNSUSS: Thai Nguyen Specializing Upper Secondary School
IELTS: The International English Language Testing System
MOET: Ministry of Education and Training
EFL: English as a Foreign Language

vi

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES
Charts
Chart 1: Students' self evaluation on their English ability
Chart 2: Students’ responses regarding their attitudes forwards listening skill
Chart 3: Students’ responses referring to difficulties in listening
Chart 4: Students’ perception of listening comprehension
Chart 5: Students' responses concerning their perception of the teacher's role
Chart 6: Distribution of students’ responses referring to listening tasks they expect to improve
Chart 7: Distribution of students’ responses referring to listening skill they expect to learn
Tables
Table 1: Students’ learning places
Table 2: Students’ background of learning English
Table 3: Perceived English skills important to study
Table 4: Students’ expectations of the topics in listening class
Table 5: Results of listening test
Table 6: Teachers’ perceptions of their students’ difficulties in listening
Table 7: The tasks relevant to English 10 gifted students
Table 8: Teachers’ perceptions of topics and situations
Table 9: Teachers’ perception of listening skills needed by their students
Table 10: Distribution of students’ responses and teachers’ responses referring to listening syllabus

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PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
TNSUSS was founded in 1988 with the mission to select and train gifted students for Thai
Nguyen province. Every year, the English gifted students in grade 11 and 12 of the school
have to take the national exam for gifted students. To help the students gain the best
results, the teachers of English specializing classes have to work very hard to prepare the
materials for their teaching. This work takes them a lot of time and money, and they
always feel tired of preparing the materials as they have to select the materials themselves
from different sources such as: internet, different textbooks, magazines etc. As a result, the
selected topics are monotonous, and the content is illogical and unsystematic. The teachers
cannot only use the current textbook for their teaching because it is designed for only
normal students, not for gifted students. Up to now, MOET has not edited a standard
syllabus to meet the current requirements and difficulty level of the national exams for
gifted students at specializing upper secondary schools. Thus, if the English gifted only
learn this type of the documents, they will not get high scores in national exam, especially
in listening part. According to Anh (2006:14) the objectives of the new textbook for
listening part are: “After the course, students can understand and identify main ideas,
specific details of the conversations, monologue or spoken texts with 150 words to 200
words at low speed”. Whereas, the format of the listening test in national exam is based on
the format of IELTS tests. It means that students have to listen to the spoken text with from
250 to 350 words at rather high speed. Thus, it is necessary to design a listening
supplementary for teachers and gifted students at TNSUSS to reduce the teachers’
workload in finding and selecting materials. Moreover, as mentioned above, the students
find it challenging in listening skill, not only because of the materials but also due to their

neglect. The students who want to enter TNSUSS have to take an entrance exam. But in
the format of the English paper, there are only grammar, vocabulary, and reading parts and
there is no listening part. Besides, MOET has not integrated this skill in the periodical
exam for secondary schools. Hence, the students only learn what are involved in the
English papers and listening skill is completely neglected. A lot of the students have
command of grammar, reading skill, vocabulary but their listening level is not high. To
improve their listening abilities, they need to practice more with a supplementary logical


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and systematic syllabus. For these reasons, I decided to design a listening syllabus for
grade 10 English gifted students at TNSUSS.
2. Aims of the study
The aims of the study are:
- to investigate learning situation and students’ needs
- to identify students’ listening proficiency level
- to find out teaching situation and teachers’ needs
- to propose an appropriate listening syllabus for grade 10 English gifted students.
3. Research questions of the study
1- What are learning situation and students’ needs?
2- What is students’ proficiency listening level?
3- What are the teaching situation and the teachers’ needs?
4- How to design the listening syllabus for the grade 10 English gifted students at
TNSUSS?
4. Significance of the study
The study is carried out in response to the urgent demand of TNSUSS, gifted students
in grade 10 and teachers in teaching and studying listening and improves students’
listening skill. Moreover, the ultimate outcome of the study will be an appropriate syllabus
for gifted students in grade 10. The proposed syllabus is to give substantial assistance to

designing supplementary syllabi for grade 11 and 12 English gifted students, especially for
gifted students of national team.
5. Methods of the study
To find the answers for the research questions above, the researcher used both
quantitative research method and qualitative method. Data were collected through three data
collection instruments. A survey questionnaire was distributed to 37 grade 10 English gifted
students to find out learning situation and students’ need. Besides, a listening test was designed
to evaluate students’ listening proficiency level. And an informal interview was conducted
among 5 teachers of English specializing classes to investigate teaching situation and teachers’
needs. To analyze data, the researcher followed statistical procedure, from reporting, counting
data to coding questionnaire data and data of listening test, classifying, and summarizing data.
Besides, the recorded interviews and stimulated recalls were transcribed, analyzed and
synthesized in order to provide a deeper insight into the matter of concern.


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6. Scope of the study
The focus of the study is on designing a listening syllabus for grade 10 English gifted
students at TNSUSS. Since, to design a series of supplementary syllabi for English gifted
students in grade 10, 11 and 12 would require a lot of time and effort from the designers.
Therefore, the researcher concentrated on designing a listening syllabus for only gifted
students in grade 10.
7. Design of the study
The study was organized in three parts:
Part I- Introduction- provided the rationale, aims, research questions, significance,
methods and design of the study.
Part II- Development- included three chapters:
Chapter 1 presented an overview of related literature on syllabus design, need
analysis and listening comprehension.

Chapter 2 was concerned with finding and data analysis. From the results of the
questionnaire, the learning situation, as well as, students’ needs was analyzed. The
students’ listening proficiency level also is revealed in listening test. Besides, the teaching
situation, teachers’ needs, together with strong points and drawbacks of currently used
materials were also discussed based on the finding of the interview.
Chapter 3 proposed a listening syllabus for grade 10 English gifted students. It also
suggested some suggestions for the implementation of the syllabus including suggestions
for assessment and teaching methods.
Part III- Conclusion- summarized the study and made some suggestions for further
research.











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PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter aimed at revising: The first part presented the definitions of syllabus, types of
syllabus and steps in designing a syllabus. The second part mentioned a need analysis as a
point of departure for the process of syllabus design, components of need analysis: target
needs and learning needs. In the third part, listening theories were reviewed. They
included the definitions of listening comprehension, the strategies of listening

comprehension, and listening processes. These discussions would lay the foundation for
the design of the listening syllabus presented in the next chapter.
1.1. Syllabus design
1.1.1. Definition of syllabus
The term “syllabus” is not new in language teaching, but it is rather difficult in defining
what a syllabus is, according to Nunan (1988:5): “there is some different disagreement
about the nature of “the syllabus”. And he points out the roof of the problem is that the
syllabus design is defined based on two views: the broad and the narrow approach.
Some language specialists, who back up the narrow view, such as Widdowson (1984 cited
in Nunan 1988:5), and Nunan (1988:5) indicate that syllabus and methodology should be
kept separate. In narrow view, Nunan (1988: 5) states “ syllabus design is seen as being
concerned essentially with the selection and grading content, while methodology is
concerned with the selection of learning tasks and activities”. Allen (1984: 61 cited in
Nunan 1988:5) advocates by defining: “Syllabus is concerned with a specification of what
units will be taught as distinct from how they will be taught, which a matter for
methodology is”. According to Widdowson (1984: 26 cited in Nunan 1988:5): “the
syllabus is simply a framework within which activities can be carried out: a teaching
device to facilitate learning”. Hutchinson & Waters (1987:80) point out: “A syllabus is a
document which says what will (or at least what should) be learnt”.
In contrast to the narrow view, some other scholars adopt a “broader view”, which argues
that with the advent of communicative language teaching, the distinction between content
and task is difficult to sustain. One of the authors who advocate broad view, Dave (1990:1)
defines: “The syllabus specifies what is to be learned and the methodology tells us how to
be learned”. He also states that “there need be no conflict between the two. We can specify
a syllabus in whatever way seems sensible; and can then use whatever methodology we


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want in order to transmit our syllabus content”. More specifically, Yalden (1984:14, cited

in Nunan, 1988:5) states: “The syllabus replaces the concept of method, and syllabus is
now seen as an instrument by which the teacher, with the help of the syllabus designer, can
achieve a degree of fit between the needs and aims of the learner (as social being and as
individual and the activities which will take place in the classroom)”. Obviously, Dave
and Yalden support the view that the selection and gradation of content are combined with
the methodology in so-called ‘syllabus”.
To sum up, there have been a number of definitions of “syllabus” from the narrow to broad
approach. The issue is that in designing a syllabus for a certain group of learners, the
designer must decide which view to follow. The researcher of this thesis backed up the
broad view that the selection of content, the selection of learning tasks and activities were
combined with methodology in the syllabus. Thus, the teacher, with the help of the
designer, could easily use the syllabus to obtain the fit between the needs and the aims of
the students.
Besides the definition of syllabus, to be aware of syllabus types is also necessary for any
syllabus designer. It has a contribution to make the design of a fully realized, integrated
syllabus and the discussion on the syllabus types is being presented in the next part.
1.1.2. Types of syllabus
This section presents several different kinds of syllabus, along with their advantages and
disadvantages. It will then be the foundation for the researcher of this study comes to a
decision of which syllabus to choose.
According to Dubin & Olshtain (1986:37), syllabi can be classified into some major types
such as the structural-grammatical syllabus, the semantic-notional syllabus, the functional
syllabus, and the situational syllabus.
Ur (1996: 177-178) divides syllabuses into smaller types: grammatical, lexical,
grammatical-lexical, situational, topic-based, notional, functional, notional, and mixed or
‘multi-strand’ procedural and process syllabus. It is clear that in Ur’s view about types of
syllabus, there are some differences from Dubin’s. As for Ur, mixed or ‘multi-strand’
syllabus is the one that is combining different aspects in order to be maximally
comprehensive and helpful to teachers and learners.

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Nunan (1988: 26-40) summarizes two main types of syllabus: the product – oriented
syllabuses and the process – oriented syllabuses.
The former contains the following types: Grammatical syllabuses, functional – notional
syllabuses, analytic syllabuses, which focus on the knowledge and skills learners should
gain as a result of instructions.
The latter includes such types as: procedural syllabuses, task – based syllabuses, content
syllabuses, which focus on the learning experience themselves.
There have been many different classifications, each has its own advantages and
disadvantages. Choosing or employing which syllabus type will depend on a consideration
of the learners’ needs and the objectives of the course.
In the study, the researcher chose skills-based syllabus for the study.
* Skill - based syllabus
The second type of the syllabus I chose for my study was skill- based syllabus. I used it in
this study on account of its primary purpose was to learn the specific language skill. Skill-
based syllabus traditionally gathers linguistic abilities (pronunciation, vocabulary,
grammar and discourse) together into generalized types of behavior, such as writing
business letters, listening to spoken language for the main idea, oral skills for business
people, giving effective oral presentations, and so on. Moreover, Robinson (1991:37)
defines skill- based syllabus as “something of a half way house between content or product
syllabuses on the one side and method or process syllabuses on the other”. The content of
the language teaching is a selection of competences that may play a part in using language.
1.1.3. Steps in designing a syllabus
According to Munby (1983: 58), designing a syllabus involves a logical sequence of three
stages: The first step is need analysis, the second one is content specification, and the last
is syllabus organization
Nunan (1988) has a different idea. He believes that there are four steps in syllabus
designing: The first stage is need analysis, the second one is setting goals, the third one is

selecting and grading content and the last is selecting and grading learning tasks
As can be seen above, there are different opinions about the stages of designing a syllabus.
In the next section, I would focuse on reviewing the theory of need analysis because if the
researcher wanted to design successful, she had to know the target needs and learning
needs. Thus, the syllabus could meet the demand of students’ need, lack and want. In the


7

next section, there would be two main parts. The first one would be need analysis, which
investigates the meaning of “needs”, the purposes of needs analysis and the kind of
information that a needs analysis tell us. The second one would be components of need
analysis: target needs and learning needs.
1.2. Needs analysis
1.2.1. Definitions of needs analysis
Nunan (1988:75) defines needs analysis as “a family of producers for gathering
information about learners”. Munby (1978:58) also states that “need analysis is concerned
to find out the learners’ needs in the use of target language (i.e. who is communicating
with whom, why, how, where, when, at what level, about what, and in what way)”. The
researcher of the study advocated the view of Munby, as it was more clear and detailed.
1.2.2. Reasons for choosing need analysis
The researcher thought that need analyzing was an essential stage in designing a syllabus.
Because if I knew well what my students need, lack and want I would design an
appropriate syllabus which can meet the demand of the students. The significance of need
analysis is stated by Richterich (1987:5) as: “Bearing in mind a wide range of needs, a
needs analysis is considered a prerequisite in any course design”. A needs analysis is now
seen as the logical starting point for the development of a language program. Hutchinson
and Waters (1987: 53) also have the same idea of the significance of needs analysis: “If
learners, sponsors and teachers know why the learners need English, that awareness will
have an influence on what will be acceptable as reasonable content in the language course,

and on the positive side: what potential can be exploited”.
In needs analysis, we should consider two components: target needs and learning needs.
1.2.3. Components of need analysis
1.2.3.1. Target needs
Target needs can be defined in terms of necessities, lacks and wants as follows:
The first component of target need is necessity. Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 55) claim
that “necessities is type of need determined by the demands of the target situation, that is,
what the learner has to know in order to function effectively in the target situation”. The
researcher agreed with their view, I found that investigating the necessity would bring
benefit to my study. Because by determining the demand of the target situation the
researcher would know what linguistic features should be involved in the syllabus.


8

The second component of target need is lacks. According to Hutchinson & Water
(1987:54) “Lacks refer to the starting points, that is, you need to know what the learner
knows already, so that you can then decide which of the necessities the learner lacks”. In
this study, it was very necessary for the researcher to know what the learner had already
known and what the learner wished to achieve at the end of the course. Furthermore, the
researcher wanted to know the gap between the target proficiency and the existing
proficiency of her learners.
The last component of target need is wants. Hutchinson & Water (1987:54) state that wants
concern to what that destination should be. Wants are learners’ awareness of needs, which
is a matter of perception. Wants are subjective needs. Thus, the researcher would like to
find out the students’ wants in order to know what they were interested in listening
comprehension, what topics, and tasks they preferred.
1.2.3.2. Learning needs
Besides the target needs, I thought that learning needs is also important in designing a
syllabus. Because, it indicated what were necessary for students to study. The definition of

learning needs is clarified by Hutchinson & Waters (1987: 60). According to them, the
learning need is “what the learner needs to do in order to learn”. They use the analogy of
the course as a journey in which “lacks” is regarded as the starting point, “necessities” as
the destination and “how we are going to get from the starting point to destination”
indicates “learning needs”.
Being aware of the importance of need analysis in designing a syllabus, this study will
conduct a need analysis based on both target needs and learning needs of the English grade
ten gifted students of TNSUSS.
1.3. An overview of listening comprehension
1.3.1. Definitions of listening comprehension
A variety of definitions of listening have been documented in the EFL literature. For many
years, people have thought that listening and reading are passive skills. But in fact listening
is more complicated. Helgesen and Brown (2007:5) point out “Instead of thinking of
listening as passive, it is useful to understand it, along with reading, as a receptive skill.
According to Byrne (1984:13) “listening means comprehending information
communicated through speech, or obtaining meanings and ideas from the spoken words.
Listening is a perceptive skill, which involves identifying, and retaining information


9

aurally perceived. It means that in order to listen successfully, it is necessary to be able to
work out what speakers mean and not simple to understand the words they hear”. So it is
up to the listener to recognize and interpret the other factors that are used to convey the
message. This means that an effective listener is not passive and like a tape recorder
talking in sound. Rather, they need to be able to interpret what they hear. Rubin (1995:7
cited by Helgesen and Brown 2007:3) defines “listening is conceived of as an active
process in which listeners select and interpret information in order to define what is going
on and what the speakers are trying to express” This definition asserts that listening is
active, not passive as perceived traditionally, and like other human activities, it is

purposeful. Listeners always have a reason for listening, i.e. listening for what is relevant,
necessary, or meaningful. Listening is active because listeners are involved in a
complicated mental process to interpret accurately what the speaker means to say.
To sump up, although listening has been defined in various ways, all the above-cited
definitions share common things about the listening, which can be seen as a mental activity
deliberately undertaken by listener to interpret the meaning of spoken messages and to
store information that he or she is interested in. For the purpose of the study, I used
Rubin’s definition of listening in designing the supplementary listening syllabus because of
its clarity and simplicity.
1.3.2. Listening strategies
In order to listen successfully, the students (the hearers) need to learn the strategies that are
suitable to their levels. The mastery of these skills enables students to listen with more
understanding. In the study, the students whom I was designing going to design a
supplementary syllabus for are at intermediate level, thus in order to understand the
message, students may need to be able to do the following: The first strategy is predicting,
the second one is inferring, the third one is monitoring, the fourth is clarifying, the fifth
one is responding the last one is evaluating. (Helgensen and Brown (2007:70)). Moreover,
Rixon (1986:88) points out that in order to understand the message students may need to
be able to do the following strategies: the first stage is following instructions correctly, the
second one is matching or recognizing information in the text, the third one is picking out
the relevant information, the fourth one is “turning into” a passage, the fifth one is
inference and listening ahead, and the last one is recognizing the speakers’ mood, attitude
and relationship.


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Among of many listening strategies the designer must consider which are the most suitable
for her students. The researcher of the study chose the Helgensen’s view because it was
easy to use.

1.3.3. Listening process
These are two distinct processes involved in listening comprehension: top-down and
bottom-up. According to Helgesen and Brown (2007: 6): “Bottom- up makes sense what
we hear by focusing on the different parts: the vocabulary or functional phrases, sound, etc.
It is like you are at the bottom of the wall, looking at it, brick- by- brick. It is easy to look
at the parts of the wall but you cannot get an overall view of it. Hedge (2000: 230) has the
same view: “With bottom-up processing, the students start with the component parts:
words, grammar, and the like. In the bottom - up part of listening process, we use our
knowledge of language and our ability to process acoustic signals to make sense of the
sounds that speakers present to us. In other words, we use information in the speech itself
to try to comprehend the meaning. We segment speech into identifiable sounds and
impose a structure on these in terms of words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and intonation
patterns. At the same time, we use whatever clues available to infer meaning from the
developing speech”.
Top-down listening is the opposite of bottom-up listening, it is like “you are at the top of
the wall. You have a good view of the landscape and look at different directions and you
miss a lot of details but you can generally understand the scene. You don’t even notice
bricks that are supporting you, and your view is very different from that of the person
looking at the parts” Helgesen and Brown (2007: 7). According to Hedge (2000:232):
“Top-down comprehension strategies involve knowledge that a listener brings to a text,
sometimes called “inside the heard” information. Top-down listening infers meaning from
message and various types of prior knowledge which listeners hold their heads.” Listeners
use ‘top-down’ processes when they use prior 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.

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Each process has its weak points and strong points, I thought that it was better to adapt an
interactive, interpretive process of bottom-up and top-down where my students used both
prior knowledge and linguistic knowledge in understanding messages. This could help my
students to succeed in learning listening.

1.4. Summary
Although there was extensive literature on syllabus design, needs analysis and listening,
the researcher drew on the followings in this chapter:
In the first part, the researcher adapted the mixture of three types of syllabus: content-
based syllabus, skills-based syllabus and tasked- based syllabus to the syllabus because of
its suitability and its advantages.
In the second part, the need analysis approach the researcher chose was one that combined
both the learning needs and target needs. Hence, the syllabus would satisfy the demands of
the learners.
In the third part, the research reviewed definitions of listening comprehension and she
would like to emphasize that listening was a two-way process: understand what we hear
and respond to the message we receive. And she also supported the idea that
comprehension was always only selective and partial.






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CHAPTER 2: FINDINGS AND DATA ANALYSIS

This chapter aimed at providing readers with detail descriptions of the study. The first
section was the findings of the questionnaire. Based on the data, the researcher would
analyze the learning situation and students’ needs. The second one was the result of the
listening test. In the third section, teaching situation, teachers’ needs, and currently used
materials were analyzed and discussed based on the results of the interview.
2.1. Questionnaire
2.1.1. Aims of the questionnaire
The questionnaire was designed to gather information from students. 13 questions in the
questionnaire focused on finding out the learning situation, students’ needs, especially their
wants and lacks so that the syllabus can be made appropriate and useful to the students.
(See appendix 1)
2.1.2. Participants
37 grade 10 English gifted students at TNSUSS were involved in the questionnaire.
2.1.3. Findings and data analysis
2.1.3.1. Learning situation
The students’ background knowledge of English is quite good. Because before entering the
school, they had to take an entrance exam, which included three compulsory subjects:
mathematics, literature, and English. Many students have gifts for learning foreign
languages and always show their interest in learning English and leave no stone unturned
in their attempt to learn English This creates advantageous conditions for the teachers to
nurture and foster the gifted students. Besides the advantages mentioned above, there are
some disadvantages. From informal interview I found that the purpose of the students to
enter TNSUSS was contrary to the training purpose of TNSUSS. Most students believed
that studying in this school enabled them to enter the universities more easily, because this
was the best school to study in Thai Nguyen province. Almost students stated that they did
not like to take part in the national examination for choosing gifted students and it was a
waste of time because even if they got high marks in this exam, they would still not be
given priority to those who did not (a few years ago, those who won the third place or
higher in the national exam could go straight to any university they liked without taking a
university exam). Whereas the purpose of training national gifted students of Thai Nguyen

13

province in general and of TNSUSS in particular is to train students to become talented so
that they can pass the national examination for gifted students through which we can pick
out distinguished ones.
To make the things worse, although the students have passed the entrance exam, their
listening ability is limited because they only learn what they have to take in the entrance
examination. Moreover, the format of the paper is only composed of grammar,
pronunciation, writing and reading skill parts; there is not any listening part in the paper.
As a result, listening and speaking skills were neglected and the students’ abilities of
listening are rather low (see the result of listening test in part 2.2.3.1). In addition, the
materials and equipments for students to learn English, especially to practice listening skill
also affect students’ learning. Although TNSUSS is the only specializing upper secondary
school in Thai Nguyen province, but the facilities for language study is insufficient. There
is no language laboratory, internet, videos, English magazines or multi- media room. There
exists only some cassette players, and tapes in poor condition, which are always shared
among teachers. The materials are not enough and available, especially there are no
supplementary materials for listening skill in the school’s library. Therefore, the students
do not know what kind of the books, tapes they should buy from the bookstores to practice
listening skill.
2.1.3.1.1. The students’ profile (question 1, 2, 3)
The results in table 1 and 2 (see appendix 7) show that the students’ age ranges from
fifteen to seventeen years old. Besides, almost (86, 4%) the students in English class come
from Thai Nguyen city, only some (13, 5%) of them come from different districts of the
province, and nobody is from remote areas. This means that they have rather good
conditions to learn English, especially to practice listening skill with tapes, cassettes, or
computers at home. Moreover, the majority of the students (83, 7%) said they have learned
English for 5 years and 27, 3% of all had learned English for 7 years.

2.1.3.1.2. Students' self evaluation on their English (question 4)
When the teacher asked the students to evaluate their strong points in learning English,
nearly half (18/ 37) of the students stated that they were good at grammar than others. The
item which had the second rank was reading (11/37). The chart 1 below also shows that the
weakest skill of the students was listening skill, the majority of the students thought that
their listening skill was poor.


14

Chart 1: Students' self evaluation on their English ability
6
4
11
9
18
6
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Speaking Listening Reading Writing Grammar Vocabulary

2.1.3.1.3. Perceived English skills important to study (question 5)

Table 3: Perceived English skills important to study
Question

Subject
areas&
skills
First
priority
Second
priority
Third
priority
Fourth
priority
Fifth
priority
Sixth
priority
Listening 14/ 37,8% 9/ 24,3% 2/ 5,4% 2/ 5,4% 0/ 0% 2/ 5,4%
Speaking 8/ 21,6% 6/ 16,2% 5/ 13,5% 1/ 2,7% 5/ 13,5% 2/ 5,4%
Reading 0/ 0% 3/ 8,1% 3/ 8,1% 4/ 10,8% 8/ 21,6% 7/ 18,9%
Grammar 1/ 2,7% 0/ 0% 6/ 16,2% 6/ 16,2% 4/ 10,8% 8/ 21,6%
Writing 2/ 5,4% 2/ 5,4% 6/ 16,2% 6/ 16,2% 6/ 16,2% 4/ 10,8%
5
Vocabulary

2/ 5,4% 3/ 8,1% 6/ 16,2% 2/ 5,4% 9/ 24,3% 3/ 8,1%
The result reveals that the English language skill that the students wanted to improve was
listening. They gave the first priority to the listening skill with the highest percentage
(37,8%). The second priority belonged to speaking skill (21,6%). Writing and vocabulary

received the third priority with 5,4%. Others items which were ranked the fifth and sixth
priorities got lower percentages, however the data were not very different from each other.
The data indicated that listening was a very important skill for teaching English at
TNSUSS. It should be paid much more attention to together with speaking, writing and
vocabulary. This suggested that designing a listening syllabus for English grade 10 gifted
students at TNSUSS to help them improve listening skill was very necessary.


15

2.1.3.2. Student’s needs
This section provides the information to identify students' learning needs lacks and wants
concerning their attitudes, motivation, self-perceived difficulties, obstacles prevented them
from completing tasks in the classroom. Based on this information, the content of the
course will be selected appropriately to specified students and it can help to give the
strategies facilitating the implementation of the syllabus.
2.1.3.2.1. Students’ attitudes towards listening skill in their use of English (question 6)
Chart 2: Students’ responses regarding their attitudes forwards listening skill
28
5
4
0 0
75.7
13.5
10.8
0.0 0.00
10
20
30
40

50
60
70
80
Very important Important Fairly important Not important Don't know
1 2 3 4 5
Frequency (n=37)
Percentage (%)

As the result shows, the majority of the students viewed listening as the very important
skill in their use of English (75,7%). Only 13,5 % stated that it was important and the rest
of the students (10,8%) considered listening to be fairly important. Nobody stated that it
was not important and that they did not know the importance of listening skill.
2.1.3.2.2. Students’ difficulties in listening (question 8)
It was interesting to note the results revealed from the chart 3 (see appendix 4). It showed
that students encountered almost the items given. 64,9,8% of the students thought that
listening to speaker’s stress, pronunciation, and speed was the biggest obstacle. 56,8% of
the students thought that they lacked vocabulary to listen effectively. The students also
encountered difficulties in identifying main ideas and identifying details with the
percentage was 43,2%, followed by quality of tapes (27%), and identifying the general
meaning of the conversation or monologue and recognizing individual words (21,6%).
They had fewer difficulties in remembering the content or information (18,9%), lacking
background knowledge about the topics (16,2%) and following instructions and directions
(13,5%). And the students did not find it hard to concentrate.
2.1.3.2.3. Students’ perception of listening comprehension (question 9)


16

According to the data shown in the chart 4 (see appendix 4), students had rather good

background of listening comprehension. Nearly two third (59,5%) of the responses of the
students indicated that getting main ideas was the most important in listening
comprehension. Identifying specific details ranked the second with 43,2%, the third was
identifying the general meaning of the conversation or monologue (24,3%). Only few
students (16,2%) misunderstood what listening comprehension was. They considered
understanding all words and sentences in the spoken text to be significant and 13,5% of the
students thought that being able to translate all things into Vietnamese was important in
listening comprehension. These students seemed to be familiar with grammar- translation
method. From the researcher’s point of view, the students’ misunderstanding led to the
dissatisfaction with the listening lessons.
2.1.3.2.4. Students’ expectations of the teachers (question 10)
Chart 5: Students' responses concerning their perception of the teacher's role
24
14
12
0
15
16
4
3
2
10
64.9
37.8
32.4
0.0
40.5
43.2
10.8
8.1

5.4
27.0
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
To teach you
listening
strategies
To teach you
all new
words in
advance
To give clear
explanations
for the tasks
in advance
To translate
everything
into
Vietnamese
To play the
tape as
many times
as possible
To pause the
tape after

each
sentence for
you to listen
To ask you
to repeat all
sentences
To do all the
textbook
tasks in
order
To give mark
to your work
To
encourage
students
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0

As the chart show, the majority (64,9%) of the students would like the teacher to teach
them listening strategies, nearly half of the respondents expected the teachers to play the
tape as many times as possible (40,5%) and to pause the tape after each sentence as many
times as possible (43,2%). A slightly lower percentage of the students’ expectation
(37,8%) would like the teachers to teach them all new words in advance. 32,4% expected
the teachers to give clear explanations for the tasks in advance and to ask them to repeat

all sentences was 10,8%. Very few (8,1%) students expected the teachers to do all the tasks
in order and 5,4% of the students would like the teachers to get mark to their work.


17

Especially, all the students did not expect the teachers to translate everything into
Vietnamese.
2.1.3.2.5. Students’ expectations of the topics in listening class (question 11)
The data presented in the table 4 (see appendix 5) showed that the topics the students
expected most were looking into future and hobbies (78%), famous people (75%),
followed by travelling, cities, and at the university (72%). They were also interested in
topics such as education and environment with 70,2%. Besides, students took interest in
love and marriage (56%), words and feelings (54%) and sports and games (45%).
However, there were some topics which did not receive much of the students’ interest such
as the interview (32, 4%), science and technology (35, 1%). The topics which received the
least interest of the students were at the hotel (21%) and diseases (16,2%).
2.1.3.2.6. Students’ expectations of the tasks in the listening class (question 12)
Chart 6: Distribution of students’ responses referring to listening tasks they expect to
improve
18
23
11
8 8
12
0
6 6
48.6
62.2
29.7

21.6 21.6
32.4
0.0
16.2 16.2
0
5
10
15
20
25
Short answer Multiple choice Matching Classification Summary
completion
Notes,
summary,
sentence or
gap
completion
Diagram
completion
and labelling
Table
completion
Form
completion
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0

60.0
70.0
Frequency (n=37)
Percentage (%)

Another interesting finding was that the students did not like diagram completion and
labelling task, followed by form and table completion (16,2%). 62,2% of the students
preferred doing multiple choice task and short answer task came in second in the students’
responses (48,6%). 32% wished to learn notes, summary, sentence or gap completion,
whereas 29,7% expected to do matching task and 21,6% was for classification.



18

2.3.1.2.7. Students’ perceptions of listening skills needed (question 13)
As the result shown in the chart 7 below, listening for the main idea was the skill the
students considered as the most necessary and extremely important for their studying
(75,7%). Understanding all new words received 54,1%. Besides, 45,9% of the students
wanted to learn identifying speaker’s attitude from tone and voice and identifying the
major topic skills were students’ needs. 40,5% would like to improve skill of listening for
specific information and 29,7 % for skill of listening for general meaning. Ignoring
irrelevant vocabulary received the least interest of the students with 21,6%.
Chart 7: Distribution of students’ responses referring to listening skill they expect to
learn
28
11
15
17 17
20

8
75.7
29.7
40.5
45.9 45.9
54.1
21.6
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Listening for
the main idea
Listening for the
general
meaning
Listening for
specific
information
Identifying
speaker’s
attitude from
tone and voice
Identifying the
major topic

Understanding
all new words.
Ignoring
irrelevant
vocabulary
Frequency (n=37)
Percentage (%)

2.2. Listening test
2.2.1. Aims of the listening test
The aim of the listening test at pre-intermediate level was to identify the students' listening
proficiency level. The researcher used listening test to gather wealth information about specific
problems that the students may be having with the language. That was the foundation for the
researcher to ascertain what further teaching is necessary. (See appendix 2)
2.2.2. Participants
37 grade 10 English gifted students at TNSUSS took part in the listening test.
2.2.3. Findings and data analysis
Results of listening test
The table 5 ( see appendix 6 ) shows that only 8% of the students got marks 9-10, 18,9% of
them got marks 7-8, while 51,3% got marks 5-6. Some (21%) got marks under 5. From the


19

results, the researcher found that some students did not reach the pre-intermediate level
with high scores as expected. Therefore, it was necessary for them to practice more.
2.3. Interview
2.3.1. Aims of the interview
The purpose of the interview was to select the detailed information about teaching
situation, teachers’ needs and currently used materials. (See appendix 3)

2.3.2. Participants
The interview carried out with 5 teachers of English specializing classes. They had much
experience in teaching gifted students.
2.3.3. Findings and data analysis
2.3.3.1. Teaching situation
In English division at TNSUSS, there are twelve teachers of English at present. The head of
the group got post graduate degree, five of them are working toward M.A degrees and the rest
is B.A. The subjects of the informal interview are five teachers of English specializing class.
They have taught gifted students for more than seven years. From informal interviewing with
the teachers, the researcher found that the small number of the students in each class created
the advantageous condition for group or pair work, and many other activities in teaching
foreign language in general, and in teaching English in particular. Besides, the students at
TNSUSS were very studious, hard working and always eager for learning, which makes the
atmosphere in class warm, and the teachers feel encouraged. However, the teachers who had to
teach at English specialized class feel stressed because by tradition of TNSUSS, only some
experienced teachers were assigned the task of training the gifted students. Therefore, the
teachers who did not have to teach English specializing classes did not give any support to
national team. As a result, the teachers of English specialized class were always under pressure
of teaching and getting more medals from national examination for school. Moreover, lacking
syllabi for gifted students also made training gifted students difficult. In normal classes there
were four periods each week, and they used the text book “Tieng Anh nang cao”. But in
English specialized classes, there were nine periods for gifted students each week. Therefore,
the teachers could not only use “Tieng Anh nang cao” for our students; we needed more
syllabi, documents, materials for our teaching. The teachers had to select the documents
themselves from many sources, which wasted much time and made the materials illogical and
unsystematic. Being aware of the difficulties the teachers and students were suffering, the


20

authorities of Thai Nguyen province and TNSUSS decided to project designing syllabi for
gifted students of all subjects in order to not only reduce teachers’ workload in selecting
materials, help gifted students have logical and systematic syllabi but also enhance students’
level and raise the number of medals.
2.3.3.2. Teachers’ needs
2.3.3.2.1. The teachers’ assessment of students’ ability (question 1)
Regarding the English language skills that the teachers considered to be the weak points of
the students in their studying, speaking and listening skills (as indicated by 5 out of 5
respondents) were ranked the highest in the priorities, followed by writing and vocabulary
(3/5). Reading skill came third in teachers’ responses (2/5). The strongest point of students
was grammar (1/5).
2.3.3.2.2. The difficulties teachers thought their students met in listening (question 2)
Table 6: Teachers’ perceptions of their students’ difficulties in listening
Frequency Percentage
Identifying main ideas 3 60%
Identifying details 4 80%
Recognizing individual words 4 80%
Lacking vocabulary 3 60%
Having trouble in remembering content 2 40%
Bad quality of the tapes 3 60%
Lacking background knowledge 2 40%
Concentrating 1 20%
The data in the table 6 showed that the students had special difficulties in identifying
details, recognizing individual words (4 out of 5 teachers), and identifying main ideals,
lacking vocabulary, bad quality of tapes (3 teachers), having trouble in remembering the
content and lacking background knowledge (2 teachers).The teachers also blamed that their
students sometimes cannot concentrate during the process of listening (1 teacher).
2.3.3.2.3. Tasks relevant to English grade 10 gifted students (question 3)
As the table 7 shown below, all teachers were interested in filling the form, choosing the
best answer (5 out of 5), 4 of them expected their students to give short answer and tick

true or false. 3 of them suggested filling in the chart and diagram and matching. Spotting