A Study on the Problems in Teaching English Listening Skills to the 10th form Students at Phu Ly B High School and some Suggested Solutions

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

VŨ THỊ THANH HƯƠNG

A STUDY ON THE PROBLEMS IN TEACHING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS TO
THE 10TH FORM STUDENTS AT PHU LY B HIGH SCHOOL, HA NAM
AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS
(Tìm hiểu những khó khăn của giáo viên trong việc dạy kĩ năng nghe hiểu cho học sinh lớp
10 Trường THPT B Phủ Lý, Hà Nam và một số giải pháp khắc phục)

MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 601410

Hanoi – 2012


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

VŨ THỊ THANH HƯƠNG

A STUDY ON THE PROBLEMS IN TEACHING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS TO
THE 10TH FORM STUDENTS AT PHU LY B HIGH SCHOOL, HA NAM
AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

(Tìm hiểu những khó khăn của giáo viên trong việc dạy kĩ năng nghe hiểu cho học sinh lớp
10 Trường THPT B Phủ Lý, Hà Nam và một số giải pháp khắc phục)

MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 601410
SUPERVISOR: KIM VĂN TẤT, M.A.

Hanoi - 2012


iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration ...................................................................................................................... i
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ ii
Abstract ......................................................................................................................... iii
Table of contents ........................................................................................................... iv
List of abbreviations ..................................................................................................... viii
List of tables and charts ............................................................................................... viii
PART I: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1

1. Rationale of the study ............................................................................................... 1
2. Aims and objectives of the study ............................................................................. 2
3. Scope of the study .................................................................................................... 2
4. Methods of the study ................................................................................................ 2
5. Significance of the study ......................................................................................... 3
6. Design of the study ................................................................................................. 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT .................................................................................................... 5
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................... 5

1.1. Definitions of listening ......................................................................................... 5
1.2. Common methods of teaching ELS ..................................................................... 5
1.3. Stages of a listening lesson ................................................................................... 6
1.3.1. Pre-listening stage .......................................................................................... 7
1.3.2. While-listening stage ..................................................................................... 8
1.3.3. Post-listening stage ......................................................................................... 9


v

1.4. Strategies of listening comprehension ................................................... ......... 10
1.5. Problems with listening activities ...................................................................... 11
1.5.1. Situational problems................................................................................... 11
1.5.2. Problems from the listening materials .......................................................... 12
1.5.2.1. Unfamiliar topics .................................................................................... 12
1.5.2.2. Different accents ..................................................................................... 12
1.5.2.3. Speed of speech...................................................................................... 12
1.5.2.4. Strange sounds ....................................................................................... 13
1.5.3. Problems from student factors…………………………………………...13
1.5.3.1 Students’ low motivation..................................................................13
1.5.3.2 Students’ low level of proficiency..........................................................14
1.5.3.3 Students’ anxiety.....................................................................................14
1.5.3.4 Students’ limited vocabulary and structures...........................................14
1.5.3.5 Students’ lack of background knowledge................................................15
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................................. 16

2.1. Introduction of language teaching and learning conditions in PB school ........... 16

2.1.1. Students ................................................................................................................ 16
2.1.2. Teachers ................................................................................................................ 16
2.1.3. Teaching and learning conditions ..................................................................... 16
2.1.3.1. Teaching aids ................................................................................................ 16
2.1.3.2. Teaching hours ............................................................................................. 17
2.1.3.3. Class size ....................................................................................................... 17
2.2. The new “Tieng Anh 10” textbook ..................................................................... 17


vi

2.2.1. Form 10 listening objectives .............................................................................. 17
2.2.2. Listening lessons ................................................................................................. 18
2.3. Research questions ............................................................................................. 18
2.4. Data collection instruments ................................................................................ 18
2.4.1. Instrument one: Questionnaires ........................................................................ 19
2.4.2. Instrument two: Interviews .............................................................................. 19
2.5. Summary ............................................................................................................. 19
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS .................................................... 20

3.1. Questionnaires .................................................................................................... 20
3.1.1. Questionnaires for students ................................................................................ 20
3.1.2. Questionnaires for teachers ................................................................................ 25
3.2. Results of the interviews ..................................................................................... 30
3.3. Summary ............................................................................................................. 31
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND SUGGESTED SOLUSIONS ........................................... 32

4.1. Findings .............................................................................................................. 32
4.1.1. Teachers’ attitudes towards teaching ELS .................................................. 32
4.1.2. Students’ attitudes towards learning ELS ................................................... 32

4.1.3. Students’ difficulties in learning ELS ......................................................... 32
4.1.4. Teachers’ difficulties in teaching ELS to grade 10 students ....................... 33
4.2. Suggested solutions ............................................................................................ 33
4.2.1. Doing pre-listening activities effectively .................................................... 34
4.2.2. Encouraging students to practice ELS outside the class .............................. 35
4.2.3. Giving support and encouragement ............................................................. 36


vii

4.2.4. Upgrading teaching aids .............................................................................. 36
4.2.5. Adapting and re-designing the tasks ............................................................ 37
4.2.6. Equipping students with listening strategies ............................................... 38
4.3. Summary ............................................................................................................. 39
PART III: CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................. 40

1. Summary of the study ............................................................................................. 40
2. Limitations of the study .......................................................................................... 40
3. Recommendations for further study ....................................................................... 40
REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................... 42
APPENDICES .......................................................................................................................... I

Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students ....................................................................... I
Appendix 2: Questionnaire for teachers .................................................................... III
Appendix 3: Interview questions for teachers ............................................................ V
Appendix 4: Four teachers’ answering interview questions ...................................... VI
Appendix 5: Topics of the listening texts in English textbook 10............................VIII
Appendix 6: Contents of some listening lessons.........................................................IX

viii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
PB school

Phuly B high school

ELS

English Listening Skills

LIST OF TABLES
Tables

Titles

Pages

Table 1

Students’ attitudes towards the importance of listening skills

20

Table 2

Teachers’ techniques of encouraging students

23

Table 3

Factors affecting students in learning ELS

24

Table 4

Students’ suggested techniques to better teaching ELS

25

Table 5

Teachers’ assessment of listening tasks in “Tieng Anh 10” textbook

25

Table 6

Teachers’ opinion of students’ attitudes towards listening lessons

26

Table 7

Difficulties encountered by the teachers

27

Table 8

The frequency of teachers’ using techniques in a listening lesson

28

Table 9

Teachers’ suggested solutions to improve listening teaching

29

LIST OF CHARTS
Charts

Titles

Pages

Chart 1

Students’ assessment of tasks in the “Tieng Anh 10” textbook

21

Chart 2

Students’ attitudes towards the time for learning ELS

22

Chart 3

Students' frequency of listening to English outside the class

22


1

PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
In Vietnam, in the recent years, the teaching and learning of English have been gaining
significance firstly because it is an international language; secondly it is also seen as a means
to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between Viet Nam and other countries.
There have been an increasing number of people desiring to know English with the hope of
keeping up with the latest modern technology in the world. English has now been taught not
only at all universities and colleges, but also at almost every senior high school and it is
considered as a compulsory subject at secondary schools.
At PB school, where the author studies, English is a compulsory subject in the curriculum and
it is considered as a major subject for the high school examination. It is taught with the
purpose that students have some basic knowledge of English in order to communicate and to
use it as a key to science and technology. However, there still exist many difficulties facing
English language teachers at PB school, especially in teaching listening skills to students. The
teachers of English at PB school find it difficult to teach listening lessons successfully.
Listening has long been considered a difficult and boring subject by many second language
learners. It takes much time and energy to make progress in this skill. For listening teachers, it
is a difficult task to get students involved in listening lessons.
At my school, teaching listening is really a problem. In addition to the lack of well-equipped
facilities, teaching listening methods are not satisfactory. Another problem is students’ low

level of proficiency in terms of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, skills and so forth. It is
the reason why students find it difficult and tough to listen to and they are not confident
enough to do listening tasks successfully. Moreover, learning habits do not help much to
improve their listening in classroom.
All of the above reasons have inspired the author to do the research “A Study on the Problems
in Teaching English Listening Skills to the 10th form Students at Phu Ly B High School and
some Suggested Solutions” with the hope to make a small contribution to the quality of
teaching and learning listening skills at PB school.


2

2. Aims and objectives of the study
Within the framework of a minor thesis, the study is aimed at:
- Clarifying the practices of teaching and learning ELS in 10th form in PB school.
- Finding out the difficulties teachers and students in 10th form in PB school have had to
undergo.
- Suggesting some feasible solutions to the teaching of ELS for 10th form students.
It may appear contradictory that in the first two concentrations, the study attempts to
investigate both teaching and learning of ELS whereas the main topic raised in the title of the
study is only about the teaching. However, according to Brown (2007), it is not a contradiction
“if we look at the teaching process as the facilitation of learning.”

3. Scope of the study
Learning a second language as a scholar once said “is a long and complex undertaking”.
Therefore, teachers of a second language certainly have many problems during their teaching.
In the scope of this research, however, the researcher only has ambition to investigate the
difficulties that teachers in PB school have been facing when teaching listening skill for 10th
graders. Hopefully, they will have more smooth and successful listening lessons. Also, it is not
expected that the study can bring solutions to the ELS teaching for students of all levels.

4. Methods of the study
The study is designed to use both qualitative and quantitative methods. Besides, many
resources such as books, magazines, articles, newspapers and some sources on the Internet
have been read by the researcher.
In order to gain the most reliable results, the quantitative data will be collected through two
survey questionnaires. One survey questionnaire is for 180 students from four different groups


3

in grade 10 in PB school and the other survey is for 7 teachers. The data, then, will be
processed and analyzed to yield conclusions for the study.
Along with the quantitative method, the qualitative data has been obtained by informal
interviews with some teachers to collect further information about the real situations of
teaching and learning ESL in grade 10 at PB school.

5. Significance of the study
This research provides an insight into the problems that are often met by teachers teaching
English for 10th form students in PB school. In addition, this research also points out some
feasible solutions which are beneficial for both teachers and students.
Hopefully, the findings and recommendations of this study will be of some help to the
improvement of the teaching and learning ELS of Vietnamese students in general and of PB
school students in particular. The study also gives some guidelines for teachers to help their
students overcome their listening comprehension problems. The results of this study may also
be useful for those who are interested in this field.

6. Design of the study
The study is divided into three parts: the Introduction, the Development and the Conclusion.
Part I: INTRODUCTION- deals with the rationales, aims, methods, scope, significance and

design of the study.
Part II: DEVELOPMENT – consists of three chapters
Chapter 1: Literature review – provides some theoretical background about listening
comprehension, teaching listening skill and problems with listening activities.
Chapter 2: Methodology – presents the current situation of teaching and learning
listening at PB school. This chapter also deals with the introduction of the research
methods which cover research questions, the participants and data collection instruments.


4

Chapter 3: Data analysis and discussions – presents the data results, analysis collected
from two questionnaires as well as the interviews.
Chapter 4: Findings and suggested solutions – concludes the findings the researcher has
from the study and proposes some solutions to the teaching of ELS to 10th form students in
PB school.
Part III: CONCLUSION- gives a brief description of the study and states the limitations as
well as recommendations for further research.


5

PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Definitions of listening
There appear many different points of view on the definition of listening:
Underwood (1989, p.1) describes listening in a simple and easily understandable way:
“Listening is the activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from
something you hear”. As a matter of fact, to succeed in listening, the duty of listeners is not
only to understand of the words given, but also seek the real meaning hidden in words. Buck

(2001, p.3) asserts listening in communicative approach: “Listening comprehension is the
result of an interaction between a number of information sources, which include the
acoustic input, different types of linguistic knowledge, detail of the context, and general
world knowledge, and• so forth, and listeners use whatever information they have
available, or what ever information seems relevant to help them interpret what the speaker is
saying”. In this definition, Buck aims to highlight the active role of the learners who act as
the negotiators and integrators in the process of learning listening. In this process,
learners activate both linguistic cues and nonlinguistic knowledge to achieve the meaning.
In other words, listening is the active combination of new input gained by what the listeners
get and their prior knowledge and experience. This view is valuable and worth considering in
setting up listening syllabus in the sense that it aims to build communicative competence
to the learners in listening lessons.
To conclude, listening demands many skills. It is an active process in which learners use their
prior knowledge to infer the message of the listening text.

1.2. Common methods of teaching listening skills
In the past, common methods of teaching listening are grammar-translation method and direct
method. Currently, researchers put focus on audio-lingual method and task-based method as


6

the view provided by Larsen-Freeman (2000, p.35-145): Audio-lingual method: Following this
method, dialogues and drills (backward build up, chain, substitution, transformation, and
question-and-answer) are used to introduce new vocabulary and structures. Learners get the
dialogues by imitation and repetition. Learners receive the knowledge of grammar naturally
through examples provided by the teachers. Knowledge of culture is given in the dialogue or
by the teacher. Teacher acts as “orchestra leaders” and their role is “directing and
controlling the language behavior of her students” and “providing her students with a good
model for imitation”. In this case, the learners perform as “imitators of the teacher’s

model” and “follow the teacher’s directions and respond as accurately and as rapidly as
possible”.
Task-based method:

By this method, learners are equipped with a natural context for

listening. The time they perform the task is the time they have interaction with each other
which activate language acquisition. The author focuses that: “by interacting with each other,
they get to listen to language which may be beyond their present ability, but which may be
assimilated into their knowledge of the target language for use at a later time” and “the
language practiced in the classroom is not predetermined, but rather derive from the nature of a
particular project that the students elect to do”.

1.3. Stages of a listening lesson
Rixon (1986, p.63-64) stated that a commonsense way of dividing up a listening lesson is into
three stages:
-

Things to do before the students hear the passage, to help them get the most out of
what they are going to hear.

-

Activities and exercises to be carried out as the students listen to the passage, to guide
them as they try to gasp the main information in it.

-

Things to do once the class has come to grips with the meaning and content of the
passage, and is ready to look back, to reflect on some of the language points in it or to

do some extension work based on the content of the passage


7

The three stages are summarized as: Pre-listening stage, While-listening stage and Postlistening stage. Each stage has its own aims and activities.
1.3.1. Pre-listening stage
It is difficult for students to have ideas of what they are going to hear if the teacher just says
"Listen to this" and then switches on the cassette recorder or begin to read aloud. Even if the
sounds and words are familiar with students, they may still be unable to comprehend because
of the lack of necessary knowledge of the topic, setting or the relationship between speakers.
Therefore, the aim of pre-listening stage is to provide students with everything necessary for
listening and understanding the text such as the topic, related vocabulary and additional
information. This stage also helps the teacher to arouse students' interest in the listening text.
Ur (1992, p.4) points out that "It would seem a good idea when presenting a listening passage
in class to give students some information about the content, situation and speakers before
they actually start listening".
Pre-listening work can be done in various ways and consist of a wide range of activities. Thus,
Underwood (1989, p.33) stated that teachers should consider the following factors when
choosing pre-listening activities:
- The time available;
- The material available;
- The ability of the class;
- The interest of the class;
- The interest of the teacher;
- The place in which the work is being carried out;
- The nature and content of the listening text itself.
The last item on the list, "the nature and content of the listening text", is very important when
teachers choose activities. Teachers need to select some kinds of suitable activity to some
types of text.

Davies and Pearse (2000, p.78) points out that pre-listening work can consist of a whole range
of activities, including:


8

-

Discuss a relevant picture

-

Discuss relevant experiences

-

Associate ideas with the topic

-

Associate vocabulary with the topic

-

Predict information about the topic

-

Write questions about the topic

1.3.2. While-listening stage
While-listening activities are what students are asked to do during the time that they are
listening to the text. The purpose of while-listening activities is to help learners understand the
text and develop the skill of eliciting message from spoken language. Teachers should not
expect students to try to understand every word. For example, teachers may ask students to
listen for three pieces of information the first time they hear the recording, and tell teachers
about the attitude of the speakers after the second time they have heard it. In general, teachers
should help their students understand rather than testing their understanding the whole time.
Underwood (1989, p.49) pointed out that when choosing while-listening activities, teachers
should consider the following factors:
a) The possibilities for varying the level of difficulty if required;
b) The inconvenience of carrying out activities which require individuals to give their
responses orally in the classroom. This kind of work is best done in a language
laboratory. Classroom while-listening activities generally have to be limited to those
which can be done without the need for each student to respond by speaking;
c) Whether the work is to be done by the students with the teacher present or whether it is
to be done as private study, either in the classroom or at home, this will influence the
teacher's choice of activity as he/she may want to give students different work
according to their level of ability, to provide additional instructions, or to select
activities which generate little or no marking;


9

d) Whether or not the while-listening activities generate material or ideas which might be
used for post-listening work, and if so, whether the teacher wishes to make use of
these.
Furthermore, Davis (2000, p.78) suggests the following while-listening activities:
-

Identify the exact topic, or an aspect of it

-

Note two to four pieces of information

-

Answer questions

-

Complete sentences

-

Complete a table, map or picture

1.3.3. Post-listening stage
This stage is to help the learners connect what they have heard with their own ideas and
experiences, just as we often do in real life. It also allows teachers to move easily from
listening to another language skill. For example, the students may practice speaking by roleplaying interviews similar to one they have heard. The purposes of post-listening activities are
also raised by Underwood (1989, p.74-78):
-

Checking whether the students have understood what they need to or not;

-

Reflecting on why some students have failed to understand or miss parts of the

message;

-

Giving the students the opportunity to consider the attitude and manner of the speakers
of the listening text;

-

Expanding on the topic or language of the message and transferring learned things to
another context;

-

Making introduction for the planned work.

Again, according to Underwood (1989, p.80), when the teachers select post-activities, the
attention should be given to the following factors:
-

The amount of language work which the teacher wishes to do in relation to the
particular listening text;

-

The time which is allowed to do post-listening work;


10

-

Whether the post-listening work should consist of speaking, reading or writing;

-

Whether the post-listening stage is seen as an opportunity for pair/group-work or it is
intended that students should work alone;

-

Whether it is necessary to provide post-listening activities which can be done outside
the classroom (at home/ in the listening centre);

-

The chosen activity should be made motivating.

And here are the possible post-listening activities by Davis (2000, p.78):
-

Give opinions

-

Relate similar experiences

-

Role-play a similar interaction

-

Write a brief report

-

Write a similar text

-

Debate the topic

In conclusion, by raising students' awareness of listening as a skill that requires active
engagement, teachers should help their students develop both the ability and the confidence to
handle communication situations they may encounter beyond the classroom. In this way
teachers will give their students the foundation for communicative competence in the new
language.

1.4. Strategies of listening comprehension
Listening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension
and recall of listening input. Listening strategies can be classified by how the listener
processes the input.
Top-down strategies are listener based; the listener taps into background knowledge of the
topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language. This background knowledge
activates a set of expectations that help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate
what will come next. Top-down strategies include:
-

listening for the main idea

-

predicting


11

-

drawing inferences

-

summarizing

Bottom-up strategies are text based in which the listener relies on the language in the message,
that is, the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates meaning. Bottom-up
strategies include:
-

listening for specific details

-

recognizing cognates

-

recognizing word-order patterns

Listening comprehension tends to be an interactive, interpretive process in which listeners use
prior knowledge and linguistic knowledge in understanding messages. Listeners use metacognitive, cognitive and socio-affective strategies to facilitate comprehension and to make
their learning more effective. Meta-cognitive strategies are important because they regulate
and direct the language learning process. Research shows that skilled listeners use more
metacognitive strategies than their less-skilled counterparts (O'Malley & Chamot, 1989,
Vandergrift, 1997a). The use of cognitive 5 strategies helps students to manipulate learning
materials and apply specific techniques to a listening task. Socio-affective strategies describe
the techniques listeners use to collaborate with others, to verify understanding or to lower
anxiety.

1.5. Problems with listening activities
Teaching listening as well as learning listening is not simple, complex and difficult processes.
Teachers and students meet many challenges in this skill.
1.5.1. Situational problems
As matter of fact, currently, many classes have over thirty students with inequality in the level
of proficiency which poses a lot of obstacles to the teachers to control their students. To this
problem, Hess (2001, p.137) states: “In large class, it is important to create activities that will
keep the more advanced students interested and at the same time allow the less advanced
students to make progress at their own pace”. According to Hess (2001, p.138), to help
multilevel students not lose motivation, teachers can individualize the listening task. For
example, with the same listening text, for the more competent students, it is advisable for the


12

teacher to give more difficult tasks, but for the less competent ones, the less difficult tasks
should be introduced. Also considering this problem, Hess (2001, p.182) suggests
“establishing routines and procedures” because “well-established routines give students a
sense of stability and security”. The exploitation of pair-work and group-work is also

appreciated by this author in coping with large and multilevel classes.
The problem of noise needs to be focused for the reason that many teachers and students
complain noise affects the success of their listening lesson. For teachers, they find it difficult
to control the class and to instruct students. For the students, they feel distracted and
sometimes can not capture the essential words and phrases due to the noise. The feasible
solution for this matter is to conduct listening lesson in lab room with good quality recorders
and CD players and it is necessary that students keep quiet during the lessons. It is not new
that many teachers and students reveals good class equipments assist listening.
1.5.2. Problems from the listening materials
1.5.2.1. Unfamiliar topics
Listening texts can be about various topics in life including daily conversation, formal meeting
and class discussion which make students confused and anxious. Almost of words and
phrases are new to them and they do not have any background knowledge of these
topics. In this case, it is a need for students to practice as much as they can on the topics at
home. And teacher’s role is providing students with essential background and systemic
knowledge.
1.5.2.2. Different accents
Listeners feel strange to various accents, and they are sure to meet the difficulties when
hear the new accent. When considering problem with accent, Buck (2001, p.35) confirms:
“accent is potentially a very important variable in listening comprehension” and “an
unfamiliar accent can make comprehension almost impossible for the listener”.
1.5.2.3. Speed of speech
It is the case in which learners regularly ask the teachers pause the recorder because they can
not understand the fast native speech and fail to “control how quickly the speakers speak”
and the consequence entailed is: “they are so busy working out the meaning of one part of


13

what they hear that they miss the next part. Teachers’ role in this situation is very

important. The solutions include asking the learners to pick up the important words that they
need to listen to; having them expose as much as possible the spontaneous informal talk as
they can.
1.5.2.4. Strange sounds
Many students have problems in hearing and catching the strange sounds in listening text
because “most listeners rely mostly on context for comprehension; they are often themselves
unaware of inaccurate sound perception” (Ur, 1991, p.111). This is not the only reason.
Another reason comes from the features of native speaker’s pronunciation of English which is
shown by Rixon (1986, p.38): The weak relationship between English sounds and the way
they are spelt in the written language, changes in sounds when they occur in rapid, connected
speech, the rhythm pattern of English speech, different ways of pronouncing the “same”
sound. In this case, practicing pronunciation is a need, but usually at home. In class, it is
essential for the teacher to introduce some strange sounds to students. During the listening
process, if students have difficulty with sounds, they should omit them and try to guess the
meaning of words.
1.5.3. Problems from student factors
1.5.3.1 Students’ low motivation
Students’ low motivation is really a problem in listening lessons. As the matter of fact, if
the students get tired and feel not interested in the lesson, it will be difficult for them to seek
the success in the process of listening. This fact is also confirmed by White (1998, p.13) as
“listening well involves motivation and concentration”. Many researchers provide the
solutions for this kind of problem. Hedge (2000, p.247) gives the suggestion which
highlights that: “creating purpose for listening can motivate students”. This viewpoint is
reasonable because if the students make out the point of what they are performing, they will
feel encouraged to join the listening tasks. Teachers can gain this by “providing tasks which
are as realistic as possible, so that the students can relate what they are doing in the lesson to
things that happen in real life, outside classroom” (Underwood, 1989, p.21). Along with
these, the students will get disappointed when they always fail in doing tasks. Therefore, to

14

motivate and encourage students during the lesson, it is advisable for the teachers to
“help students see how successful they have been in doing the task” (Hedge, 2000, p.244).
And Tuyet (2007, p.35) provides one solution which states that: “teachers had better not treat
the activities as tests to be marked or scored”. Giving students background knowledge before
listening is also a good advice. The use of visual aids should be taken into consideration when
teachers try to seek the path to have students’ motivation. Students themselves can seek the
interest in learning listening through English songs, movies and stories at home as well as
joining in pair-work and group-work in class.
1.5.3.2 Students’ low level of proficiency
Teaching listening to intermediate and advanced students is difficult, and for the beginners,
the case is more complex because they do not gain themselves a lot of experiences with
listening, plus their lack of linguistic and cultural knowledge of the language. Therefore, it is
not easy to understand the provided input to infer the meaning of the listening text. Buck
(2001, p.47) approves the use of visual aids in teaching listening to low competent learners.
This will help the students feel more excited in acquiring the lesson. In addition, with the
beginners, the listening tasks given should be simple enough. They tend to be interested in the
simple ones first, and then move to the more complex one because they need time to get used
to the level of difficulty in each task. For students, it is a need to practice a lot with simple
listening exercises at home because everything always starts with the simplest points.
1.5.3.3 Students’ anxiety
The feeling of anxiety always appears among beginners who are worried about the difficulties
and the failure encountered during the lesson. Rixon (1986, p.79) and Hedge (2000, p.237)
give some suggestions for teachers who wish to cope with students’ anxiety including:
contextualizing the text; activate the prior knowledge; the pace and the length of listening task
are not too taxing; the degree of response should be simple; treating the listening lesson like
training lesson, not a test: giving students sense of autonomy.
1.5.3.4 Students’ limited vocabulary and structures
Wood (1989, p.17) pinpoints this problem as: “an unknown word can be like a suddenly

dropped barrier causing them to stop and think about the meaning of the word and thus


15

making them miss the next part of the speech”. There are many solutions for teachers in this
case which suggest instructing them how to identify the important words that they need to
listen to, giving students chances to guess the meaning from the relevant clues and presenting
some important words and structures before allowing the students to do their listening.
1.5.3.5 Students’ lack of background knowledge
Lack of background knowledge will cause the wrong interpretation to the listening text given
because “when we listen we use our background knowledge of the world to set up
expectations, and then we use those expectations to help us comprehend what we hear” (Buck,
2001, p.8). Get the importance of this, Lingzhu (2003) states that it is advisable for teachers to
introduce the listening topic and after that, students write down as many words and phrases
related to the topic as they can. The problem also can be solved by giving students some
questions related to the text and having them answer to get prior knowledge. In addition,
looking at some pictures is considered a very exciting way for students to gain background
knowledge.


16

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.1. Introduction of English teaching and learning conditions at PB school
2.1.1. Students
The level of English for grade 10 students is targeted at pre-intermediate level though a
few actually reach the standard. As their lower-secondary years were spent with the
grammar translation method, most students are good at grammar, but bad at listening and
speaking the target language. They can do written exercises on English grammar accurately

but they can hardly communicate in English. Using English to communicate is a big
challenge for most of them who think that learning a foreign language means learning
grammatical rules or a list of irregular verbs.
Students at PB school are sixteen years old and have experienced in English, including
listening skill for five years at lower-upper schools. Nevertheless, they basically are
beginners of English. They are likely to be motivated or de-motivated easily. This
matter of fact should be taken into account in using teaching methods and approaches
in order to foster and develop their listening skills efficiently.
2.1.2. Teachers
The teachers are the most important factors in the process of teaching and learning a target
language. To carry out this process properly, the teachers need to have good experience of
teaching and understanding of the syllabus. At PB school, there are 7 teachers of English and
no one has ever been to an English speaking country.
Methodologically, the teachers at PB school are familiar with traditional language teaching
English. They lack teaching experience, particularly teaching listening skills.
2.1.3. Teaching and learning conditions
2.1.3.1. Teaching aids


17

Facilities in PB school are brought into question. The classes are not well-equipped with tapes,
cassette players, speakers, TVs, CDs or overhead projectors except for a board, chalks,
pictures or other visual aids designed by teachers themselves. There are two modern
classrooms for language teaching and learning equipped with teaching aids such as overhead
projectors and the Internet. Students only have a chance to use these devices when the teachers
present model lessons on special occasions such as Women’s Day and Vietnamese Teacher's
Day. Therefore, students do not have many chances to use both visual and audio aids to
practice listening skills often.
2.1.3.2. Teaching hours

Students in high schools, in general, have three periods of English a week; each period is
supposed to deal with one lesson in a unit lasting 45 minutes. In PB school all the classes have
3 periods of English per week.
2.1.3.3. Class size
The average number of students in a class in PB school ranges from 40 to 50. Students are
arranged to sit at desks in four rows, each of which includes 5 - 6 desks of two students.

2.2. The new “Tieng Anh 10” textbook.
The new “Tieng Anh 10” textbook composed by Hoang Van Van (2006) has been in use since
2006 as the official textbook to obtain general English at grade 10. The textbook consists of 16
units in terms of 16 topics. There are five parts in each unit represented through 5 lessons:
Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Language Focus respectively. The book adopts
two new approaches: learner–centered and communicative aiming at students’ better use of
English as a tool of communication at basic level in terms of listening, speaking, reading and
writing.
2.2.1. Form 10 listening objectives


18

The aim of the course is to equip students with English listening skills for basic
communication. For 10th form students, the objectives are to develop listening comprehensive
skills such as intensive listening, extensive listening, listening for specific information,
listening for gist, etc.
2.2.2. Listening lessons
In the “Tieng Anh 10” textbook, reading, speaking and listening lessons are divided into three
parts: Before you listen, While you listen and After you listen. In Before you listen, learners
listen to the subject matters related to the unit topic; new vocabulary is presented in listening
sessions. While you listen includes 2 - 3 tasks (matching, multiple choice questions, true/false,
comprehension questions, gap-filling, taking notes, etc.) aiming at developing students’

comprehensive listening. After you listen consolidates comprehensive listening via summary,
speaking and writing activities. In order to realize the course objectives, the listening section
focuses on daily and popular topics.

2.3. Research questions
In order to find out the problems that the teachers and students of form 10 in teaching and
learning ELS, it is necessary to answer the following questions:
1. What is the present situation of teaching and learning ELS at PB school?
2. What difficulties do the teachers and the 10th form students encounter in teaching and
learning ELS?
3. What are the suggested ways to effectively improve the current situation of teaching
and learning ELS at this school?

2.4. Data collection instruments
In order to obtain in-depth, rich data and information for investigating the situation and the
problems that teachers and students encountered in teaching and learning ELS, the study used
two methods of data collection: questionnaires and informal interviews.