A study on the use of portfolios in improving listening skill of second-year students at Hanoi University of Industry = Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng hồ sơ bài tập

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

NGUYỄN THÙY TRANG

A STUDY ON THE USE OF PORTFOLIOS IN IMPROVING
LISTENING SKILL OF SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG HỒ SƠ BÀI TẬP TRONG VIỆC CẢI
THIỆN KỸ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ 2 TẠI
TRƯỜNG ĐH CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI)

M.A. Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111





HANOI – 2014

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

NGUYỄN THÙY TRANG

A STUDY ON THE USE OF PORTFOLIOS IN IMPROVING
LISTENING SKILL OF SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG HỒ SƠ BÀI TẬP TRONG VIỆC CẢI
THIỆN KỸ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ 2 TẠI
TRƯỜNG ĐH CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI)

M.A. Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111
Supervisor: Dr. Ngô Hữu Hoàng




HANOI – 2014
i

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in
accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also certify that all material and results
which are not original to this work have been fully cited and referenced.
March 2014
Signature

Nguyễn Thùy Trang










ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Ngo Huu Hoang for his
helpful guidance, critical comments, ongoing support and invaluable contributions during all
the stages of this study.
I owe my special thanks to Dr. Nguyen Thi Minh Tam, who has made insightful suggestions
for improving my thesis.
I am grateful to all lectures and staff members of the Faculty of Post - Graduate Studies for
their valuable lessons and help.
I am thankful to the students who took part in this study for their cooperation and contribution.
Lastly, I am deeply indebted to my family and colleagues whose encouragement has been
extremely important to the success of this study.

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ABSTRACT
This study was conducted to explore the efficiency of the application of portfolios in
the listening skill of second-year non English major students at Hanoi University of Industries,
HAUI. It took into consideration the listening progress of target students in order to generalize
this method at the university.
The participants included 52 second-year non English major students at HAUI. A
designed listening portfolio given to students and collected at the end of the process,
questionnaires and task performance measurement were employed to investigate the efficiency
of listening portfolios and then, find out some suggestions on teaching and learning listening
skill. Qualitative method was used to analyze data obtained from the aforementioned data
collection instruments.
This is a piece of action research and the findings of the research provided insight into
the efficiency of portfolios in improving listening skill. The mid-term test results also showed
that progresses were made after the process of portfolios. Based on the findings, some
recommendations, limitations and suggestions were given out.

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ABBREVIATIONS
AOF Academy of Finance
EFL English as a foreign language
ESL English as a second language
ESP English for specific purposes
HAUI Hanoi University of Industry

v

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION OF AUTHORITY …………………… ……… ……………………….I
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS …………………………………………….…………… … …II
ABSTRACT………………………………………………… ………………….………… III
ABBREVIATIONS.……………………… ………………………… ……………………IV
TABLE OF CONTENTS V
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale…………………………………………………………………………………….1
2. Aims and research questions of the study……………….…………… ………………….1
3. Scope of the study…………………………………………………………….…….……….2
4. Structure of the study……………………………………………………………………….2
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Theoretical background of listening comprehension……………………… …………… 4
1.1.1. Listening comprehension……………………………………………….……………….4
1.1.1.1. Definitions………………………………………………………….………….4
1.1.1.2. The process of Listening Comprehension……………………….…… …… 5
1.1.2. The importance of listening……………………………………………….……… … 6
1.1.3. Teaching and learning listening skill…………………………………….……… ….6
1.1.3.1. The role of teacher in teaching listening skill……………… ………….…….6
1.1.3.2. The importance of students‟ autonomy…………………………….………… 7
1.2. Theoretical background of portfolios……………………………………………….…….8
1.2.1. Definitions of portfolios……………………………………………………….……… 8
1.2.2. The required elements of portfolios………… ………………………………………….9
1.2.3. Steps to develop a portfolio……………………………………………… …….…….10

1.2.4. Strengths and weaknesses of using portfolios in learning listening…………… ……11
1.3. Previous studies………………………………………………………………… ………12
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………….… ….14
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2.2. Context of the study…………………………………………………………………… 14
2.2.1. The setting of the study……………………………………………………….…….….14
2.2.2. Course book………………………………………………………………….…………15
2.3. Methodology……………………………………………………………………….…… 15
2.3.1. Participants……………………………………………………………………….…… 15
2.3.2. Instrumentation……………………………………………………………… … ……15
2.3.2.1. Questionnaires for students………………………………………….…… …16
2.3.2.2. Designed content of the listening portfolio…………………………….…… 17
2.3.3. Data collection procedure……………………………………………………….… ….18
CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY
3.1. Data analysis………………………………………………………………………… ….19
3.1.1. Data analysis of the students' survey questionnaire before the portfolio process… ….19
3.1.1.1. Students‟ motivation in study listening skill……………………… … ……19
3.1.1.2. Students‟ learning experience………………………………………… … 20
3.1.1.3. Student‟s knowledge of listening portfolios………….………………… … 21
3.1.2. Data analysis of the students' survey questionnaire after the portfolio process… ……22
3.1.2.1. Students‟ attitude towards the portfolios……………………………… …22
3.1.2.2. Students‟ preferences for working arrangement on the portfolios……… … 25
3.1.2.3. Students‟ preferences for task requirements on the portfolios………… ……26
3.1.2.4. Students‟ difficulties in listening portfolio process…………………… … 27
3.1.2.5. Students‟ suggestions to improve the listening portfolio contents……… …28
3.1.3. Data analysis of students‟ testing results………………………………………….……29
3.2. Major findings and discussions………………………………………….………… ……31
3.2.1. Summary of the study stages…………………………………………………… ……31

3.2.1.1. Initiation………………………………………………………………………31
3.2.1.2. Preliminary investigation…………………………………………………… 31
3.2.1.3. Hypothesis………………………………………………………….…………31
3.2.1.4. Intervention…………………………………………………………………32
3.2.1.5. Evaluation………………………………………………………… ………33
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3.2.1.6. Dissemination……………………………………………………… ………33
3.2.1.7. Follow-up………………………………………………………….………….33
3.2.2. Major findings and discussions…………………………………………………………33
3.2.2.1. The habit of students‟ learning listening skill outside class………………….33
3.2.2.2. Students‟ opinion of listening portfolio contents………………….………….34
3.2.2.3. Students‟ opinion of working arrangement………………………… ….….34
3.2.2.4. Students‟ opinion of task type on portfolios………………………… …… 35
3.2.2.5. Students‟ difficulties in the process of listening portfolios…………………36
3.2.2.6. Students‟ learning progresses……………………………………… ………37
3.3. Summary………………………………………………………………………………….37
PART C: CONCLUSION
1. Recapitulation……………………………………………………………………… …….38
2. The answers to the Research questions……………………………………………….…….38
2.1. Research question 1………………………………………………………………………38
2.2. Research question 2……………………………………………………….………….… 39
3. Implications for the application of portfolios in the listening skill………………… …….40
3.1. Specifying the concept of the portfolio and its contents…………………… …….… 41
3.2. Designing a more suitable portfolio contents………………………………… … … 41
3.3. Encouraging students‟ autonomy………………………………………… ………… 41
4. Limitations of the study……………………………………………………… ………….42
5. Recommendations for further study…………………………………………….…… ……42
REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………… 43
APPENDICES I

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PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Of the four language skills, it is surprising the listening skill is often ignored even in the
modern methods of foreign language teaching. Interestingly did the way Nunan (1997: 42)
comment on the listening skill: “Listening is the Cinderella skill in second language learning.
All too often, it has been overlooked by its elder sister: speaking.” Listening is an important
skill and probably the most challenging skill in learning English on account of learners‟
unfamiliarity with different intonation pattern and use of stress, etc. For the second-year non
English major students at Hanoi University of Industries, most of them agree that they
encounter a lot of difficulties in learning the listening skill such as social setting, background
knowledge, cultures, similar pronunciation or inferred information. Because the level of
English language proficiency of the students is not very high, the motivation of learning
listening is affected. Additionally, limited time duration of listening lesson every week is
conducive to the slow learning progress of students. Obviously, students should spend more
time practicing outside class. As a solution, listening portfolios which reflect what students
have done at home are a useful additional learning tool. For years, in ESL field, employing
portfolios to learn at home has been a good way for learners to obtain the listening skill for its
purposefulness, systematization and above all, actual reflection of learning activities. It not
only helps teachers assess students‟ work, but also keep students continuously learning.
Although the teacher may deal with considerable challenges to the exploitation of portfolios, it
is still worthy to carry out because of the benefits it offers. Now, this method of practicing is
firstly introduced at HAUI as a piloting solution for improving the listening skill.
For the above reasons, the choice of the study entitled “A study on the use of portfolios in
improving the listening skill of second-year students at Hanoi University of Industry,
HAUI” is not accidental.
2. Aims of the study
The specific aims of the research are as follows:
- To investigate the influence of portfolios on students‟ the listening skill (through the

exploration of students‟ preferences towards the application of portfolio in the listening skill
and the measurement of their improvement in the listening skill after the listening portfolio).
2

- To give some suggestions for using portfolios to enhance students' the listening skill.
With such aims, the study aims at answering the research questions as follows:
1. To what extent do portfolios influence students’ listening skill?
2. How can teacher improve the contents of portfolios to develop student’s listening skill?
3. Scope of the study
As being specified, the study is concerned with using portfolios in teaching the listening skill
to the second-year non English major students of HAUI. Other approaches to teach the
listening skill intended for students at other levels of English language proficiency would be
beyond the scope.
4. Structure of the study
The thesis is divided into three parts:
Part A: Introduction
This part provides an overview of the study such as the rationale, the scope, the aims, research
questions, structure of the study.
Part B: Development contains 3 chapters:
Chapter 1: Theoretical background and Literature review
This chapter reviews some previous researches on the similar topic. Specifically, the chapter is
divided into two main parts: (i) theoretical background of listening comprehension which
conceptualizes the nature of the listening comprehension, the importance of listening, teaching
and learning the listening skill; (ii) theoretical background of portfolio which includes
definitions of portfolio, the content of portfolio, stages of portfolio implementation, the
benefits and drawbacks of portfolio in learning listening;
Chapter 2: Methodology
The chapter presents the methodology used in the study including the setting, instrumentation,
and data collection procedure.
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Chapter 3: The Study
This chapter consists of 2 main parts: (i) Data Analysis: Data collected from the task
performance measurement and questionnaire was analyzed. It explains why the results came
out as they did, and how they helped to achieve the objectives of the study as well as to answer
the two research questions; (ii) Major findings and Discussions.
Part C: Conclusion
The chapter revisits the main points discussed beyond. The two research questions are also
answered and some limitations of the study and future research will be presented.















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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
In this chapter, the author will focus on the concepts of the listening skill and portfolios. Other
previous studies on this topic are also reviewed.

1.1. Theoretical background of listening comprehension
1.1.1. Listening comprehension
1.1.1.1. Definitions
Traditionally, listening was viewed as a passive process, in which learner‟s ears were receivers
into which information was poured, and all the listeners had to do was passively register the
message. Anderson & Lynch (1988) share the same idea that learners tend to take listening for
granted. Recently, it has been recognized that listening is an „active‟ process, and that good
listeners are just as active when listening as speakers are when speaking. For EFL learners,
listening comprehension is a complex and challenging activity. According to Vandergrift
(1999), vocabulary, coordinating sounds, grammatical structures, and background knowledge
involves a great deal of mental processes on the part of the listener. Over the years, a
numerous of researchers have tried to define “listening comprehension”.
Regarding listening comprehension, Buck (2001: 3) states that “listening comprehension is an
active process of constructing meaning and this is done be applying knowledge to the
incoming sounds” in which “a number of different types of knowledge are involved: both
linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic knowledge”.
In addition, Underwood (1989: 1) simply defines listening comprehension as an activity of
paying attention to and trying to get meaning from the thing learners hear. In her book, she
also makes it clear that when speakers use particular words in particular occasions; it is not
simple that learners only understand the words themselves. They need to figure out what
speakers really mean.
O‟Malley and Chamot (1989: 420) conclude that “Listening comprehension is an active and
conscious process in which the listener constructs meaning by using cues from contextual
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information and existing knowledge, while relying upon multiple resources to fulfill the task
requirement”.
Meanwhile, Scott Shelton (2008) believes that the process of effective listening is demanding
and involved. If learners are able to deal with different accents or pronunciation, unfamiliar
lexical items and syntactic structures, competing background noise, and also try not to become

distracted while listening, then they will have a successful listening communication.
There exist several definitions of listening comprehension. Among all, a representative one is
propounded by Clark & Clark (1977: 43-44) for their broad and narrow definition:
“Comprehension has two common senses. In its narrow sense, it denotes the mental processes
by which listeners take in the sound uttered by a speaker and use them to construct an
interpretation of what they think the speaker intended to convey…Comprehension in its
broader sense, however, rarely ends here, for listeners normally put the interpretations they
have built to work. ”.
1.1.1.2. The process of Listening Comprehension
There are two distinct processes involved in listening comprehension.
 “Bottom - up”: Learners utilize their linguistic knowledge to identify linguistic
elements in an order from the smallest linguistic unit like phonemes (bottom) to the
largest one like complete texts (top). They link the smaller units of the language
together to form the larger parts and it's a linear process where meaning is derived
automatically at the last stage. It is absolutely "text based" process where learners rely
on the sounds, words and grammar in the message in order to create meaning.
 “Top - down”: This requires learners to go to the listening with their prior knowledge
of topic, context, and type of text as well as knowledge of language to reconstruct the
meaning using the sounds as clues.
The distinction between Top-down and Bottom-up listening process is visualized vividly by
Helgesen and Brown (1994: xii) as they employ the metaphor of a brick wall, “if you are
standing at the bottom looking at the wall brick by brick, you can easily see details. It is
difficult, however, to get an overall view of the wall. And if you come to a missing brick (e.g:
an unknown word or unfamiliar structure), you get stuck. If, on the other hand, you are sitting
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on the top of the wall, you can easily see the landscape. Of course, because of distance, you
will miss some details”.
Listening comprehension is not either top-down or bottom-up processing, but an interactive,
interpretive process where listeners use both prior knowledge and linguistic knowledge in

understanding messages.
1.1.2. The importance of listening
There exists a famous saying: “God gave us two ears and just one mouth for a reason”. The
reason is to listen twice as much as to speak. No doubt, listening is the most common
communicative activity in daily life. Morley (2001: 70) shared the same idea that people can
expect to listen "twice as much as we speak, four times more than what we read and five times
more than we usually write".
According to Rost (1994) "Listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides
input for the learner. Without understanding input at the right level, any learning simply
cannot begin". Rost (1994: 141-142)
Listening requires people to remember, to evaluate, and to understand; therefore, listening is
not a passive activity. It is a skill that must be learned, yet according to Pearson et al (2008:
109), “Listening is our most frequently used and least studied communication skill”.
1.1.3. Teaching and learning the listening skill
1.1.3.1. The role of teacher in teaching the listening skill
It is undeniable that teachers carry a big responsibility in their classrooms. They have a huge
impact on their learners either positive or negative and it is the teacher‟s responsibility to
create friendly and supportive atmosphere. Especially, teaching the listening skill requires
lectures a great effort and patience to motivate students.
According to the division suggested by Harmer, there are eight main roles of a teacher:
 An organizer: It is believed that the success of a lesson depends on the teacher‟s
organization skills. Teachers have to explain what their students are going to do, give
clear instructions and constructive feedbacks at the end of the lesson.
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 A controller: Teachers are who conduct the whole lesson. Teachers whose roles are to
control the lessons specify what students should do throughout the listening stages.
 An assessor: One of the important parts of teacher‟s job is to assess their students and
give the students a feedback on their performance. They should evaluate how good
students were.

 A resource: Teachers should facilitate their students by giving advice and is available
when the learners need to consult some problems. They usually help with unknown
vocabulary or grammatical patterns.
 A tutor: In this case, a tutor is a teacher who acts as a coach and as a resource (Harmer
1991: 242) and is able to help their students to develop ideas. Teachers help their
students during each stage, especially during the while-listening stage. They can help
their students with prediction of the missing information.
 An investigator: Teachers can observe the activities in their lessons and subsequently
evaluate their efficiency. They keep reflective journals and evaluate the benefits of
each listening activity.
 A prompter: This role of teachers sounds quite strange. A “prompter” teacher is who
encourages their students and offers suggestions about activities that are being done by
the students. They ought to support their students during each stage so that the students
can be more successful.
 A participant: Teachers can participate in pre and post-listening task with the activities
of discussions or role-play. Their participation can also improve the classroom
atmosphere.
1.1.3.2. The importance of students’ autonomy
The autonomy of students is considered as an important factor in making progresses in
learning. According to Bonnet & Cuypers (2003: 326), the learner‟s own thinking has to be
respected in educational context. Specifically, Jiao (2005: 28) gives four substantial reasons in
support of learner autonomy for English learning: (i) It enhances the learner‟s motivation and
leads to more effective learning; (ii) It provides learners with more opportunities for English
8

communication in a non-native environment; (iii) It caters to the individual needs of learners
at all levels; and (iv) It has a lasting influence.
Thanasoulas (2000) points out that: “If learners labor under the misconception that learning is
successful only within the context of the "traditional classroom," where the teacher directs,
instructs, and manages the learning activity, and students must follow in the teacher's

footsteps, they are likely to be impervious or resistant to learner-centered strategies aiming at
autonomy, and success is likely to be undermined”. Thanasoulas (2000: 9)
Strongly believing in the importance of students‟ autonomy in learning, Austin (2006)
emphasizes that: “There is no magic solution and encouraging learner autonomy takes time
and a lot of patience on the part of the teacher as well as the learner. In some cases it seems
almost impossible to achieve and can leave both parties confused and frustrated. However, as
professionals it is our duty to remember that no matter how tempting it is to revert to spoon
feeding our learners; it is our duty to begin from day one and to continue to the end of a
course in a manner that gives our learners every opportunity of developing their independence
to the greatest extent possible.” Austin (2006: 1)
1.2. Theoretical background of portfolios
1.2.1. Definitions of portfolios
The concept of portfolio development was adopted from the field of fine arts where portfolios
are used to display illustrative samples of an artist's work. The purpose of the artist's portfolio
is to demonstrate the depth and breadth of the work as well as the artist's interests and abilities
(Jongsma, 1989). Many educators perceive the intent of educational portfolios to be similar to
that of portfolios used in fine arts, which to summarize a student‟s accomplishment, including
the student‟s ability, knowledge, skills and attitudes.
For telling examples, some educators shared the same idea that a portfolio is a specific or
purposeful collection of one's work demonstrating progression of learning, understanding and
skills (Hamm & Adams, 1991; Phelps, LaPorte & Mahood, 1997).
Paulson, Paulson, and Meyer (1991) define a portfolio as “a purposeful collection of students’
work, not only exhibiting students’ effort, progress, and achievement, but also demonstrating
students’ participation in selecting contents and selecting the criteria for assessment”.
Paulson, Paulson, and Meyer (1991: 60)
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Rieman and Okrasinski (2007: 9) state that “a portfolio is an assessment tool that allows
creator to put his or her best foot forward and document the knowledge and skills mastered
through the learning process”.

In the article “Nurturing Student Learning through Portfolios”, Margo Gottlieb writes that
portfolios are a means of alternative assessment and that they “facilitate articulation between
teachers and individual students, other teachers, parents, and administrators.” (Gottlieb,
1995: 12).
Briefly, a listening portfolio is an organized collection of students‟ work in the listening skill
that indicates the products of their own learning process.
1.2.2. The required elements of portfolios
There are a variety of different portfolios and each kind of portfolios serves its own purpose
and consists of its own required elements. According to Wolf and Dietz (1998), there are three
purposes for portfolios: (i) learning portfolio, (ii) assessment portfolio and (iii) employment
portfolio. They also conclude that portfolios normally contain selected evidence
of performance and products in various contexts accompanied by a teacher‟s comments and
reflections. Generally speaking, a portfolio is a folder containing all the student work; others
see it as a collection of the student best work. According to Lynch & Shaw (2005), in practical
terms, a student portfolio for assessment purposes is a “library” of
reports, papers, and other materials, together with the student‟s reflection on his or her
learning and on strengths and weaknesses. It may also contain reports of grades, evaluations,
and examinations, and it is usually held together in some appropriate binder.
It is important to include all of the following in a portfolio:
1. Cover Letter: The cover letter summarizes the evidence of a student‟s learning and progress.
2. Table of Contents
3. Entries - both core (items students have to include) and optional (items of student‟s choice).
The core elements will be required for each student and will provide a common base from
which to make decisions on assessment. The optional items will allow the folder to represent
the uniqueness of each student.
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4. Dates on all entries, to facilitate proof of growth over time.
5. Drafts of aural/oral and written products and revised versions; i.e., first drafts and
corrected/revised versions.

6. Reflections can appear at different stages in the learning process (for formative and/or
summative purposes.) and can be written in the mother-tongue at the lower levels or by
students who find it difficult to express themselves in English. This can relate to students‟
performance, to their feelings regarding their progress and/or themselves as learners.
Normally, teachers apply portfolio with the task of collect authentic materials and then reflect
them. This is proved to be effective in writing skill. In case of the listening skill, the author
desired to adjust the requirements of portfolios to match with students‟ language proficiency
levels in this study. The levels of subjects were supposed to be low and the required elements
of portfolio were adapted as below:
1. Cover letter
2. Table of contents
3. Entries
4. Reflection
5. Glossary
6. Work distribution
7. Final grade report
These above elements would be included in the guideline for portfolios. It is the teacher‟s duty
to give a clear instruction and guideline to the students. (See appendix for guideline)
1.2.3. Steps to develop a portfolio
There are various authors discussed on the stages of implementing a portfolio. Specifically,
Hill et al. (1994) recommends a range of steps including defining the portfolio purpose,
teaching students self-reflection, structuring portfolio reviews, making time for peer
evaluation, and sharing portfolios with parents.
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According to Hamp-Lyons & Condon (2000), there are three basic stages that must exist in the
implementation of portfolios.
1. Collection: In this stage, teachers and students work together to save artifacts that represent
successes and opportunities for growth.
2. Selection: In this stage, teachers and students review and assess the saved artifacts and

jointly decide which of those artifacts best demonstrate the achievement of learning goals.
3. Reflection: In this stage, students express their thinking about each piece in the portfolios.
They assess their own growth overt time as well as identify and gaps in their development. It
can't be denied that this stage is the most important and it is what enables portfolios to become
lifelong tools.
In short, each author applies different stages in carrying portfolios. Thus, the researcher should
take his or her own context and learning and teaching situation into account before deciding
the stages of portfolio implementation.
1.2.4. Strengths and weaknesses of using portfolios in learning listening
For many years, researchers have confirmed the positive effects of portfolios in learning
English. According to Margery and Gominda (2005: 282-283), it is undeniable that the
portfolio brings both teachers and students various benefits as it:
 Assess and promote critical thinking.
 Encourage students to become accountable and responsible for their own learning (i.e.,
self-directed, active, peer-supported, adult learning).
 Facilitate reflection and self-assessment.
 Integrate learning and assessment.
 Offer teachers vital information for diagnosing students‟ strengths and weaknesses to
help them improve their performance (i.e., formative assessment).
 Reflect students‟ progression toward learning outcomes
On the contrary, there exist several weaknesses of portfolios in learning:
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 When portfolios are used for summative assessment, students may be reluctant to
reveal weaknesses.
 Difficulties may arise in verifying whether the material submitted is the candidate‟s
own work.
 Portfolios take a long time to complete and assess.
 The portfolio process involves a large amount of paperwork.
 Portfolio assessment may produce unacceptably low inter-rater reliability, especially if

the assessment rubrics are not properly prepared or are used by untrained assessors.
1.3. Previous studies
There exist some researchers have studies on the use of portfolios in language skills. However,
most of them were interested in the application of portfolios in writing and reading skill;
which means the use of portfolios in the listening skill has not been clarified thoroughly by
researchers yet.
Giang (2010) had a study on “Using portfolios in teaching the listening skill to the first-year
non-English major students of Accounting Department, Academy of Finance”. This study
intended to investigate the attitude of first-year students towards the effects of the portfolio
listening activity. The quantitative method was chosen for the study. The survey
questionnaires were used pre-process and post-process to figure out the findings. In her study,
she applied a quite interesting portfolio sharing activity among groups and designing listening
exercises by students. The study concluded that a majority of students of AOF had positive
attitudes towards the application of portfolio in listening. However, for non-English major
students whose levels were not supposed to be high, the activity of designing exercises based
on a listening file was considered difficult.
Another study will be reviewed here is “Improving the listening skill for third year students at
Hong Duc University though potfolio” by Hoa (2011). The study is an attempt to investigate
the most common portfolio contents exploited by the teachers. The data was collected from
survey questionnaires for both teachers and students. The study suggests that the contents of
13

portfolios had great impact on motivation students‟ self-learning and teachers should design
more suitable portfolio contents to correspond students‟ language proficiency and needs.
In this present study, the author would like to investigate the use of portfolios in improving the
listening skill as well as students‟ autonomy of the second-year non-English-major students at
the HAUI.

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1. Introduction
This is a piece of action research. Its goal is to use portfolios as an intervention to improve
students' listening skill. In this way, the teacher has the opportunity to extend existing
professional development experiences to meet individual needs and the needs of second-year
non-English major students at HAUI.
The model of action research proposed by Nunan (1992) was adopted and adapted in this
study. The details in each step will be presented in the latter.
- Step 1: Initiation
- Step 2: Preliminary investigation
- Step 3: Hypothesis
- Step 4: Intervention
- Step 5: Evaluation
- Step 6: Dissemination
- Step 7: Follow-up
Specifically, this chapter would give the setting of the study and describe the method to

answer the research questions in detail. The participants, the data collection instruments, and
the data analysis would be justified.
2.2. Context of the study
2.2.1. The setting of the study
The research was conducted at Hanoi University of Industry. In 2005, the Prime Minister
signed the Decision 315/2005 QD-TTG to established Hanoi University of Industry on the
basis of Hanoi Industrial College.
At HAUI, English is taught to non-English-major students in formal setting with two stages.
During the first stage, which consists of the first five terms, the students study general English
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with four language skills mainly: speaking, listening, reading and writing. . In the second
stage, students study ESP such as English in Economics, English in Tourism, English in
Chemical Technology, and English in Mechanics. In this study, the students from Faculty of
Technical Training and Tourism are randomly chosen. Each academic year is divided into two
terms, each lasting 15 weeks and finishing with end-of-term examinations.
2.2.2. Course book
The using of the textbook Real Listening and Speaking 1 by Miles Craven is applied to the
teaching to second-year students. This book consists of 16 units and is divided into two
sections: (i) Social and travel situations, and (ii) Work and study situations. This book contains
practical tasks to help learners in everyday listening situations, e.g. at the shop, in a restaurant
or traveling. The exercises in each unit help develop useful the listening skill such as listening
for opinions, listening for details, and listening for the main idea.
2.3. Methodology
2.3.1. Participants
Fifty two second-year students, aged 20 – 22, were selected to participate in the study. Most of
them are female. They come from. They are supposed to have equal knowledge of English
before entering the HAUI since most of them have learnt English for at least 7 years (from
grade 6 to grade 12 at school). These students were randomly selected to go in for the
research. To some extent, the participants chosen in the study could be representatives for the

rest of the population.
2.3.2. Instrumentation
Two questionnaires will be used to investigate the answers to the research questions: one
before the process of portfolios and one after the process of portfolios. In the book
“Developing a Questionnaire” (Gillham, 2000), some outstanding advantages of using
questionnaires in research are listed such as their efficiency in terms of (i) research time and
costs and (ii) researchers‟ effort. Specifically, researchers can send out a thousand
questionnaires in the time it takes to do two semi-structured interviews. Then data could be
processed fast and relatively straight forwards.
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Meanwhile, a designed portfolio was given out to students. In general, a portfolio is a
collection of students‟ work, which means they are free to choose materials related to the
required topics. Normally, teachers believe that designing good portfolio contents is hard and
in some cases, they have to design their own portfolio contents to correspond to students‟
needs, interests and levels of knowledge. In this study, the contents of listening portfolio were
designed by the author, consisting of 12 listening files (one file for each week).
Moreover, a pre-test and post-test were given to the students before and after the application of
portfolios.
Although Vietnamese is considered as the optimal language to elicit the issues, the language
use in the questionnaires and portfolio guidelines was English. Specifically, the English
language used was simple and easy to understand and the students might learn some new
words through it. For the portfolio guideline, the teacher explained in English first, and then
translated in mother-tongue to ensure all of the students understand.
2.3.2.1. Questionnaires for students
There are two questionnaires for students before and after the portfolio process.
The pre-process questionnaire consists of 5 questions and aims at exploring:
1. Students‟ learning experiences (Question 1, 3, 4)
2. Students‟ motivation and interests in learning the listening skill (Question 2)
3. Students‟ knowledge of portfolios (Question 5)

The post-process questionnaire consists of 8 questions and was designed to get information
concerning:
1. Students‟ attitude towards the use of portfolios (Question 1, 2, 3, 4)
2. Students‟ preferences for working arrangement (Question 5)
3. Students‟ preferences for task requirement on portfolios (Question 6)
4. Students‟ difficulties in listening portfolio process (Question 7)
5. Students‟ suggestions to improve the listening portfolio contents (Question 8)