A study on the attitudes of 12th grade students in listenning lessons at a high school in Bac Ninh province = Nghiên cứu thái độ của học sinh lớp 12 trong

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
faculty OF POST-GRADUATE studies




ĐỖ THU HÀ


A STUDY ON THE ATTITUDES OF 12
TH
GRADE
STUDENTS IN LISTENING LESSONS
AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCE

(Nghiên cư
́
u tha
́
i đô
̣
cu
̉
a ho
̣
c sinh lơ
́
p 12 trong giơ
̀
ho

̣
c nghe
Ti mt trưng THPT  tnh Bc Ninh)


M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD : ENGLISH METHODOLOGY
CODE : 60.140.111






Hanoi, 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
faculty OF POST-GRADUATE studies




ĐỖ THU HÀ


A STUDY ON THE ATTITUDES OF 12
TH
GRADE

STUDENTS IN LISTENING LESSONS
AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCE

(Nghiên cư
́
u tha
́
i đô
̣
cu
̉
a ho
̣
c sinh lơ
́
p 12 trong giơ
̀
ho
̣
c nghe
Ti mt trưng THPT  tnh Bc Ninh)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS


FIELD : ENGLISH METHODOLOGY
CODE : 60.140.111
SUPERVISOR : DR. MAI THI LOAN

Hanoi, 2013

i
DECLARATION

Do Thu Ha, hereby certify that my M.A thesis entitled “A study on the
attitudes of 12
th
grade students in listening lessons at a high school in Bac Ninh
province” is the result of my own research in the fulfillment of the requirement for
Degree of Master of Arts at the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies – University of
Languages and International Studies, Hanoi. I commit that this thesis has not been
submitted anywhere for any degree.

Hanoi, 2013

Đỗ Thu Hà

ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my
supervisor, Dr. Mai Thi Loan, for her invaluable inspiration, assistance, guidance
and encouragement during the time I have tried to complete this thesis. She has
been willing to give help and advice whenever I expect.
I wish to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to all lectures
and the staff of Department of Post Graduate Studies at University of Languages
and International Studies, Hanoi for their interesting and helpful lectures and
suggestions for the topic of my study.
I am in debt of many authors’ works and ideas, which enhance me to
complete my study with sharp evidences.
My appreciation and gratitude are also extended for the teachers and
students of grade 12 at Que Vo 1 High School, who participated in doing the
survey and responding to my interviews.
Last but not least, I wish to express special thanks to my husband and my
beloveds for their everlasting, care and encouragement.

iii
ABSTRACT

In recent years, though the importance of listening in English learning has been
acknowledged by researchers and educators all over the world, there remained a sad
reality of English listening learning and teaching at Que Vo 1 high school, Bac Ninh
province. Most of the students possess negative attitudes towards learning listening
skill.
The study aims at exploring the attitudes of 12
th
grade students, reasons for
these attitudes and their expectation during their English listening learning and
proposing some suggestions for teachers to enhance students’ positive attitudes in
listening lessons.
Three instruments, including questionnaires for students, class observations
and interview questions with teachers, were employed to achieve the purposes of
the study.
The subjects involved in this study were 120 students, including 50 males and 70
females belonging to two different fields of study, namely Natural Science and Social
Science. They were invited to participate in the survey questionnaire. Besides, six
teachers of English agreed to join the study to support the researcher better her
research.
It was induced in the study that most students of 12
th

grade at Que Vo 1 High
School exhibited negative attitudes to learn listening skill, which resulted from the
teachers’ behaviors, teaching methods and infrequent use of teaching aids, students’
lack of vocabulary, the gender and the field of study.
Based on the findings, some suggestions were given to teachers with the hope that
they will collaborate with the school to make certain positive changes to this problematic
reality.




iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. The research questions 2
4. Significance of the study 2
5. Scope of the study 3
6. Method of the study 3
7. Design of the study 4
PART B: THE STUDY 5
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5
1.1. Theoretical background of attitude 5
1.1.1. Definition of attitude 5
1.1.2. Language attitude 6

1.1.3. Aspects of language attitude 7
1.1.4. The role of attitude in language learning and teaching 8
1.2. Theoretical background of listening skill 9
1.2.1. Definition of listening and listening comprehension 9
1.2.2. The listening process 10
1.3. Review of previous studies related to language learning attitudes 12
1.4. Summary 13
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 14
2.1. The setting of the study 14
2.1.1. The school 14
2.1.2. The curriculum and text book 14
2.2. Participants 15
2.2.1. The teachers 15
2.2.2. The students 15
2.3. Data collection instruments 16

v
2.4. Data collection procedure 17
2.5. Summary 17
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 18
3.1. Data analysis on the questionnaires for students 18
3.1.1. Students’ attitudes towards learning English 18
3.1.2. Students’ attitudes towards learning listening skill 19
3.1.2.1. Students’ favorite English lessons 19
3.1.2.2. Students’ perception on the importance of learning listening 20
3.1.2.3. Students’ amount of time practicing listening………………………………20
3.1.2.4. Students’ behaviors in listening lessons 21
3.1.2.5. Students’ feelings in listening lessons 22
3.1.3. Students’ perception on factors affecting their attitudes towards learning English
listening skill 23

3.1.3.1. Demotivational factors to learn listening skill of students 23
3.1.3.2. Motivational factors to learn listening skill of students 26
3.1.3.3. The teachers’ use of teaching aids and motivational strategies in
listening lessons 27
3.1.4. Students’ expectation on learning listening skill 28
3.1.4.1. Students’ anticipation from the teachers 28
3.1.4.2. Students’ anticipation with the teachers’ use of motivational strategies
during listening lessons 30
3.1.4.3. Students’ expectation from the school 31
3.2. Data analysis on class observations 31
3.3. Data analysis on teachers’ responses from the interviews 36
3.4. Summary 38
PART C: CONCLUSION 39
1. Summary of major findings 39
1.1. Findings from questionnaires for students 39
1.2. Findings from class observations 40
1.3. Findings from interview questions with teachers 40
2. Suggestions for teachers 40
3. Recommendations for further studies 42
4. Conclusion 42
REFERENCES 43

vi
APPENDIX 1 I
APPENDIX 2 VI
APPENDIX 3 XII
APPENDIX 4 XVIII

1
PART A: INTRODUCTION
In this part, the researcher will present the rationale of the study, the aims, the
research questions, the significance, the scope, the method and the design of the study.
1. Rationale
Over the last few decades, many researchers have paid more and more
attention to students’ attitude, the role of students’ attitude towards language
learning and teaching. It has been concluded in most of the studies that students’
attitude is an integral part of learning because there is a relationship between
students’ attitude towards language learning and their language learning
achievement. Particularly, positive attitude could facilitate language learning while
negative attitude may hinder it. Consequently, it is worth doing research on
students’ attitudes towards learning a foreign language and factors affecting such
attitudes in order to enhance their learning success and achievement.
Besides, as listening skill, together with speaking skill, is considered the
most important skills of the four basic skill in learning English, hence, to be able to
listen and speak effectively is very essential for all English language learners.
According to Hubbard, John, Thornton & Wheller (1995), (quoted from Pangsapa,
2006: 111), listening is even more significant than speaking when one wants to be a
successful communicator in English. Supposing that you master English speaking
proficiency, you can still get failure in interacting with others and make them
confused if you have a poor listening skill.
However, the researcher has experienced the teaching career for six years,
she has also had chance to work in two high schools where she has noticed that
listening lessons have been neglected which results from the test – based teaching
method. Particularly, most of the teachers ignore listening and speaking lessons in

order to focus on reading comprehension, grammar and vocabulary. The students,
therefore, merely spend most of their time learning what their teachers ask them,
which includes new words, grammar rules to get good marks in their final exams.
Despite the crucial role of attitude and listening skill in language learning as

2
mentioned earlier, there have never been any researches on students’ attitudes
towards learning listening skill, especially on this issue at Que Vo 1 High school.
To conclude, the study proceeds from three main reasons, the first of which
lies in the decisive role of students’ language learning attitudes in their learning
success and achievement. Next, regardless of the importance of listening skill, it has
been ignored at the researcher’ school, she thus wants to make some positive
changes on this problematic reality. Lastly, the researcher has found that there have
never been any researches on students’ attitudes towards learning listening skill at
the selected school.
2. Aims of the study
The study aims at:
- Exploring the attitudes of 12
th
grade students towards learning English and
learning listening skill
- Investigating the factors affecting their attitudes in listening lessons.
- Examining students’ expectation when learning listening skill.
- Proposing some suggestions for teachers to foster students’ positive attitudes
towards learning listening skill.
3. The research questions
With the given aims of the study, the study implies four research questions:
1/ What are the attitudes of 12
th
grade students at Que Vo 1 high school

towards learning listening skill?
2/ What factors affect their attitudes?
3/ What do students expect during the listening lessons?
4/ What should the teachers do to enhance their students’ positive attitudes to
learn listening skill?
4. Significance of the study
The study has been conducted with the expectation that the findings will help
teachers of English at Que Vo 1 high school acknowledge the significance of listening skill
in learning English, which forces them to spend more time and effort preparing listening
lessons, giving students more interesting and effective classes.

3
Still, the researcher harbors the hope that the teachers will understand their
students’ attitudes, study the reasons for such attitudes, from which they will know
how to foster positive attitudes or motivation and eliminate negative attitudes of
their students to help them obtain progress and fruitful achievements in learning
English and English listening comprehension.
5. Scope of the study
The study was conducted at Que Vo 1 High School, Bac Ninh province.
Because of limited time, it only focused on investigating the attitudes of 12
th
grade
students in listening lessons, factors affecting such attitudes and students’
expectation during listening lessons.
The participants were students from three classes 12A1, 12A3 and 12A15,
who were non – English major students and six teachers of English.
6. Method of the study
The study was carried out by some steps as follows:
First, the survey questionnaire was delivered to students to find out their
attitudes towards learning English and learning listening skill, affecting factors on

such attitudes and their expectation during listening lessons.
Second, class observation was made to study teachers’ teaching methods,
and students’ performance in listening lessons.
After that, personal interviews with six teachers were conducted in order to:
- Survey their perception on the magnitude of learning listening skill in
students’ learning English.
- Study their students’ involvement in listening activities.
- Find out the difficulties in their listening teaching and their way of carrying
out the lessons.
- Exploring their own suggestions to strengthen their students’ positive
attitudes in listening lessons.
- Give teachers a chance to offer some proposals to increase students’ positive
attitudes in listening lessons.

4
After the data were collected, sorted and analyzed quantitatively and
qualitatively, realistic results were obtained.
To end with, pedagogical implications for enhancing students’ positive
attitudes in learning listening skill will be proposed based on the results found from
all data collection instruments.
7. Design of the study
The study consists of three main parts:
Part A, Introduction presents the rationale of the study, the aims, the research
questions, the significance, the scope, the method and the design of the study.
Part B is The Study including three chapters:
Chapter 1, Literature Review, reviews the theories on listening and language
learning attitudes.
Chapter 2, Methodology, describes the participants, the setting of the study
involving the school, textbook and curriculum. Moreover, this chapter shows how
the researcher applied the data collection instruments and her procedure of

conducting the study.
Chapter 3 is Data analysis and Discussion, in which the researcher used both
qualitative and quantitative method to study and analyze the figure and information
collected.
Part C is Conclusion, which summarizes all findings explored and brings
out useful suggestions for the teachers to strengthen students’ positive attitudes in
learning listening skill. An overall picture of what has been done in this study and
suggestions for further studies are also included in this part.







5
PART B: THE STUDY
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter focuses on studying the theoretical background of attitude,
considering the definition of attitude, language attitude and aspects of language
attitude. It also deals with the theoretical background of listening and listening
comprehension, including definition and its component processes. It ends with review
of some studies related to language learning attitudes.
1.1. Theoretical background of attitude
1.1.1. Definition of attitude
In the line of researches and studies, the term “attitude” has shaped the
landscape of education (Saracaloglu, 2004: 50). However, how to identify this term
sufficiently is not simple at all, and there have been a number of views on this issue.
Some researchers have shared the same position when defining attitude as a
state of mind, which is influenced by feelings, experiences of the world and belief.

Particularly, in Triandis’ (1971) (cited from Saracaloglu, 2004: 40), attitude is a manner
of consistency toward an object or it is characterized by a large proportion of emotional
involvement such as feeling, self, relationship in community. Additionally, Gardner
(1985: 91-93) states that it is the evaluative response to the referent, which can be
inferred by the individual’s beliefs or opinions about it. Hence, attitude is linked to a
person’s values and beliefs and promotes or discourages the choices made in all realms
of activity, whether academic or informal.
Some others, namely Montano and Kasprzyk (2008) (quoted from Abidin,
2012: 120), claim that attitude is determined by one’s beliefs about the results and
attributes when performing the behaviors, which can be measured by the evaluation on
those outcomes and attributes. As a result, one who believes that their performing
behaviors will be positively evaluated will have a positive attitude toward the behavior,
and inversely, one who believes that their performing behaviors will be negatively
valued will have a negative attitude.
Another group of scholars, including Weden (1991) and Kara (2009) (quoted
from Abidin, 2012: 121), define attitude by showing the components involving in it.

6
They agree that attitude concerns three interrelated components, namely cognitive,
affective (emotional in Kara’s) and behavioral one. Cognitive component refers to
beliefs, thoughts, viewpoints about the object of attitude, while affective component
includes the individual’s feelings and emotions towards an object, whether (s) he likes
or dislikes, and the other component of attitude is behavioral one, which involves the
tendency to adopt particular learning behaviors.
In conclusion, attitude is the individual’s feelings about or evaluation and
reaction to an object, a situation, it is inner mood or emotion, the cognition of that
person about the referent and then expressed outside by the manner of his behaviors.
Positive attitude will lead to positive behaviors towards the target objects; positive
outcomes will thus be easily obtained. On the opposite extreme, failure or
disappointment usually results from negative attitude. Accordingly, in language

teaching context, it is advisable for teachers and curriculum designers to take into
consideration students’ attitudes towards the target language, for it is the key element
for success or failure in language learning and teaching. Specifically, positive attitude
should be enhanced and fostered in language classrooms.
1.1.2. Language attitude
As attitude is one of the key prominent factors for success in language learning,
numerous studies have already been conducted in the field of language attitude
(Alhmali, 2007; Ghazali et al., 2009) (cited from Abidin, 2012: 121). Moreover, it was
advocated by Saidat (2010) (quoted from Abidin, 2012: 120 )that language attitude
research has been considered in the previous 50 years because of the growing relation
between the importance of the language use and the nature of individuals.
Lambert (1972) and Padwick (2010) (quoted from Abidin, 2012: 121) both
concur that the ability of students to master a second language is not only influenced by
the mental competence, or language skills, but also by the students’ attitudes and
perceptions towards the target language. They then approved that attitude concept
could enhance the language learning process, influence the nature of students’
behaviors and beliefs towards the other language, its culture and community, which
will identify the tendency to acquire that language.
Researches on language attitude have been, therefore, indispensable in the field

7
of language learning. “In the life of a language, attitudes to that language appear to be
important in language restoration, preservation, decay or death” (Baker, 1992: 9). If a
learner does not have the interest and tendency in acquiring the target language to
communicate with others, this learner will possess a negative attitude and will not be
motivated and enthusiastic in language learning. Correspondingly, learners’ attitudes
could incorporate in language learning. Language teachers, researchers and students
had better acknowledge that students’ positive attitudes facilitate second language
learning and strengthen them to achieve a proper outcome.
In brief, language attitude is the attitude towards the target language, which is

considered one of the most important factors intensifying or impairing students’
success in language learning, apart from students’ mental competence. Hence,
educators are supposed to take into account students’ language attitude, especially
positive attitude during their learning process to ensure best accomplishment.
1.1.3. Aspects of language attitude
As mentioned above, according to Weden (1991) and Kara (2009) (cited from
Abidin, 2012: 121), the attitude concept involves three attitudinal aspects: behavioral,
cognitive and emotional (affective) one.
Behavioral aspect of attitude implies the way a person behaves or reacts in
certain situations. Actually, the success in learning language can intensify the learners
to identify themselves with the native speakers of that language and acquire or adopt
various aspects of behaviors characterizing the members of the target language
community. In the same work, Kara states that students who have affirmative attitudes
will behave positively towards the course and possess the desire to learn more. They
are more willing to solve the problems, to acquire information and skills helpful for
daily life and engage themselves emotionally.
Cognitive aspect of attitude refers to the beliefs of language learners about the
knowledge they receive and their understanding in the process of language learning.
There are four steps of this aspect of attitude, namely connecting the previous
knowledge and the new one, creating new knowledge, checking new knowledge and
applying the new knowledge in particular situations.
Emotional aspect of attitude involves the ability of foreign language learners to

8
express their likes or dislikes for referent objects or surrounding situations. In Choy &
Troudi (2006: 120), they advocate that the inner feelings and emotions of foreign
language learners influence their perspectives and their attitudes towards the target
language. This is also reached by Feng and Chen (2009: 94) that, learning process is, in
fact, the emotional process, which is affected by different emotional factors. In the
learning process, both teachers and learners engage in numerous emotional activities

and yield varied fruits of emotions.
To sum up, attitudes involves three interrelated components, counting
behavioral, cognitive and emotional one. Thus, it would be better to consider all these
components when studying students’ language attitude in order to make suitable
changes during language learning process to attain their learning goals.
1.1.4. The role of attitude in language learning and teaching
There has existed a question that why some people can learn a second or foreign
language easily, and successfully while others, given the same opportunity to learn,
find it difficult or almost impossible.
The answer has been reached in the line of researches that cognitive
performance can only be achieved if learners who learn English as a foreign language
have positive attitudes and enjoy acquiring the target language. The affective
perspective, especially attitude thus should be considered in language research. This
goes in accordance with Gardner and Lambert (1972) (cited from Abidin: 121) that
success in mastering a foreign language would depend not only on intellectual capacity
and language aptitude but also on the learner’s attitudes towards that group. Therefore,
the learner’s motivation for language learning would be determined by his attitudes and
readiness to identify and by his orientation to the whole process of learning a foreign
language. Similarly, Oller et al (1977) (cited from Porkaew, 2004: 71), in their study of
Chinese – speaking foreign students at American universities, has found that attitudes
towards the target language group are positively correlated with the proficiency.
While some emphasize the importance of positive attitudes, others value both
negative and positive attitudes. Lambert (1987) (cited from Porkaew, 2004: 71) states
that favorable attitudes towards the second language and the speakers of it lead to
successful learning of that language, while negative attitudes can upset and disturb the

9
motivation to learn the target language and thus may obstruct success in learning.
Sharing the same idea, Stern (1983) (cited from Saracaloglu, 2004: 39) claims that both
negative and positive attitudes have a strong impact on the success of language

learning, the attitude of a person is determined by different stimuli and it is undeniable
that the affective component, not mental competence or cognitive skills, has more
influence on language learning.
Obviously, there is an interaction between language learning and environmental
components in which the students grew up because attitude influences one’s behaviors,
inner mood and therefore learning.
In a word, because of affective variables, taking account of that attitude has
significant influence on the success of second and foreign language learning,
discovering students’ attitude about the language learning will facilitate both teachers
and students in teaching – learning process. Hence, it is advisable to consider the
crucial role of these affective elements.
1.2. Theoretical background of listening skill
1.2.1. Definition of listening and listening comprehension
Most researchers identify the two terms, listening and listening comprehension
when they characterize listening as a process of negotiating the meaning from the
speaker’s intended message and corresponding to it at the same time. In Howatt and
Dakin (1974), Underwood (1989: 1), listening is simply defined as the ability to pay
attention to or the ability to hear what others are saying attentively and identify or
understand their intended message. Besides, Rost (2002: 59) consider listening as a
complex and inferential process, which concerns receiving what the speaker actually
says, constructing and representing meaning, negotiating meaning with the speaker and
responding, and creating meaning through involvement, imagination and empathy. In
other words, linguistic knowledge and world knowledge interact as listeners create a
mental representation of what they hear. In order to listen thoroughly, listeners are
supposed to possess the ability to decode the message, the ability to apply a variety of
strategies and interactive processes to make meaning, and the ability to respond to what
is said in a variety of ways, depending on the purpose of the communication. Listening
involves listening for thoughts, feelings, and intentions.

10

However, Hasan (2000) gives the distinction of these two terms, he argues that
listening is just process of listening to the message without interpreting and responding
to the text while listening comprehension is a process including the meaningful
interactive activity to understand the text.
Basing on the definition of listening and listening comprehension, some authors
give requirements for a successful listener. According to Anderson and Lynch (1988:
6) an able listener needs to reach understanding from what the speaker says by
applying his own knowledge, not in the language only, but his life experience also.
More specifically, Mendelsohn (1994: 9) agrees that a competent listener is required to
have the ability to decipher the speaker’s intention, besides other abilities like
processing the linguistic forms like speech speed and fillers, coping with listening in an
interaction, understanding the whole message contained in the discourse,
comprehending the message without understanding every word, and recognizing
different genres. Listeners must also know how to process and how to judge what the
illocutionary force of an utterance is- that is, what this string of sounds is intended to
mean in a particular setting, under a particular set of circumstances - as an act of real
communication. Besides, Howatt and Dakin (1974) say that listening process
encompasses understanding a speaker’s accent, pronunciation, his grammar and his
vocabulary, and grasping his meaning. Therefore, an able listener is capable of doing
these four things simultaneously.
To sum up, listening is not simply hearing something consciously, but it is the
inner complex process involving the listener’s capability of getting the information
aurally, processing the information using both linguistic and non – linguistic
knowledge and then corresponding the speaker’s intended message. For that reason, it
would be better to consider listening a component stage in listening comprehension or
incorporate them in the listening process rather than distinguish them as two
independent concepts.
1.2.2. The listening process
There have been two tendencies of describing listening processes in the line of
researches. According to the first tendency, listening process engages three stages,

consisting of the perceptual, parsing, and utilization (Anderson, 1983 Rivers, 1992)

11
(quoted from Ly, 2011: 13).
In perceptual stage, the listener has to recognize the sound patterns in bounded
segments related to phrase structure. This stage is very fleeting and the listener has to
be dependent on echoic memory.
During the parsing stage, the listener must instantly start to process and
identify the groupings detected according to the content of his/ her central
information processing system.
Last, the listener has to recycle the material he/ she organized through the
immediate memory, thus building up an auditory memory which helps to retain the
segments he/ she is processing.
The second tendency consensus that there are two distinct processes involved in
listening comprehension, namely “bottom – up” and “top - down” processes. (Caroll,
1972; Chaudron & Richard, 1986; O’Malley, Chamot, & Kupper, 1989) (cited from
Ly, 2011: 13) and Gillian Brown (1997: 150) (quoted from Lan, 2012: 5).
The listener uses 'bottom-up' process when he uses linguistic knowledge to
understand the meaning of a message. He builds meaning from lower level sounds to
words to grammatical relationships to lexical meanings in order to arrive at the final
message. In other words, the listener makes use of his knowledge of the target language
in the bottom-up processing (Rubin, 1994: 210). This process is closely associated with
the listener’s linguistic knowledge. Conversely, bottom-up process has its weak points.
Understanding a text is an interactive process between the listener’s previous
knowledge and the text. Efficient comprehension that integrates the textual material
with listener’s brain does not only depend on one’s linguistic knowledge.
In top-down process, the listener is required to employ his background
knowledge in comprehending the meaning of a message. Carrell and Eisterhold (1983)
point out that in top-down processing, the system makes general predictions based on a
higher level, this is general schemata, and then searches the input for information to fit

into the practical satisfaction in higher order schemata. In other words, listener employs
'top-down' process when he uses prior knowledge to understand the meaning of a
message. Prior knowledge can be knowledge of the topic, the listening context, the
text-type, the culture or other information stored in long-term memory as schemata

12
(typical sequences or common situations around which world knowledge is organized).
The listener uses content words and contextual clues to form hypotheses in an
exploratory fashion.
In a word, listening comprehension is not either top-down or bottom-up
processing, but an interactive, which can overcome the disadvantages of the two above
processes. This is where listeners use both prior knowledge and linguistic knowledge in
understanding messages. The degree to which listeners use the one process or the other
will depend on their knowledge of the language, familiarity with the topic or the
purpose for listening. For example, listening for gist involves primarily top-down
processing, whereas listening for specific information, as in a weather broadcast,
involves primarily bottom-up processing to comprehend all the desired details.
1.3. Review of previous studies related to language learning attitudes
It is obvious that learning attitude plays a crucial role in learners’ language
learning achievement and it is worth doing research on learners’ attitudes towards
language learning in order to enhance their motivation or positive attitudes to learn
second or foreign language.
Many foreign researches have been conducted to examine the nature of
students’ attitudes towards learning foreign language generally and English as a foreign
language particularly. Namely, Meldim & Rahman (2009: 682) investigated Jordanian
college students towards learning English as a foreign language and found that almost
half of the students exhibited negative attitudes, which could impede students’ progress
and interfere with classroom harmony.
Abidin (2012: 123) studied the attitudes in learning English Language of
students who study English as a foreign language at Libyan School and it was also

concluded that the students possessed negative attitude towards learning English with
negative behaviors and they were always nervous when being asked to speak English
in front of others.
Conversely, Shams (2008: 121) conducted a study making effort to examine
students’ attitudes, motivation and anxiety towards the learning of English. The
results emphasized the students’ affirmative attitudes and high enthusiasm towards
learning English.

13
This was also reached by Momani (2009) when he investigated the secondary
stage students’ attitudes towards learning English as a foreign language and their
achievements in reading comprehension. The same findings found by Al – Tamimi and
Shuib (2009: 40) with the subjects of his study were Petroleum Engineering students.
Some Vietnamese scholars have also studied students’ attitudes towards learning
English and found that most students expressed affirmative attitudes towards learning
English. Among them, Phu and Lan (2012: 62-63) pointed out that all the students
exhibited encouraging attitudes in learning English because they agreed that the English
skills and proficiency acquired in the program would be useful for their future.
Hang (2009: 169) mentioned that there has been a shift in Vietnamese students’
attitude in learning English, which particularly moved from resentment against foreign
languages toward appreciation of, and motivation in learning them. However, only a
group of Vietnamese who have benefited from their English competence are fully
aware of its importance.
Moreover, Hoa and Ha (2009: 163) investigated the 100 upper secondary
students in Quang Nam province and their study revealed that the students have
positive attitudes toward learning English and are highly motivated to study it
As a teacher of English, I have experienced six years of teaching English at two
high schools, I have noticed and explored that my students express a negative attitude
towards learning English, especially when they are boys studying Natural Science
subjects. Moreover, listening is so important when students learn English; however it

has been neglected at my school so far. The reason underlined is the fact that listening
is not checked in tests and exams, they, therefore, do not spend time training listening
skills and of course, they perform so badly in listening lessons. Accordingly, I am
interested in this topic, and I do think I should be responsible for making some positive
changes on this sad reality.
1.4. Summary
In brief, in this chapter, the researcher has tried to give an overview of the
relevant literature in the concern of the study. This chapter has dealt with the definition
of attitude as well as listening, listening comprehension. Moreover, it helps the teachers
and students understand more deeply and acknowledge the importance of attitude,
especially positive attitude in attaining language learning achievement.

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
This chapter gives the picture of the study setting, which engages the school,
the curriculum, the textbook. It also provides information about the participants
taking part in the study, the detailed description of data collection instruments and
data analysis procedure.
2.1. The setting of the study
2.1.1. The school
The study was conducted at Que Vo 1 high school, which is located in the
center of Que Vo district, Bac Ninh province. It ranks the first in the district and is
one of two hundred schools having the highest percentage of students who overcome
the entrance university exams in Vietnam. The school has obtained national standard
since 2012 with spacious and modernly equipped buildings.
The school has 45 classes with a number of 30 to 50 students in each class.
Each grade has two classes, in which the students focus on the subjects of Social
Science like Language, Literature, History and Geography, one class major in English
and one in Literature, Geography and History, and three classes major in Basic
Science including Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. The students in

these classes almost pass the university entrance exams with great results.
The facility of the school is relatively good in comparison with the others in
the locality. However, teaching aids for teaching English is rather poor: the number of
cassettes is not sufficient for all classes; there is no language laboratory in school.
Consequently, teachers have to face many difficulties in teaching listening; they thus
usually teach listening by reading the listening passage themselves.
2.1.2. The curriculum and text book
First and foremost, the curriculum is not suitable to the level of students. All of
the students have learnt English at secondary schools before they enter the school.
Still, they find it hard to catch up with the knowledge the teachers want to cover. In
addition, the teachers do not have enough time to deal with all the parts of a lesson
within 5 periods. Last but not least, the curriculum is not equivalent to the test design.
The curriculum focuses on 4 language skills: reading, speaking, listening, writing and

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grammar part, pronunciation with language focus; however, the achievement tests
designed only focus on grammar exercises and reading comprehension.
In terms of the textbook English 12- basic curriculum, contents of the textbook
are accurate and in accordance with Vietnam's realities and are arranged in a certain
theme, including 16 units and 6 reviews. The lessons are distributed and arranged in
appropriate sequence with each unit corresponding to a particular topic and following
language skills (reading, speaking, listening, and writing) and language.
In terms of style and presentation, new textbook partially supported the
teachers and students to innovative methods of teaching and learning foreign
languages in school. The textbook has a scientific presentation and good illustration.
2.2. Participants
2.2.1. The teachers
Ten teachers of English at the school, aging from 28 to 46, are experienced
and enthusiastic. They are willing to help students overcome the challenges and
difficulties in learning English. They all have graduated from mainstream training

program, and there are two of them having finished their M.A course. Sadly, only six
of them aging from 30 to 45, enthusiastically agreed to take part in the research and
answered the interview questions frankly, which enhanced the researcher to find out
the nature of students’ attitudes in listening lessons as well as explore factors
affecting their attitudes and suggest proper solutions or strategies to motivate students
in listening lessons.
2.2.2. The students
Having experienced six years of teaching English, two years at Que Vo 3 high
school and 4 years at Que Vo 1 high school, the researcher has recognized that most
of the subjects have spent six years studying English before participating in the
research. However, they just focus on learning grammar points and vocabulary in
order to complete all their written tests with positive outcomes rather than covering
four basic skills in English learning, including reading, speaking, listening and
writing. Consequently, listening and speaking are likely to be ignored and neglected
during their learning English.

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The same reality occurs when they enter high schools, which is the fact that
the importance of listening skill in learning English has not been acknowledged yet,
and students still follow the curriculum just concentrating grammar, vocabulary and
reading. They gradually lose the concept of practicing listening English. They seem
to cope with the teachers by searching for the answer keys for listening tasks before
joining listening lessons.
Hopefully, teachers and students will change their attitudes towards learning
and teaching English listening comprehension, which leads to positive changes on the
issue. The researcher conducted this study on 120 students of grade 12 at Que Vo 1
High School. They include 50 males and 70 females, whose fields of study are
different, namely Natural Science and Social Science (56 Natural Science students
and 64 Social Science students). They are at pre – intermediate level. They are
randomly selected to participate in the questionnaire and the class observation.

2.3. Data collection instruments
In order to gain reliable, objective and in – depth data on exploring the
attitudes of 12
th
grade students in listening lessons, both quantitative and qualitative
methods were employed.
Three instruments were applied in this study, including the survey questionnaire
for students, the class observation and the personal interviews with teachers.
The survey questionnaires for students: are in Vietnamese to avoid
anticipated misunderstanding and comprise three main parts:
- Part 1 consists of 6 questions, which investigates students’ attitudes in
learning English in general (question 1), and listening skill in particular (question 2 to
question 6)
Part 2 includes three next questions, which examines affecting factors on
students’ attitude to learning listening skill.
- Part 3 encompasses the last three questions, which inquires students’
expectation in listening lessons.
The questionnaire for students also exploits their personal information
regarding their gender and field of study.

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The class observation: is made to record teachers’ and students’ activities
during listening lessons. It aims at finding out teachers’ teaching methods, including
their variety of activities, their use of teachings aids during listening lessons and
students’ performance as well as reaction to teachers’ lectures. Basing on the
findings, the researcher proposes suggestions for teachers to strengthen their students’
affirmative attitudes towards learning listening skill.
The interview questions for teachers: is made of five questions about
teacher’s perception on the importance of listening skill in their students’ English
learning and their students’ attitude in learning this skill. It also focuses on exploring

teachers’ ways of conducting lessons and difficulties they have to encounter when
teaching listening skill and their suggestions for enhancing students’ positive attitudes
during listening lessons.
2.4. Data collection procedure
The data are collected and analyzed by following steps:
- First of all, the survey questionnaire was delivered to 120 students of grade
12 at Que Vo 1 High School at the beginning of the first semester.
- The researcher carried out observing three listening lessons in three classes:
12A1, 12A3 and 12A15 and wrote down the information on a class observation sheet.
- Personal interviews for teachers were conducted to recommend some
strategies for teachers to enhance their students’ positive attitudes in learning
listening skill.
- Subsequently, from the survey questionnaires for students, class observation
and personal interviews with teachers, data collected were then synthesized and sorted.
- After that, the results were analyzed and transcribed into tables and pie charts.
- The findings were recapitulated and represented in Conclusion part.
2.5. Summary
In a word, the researcher gives an overall description of students in this
chapter, concerning their gender, fields of study and English competence to some
extent. Besides, the study context, including the school, the curriculum and the
textbook are also incorporated. Moreover, chapter 2 represents in details data
collection instruments and data analysis procedure.