Students' perception of effective English listening strategies, a survey at Dong Hu hight school, Thai Nguyen = Nhận thức của học sinh về chiến lược nghe tiếng

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


ĐÀM QUANG VINH


STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF EFFECTIVE ENGLISH LISTENING
STRATEGIES. A SURVEY AT DONG HY HIGH SCHOOL,
THAI NGUYEN

Nhận thức của học sinh về chiến lược nghe tiếng Anh hiệu quả. Một nghiên cứu tại
trường THPT Đồng Hỷ, Thái Nguyên


M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS


FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60140111






Ha Noi, 2014
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
*********************


ĐÀM QUANG VINH


STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF EFFECTIVE ENGLISH LISTENING
STRATEGIES. A SURVEY AT DONG HY HIGH SCHOOL,
THAI NGUYEN

Nhận thức của học sinh về chiến lược nghe tiếng Anh hiệu quả. Một nghiên cứu tại
trường THPT Đồng Hỷ, Thái Nguyên


M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS


FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60140111
SUPERVISOR: ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR VÕ ĐẠI QUANG, PhD.





Ha Noi, 2014

i

STATEMENT OF THESIS ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled
Effective English listening strategies for students at Dong Hy High school,
Thai Nguyen
submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MA in
English Linguistics.
Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used
without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.

Ha Noi, 2014


Đàm Quang Vinh

ii
ACKNOWLEDMENTS

This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a
number of people.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratetude to Assoc. Prof.
Dr. Võ Đại Quang , my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me
through the stages of the study, and whose stimulate ideas, expertise, and
suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic reseacher.
A special word of thanks goes to my teachers, lectures, and the staff at the
Department of Post-Graduate Studies at Ha Noi University.and many others,
without whose support and encouragement it would never have been possible for
me to have this thesis accomplished.
Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my colleagues and
students at Đồng Hỷ high school for the sacrifice they have devoted to the
fulfillment of this academic work.

iii
ABSTRACT

This study is aimed at improving listening skill for 10
th
form students at Dong
Hy high school (DHHS). The research is designed as a survey research to find out
what listening strategies the students think as effective to them. Data were collected
from questionaires and experimental lessons. The general information and the major
factors affecting listening process as well as the listening techniques of students
have been uncovered to serve as a basic background foundation assisting the
experimental lessons. In addition, the comparison of students in the experimental
and control experimental groups were examed to see the progress of students. At the

end of the paper, recommendations for further studies were proposed to facilate
achieving a deeper and more convincible result supporting for language learning
enhancement. Hopefully, the findings will be of some use to those who are in favor
of the topic and who intend to do for further research in this area.

iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

DHHS Dong Hy high school
Ls Listening skill
L1 First language
L2 Second language
SILL Strategy Inventory for Language Learning
ESL English as a second language
EFL English as a foreign language


v
LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS
TABLES
Table 1. Listening problems encountered by students at Dong Hy high school. 19
Table 2. Activities needed in the three stages of a listening lesson 22
Table 3. Students‟feeling after the listening lesson 26
CHARTS
Pie-chart 1: The students‟ experience of English learning 18
Pie-chart 2: The most difficult language skill in students‟ view 18
Pie- chart 3. Students‟ opinions of using pictures in the listening lesson 27
Pie-chart 4. Studens‟ opinions of the effectiveness of using pictures 28
Pie- chart 5 : Students‟ opinions about pair work and group work 28
Pie-chart 6 : Students‟ expectations in pair work and group work 29

vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Statement Of Thesis Originality i
Acknowledgements ii
Abstract iii
Lists of abbreviations iv
List of tables and charts v
Table Of Contents vi
Part A : INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale for the study 1
2. Aims and Objective of the research 2
3. Scope of the research 2

4. Significance of the research 2
5. Structural organization of the thesis 2
Part B: DEVELOPMENT 4
Chapter 1: Literature Review 4
1.1 Theoretical background 4
1.2. Previous studies related to the theme of this research 11
1.3. Summary 13
Chapter 2 : Methodology 14
2.1. Research – governing orientations 14
2.1.1. Research methods 14
2.1.2 Data Collecttion Instruments 15
2.1.3. Questionnaire 15
2. 2. Participants 15
2.2.1. The students 15
2.2.2. Data collection procedures 16
2.3. Questionnaire and test implementations 16
Chapter 3 : Findings & Discussions 18

vii
3.1. The students‟ experience of learning English. 18
3.1.1. Amount of time spent on English learning 18
3.1.2. The most difficult language skill in students‟ view 18
3.2. Findings 19
3.2.1. Listening problems encountered by students at Dong Hy high school. 19
3.2.2. Activities needed in the three stages of a listening lesson 21
3.2.3 Post–listening questionnaire 23
3.3. Findings obtained from the 1
st
experimental listening lesson 23
3.3.1 The participants 23

3.3.2 The procedures of the 1
st
experimental listening lesson ( See appendix 3) 24
3.3.3. Teacher‟s remarks on the lesson 24
3.4. Findings obtained from the 2
th
experimental listening lesson 25
3.4.1. The participants 25
3.4.2. Students‟ opinions about pair work and group work 28
3.4.3. Students‟ expectations in pair work and group work 29
3.5. Summary 30
3.6. Recommendations for teachers of English. 31
3.6.1. Recommendations for students 35
3.6.2 Summary 36
PART C : CONCLUSION 37
1. Recapitulations 37
2. Conclusions on each of the thesis objectives 37
2.1. What difficulties do the students report they are encoutered with while learning
listening skill? 37
2.2. What listening strategies do they think are effective to them? 38
2.3. Limitation and suggestion for futher study 38
REFERENCES 40
APPENDICES I
APPENDIX I: PRE-LISTENING QUESTIONNAIRE I

1
Part A : INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale for the study
It is undeniable that English has become the key to success for many people in

different fields since it is widely used as an international language. Therefore,
English learning holds an important position in the process of teaching and learning
foreign languages. It is clearly that English in general and listening in particular
play a vital role in our daily life because the need to communicate with foreigners is
increasingly rapidly. To keep up with the flow of world economic intergration, the
necesity of using English as a second language is emphasized globally. In Vietnam,
English has become the most popular foreign language and one of the compulsory
subjects in most high schools.
Having studied English for more than 7 years, my students are quite self-
confident in doing grammar exercises, they can deal with them with less difficulty.
However , their language skills are limited, listening skill seem to be the most
difficult and weakest among students‟s four language skills. The difficulties which
hinder students from developing their listening skill are various . Students in most
high schools have had listening practice in their classroom, but they have rarely
been taught or received guidance on how to listen to listening tasks effectively.
Students may find themselves bored with listening tasks. Therefore, listening skill
can easily be neglected in the language classroom while successful listening is
acquired over time and with lots of practice.
Being a teacher of English at Dong Hy high school, I am aware of the
teachers‟ important task in increasing students‟ knowledge of English, and
improving their listening skills because they have had neither much practice nor
experience in listening. Moreover, it is essential and urgent to help my students to
improve their listening ability. The wish to help the students to overcome the
obstacles in learning English encouraged the researcher to carry out this study.


2
2. Aims and Objective of the research
The purpose of this study is to find out what listening strategies the students
think as effective to them. The study is therefore designed to answer the following

questions:
1. What difficulties do the students report they are encoutered with while
learning listening skill?
2. What listening strategies do they think are effective to them?
3. Scope of the research
This research is confined to identifying of possible strategies and activities
considered to be effective for the improvement of different types of listening
This survey was conducted at Dong Hy High school on a number of selected
students in two classes 10a2 and 10a3 as members of the control and experimental
groups.
4. Significance of the research
The significance of this thesis mainly lies in the practical values it may bring about.
Readers of the thesis may benefit from the employable teaching strategies,
activities worked out via the research. With the insight gained via the thesis, both
teachers and students are, to the possible extent, better oriented towards the choice
and application of listening skill teaching techniques.
5. Structural organization of the thesis
The thesis is organized into three main parts:
Part A, Introduction, presents the rationale for the study, aims and objective
of the reseach, scope of the research, significance of the research and structural
organization of the thesis.
Part B, Development, which has the following three chapters
+ Chapter one is entitled Literature Review. This chapter provides a report
on the theoretical preliminaries as tools for the research and a review of previous
research related to the theme of the thesis.

3
+ Chapter Two is entitled Methodology. This chapter provides readers with a
detailed description of how the study has been carried out. This chapter is divided
into three sections. The first section describes the data collection instruments. The

second section describes the subjects. The third section presents the procedure of
the study.
+ Chapter three is Findings and Discussions. This chapter is divided into 4
sections. The first three sections present the preliminary results obtained via the
questionnaires, the interviews and the classroom observation. The last section
presents the discussion. In fact, this chapter provides the answer to the research
questions.
Part C is Conclusion. This part provides a recapitulation of the main points
raised in the thesis. Specific conclusions on each of the objectives are herein
provided. Limitations of the thesis and suggestions for future research are also
supplied in this part.
In addition to the three major parts mentioned above, at the end of the thesis
are the References and Appendices parts.








4
Part B: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1: Literature Review
This chapter briefly highlights exiting information related to listening in
second and foreign language, the use of aural authentic materials and the effect of
listening strategies. The terminological definitions and the findings of the previous
studies are also supplied.
1.1 Theoretical background
* Definition of listening comprehension

Listening, an important part of the second language learning process, has been
defined as an active process during which the listeners construct meaning from oral
input (Bentley and Bacon, 1996)
Listening, as defined by Underwood (1989), is “the activity of paying
attention to and trying to get meaning from something we hear”. Howatt & Dakin
(1974) also shares the same idea that “listening is the ability to identify and
understand what others saying”. The listening process is also described from an
information processing perspective as "an active process in which listeners select
and interpret information that comes from auditory and visual clues in order to
define what is going on and what the speakers are trying to express" (Thompson &
Rubin, 1996, p. 331).
Theoretically, listening comprehension is viewed as an active and conscious
process in which listeners construct meaning by using cues from contextual
information and from existing knowledge (Byrnes, 1984; Nagle & Sanders, 1986) to
“understand what others are saying” (Saricoban, 1999). Listeners also generate
information in their long-term memory and make their own interpretation of the oral
texts (Murphy, 1985; Mendelsohn, 1994). “It also involves bottom-up and top-
down processing of listening comprehension processes” (Tran Thi Thu Hang,
2007). Nunan (1997; Richards, 1994)‟s studies also showed that bottom up and top
down listening strategies are very important to help learners listen better


5
* Definition of listening strategies
Listening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the
comprehension and recall of listening input (Rubin, 1981).
Listening comprehension strategies are steps taken by learners to help them
acquire, store, retrieve, and/or use information (Young 1997, p.1).
Being communicatively competent in a language must, of course, include the
ability to comprehend oral input. Consequently, second language listeners need to

actively choose, use, and continually evaluate the effectiveness of their listening
strategies in order to successfully construct meaning from second language oral input.
* Types of listening strategies
Nunan (1999) suggested that until now two views of listening have dominated
language pedagogy over the last twenty years. These are the „bottom up‟ processing
view and the „top down‟ interpretation view.
The bottom-up model assumes that listening is a process of decoding the
sounds that one hears in a linear fashion, from the smallest meaningful units (or
phonemes) to complete texts. It means that phonetic units are decoded and linked
together to form words, words are linked together to form phrases, phrases are
linked together to form utterances, and utterances are linked together to form
complete meaningful texts.
The top-down view suggests that the listener actively constructs (or more
accurately, reconstructs) the original meaning of the speaker using incoming sounds
as clues. In this reconstruction process, the listener uses prior knowledge of the
context and situation within which the listening takes place to make sense of what
he or she hears.
Listening strategies, therefore, can be classified into two categories: top-down
strategies and bottom-up strategies (Hedge, 2000; Richards (1990)). And according
to Peterson (1991), it is essential for poor and good listeners to learn to use both
top-down processing and bottom-up processing effectively.

6
O‟Malley & Chamot (1990) divides language listening strategies into four
categories: management strategies, cognitive strategies, social strategies and
affective strategies. Each category can be further divided into several smaller ones:
functional planning, advanced organizers, selective attention, self-monitoring, self-
evaluating, classification, inference, note-taking, elaboration, cooperation,
questioning for, clarification, self-talk and positive attitude development.
Oxford (1990) provides the classification of direct and indirect language

learning strategies, which can be used in four language skills: listening, reading,
speaking and writing. It means that listening skills are also classified into direct and
indirect strategies with memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective
and social strategies
* Three stages of listening session
+ Pre – listening.
In order to help learners get most from a listening lesson , a lesson plan of
listening is usually divided in to three stages :The first stage which is called “pre-
listening” means activities learners do before listening, The second stage that is
called “while- listening” means exercises and activeties are done by learners when
the discourse is played, and the third stage called “post- listening” means things
learners do after listening.
In teaching real- life listening, methodologists have taken expectation and
purposes of listeners in to account. These makes listeners feel as in real- life
listening situation in their native language. The teacher can effectively help their
students to arouse their expectation and see the purpose before a listening lesson.
Therefore, in pre-listening “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” (Ur, 1992, p.4)
There has been a definition of pre-listening stage as follows: “Before listening,
students should be “turn in” so that they know what to expect, both in general and

7
particular tasks. This kind of preparatory work is generally described as “Pre-
listening” work or just “Pre- listening” (Underwood, 1990, p.30)
According to Underwood (1990), pre- listening work can consist of a whole
range of activities, including: the teacher giving background information, the
students reading something relevant, the students looking at pictures, discussion of
the topic/ situation, a question and answer session, written exercises, following the
instructions for the while-listening activity and consideration of how the while-

listening will be done.
These activities may provide an opportunity for students to gain some
knoledge which help them to follow the listening text. Moreover, each of these
activities help students focus their mind on the topic by narrowing down the things
that students expect to hear. However, the teacher when choosing an activity should
consider the factors which Underwood (1990) mentions: the time, the material is
available or not, the interets of the class and the teacher, the place in which the work
is being carried out, the nature and the content of the listening text itself. If one of
these forgotten, the whole process of activity can be failed. She especially
emphesizes on the importance of the nature of the listening text, because each
listening text itself has an especially appropriate type of activities. When the teacher
pays attention to this factor properly, the activity chosen for students will be more
specific and effective.
Listening is an essential competence in language teaching and learning. On
account of the features of listening teaching and the role of pre-listening stage, it is
vital to design and arrange appropriate pre-listening activities in a listening lesson.
A well-planned pre-listening activity could prepare the students to deal with the
listening text smoothly. It is also helpful to build up students‟ confidence and
motivate them to listen. During the pre-listening process, teachers can take the
opportunity to introduce world knowledge and related language knowledge related
to the text. Moreover, it devotes to fulfill the whole process of a listening lesson in
making the work more effective and efficient. However, even though pre-listening

8
plays a significant role in the whole listening process, it does not mean that it needs
to occupy too much time in the classroom teaching. The length of pre-listening part
could be flexible in different circumstance.
+ While-listening
The while- listening stage consists of activities that students are asked to do.
The purpose of while listening activities is to help students develop their skill of

listening to the spoken language. Rixon (1986) points out the purposes of while-
listening stage is to challenge and guide students to handle the information and the
message from the listening text. Activities of this stages must be interesting and
carefully chosen. They must vary at different level and in different cases.
At the early stage, students need to learn how the language sounds, how to
distingguish of be aware of the relationship between written words and their spoken
forms. As students listen, they usually apply the skills, the same uses in listening in
their mother-tongue, predict what they wil hear and try to match them with the
things they actually hear. Therefore, in teaching listening, the teacher should try to
give practice in interpreting, matching and predicting to help students fulfill their
listening task less complicatedly.
The topic and the content of the listening text plus the students‟interest decide the
success of the while-listening activities. Students may get bored if they have to do the
same kind of work over and over again. Thus, for each purpose and on different
occasions, various activities are needed. Moreover, it is advisable to have activities
which are locally relevant, of the common interest and not too long or laborious.
Approriacy is considered a characteristic of while-listening activities.
Activities of this stage should be suitable with students‟ability. This means that
while-listening activities can be done by most students, from the low students to the
best ones. Because failure can quickly discourage students to listen. In the early
stage, activities which are tricky should be used sparingly, but sometimes it is
necessary to give students some challenges.

9
Besides, according to Underwood (1990) teachers should consider some other
points when selecting while-listening activities such as: the possibilities for varying
the level of dificulty if required, the inconvenience of carying out the activities
which require individuals to give their response orally in the classroom, whether the
work is to be done by students with the teacher‟s presentation or whether it is to be
done as private study either in a listening center or at home and whether of not the

while-listening activities generate material or ideas which might be used for others.
+ Post-listening
Post- listening activities in this stages are done after the listening is completed.
Some post-listening activities are extentions of the work done at the pre-listening and
while-listening stage and some relate only loosely to the listening text itself.
According to Underwood (1990), the first purpose of post-listening activities
is to check how well the students understood and whether they have completed the
listening task. The teacher may give an answer orally, showing the answer on the
board or on the over – head projector or ask students to check again the answers in
the book. Students can work in pairs to check each other‟s answers or work in
groups to discuss any problems related to the listening text. The second purpose of
post-listening work is to reflect on why some students have failed to understand or
miss parts of the passage.
Another purpose of post listening activities is to expand on the topic or the
language of the listening text. Students are asked to deal with activities which are
now more or less general language learning activities. Sometimes, this does not
mean that they should not be done, but it should be recognized they do not give
practice in listening skills, although the additional language learning can well
enable students to listen more successfully in the future.
The fourth purpose is to give students opportunities to consider the manner and
attidute of the speaker in the listening text. This is also important because the
listeners can see the aims of the speaker(s) basing on his / her attidute.

10
Additionally, the general factors listed in pre-listening and while-listening,
Underwood (1989) indicates that the attention should be given to the following
factors in selecting post-listening activities: how much language work you wish to
do in relation the particular listening text ; whether there will be time to do much
post-listening work at the end of the listening lesson; whether the post-listening
work should consist of speaking, reading or writing; whether the post-listening

stage is seen as an opportunity for pair or group work; whether it is necessary to
provide post-listening activities which can be done outside the classroom; how
motivating the chosen activity will be and whether it may be more motivating.
As can be seen that the learning language programme consists four skills:
listening, reading, speaking and writing. In fact, speaking, writing, and reading can
arise from listening, especially from post-listening work. The order and
organization of a language lesson are usually not decide by the teacher. However,
the teacher can give the students listening experience at the same time intergrating
these in to other language skill work. For instance , the students listen and respond
in writing , the teacher ask students to answer orally. Therefore , listening exercises
always involve in the rest three skills.
* The relation among the three stages of a listening lesson
The three stages of a listening lesson are closely connected with one another,
sometimes there is no clear distinct lines between the two continuous stages,
especially between pre-listening and while-listening stage, Ur (1989) confirms
many pre-listening are part of a continuum of activity which flows naturally in to
the while-listening stage. The purpose of while-listening activities is developing
learners‟ skills of realizing the massage from the spoken passage. The while-
listening should not be isolated from pre-listening phase for the activities in this
phase depend much on the previously held knowledge and this can be done or
recalled in pre-listening stage.
The post-listening stage embraces all the work done in the two previous
stages. The purposes of this stage in Underwood (1989) include checking learners‟
understanding , finding the reasons that made the learner fail to understand or miss

11
the parts of the listening text, giving learners an opportunity to consider the attitude
and manner of the speaker. In this stage, learner together with the teacher evaluate
the knowledge and experience got through the lesson. Post-listening and pre-
listening stages can consist of reading, writing, speaking or all three. In other words,

other languge skills can arise from listening , especially in pre and post-listening
work. This characteristic will provide opportunities for listening to be intergrated
with the other part of the learners‟ work.
* Language learning strategies that are useful for listening
A variety of language learning strategies have been found to be beneficial to
all language skills or to one particular skill such as reading or writing (Oxord,
1990). Among them a large group is believed to be useful for the cause of L1 and
L2 listening development. They fall into a number of strategy groups i.e memory,
cognitive, compensation, metacognitve, affective and social.
Representing sounds in memory, for example, helps learners to store what they
hear in their mind better by “making auditory rather than visual representations of
sounds” (Oxford, 1990, p. 63). This requires associating new lexical iems with
familiar words or sounds from any language. Another example of listening supportive
strategies is formally practicing with sounds and writing systems. In studies into
language strategies aimed at developing one or more macro-skills. Strategy Inventory
for Language Learning (SILL) is often employed (Oxford, 1990).
1.2. Previous studies related to the theme of this research
There have been quite a few studies focusing on the types of listening
strategies that learners use (O‟Malley, Chamot, & Kupper, 1989; O‟Malley et al.,
1985; Thompson & Rubin, 1996; Vandergrift, 1996, 1997a, 1997b, 1998, 2003;
Wu, 2003a) and the way in which they use them (Bacon, 1992a, 1992b, 1992c;
O‟Malley et al., 1985; Rubin, 1994;).
Vandergrift (1997a) provides a very useful and thorough chart of these
listening strategies and their definitions, categorized according to O‟Malley and
Chamot‟s model (1990) of metacognitive, cognitive, and socio affective strategies.

12
Rubin (1994) classifies the strategies and shows the types of listening
strategies used by comparing the strategies that are acquired at different levels, the
use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies, the relation of the strategy use to text,

task, and setting, etc. the author considers the types and application of listening and
the relationship to other learning factors.
Murphy (1985, 1987) also identified the types of strategies used and contrast
strategy usage at different proficiency levels. Murphy (1985) found out 17 specific
strategies college students used by analyzing their oral and written responses to
listening selections. Although the students were at different levels, they still
distinguished the frequency of listening strategies they used. The better listeners
tend to use the strategies of elaborating, inferencing, anticipating, conclusion
drawing, self-description, etc., more frequently than less-proficient learners.
Murphy (1985) also explored the sequential patterns of the strategies that both more
proficient listeners and less proficient listeners followed. He concluded that more
proficient listeners tended to apply “wide distribution” strategies (i.e., in relation to
an open and flexible use of strategies) while less proficient listeners were found in
use of “text heavy” strategies (i.e., in relation to reliance on the text and
paraphrasing).
Bacon (1992a, 1992b, 1992c) implemented a series of studies in foreign
language listening. He also found out the effect of different factors on listening
comprehension processes. He pointed out that there are remarkable differences on
usage of listening strategy, confidence, and affective response between male and
female listeners. The significant differences between effective and less effective
listeners in both their level of comprehension and learning were revealed (1992b).
He confirmed that authentic input for listening is necessary (1992c).
Goh (2002) covered himself with the mental tactics or specific techniques
through which a general strategy is operationalzed. Chinese learners of ESL in
Singapore were the subjects of the study. He found out that, learners related new

13
information to a wider familiar context by using tactics such as placing input in a
social or linguistic context, finding related information on hearing a key word, or
relating one part of text to another in order to operate the contextualization strategy.

They might use tactics such as identifying words or ideas not understood, checking
current interpretation within the context of the message or prior knowledge, or
confirming that comprehension has taken place to use monitoring strategy.
Tang (2006) investigated the use of listening strategies among Non-English
Major postgraduate students. She used questionnaire based on Oxford‟s SILL, Su
Lianyun‟s Questionnaire and the theoretical framework of the study to collect data.
She found out that the cognitive strategies were the most common used strategies
whereas social and management strategies were the least used strategies. Affective
strategy usage in the study showed the learners‟ positive attitude toward English.
She suggested that strategy instruction studies need to focus on management and
social strategies.
1.3. Summary
This chapter has presented some major issues in terms of LLSs, LSs. In the
first section of this chapter, definitions and classification systems of LLSs proposed
by different researchers have been described and analyzed with critical eyes to see
both their strength and weakness. However, the definition and classification
proposed by Oxford (1990) have been chosen as the basis for the purpose of this
present study. Regarding the listening comprehension and listening strategies,
definition and classification of LSs have been discussed.

14
Chapter 2 : Methodology

2.1. Research – governing orientations
As mentioned in the Introduction, this thesis seeks answers to these two
research questions:
1. What difficulties do the students report they are encoutered with while
learning listening skill?
2. What listening strategies do they think are effective to them?
In this research , thirty students in class 10a2 were involved in an

experimental lasting six weeks. For comparison, thirty other students in class 10a3
were also selected to take part in a control experimental group. Each week students
in the experimental group were in exposure to two listening practices. The practices
were designed with four kinds of activity: True / false exercies, pictures matching,
gaps filling and answering questions. The main purpose of the application was to
practice and enhance listening ability for 10
th
grade students. Students had a chance
to be familiar with the English sounds during the course and guided thoroughly by
the teacher. The researcher not only provided them with helpful strategies for
effective listening but also pointed out the common mistakes that the majority of
learners encountered in each lesson. Likewise, in order to ensure the effectiveness
of the application, after each lesson the participants were often asked for opinions
about if the contents, speeds, vocabularies, structures were appropriate, attractive if
they should be adjusted.

2.1.1. Research methods
This thesis has been designed mainly as a servey research . Two survey
questionaires are conducted to collect the data for the study. The first question, pre-
listening questionaire , deals with students‟ difficulties and the activities which
students desire to do in the three stages of a listening lesson. The second one is post-
listening questionaire, collected from the two experimental lessons in which the
techniques used by the teacher can be evaluated by students themselves.

15
2.1.2 Data Collecttion Instruments
In conducting the research, the questionnaires is main instruments employed
to collect needed data. The combination of the two instruments ensures careful
insight in to the object under study because the two techniques can be supportive for
each other.

2.1.3. Questionnaire
Questionnaire is one of the most useful and efficient instruments to gather
large scale information ( Brown, 1995 ). Firstly, it is comparatively popular since it
allows the researcher to collect statistics in field setting and the data themselves are
more crediable and easy to analyze than discursive data like free-form field notes,
the transcripts of oral language ( Nunan, 1992, p.143 ). Secodly, questionaire is
efficient because it can be delivered simultaneously to numerous respondents in a
field setting and requires only one administrator. Futhermore, written questionnaire is
often designed carefully with precise content before publishing so the statistics is
relatively concise ( Brown, 1995 ). Because of these advantages, questionnaire is
preferred as one of the major techniques in data collection in order to fulfil the research.
In this research, two questionnaires were designed for 10
th
grade students to
collect data for the study. They are pre-listening questionnaire and post-listening
questionnaire. After the respondent submitted their responses to the pre-listening
questionnaire, students will be invited to join the experimental lessons. After the
experimental lessons, the same groups of respondents would respond to the post –
activity questionaire including 5 questions for evaluative information concerning the
techniques used by the teacher. Data gathering from responses of the students in the two
questionnaires was sorted and analyzed statistically to fulfil the aims of the reasearch.
2. 2. Participants
2.2.1. The students
For the student survey, 2 questionnaires (Appendices 1 & 2) were delivered to
40 students of grade 10A2 at Dong Hy High school with the help of the researcher.

16
These students have studied English at their secondary and high schools for over 7
years, but they have not focused much on listening because they do not have good
English environment and listening test in the exams. Therefore, their listening skill

is not very good and sometimes they are bored with listening lessons in class. This
population was chosen randomly among 14 classes at my school.
2.2.2. Data collection procedures
This section demonstrates the main steps of data collection. All the necessary
data were gathered from March to May, during the second term , of 2014, in class
10a2 and 10a3 at Dong Hy high school.
2.3. Questionnaire and test implementations
In the first step, the pre–listening questionnaire was conducted. Before asking
students to fill out the questionnaire, to gain the credible responses, a short but clear
introduction about the researcher and the aims of the research topic was given to all the
respondents. All of the respondents were carefully instructed to complete the
information in the questionnaire. Futhermore, students were encouraged to ask
questions if anything was vague. It took students about 20 minutes to complete the pre-
listening questionnaire. In fact, the number of handouts given was 40 and the responses
received was 38. Among the 38 responses, all the questions were fully addressed.
The second step of data collection procedure was the first experimental lesson.
The lesson lasted 45 minutes. From the results of the lesson, a comparison of
understanding between the two groups: experimental and control groups to know
their general level.
The third stage was the second experimental lesson, held in week 4 of the
experiment. The results of the lesson was utilized to analyze whether there was any
change or improvement between the experimental and control groups.
The final, but equally important, was the post-listening questionnaire. It was
distributed to thirty students of the experimental group after the experimental