Note-taking strategies employed by Level 3 students at International School, Vietnam National University, Hanoi while listening to the book -Lecture Ready 2

„Note-taking strategies employed by Level 3
students at International School, Vietnam
National University, Hanoi while listening to
the book “Lecture Ready 2”


Nguyễn Thị Thu Huyền

University of Languages and International Studies
M.A Thesis: English teaching methodolody, Code: 60 14 10
Supervisor : M.A. Vu Thi Thanh Binh
Year of graduation: 2011

Abstract: This paper reports on note-taking strategies employed by Level 3
students (N=50) at International School, Vietnam National University,
Hanoi while listening to the book „Lecture Ready 2‟. The purpose of this
study was threefold: To indicate whether all the participants take notes
while listening to the book „Lecture Ready 2‟, and if not what the reasons
are; To explore the strategies of note-taking used by Level 3 students at
International School; To find out whether there are differences in listening
proficiency, experience and knowledge of note-taking between note-takers
and non-note-takers or not. A note-taking strategy questionnaire was used
for data collection. Statistical analysis revealed that not all participants take
notes when listening to the book „Lecture Ready 2‟ and there are more non
note-takers than note-takers. All of the strategies given in the questionnaire
were used by students who take notes, but the frequency in the use of each
strategy and the numbers of strategies used by individual note-taker vary.
There is no difference in listening score between note-takers and non note-
takers, yet it is not the same in the previous experience in and knowledge of
note-taking between two groups. Suggestions should be that students need
introducing, guiding and encouraging more so that they can make their best

notes.

Keywords: Kỹ năng nghe; Kỹ năng ghi chép; Tiếng Anh

Content
The thesis contains 3 main parts. Part 1 “Introduction” introduces the rationale and
the aims of the study. The scope of the study and the significance as well as the design of
the thesis will also be presented in this chapter.

Listening to an English lecture has long been a difficult task to Vietnamese university
students who hardly had any chances to practice listening skills at lower- level schools.
Note-taking has long been considered an integral part of effective listening. Note-taking
while listening is considered one of the most important skills which language learners
should master, particularly as it helps to develop a sense of listening, allowing the reader
to recognize main ideas and to understand the organization of the material. Note-taking is
believed to be an important part of all of our learning interactions, from the most
traditional, structured experiences to highly informal, unstructured situations.‟ This is
extremely significant for Vietnamese learners who have been studying English listening
skills traditionally in non - native environment, and have just started to learn listening in
communicative way.

But acquiring and mastering note-taking is likely to become a big hindrance to many
learners while they often find it difficult to exploit this skill in their learning experience.
It is especially true for General English students at International School, Vietnam
National University, Hanoi, whose English level are not very high. There are many
reasons behind this phenomenon. Students can be neither paying attention, nor write
quickly enough. It can be due to the fact that their spelling is not good enough or they
cannot understand the teachers. Sometimes, the lectures are in a too high level for their
capabilities. However, the most common reason may be students‟ shortage of note-taking
strategies to use flexibly in listening to different lectures.

Therefore, the question of how to equip students with note-taking strategies so that they
can use the skill to support foreign language listening in any situation has become a
matter of teachers of English in general and teachers of English at International School in
particular.
In Vietnam, there has so far been some research on note-taking strategies. However,
research on note-taking strategies employed by students at International School, VNU has
not been done yet.

As a teacher of English, I have dealt with many questions relating to note-taking which
are raised by my students or among my colleagues. For example, what are the effective
ways of taking notes? How to note down important information? Personally I found it
necessary to provide to them successful note-taking strategies to listen to the lecture. This
is the major reason why this topic interests me.

The objectives of the study are as follows:
- To indicate whether all the participants take notes while listening to the book „Lecture
Ready 2‟, and if not what the reasons are.
- To explore the strategies of note-taking used by Level 3 students at International
School.
- To find out whether there are differences in listening proficiency, experience and
knowledge of note-taking between note-takers and non-note-takers or not.

The study is concerned with finding the students‟ note-taking strategies in listening to the
book “Lecture Ready 2”.

As note-taking strategies pointed out by individuals, institutions, and scholars are of a
variety, the present study only focuses on those which are considered to be popular and
the most easily-used by International School students.

This study plays an important role in the identification of note-taking comprehension
strategies employed by Level 3 students at International School. Also, non-note-takers‟
reasons for not taking notes are identified. Based on the findings, the study will have
many important implications for training Level 3 students of English at International
School in taking notes.

In order to achieve the aims of the study mentioned above, the descriptive method is the
main tool for analyzing the data, which is collected from the questionnaire.
After the data is analyzed and discussed, the findings will be showed and some
conclusions will be drawn and some suggestions will be raised in the thesis.

The second part is development. This part consists of four chapters. Chapter 1 deals with
a theoretical background. It starts with listening in general including definitions, types
and techniques. “Listening comprehension is not a skill which can be mastered once and
for all and than ignored while other skills are developed. There must be regular practice
with increasingly difficult materials” (Wilga, 1986, p.157). There are many different
types of listening. We can classify these according to a number of variables, including
listening purposes, the role of the listener and the types of text being listened to.
However, ther are two main types: Real-life listening and Classroom listening, the later
itself includes two main types: Intensive listening and Extensive listening.

As for Listening techniques, Southern Nazarene University (1999) introduced effective
listening techniques, which are regarded as top five ways to listen to a lecture. They
clarified their points by making comparison between poor listeners and effective
listeners.

The first and foremost technique is to choose to find the subject useful. They explained
that poor listeners dismiss most lectures as dull and irrelevant. Meanwhile, effective
listeners choose to listen to discover new knowledge.
Their second advice is to concentrate on the words and message, not on the professor's

looks, clothes or delivery. In their opinion, poor listeners notice faults in a lecturer's
appearance or delivery, but effective listeners strive to pick every professor's brain for
self-gain.

Thirdly, the University stated that when students hear something they are not sure to
agree with, they should react slowly and thoughtfully. They gave explanation that in such
situation, poor listeners stop listening to the speaker and start listening to themselves.
They either passively reject what is being said or launch into impassioned rebuttals (to
themselves). However, in such case, effective listeners do not jump to conclusions and
then disengage. Instead, they keep conclusions tentative while getting more information.
The fourth advice is to identify the "big ideas," those fundamental concepts to which
everything else in the lecture is related. The university pointed out that poor listeners
listen only for facts only. They may retain a few of those facts, but the information is
usually garbled. Whereas, effective listeners look for foundational concepts; they grab
key ideas and use them as anchor points for the entire lecture.
Last but not least, in order to listen effectively, students have to adjust their note taking
system to the lecturer's pattern. According to Southern Nazarene University, some poor
listeners attempt to outline everything, believing an outline and notes are the same thing.
They get frustrated when they cannot see the main points. Meanwhile, effective listeners
adjust their note-taking to the organizational pattern used by the lecturer.
The next issue in this chpater is note-taking and its importance in language teaching, then
an overview of some note-taking methods - their advantages and disadvantages in
applying in the classroom. According to Dunkel (1985), notetaking during the lectures is
the „instinctive, even ritualistic reaction of college students to a lecture presentation‟. It is
the action which “summarizes what said”. Thus, each individual with his own experience
and knowledge can make notes in any way that he likes. From Wikipedia, note taking is
defined as „the practice of recording information captured from a transient source, such as
an oral discussion at a meeting, or a lecture.‟ Castallo (1976) defined notetaking as a "two
step process in which the student must listen for the important information and then write
it in some organized way."

Obviously, note-taking is defined in different words but the main goals of it are
remembering and recording, and note-taking basically is: analytical, organisational and
creative.
Notetaking is important because it improves the listening ability by increasing the
listener's attentiveness and prevents sidetracking. Notetaking also increases the listener's
chances of reviewing what he has heard, therefore remedying weaknesses in listening. In
addition, notetaking improves the learner's ability to learn from the spoken word as well
as improves memory of what is heard.
Six methods of taking notes were introduced in this chapter. First, The Cornell Method is
one of the most favorite methods which are widely used in classroom. The Cornell
Method provides a systematic format for condensing and organizing notes without
laborious recopying. After writing the notes in the main space, use the left- hand space to
label each idea and detail with a key word or „cue‟. Second, in The Outlining Method
dashed or intended outlining is used best except some science classes. No numbers,
letters, or Roman numerals are intended in this method.
Note-takers who follow this method have to listen, think, and then write in points in an
organized pattern based on space indentation. They put major points farthest to the left of
the paper; indent each more specific point to the right. Level of importance will be
indicated by distance away from the major points. The relationships between the different
parts are come out through indenting.

Mapping method is the method that maximizes active participation, affords in mediate
knowledge as to its understanding and emphasizes critical thinking.

Note-takers have to use comprehension skills to create note taking form which relates
each fact or idea to every other fact or idea. Mapping is the graphic representation of the
content of a lecture.

This method is of great use when the lecture content is heavy and well- organized.

In the Sentence method, the note-taker writes every new thought, fact or topic on a
separate line, numbering as you make progress.

If the lecture format is distinct (such as chronological), note-takers may set up their paper
by drawing columns and labeling appropriate headings in a table-this is Charting Method.
The last method is PARR Method. This method is quite difficult from the four above-
mentioned as it is recently been studied. This method involves four steps: Prepare-
Abbreviation – Revise and Review – students can remember the word PARR as the
redolence of the method‟s name.

The last thing mentioned in the chapter is the previous studies on note-taking strategies
and training.

In chapter two “Methodology‟, an overview of note-taking definition and
importance, methods of note-taking, and a theoretical framework for the investigation
were presented.
This chapter will present the issues of methodology used in this study. It begins with the
research
questions. It then describes the participants and settings of the study, instruments data
collection, and
analytic procedures.

The aim of the present study is to investigate the note-taking strategies employed
by level 3
students at International School. The study tried to answer the following questions:
♦ Do Level 3 students at International school take notes while listening to the book
„Lecture Ready 2‟? If not, what are the reasons?
♦ What are note-taking strategies employed by Level 3 students at International
School?
♦ Are there any differences in listening proficiency, experience and knowledge of

note-taking between note-takers and non-note-takers?

A total of 50 students from four Level 3 classes at International School participated in the
study. Twenty eight were female and twenty two were male. The age of the students was
from 18 to 19. They come from different places of the country and their overall English
proficiency was roughly at the level of intermediate. The participants have been studying
English at International School for 8 months, during this time they have been studying
four separated skills: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. When they were at level
2, “Lecture Ready 1”- the only note-taking oriented book in the syllabus is optional for
them. Their note-taking skills will be tested at the end of level 4.

In order to collect data for the study, survey questionnaire was chosen because it is a
simple and familiar instrument of collecting information from the students and is less
time-consuming than other instruments.

The questionnaire was aimed at measuring the frequency of note-taking strategies used. It
consists of two sections: the first section includes the questions to gain personal
information about the participants and their general knowledge of note-taking; the second
section includes the questions about the strategies that participants may have used when
they listen to the book „Lecture Ready 2‟. It contained 16 items.
Before letting students do the survey questionnaires, the researcher asked the participants
to take quick notes of a lecture in a different book („Real Listening and speaking 3‟ by
Mile Craven). Their notes were collected to serve the purpose of the questionnaire
design. Although all the participants took notes, only some of them have good notes in
which Outline Method, Sentence Method and PARR method are used.

The data gathered through the questionnaire were coded for statistical analysis to
investigate which note-taking strategies are used and how popular each strategy is to the
level 3 students at International School. The questions in the questionnaire will be
analyzed one by one following their position in the questionnaire section by counting its

percentage (Question 1,2,3,4) or number (Question 6,7).

This chapter 3 “Methodology”reports the results from the analysis of 50 students‟
responses from questionnaires. The results will be presented on four main parts as follow:
3.1. Numbers of note-takers and the reasons for not taking notes, 3.2. Students‟ personal
information and note-taking knowledge, 3.3. Note-taking strategies employed by
students, 3.4. Difference in listening proficiency, experience and knowledge of note-
taking between note-taker and non-notetakers
The last chapter in this part is “Analysis and discussion”. Particular emphasis is
given to the discussion of the overall note-taking strategies used by students in this
chapter. The differences in listening proficiency as well as note-taking experience and
knowledge between note-takers and non note-takers are also analyzed and discussed. The
reasons for not taking notes are given discussion and analysis as well.
The third main part of the thesis is “Conclusion”. This part summaries the findings
of the study and give some implication.

The study indicates that there are not only note-takers but also non-note-takers when
participants listen to the book „Lecture Ready 2‟. The number of students who do not take
notes exceeds that of students who perform note-taking. From this finding, it is concluded
that note-taking skill in Listening classroom at International School is not very familiar to
Level 3 students at International School.

This study also generated interesting findings about learners‟ reasons for not taking notes.
Among the given reasons, the most common one is not having the habit of taking notes,
and the least common one is „don‟t like taking notes.‟ Based on this finding, it is
suggested that note-taking cannot become a habit of Level 3 students due to their lack of
practice. The easiest way to make up for it is the teacher‟s encouragement for students.
As it is not because students don‟t like taking notes, that teachers encourage students and
create opportunity for note taking to be used in class can better the current situation.

The findings of the study illustrate that all the strategies introduced in the questionnaire
are used by the note-takers. Nevertheless, there is a difference in the frequency of each
strategy used and the number of strategies employed by each student. The most preferred
note-taking strategy is to decide what is important whereas leaving the wide margin when
taking notes and using ink not pencil are the strategies in the least frequency of use.
Thirteen is the highest number of strategies used by a participant, but there is one student
who can employ two note-taking strategies only. As most of the given strategies taken
from “Lecture Ready 2” and the others are highly appreciated for Intermediate level, the
combination as well as the flexible application of them in different listening lecture is
very important. Therefore, the more strategies student can use, the better listening results
they can achieve.

The findings of the study also supported the researcher‟s assumption that there are
differences in note-takers and non note-takers previous experience and knowledge of
note-taking. In general, the note-taker group has better understanding of note-taking than
the non note-taker one. Furthermore, there are more note-takers were taught to take notes
before then non-note-takers., which imply that if students have been taught to note down,
there is a likelihood that they will do so in the future.

Contrary to what the researcher assumed, the listening proficiency of note-takers and that
of non note-taker group are the same. This is because at level 3, students are not tested to
use note-taking skill in the final examination. Whether or not students know how to take
notes and use note-taking, their listening scores at this level, thus, have no prominent
difference. In spite of that, at level 4, note-taking is a vital skill for students at
International School to pass the IELTS oriented final test. Therefore, it is necessary for
the test designer at this level to add note-taking as a skill to be checked to prepare for
Level 4 examinations.

It is important for curriculum writer, test designers, teachers and students alike to
acknowledge that a balanced and integrated approach to note-taking is important

particularly for foreign language learners at International School. Pedagogically, it is
important and feasible that teachers play a more active role in students‟ note-taking
practicing by providing learners with systematic note taking instructions, offering
contextualized learning opportunities, helping students learn specific strategies for taking
notes. The ultimate purpose is to encourage learner autonomy so that students can employ
note-taking wisely both inside and outside of the class for more productive outcomes.
This part also points out the Limitations and suggestions for further study
This was an exploratory study that only caught a glimpse of the present status of note-
taking strategies employed by Level 3 International School students. A larger sample
with more diverse backgrounds would be desirable in order to yield more generalizable
findings. Furthermore, the data for the study were based on the self reports of the
participants. Therefore, further studies are needed using other instruments such as oral
interview and so on. Such multiple sources would provide more insights into what
learners actually do. Hopefully, this will lead to more thorough investigations in the field.


References
1. Anderson, A. & Lynch, T. (1988), Listening, Oxford University Press.
2. Boon, O. (1989), "Notetaking for hearing and hearing impaired students", Journal of
Reading, pp. 523-536
3. Buck, G. (2001), Assessing Listening, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
4. Carrier, C. & Titus, A. (1981). “Effects of notetaking pretraining and test mode
expectations on learning from lecture”, American Educational Research Journal, 18 (4),
pp. 385-397.
5. Castallo, R. (1976), "Listening Guide - A First step towards notetaking and listening
stills", Journal of Reading, (19), pp.289-290.
6. Dunkel, P. (1985), "Listening and Notetaking; What Is the Effect of Pretraining in
Notetaking?", TESOL Newsletter, pp. 30-31.
7. Dunkel, P. and S. Davy (1989), "The Heuristic of Lecture Notetaking: Perceptions of
American and International Students Regarding the Value and Practice of Notetaking",

English for Specific Purposes, 8, pp. 33-50.
8. Harmer, J. (2001), The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman.
9. O‟Malley, J.M, Chamot, A.U & Kupper, L. (1989) Listening Comprehension strategies
in Second Language acquisition, Applied Linguistics, 10 (4).
10. Ornstein, A.C. (1994), “Homework, studying, and notetaking: Essential skills for
students”, NASSP Bulletin, 78 (558), pp. 58-70.
11. Otto, S. A. (1979),"Listening for Note-taking in EST", TESOL Quarterly, pp. 319-
328.
12. Palmatier, R.A. (1971), “Comparison of four note-taking procedures”, Journal of
Reading, 14 (4), pp. 235-240.
13. Rost, M. (1990), Listening in Language Learning, Longman, London.
14. Spires, H.A. & Stone P. D. (1989), “The directed notetaking activity: A self-
questioning approach”, Journal of Reading, 33 (1), pp. 36-39.
15. Ur, P. (1984), Teaching Listening Comprehension, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.
16. Southern Nazarene University (1999) “The Professor in the Classroom," The master
teacher
17. Wilga, R. (1986), Teaching Foreign Language Skill, The University of Chicago Press.