chuyên đề effective techniques to motivate students to listen to english

TABLE OF CONTENTS
A. Introduction ………………………………………………………………..
I. Rationale ……………………………………………………………………
II. Purpose of the Study ………………………………………………………
B. Development ……………………………………………………………….
I. Reasons for motivating students in listening lessons ……………………….
1. Students’ anxiety in listening lessons ………………………………………
2. Motivation ………………………………………………………………….
2.1. The importance of students’ motivation ………………………………….
2.2. Classification of motivation ……………………………………………...
II. Techniques to motivate students to listen to English ………………………
1. Making listening more engaging for students ……………………………...
2. Helping students understand spoken English ………………………………
3. Making predictions …………………………………………………………
4. Building up an unconstrained atmosphere …………………………………
III. Suggestions for adapting listening activities in the textbook of English
10-Advanced ………………………………………………………………….
1. Unit 2: People’s background ……………………………………………….
2. Unit 6: School outdoor activities …………………………………………..
3. Unit 7: The Mass Media ……………………………………………………
4. Unit 10: Conservation ……………………………………………………...
5. Unit 13: Theatre and movies ……………………………………………….
C. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………
References …………………………………………………………………….

2
2
2
3
3
3

4
4
5
8
8
9
9
10
11
11
14
15
15
17
18
19

A. INTRODUCTION
I. Rationale
Listening is one of the four main skills of a language, thus mastering the listening
skill is of great importance in the process of teaching and learning a foreign language
in general and in teaching and learning English in particular.
However, to the majority of students, listening is a difficult aspect. Many of my
students expressed their negative attitude toward listening when being asked about
their opinions of listening lessons and the listening skill. Some students said they did
not care much about listening, because there is no listening in University Entrance
Examination. Some others frequently feel nervous in listening classes because they
1

forget what they have heard while their friends claim that they often fall asleep in
listening class because they cannot completely comprehend. Yet a good sign can be
observed from a small group who like listening because they do not have to think as
much as in writing or speaking lessons.
It is well recognized that students’ anxiety is a rather common phenomenon in
listening classes. This kind of anxiety may stem from students’ poor ability or the
wrong perception of the skill. Perhaps they are not accustomed to acquiring the
listening skill seriously and regularly. Besides, many of them think that this is a
passive skill and learn it in a passive way despite the fact that it is a receptive, but not a
passive, skill. As a result, students are easily distracted from listening, which means
that furnishing motivation in listening is of great concern. . Hence, it is really valuable
to think about the effective techniques to get students more excited in listening classes
and encourage them to master the listening skill in a more serious and relaxing way.
This is also the aim of this study.
II. Purpose of the Study
It is widely accepted that keeping students motivated to learn is one of the
biggest challenges any teacher faces. It is sometimes appropriate for teachers to take an
active role in trying to improve the motivation levels of a group. A highly motivated
group of students is generally a lot easier and more fun to teach. Obviously most
teachers have come across de-motivated students at some time in their careers and it is
often worth addressing the problem when we recognise it before it escalates further.
There are often many factors that contribute towards a lack of motivation and these
should be taken into account. Here are some ideas that I have put together which may
go some way towards increasing motivation levels in a group or at least addressing the
problems and bringing them out into the open.
Therefore, one of the purposes of the research is to find out why students often
feel anxious or embarrassed while listening to English. In other words, this study seeks
to identify the factors or causes that make students stressful and nervous while
listening to English in the language classroom setting. This includes considering the
factors that originate from listening text, listeners, speakers, and listening environment.

More importantly, basing on the data collected, I would like to suggest some
practical techniques which can help to motivate students to listen to English.
B. DEVELOPMENT
I. Reasons for motivating students in listening lessons
1. Students’ anxiety in listening lessons
2


It is widely accepted that listening comprehension is not only an essential skill
but a requirement for oral proficiency as well. Most learners of English as a foreign
language experience considerable difficulties in listening comprehension, and these
difficulties appear to be main causes of anxiety which should be taken into
consideration. In order to make students motivated in listening lessons, it is crucial to
identify problems which listeners face in understanding the spoken language.
Until recently, many foreign language studies have been conducted to find out
the specific factors which can help motivate or distract students during the listening
lesson.
According to Underwood (1989), seven problems learners may encounter when
learning to listen: fast speed; unrepeated thing; the listeners’ limited vocabulary;
failure to recognize the “signals”; interpretation; concentrate; and learning habit.
Underwood (1989) sees these problems as being related to learners’ different
background such as their culture and education.
Rubin (1994) believes there are five factors that affect listening comprehension:
(1) text characteristics such as speech rate, pause phenomena and hesitation, level of
perception, stress and rhythmic patterning perception, L1/L2 difference, syntactic
modifications, redundancy, morphological complexity, word order, discourse markers,
and visual support for texts, (2) interlocutor characteristics such as gender and
language proficiency, (3) task characteristics such as task type, (4)listener
characteristics such as language proficiency level, memory, attention, affect, age,
gender, learning disability in L1, and background knowledge; and (5) process

characteristics top-down, bottom-up, and parallel processing, listening strategies, and
negotiation of comprehensible input.
Brown and Yule (1983) propose four main groups of factors including the
speaker (speech rate, varied accent), the listener, the content (vocabulary, grammar,
background knowledge), and support (whether there are pictures, diagrams visual
aids,etc.) can cause difficulty in listening comprehension. Yagang (1994) attributes the
difficulty of listening comprehension to four sources: the message, the speaker, the
listener and the physical setting (or listening environment).
I also believe that these four sources could make my students more nervous and
anxious while listening to the target language. It is necessary to help them to reduce
their stress while listening.
2. Motivation
2.1. The importance of students’ motivation
3


Since motivation is not only a vital but also a highly complex factor determining
more or less successful language learning, it is necessary to examine approaches to
motivation in learning in order to bring about better insights into it.
Over the years there have been in number able studies on motivation in foreign
and second language learning. In these studies, researchers have attemped to explain
what is meant by motivation.
Keller (1984) (quoted in Ellis, 1994) sees 'interest' as one of the major
components of motivation, defining it as “a positive response to a stimuli based on
existing cognitive structures in such a way that learners’ curiosity is aroused and
sustained”.
However, most of studies on motivation in foreign and second language learning
have been influenced by the work of Gardner (1985) (quoted in Spolsky, 1998), who
defines motivation as consisting of effort, plus desire to achieve the goal of learning,
plus favourable attitude towards learning the language

Another theory on motivation can be seen from Littlewood’s perspective (1998)
that “in second language learning as in every other field of human learning,
motivation is the crucial force which determines whether a learner embarks on a task
at all, how much energy he devotes to it, and how long he perseveres. It is a complex
phenomenon and includes many components: the individual’s drive, need for
achievement and success, curiosity, desire for stimulation and new experience, and so
on”.
Apparently, Littlewood, not only highlighting the important role of motivation
in second language learning but also emphasizing the ‘highly complex construct’ of
motivation claimed that if a learner is motivated she will probably decide to undertake
a particular task with certain amount of energy and time needed for it.
Furthermore, McKay and Tom (1992) point out that the need to communicate
with others in a new language provide strong motivation for most learners.
This is more or less similar to Lightbown and Spada’s (1999) definition of
motivation in second language learning that “motivation in second language learning
is a complex phenomenon which can be defined in terms of two factors: learner’s
communicative needs and their attitudes towards the second community”
They also add that '' if learners need to speak the second language in a wide
range of social situations or to fulfill professional ambitions, they will perceive the
communicative value of the second language and will therefore be motivated to

4


acquire proficiency in it. Likewise, if learners have favourable attitudes towards the
speakers of the language, they will desire more contact with them.”
Learners’ motivation can change overtime and effect on their language learning.
Various studies have found that motivation is strongly related to success in language
learning.
Gardner (1985) (quoted in Spolsky, 1998) sums up “… it seems clear that

achievement in a second language learning is influenced by attitudinal/motivational
characteristics. Postulating that achievement in a second language learning is
promoted by an integrative motive is not tantamount to saying that this is the only
cause or predictor”.
However, many research findings shows that successful learning can enhance
motivation, and the relationship between learning achievement and motivation is an
interactive one. As Gardner and Smythe (1981) (quoted in Hedge, 2000) claim that the
high correlation between motivation and successful learning confirms the crucial
importance of motivation in the classroom whether learners arrive with it or whether
they acquire it through classroom experience.
2.2. Classification of motivation
In general, according to Lewis (2007), motivation can be categorized into two
main kinds: Extrinsic motivation and Intrinsic motivation.
Extrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from outside an individual.
The motivation factors are external, or outside, such as rewards. These rewards provide
satisfaction and pleasure. The pleasure they anticipate from some external reward can
continue to be a motivator even when the task to be done holds little or no interest. The
possibility of a reward will be enough to keep the learners motivated in order for him
or her to put forth the effort to do well on a task.
Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from inside an individual
rather than from any external or outside reward. The motivation comes from the
pleasure one gets from the task itself or from the sense of satisfaction in completing or
even working on a task. Learners who are intrinsically motivated want to learn for the
sake of learning. This does not mean, however, that a person will not seek rewards. It
just means that if the assignment does not interest them, the possibility of a reward is
not enough to maintain their motivation to put any effort into the project.
It is obvious that intrinsic motivation is more important and teachers should try
to include it in their teaching process.

5

In particular, according to Scrivener (1994), learners’ motivation can be
identified as follows:
Exams and grades
Class goals
Parents
Amount of control on lesson content/activities
Peer pressure
“Face” (how they are perceived by others)
Relationships
Self-esteem
Gender/ Gender ratio
Age (younger and older teens)
Class contract
Time of day
Exams and grades: certain schools, parents and teachers, as well as cultures, can
place a lot of emphasis on the results of tests. As such, these can have a large role to
play in learner motivation or can place a lot of stress on learners who may think certain
activities are not useful to do in class because they are not in exam format – why waste
time in “game-style” activities when tests are near.
Parents: learners can be assisted by parents and encouraged or, alternatively, their
parents my think languages are not important, and may provide little support at home
with homework and building confidence.
Peer pressure: dependent on cultures as well as the age of the learner. If placed next
to “funny” or “talkative” learners, others may also become distracted – equally this can
also assist when other learners are motivated and keen, it can be used to create a more
productive atmosphere – models or goals to aim for (to be as good as person A).
“Face”: (how they are perceived in the classroom by others) – If learners are keen and
motivated they may be teased by other learners. Correcting learners in front of their

peers can be embarrassing and care should be taken over how and when this is done.
This can also be affected by age and gender – as they become more self-aware and
aware of the opposite sex.
Self-esteem: this can also be affected by correction techniques, as well as how much
praise is given when they contribute in class and take part in activities and book work
– no one likes to be continuously told they are not good at something! You must also
remember to give praise for the small things as well – interaction with others, sharing,
taking turns, etc. as this has an effect on classroom dynamics and group/pair work.
Relationships: (between learners as well as the teacher) – Team or pair work could be
difficult to set up between opposite genders and between groups of “friends”. Learners
may also be less inclined to speak if the teacher is listening – they need to be familiar
with the teacher monitoring regularly and closely and therefore become more
accustomed to it.
6


Gender/gender ratio: as learners develop, both genders go through a lot of hormonal
and physical changes. Awareness of their body and how they look, awareness of the
opposite sex, how they interact with adults – are a few areas that can affect how they
act in class. Gender ratio may also affect class motivation. A higher ratio of one gender
may be more difficult due to socializing and the minority gender may feel more selfconscious or isolated.
Age: younger and older teens, young teens being similar to kids and old teens like
adults – younger learners may be less self-conscience and teaching may need to be
more game-like and activities changed regularly to keep interest, while with older
learners the opposite may be true. More in-depth analysis of language is possible with
older teens – maybe not so with younger learners, who have difficulty with abstract
concepts.
Amount of control on lesson content/activities: if given the opportunity to choose
topics and activity types, motivation can change for the better. Learners are more likely
to talk about things they are interested in, and have more to say. They may also be

more inclined to ask about, extend and try to remember vocabulary related to such
topic.
Class goals: especially if the whole class is held accountable for not completing
tasks/taking part fully in lessons or homework – with punishments given to the whole
class for class goals not met! Care should be taken that peer pressure does not turn into
bullying. These can be agreed and set up with contribution from the whole class and
teacher – so it comes from all members and is not just teacher controlled.
Class contracts: similar to class goals, contracts can be agreed upon in the first few
lessons. Learners are aware of what is expected of them and they can also have input
into what is expected of the teacher, e.g. if all learners complete tasks to a high
standard they will be rewarded with “game” activities they like. It can be displayed on
the wall of the classroom so it can be referred to when needed.
Time of day: if the lesson is at the end of the day, they may be less likely to
concentrate due to tiredness. If it is just before lunch, they may have low motivation
due to hunger. After lunch or sports, they may be more excited or have more energy. In
the morning, they may be difficult to motivate, again, due to tiredness.
II. Techniques to motivate students to listen to English
1. Making listening more engaging for students
Many of us will rely on course books for the listening material we use in the
classroom and this material may or may not be suitable for our students. Thus, great
7


care needs to be taken when selecting listening texts, which are appropriate and
interesting for students so that it can create more opportunities for students to
experience, at least, small success in the target language. If the students are attracted
by the listening message, they will have incentive to make greater efforts. Therefore,
listening texts should not be much more difficult than the students’ level, as too
advanced speech will not be comprehensible for students. Listening messages of
simulated real-life situation are usually of great interest to the students.

In addition, as suggested by Thomson (2005), it is important to consider ways
in which we can supplement listening materials in course books with materials which
will motivate our students.
One possibility is to ask students to bring prepared songs or any other listening
material in English to the classroom. When we have done this we may be very
surprised to see how much work students put in to prepare the material if asked to do
so.
Students often seem to enjoy bringing a song on tape to school with the words
suitably gapped. Apart from anything else, in this situation the students decide
themselves what they are going to listen to instead of having a listening activity
imposed on them by the teacher. This is a key to motivating our students.
Another idea that has worked well in Thomson’s lesson is to record a short
interview with one of his fellow teachers. He finds that he gets a lot of mileage out of a
10-minute interview with an English-speaking colleague and that students are really
interested in hearing about the life of one of the other teachers at school.
2. Helping students understand spoken English
Another technique recorded by Thomson (2005) is helping students understand
spoken English. The technique can be described as follows:
After using a tape where students have to listen for the gist, teachers can pick
out a tricky sentence and do a piece of intensive listening. Here students listen several
(maybe ten) times to the same sentence and have to work out how many words there
are in the sentence then what the words are exactly. Teachers may find teenage
students enjoy doing this and a competitive element can be introduced by putting
students into teams. A complex sentence such as "I asked him what the time was" can
be analyzed after the students have worked out what the words are. Teachers can point
out that the 'k' in 'asked' and 'h' 'him' sounds disappear in this piece of connected
speech and that this is an example of elision. Imitating the ways English is pronounced
is suggested a good way to gain good pronunciation. Therefore, students should listen
8

to the spoken English, imitate it, record their imitation, and then compare what they
have pronounced with what the native speaker did to revise. Gradually, students would
also be used to features of spoken English and would understand listening material
more effectively
Sometimes teachers simply dictate a sentence like the one above at the
beginning of a class as a warmer and follow the same procedure.
Teachers should also give students a transcript of tapes they have listened to
after they have completed the listening tasks. Even if students only read and listen to
part of what they have heard, it should allow them to become more aware of the
difference between how spoken English sounds compared with how it is written.
With reference to fast speech rate, teacher should encourage students to practice
listening to English authentic texts every free time (inside and outside the classroom)
to make familiarize with the nature feature of the spoken English. To identify the stress
and elision of words in speech, teacher should give them some common phenomenon
of how real-English is pronounced.
3. Making predictions
One of the most important things that teachers should do to motivate students is
make information easier to process. It will certainly help when the listener is able to
make predictions about what they are about to hear before they listen.
It is not easy for students to apply listening strategies effectively such as
predicting what a speaker is going to say, getting the general ideas, and so on. To
improve the students’ listening strategies, teachers should design some listening
activities purposefully in order to lead students to get the information with certain
purpose and option. To enhance the ability to take gist, students should know which
the prerequisite of understanding the whole discourse are, or which is the most
important, for example, listening for time, places, events, names, and so on. To extract
the main idea of the message, students should pay attention to the topic sentence, the
concluding sentence and the transitional terms.
To help students predict what is coming next, teachers, firstly, need to provide

them background knowledge before recorded material is played and secondly, help
them associate this prior knowledge with the clues from what they have heard to make
a successful guess. The clues can be the heard words, printed words, the speaker’s
mood or attitude, the interpretation of stress, intonation, loudness, pictures, and so on.
It is advisable that teachers try to turn prediction activities into a game by
putting my teenage students in groups before they listen and asking them to try to
9


predict the answers to listening tasks where they have to pick out detailed information.
Turning an activity into a game can also increase intrinsic motivation, which is very
necessary in acquiring a language. For example, students could try to guess the missing
information in sentences such as "The town of Sửng Sốt used to be ………".
Students are divided into groups, and each group is given a poster and some crayons.
They will draw what they imagine about Sửng Sốt Town on the poster in 5 minutes.
Then all the posters will be hung on the wall around class. The next step is to have
students listen and to see how good their predictions are. The group having the poster
with the most exact details will be the winner. Besides, to encourage the winner I hang
the poster on the wall next to the board in a week as a way to mark their honor. My
students always seem to enjoy this competitive element and it is always interesting to
see who has made the best predictions. It is clear that good listeners are often good at
predicting.
In an exercise where students have to identify who is speaking to on the phone
(e.g. a landlord / an architect / a builder) I would draw a grid on the board and ask
students to predict the vocabulary, situation and tone of voice for each of the three
possibilities. Again, students could do this in teams and a competitive element could be
introduced.
4. Building up an unconstrained atmosphere
Teachers need to bear in mind that most students bring their fear and stress to
the listening class. Therefore, during listening practice, teacher should make the

listening class go on in an enjoyable and relaxing way, where both students and
teachers can breathe freely; otherwise no teaching method will work. It is suggested
that teachers’ behavior such as appropriate eye contact, gestures, movement about the
classroom, sense of humor, and enthusiasm are highly-effective teaching behaviors
which can help students alleviate their discomfort when listening to English. Teachers
also need to make clear instruction so that listening material makes sense, vocabulary
is not hard or jargon any more. Teachers should be willing to help students whenever
necessary, in supportive manner, rather than as a correction
We only ask students to give feedback when everything is still fresh in students’
mind. Giving feedback help students know how well they have performed in the
listening task, where students failed to comprehend or missed important things, and
discuss why these happen. From that they make an effort for the next listening lesson.
Teachers’ positive and supportive feedback is really helpful in alleviating students’
anxiety
10


Teachers should use praise regularly when students do something right or
something well, and then encourage them to force themselves to communicate. “Don’t
panic! It’s not difficult at all! You don’t need to understand everything. Just the
answer! /Excellent/ Well done/ Fantastic/ Not bad!” or something like that is actually
positive encouragement expression, which teachers can give to students to help them
feel more confident. Positive comments to students always encourage them to do their
best. When a student sees that a teacher is fond of his/her ideas, he/she will try to do
better. When students make mistake, teachers should make an effort to respond
appropriately.
It is advisable to encourage students work in pairs or small groups to help each
other because it is believed that “pair- and group-work help remove some of the
feelings of isolation and anxiety, and can make listening into a more pleasurable
activity.” (Underwood, 1989, p.27)

III. Suggestions for adapting listening activities in the textbook of English 10Advanced
The listening part in the textbook of English 10-Advanced is generally welldesigned with various types of listening tasks of many topics. Most of the topics are
suitable for teenagers but some of them seem to be dull. Besides, in some lessons,
there are no warm-up activities which play an important part in motivating students.
Therefore, it is essential to adapt these parts.
1. Unit 2: People’s background
Students are given a listening text about Alexandre Yersin, who discovered Da
Lat in the 19th century. However, I suppose that not many of my students know Yersin
and really want to listen about him. Therefore, I use another listening text about a more
well-known person: Napoleon Bonaparte.
Listening: Napoleon Bonaparte
(Source: Intermediate Listening Comprehension)
I. Objectives:
1. Aims: Students can develop the skill by:
- Choosing the correct answer and indicating True/False statements.
- Taking notes.
2. Skills: - Listening for specific information.
II. Anticipated problems:
Students' listening skill may be poor so the Teacher should provide them with some
useful techniques for better listening.
11


III. Procedures:
1. Before you listen: (10 mins)
Aims: to raise students’ interest in the listening text.
- Introduce the topic of the listening text. “You are going to listen to a story about
Napoleon Bonaparte, the French conqueror. Think about the man for a minute. Do
you have a picture of him in your mind? What did he look like? Was he a tall man?”
- Get students’ answer and give feedback

- Introduce some new words:
+ emperor (n): the ruler of an empire
+ military school (n) school for those who want to be soldiers
+ to excel (in sth): to do better than others
+ to be deserted (v): to be left by people who do not plan to return (to be abandoned)
+ general (n) e.g: General Vo Nguyen Giap
2. While you listen : (25 mins)
a. Task 1:(15 mins)
Aims: Sts listen for specific information
- Ask sts to listen to the text and do the tasks.
Listen and choose the correct answer.
1. When was Napoleon born?
A. in 1769
B. in 1821
C. in 1829
D. in 1839
2. What kind of student was Napoleon in most of his classes?
A. outstanding
B. excellent
C. good
D. poor
3. What did Napoleon’s military career bring him?
A. power
B. wealth
C. defeat
D. all of the above
4. When did Napoleon become emperor of the French Empire?
A. when he was 51 years old
B. just before he defeated England
C. after his military campaign into Russia

D. several years after he became a general
Listen and indicate true/false statements
5. One reason that Napoleon won many military victories was that his soldiers were
ready to fight to the death for him.
6. Austria and Russia fought fiercely against Napoleon but England did not.
7. Many of Napoleon’s family and friends were with him when he died.
8. Napoleon died before he reached the age of 52.
12


Key: 1. A 2. D 3. D 4. D 5. T 6. F 7. F 8. T
b. Task 2: (10 mins)
Aims: Students take notes and recap the information about Napoleon.
- Play the CD again and ask students to take notes and the report the information about
Napoleon.
- Listen and check.
3. After you listen (10 mins)
Aims: students discuss a question relating to the text.
- Ask students to work in groups of four to give their opinions on the following
statement.
“Napoleon was a great man”
- Check and give remarks.
Transcript:
Napoleon was a French soldier who became emperor of France. He was born
in 1769 on the island of Corsica. When he was only ten years old, his father sent him
to military school in France. Napoleon was not a very good student in most of his
classes, but he excelled in mathematics and in military science. When he was sixteen
years old, he joined the French army. In that year he began the military career that
brought him fame, power, riches, and, finally, defeat. Napoleon became a general in
the French army at the young age of 24. Several years later he became emperor of the

French Empire.
Napoleon was many things. He was, first of all, a brilliant military leader. His
soldiers were ready to die for him. As a result, Napoleon won many, many military
victories. At one time he controlled most of Europe, but many countries, including
England, Russia, and Austria fought fiercely against Napoleon. His defeat - his end came when he decided to attack Russia. In this military campaign against Russia, he
lost most of his army.
The great French conqueror died alone- deserted by his family and his friendsin 1821. He died in 1821, alone and deserted. Napoleon was only 51 years old when
he died.
2. Unit 6: School Outdoor Activities
The topic of this unit is familiar to students and the listening tasks are already
well-designed with various types of exercises. However, there is a lack of warm-up
and post-listening activities which can help motivate students. So I would like to
introduce the warm-up and post-listening activities.
13


* Warm-up:
Aims: to raise students’ interest in the topic and to help them to prepare for the
guessing task.
- Ask students to name as many outdoor activities as possible, then write their
names on the board.
- Play a game called “Hot Seat”: Learners are into teams. One member of each
team comes out to the front and sits on a chair (hot seat) with her/his back to the
board . These learners have to guess which word is written on the board behind them,
without seeing it. Their team members, who can see the word on the board, have to
give them clues, either by using other words or by miming. The first learner in a hot
seat to guess the word correctly will win and the team members can swap roles.
Suggested words: go swimming, go hiking, play soccer, go on an excursion
* Post-listening:
Aims: to help students be familiar with spoken English

- Pick out some sentences and ask students to listen carefully and then write down
the sentences.
- Explain the case of linking and elision
- Allow students to practise reading the sentences
Sentences picked out:
1. I think I could stay on that sandy beach.
2. My bike broke down on the way.
3. The tent is too small for all of us.
4. Unfortunately, I fell and twisted my ankle on the way down.
3. Unit 7: The Mass Media
The content of the conversation is informative and interesting but like the
listening part in unit 6, there is no warm-up activity which may help motivate students
before they listen. So I would like to supplement the warm-up activity and adapt the
post-listening one.
* Warm-up:
Aims: to raise students’ interest in the topic and to facilitate some necessary
information for the listening tasks
- Ask students to work in groups and talk about their favorite TV programs. By
participating in this activity, they can recall different types of TV programs and say
how they feel about them.
* Post-listening:
14


Aims: to allow students to practise spoken English
- Divide them into groups and ask them to role-play: Each group will role-play a
program. In each group, a student is the MC and the others will be participants. They
will play their roles and let their friends guess what program it is.
4. Unit 10: Conservation
Most students do not like this topic and it is rather difficult for them. Therefore,

instead of using a listening text, I use a song to get them more excited.
WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD!
By Louis Armstrong
(Source: New Headway Elementary)
1. Warm-up: (10 mins)
Aims: to raise students’ interest
- Ask students to work in pairs and to answer some questions:
+ Look out of the window. What can you see?
+ Make a list of things that you think are wonderful in the world.
2. While-listening: (20 minutes)
Activity 1:
- Play the song and ask students to note down what they can hear in the song.
Activity 2:
- Play the CD again and ask sts to fill in the blanks.
WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD!
I see trees of green
Red roses too
I see them ................. for me and you
And I think to myself
what a wonderful world.
I see ................. of blue
and ................. of white
the bright ..................... day
and the dark ................. night
and I think to myself
what a wonderful world
The .............. of the rainbows
so pretty in the sky
15

are also on the .....................
of the people going by.
I see friends shaking ................
saying "How do you do?"
They 're really saying
" I ..................... you"
I hear ........................ cry
I watch them grow
They'll ................. much more
than you'll ever know
and I think to myself
what a wonderful world.
Yes, I think to myself
what a wonderful world.
3. Post-listening: (15 minutes)
Aims: to make people aware of the measures to protect our planet.
- Ask students to work in groups and to discuss the measures to protect our planet from
destruction, pollution, etc.
Transcript:
I see trees of green
are also on the faces of the
Red roses too
people going by.
I see them bloom for me and
I see friends shaking hands
you
saying "How do you do?"
And I think to myself
They 're really saying

what a wonderful world.
" I love you"
I see skies of blue
I hear babies cry
and clouds of white
I watch them grow
the bright sunny day
They'll learn much more
and the dark starry night
than you'll ever know
and I think to myself
and I think to myself
what a wonderful world
what a wonderful world.
The colours of the rainbows
Yes, I think to myself
so pretty in the sky
what a wonderful world.

16


5. Unit 13: Theater and Movies
The topic is attractive but the content is rather difficult with a lot of proper
nouns and these nouns can make students confused.
Teachers should help students by teaching these nouns in advance in an exciting
way so that they will feel relaxed and confident before listening to the text.
I suggest using the game: “Pronunciation journey”. The teacher writes some
destinations and some words with similar sounds on the board. The teacher
demonstrates by reading the words aloud and asks students to decide where he/she is

going to (left or right) until the final destination is reached.
+ Words with similar sounds:
1. charged
Jazz
2. birth
Bird
3. Shark
Sharp
4. rain
train
+ Destinations: New York, London, Madrid, Bangkok, Moscow, etc.

C. CONCLUSION
Motivation is an important part in the process of language learning. It makes the
teaching and learning process run smoothly, and helps students acquire knowledge in a
pleasant way. Thus, it is crucial that teachers of English find the ways to motivate their
students in learning English in general and in developing their listening skill in
particular. In this paper, I would like to introduce four techniques which, I think, can
help motivate my students in listening lessons:
- Making listening more engaging for students
- Helping students understand spoken English
- Making predictions
- Building up an unconstrained atmosphere

17


After applying these techniques to my real teaching situations, and from the
results of observation, I find the following effectiveness of motivating studnts when
teaching listening as follows:

- They encourage students’ active and creative spirit, develop their
communicative skills and motivation.
- They create lively atmosphere in class by learner-centered method, teachers
only take a role of guider, helper and build a united class, stimulate students’ healthy
competition.
- Most of students are eager to contribute their ideas to the lesson and answer
teachers’ questions in class correctly.

REFERENCES
1. Brown, G. and G. Yule (1983). Teaching the spoken language. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
2. Ellis, R. (1994). The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: OUP.
3. Lightbown, P.M. and Spada, N. (1999). “Factors Affecting Second Language
Learning”. How Languages Are Learned. Oxford: OUP.
4. Littlewood, W.T. (1998). “Motivation for Learning English”. Foreign and Second
Language Learning. Cambridge: CUP.
5. Lewis, G. (2007). Teenagers. Oxford: OUP.
18


6. McKay, H. and Tom, A. (1992). “What do Adult Learners Bring to a Class?”
Teaching Adult Second Language Learners. Cambridge: CUP.
7. Rubin, J. (1994). A review of second language listening comprehension research.
The modern Language Journal. 78 (2), 199-220
8. Scrivener, J. (1994). Learning teaching. Macmillan Heinemann.
9. Spolsky, B. (1998). Conditions for Second Language Learning. Introduction to a
General Theory. Oxford: OUP.
10. Thomson, K. (2005). Helping teens to listen. British Council
11. Underwood, M. (1990). Teaching listening. New York : Longman
12. Yagang, F. (1994). Listening: problems and solutions. In Kral (ed.).

19