methods of teaching listening skill for the 10th grade students in nhu xuan high school

CONTENTS
Page
1. Introduction ................................................................................................... 2
1.1. The reason to choose the theme.................................................................. 2
1.2. Purpose to research ................................................................................... 3
1.3. The subjects to research ............................................................................. 3
1.4. The researching methods ........................................................................... 3
2. Contents and researching procedure ............................................................. 4
2.1. Theoretical background ............................................................................. 4
2.2. Status of the study problem ....................................................................... 5
2.3. Measures for implementation .................................................................... 7
2.4. Study effects ............................................................................................. 11
3.Conclusion and propossals ........................................................................... 13
3.1.Conclusion ................................................................................................. 13
3.2. Propossals ................................................................................................. 13

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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. The reason to choose the theme
English plays an important role in our life. Nowadays. In the information
technology times and global integration, English is getting more and more
important and is gradually becoming the means of the international
communication. It is used in all the fields such as science, technique, economy,
culture, education, tourism ... It was estimated that over 4000 people speak
English as their mother-tongue and the same number use English as their second
language. Moreover, English is compulsory in the GCSE exammination, so
every student at high school must have a certain level of English to prepare for
the exam and after graduation they can communicate, read and write some
normal texts. Therefore, English is an essential means to everybody with their

practical aims. To do this, we constantly innovate teaching methods as well as
curricula to achieve substantive results of English in general and we can provide
students with some basic skills domestically and internationally. This change
facilitates the teaching and learning of English in high school to become a
teaching language instead of teaching grammar-translation many years ago.
However, to forge English skills for students, teachers have to face many
difficulties, especially for listening skills. In fact, at school, when I started to
study foreign languages, most students liked to study, but gradually the students
got tired of studying. Most of them are very weak in listening skills. It is
difficult for them to hear the content of a text or a conversation. After each
lesson, it is very difficult for the teacher to check the information they have
listened to, and checking old lessons is often not easy.
It is said that “ Teaching is an art and teacher is an artist that creates that
art”, so a teacher can only create that one when he is aware of their roles and the
teaching environment. In the class the teacher is not only an instructor but also a
leader, an enalyst who guides the students the different situations to make the
communicative activities more effective.
Facing that situation, I am a teacher who directly teach the subject
English10 for the students exposed to English in the upper secondary school, I
myself worry so much how students can master, Listen to information and use
information proficiently. In the process of teaching and learning to observe
students, I discovered that teaching students' listening skills has many problems.
Most students do not know how to learn to listen, they usually think the listening
practice is the hardest. In the classroom, students often say that , there are many
words that are known in the listening tapescript but they can't hear. How can
students be able to use their vocabulary and grammatical structures to
understand effectively? So in the process of teaching, I searched for some
positive, simple, easy-to-understand, practical, scientific methods to develop
thinking, speculative and creative ability for students. For those reasons I carry
out the researching problem: “ METHODS OF TEACHING LISTENING

SKILL FOR THE 10th GRADE STUDENTS IN NHU XUAN HIGH
SCHOOL”
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1.2. Purpose to research:
Although learning English is very important, students have not been
aware of its importance. Especially learning English in mountainous and remote
areas is much more difficult. Because English is a compulsory subject, students
have to study for their marks or for the examinations, they don’t study for their
job or their daily communication. Most students find learning English very
boring. To be honest, our teaching method is not very good, teaching materials is
not enough.... In English, vocabulary is a very important problem. How to teach
vocabulary effectively? That requires teachers to find out new methods, choose
appropriate words and teaching materials. This subject has been researched and
applied for the purpose of contributing to the common voice of English teaching
at the school. From the practical work, we want to help students develop English
listening skills to improve the quality of teaching English to the grade-10
students gradually in Nhu Xuan high school.
1.3. The subjects to research:
The grade-10 students in Nhu Xuan high school
1.4. The researching methods:
Study the teaching materials on Internet, textbook, the demands and likes
and mentality of students.

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2. CONTENTS AND RESEARCHING PROCEDURE
2.1. Theoretical background:

Using teaching methods and techniques in accordance with the content of
lessons and students in a class is very important factors to promote selfawareness, activity in learning English so that the lessons are more effective. If
teachers use teaching methods and techniques that are inappropriate for the
content of the lesson and for the learners, so the lesson becomes boring and
students have difficulty in finding knowledge, students do not want to learn, are
not active in learning. Therefore, the results are not high, and we do not achieve
our goals. In order to effectively use teaching methods and techniques,
especially active teaching methods and techniques in a lesson that requires the
teacher to be flexible, The content of the lesson, consistent with the teaching
equipment of that section has to be suitable for students of each class.
As we know, in the curriculum, in response to the demands of the
education and the demands of the society, many new teaching methods and
techniques have been required, so the teachers have to be up-to-date in effective
use in specific lectures, which are:
- Cooperative Teaching: Cooperative Teaching is the method that the
teacher leads students to work in small groups so that students work on a certain
assignment in a certain period of time. In the group, under the guidance of the
group leader, students combine personal work and pair work, share experience
and collaborative work to solve assigned tasks. [1]
- Project-Based Learning: Project-based learning is a learning activity that
is designed to provide students with the opportunities to synthesize knowledge
from a variety of areas of study and apply creativeness to life. The project is a
situation that learners have to solve with knowledge according to the content of
the lesson. Project-based learning puts learners in a problematic situation, but
solving problems requires high self-reliance. [1]
- Technique for Questioning: In teaching, the teacher's question system
plays an important role, is one of the factors determining in the quality of the
student's knowledge. This technique is often used in conversation questions with
students, instead of presentations, reading, writing and the teacher preparares
questionaires for students to think about, developing the lesson content as well

as encouraging the students' brainstorming, is centered around the ideas and
content of the lesson in logical order. [1]
- For foreign language teaching in general and teaching English in
particular, the innovation of teaching methods is very important. It is hard for
students to master the language, be good at all the skills, specially for students
at Nhu Xuan which is one of 11 mountainous districts of Thanh Hoa province.
Listening is one of the basic content, a subtle combination of teaching skills and
a difficult skill to achieve. From the above point, the use of appropriate songs
really helps the students interested in the subject, better at listening skill. In my
opinion, every teacher needs to find an optimal method, in accordance with the
actual situation and the individual pupils.
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As a teacher of English, I hope to bring my knowledge to impart easily to
the students, and find out teaching methods for myself. So I boldly launched
research projects: “ METHODS OF TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS FOR
THE 10th GRADE STUDENTS IN NHU XUAN HIGH SCHOOL”. I hope the
use of appropriate songs for listening skill will help the students extremely
interested in the subject, better at listening skill.
2.2. Status of the study problem:
The definition of listening is understood by scientists in different ways.
- According to Field (1998: 38), “Listening is an invisible intellectual
process, so it is difficult to describe. Listeners must distinguish sounds,
understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, grasp the tone and intent of
the speakers to be able to recall and understand it in the socio-cultural context of
the speech.” [2]
- Nderson & Lynch (1988: 21) provide the definition of listening
comprehension as follows: “Listening comprehension means to understand what
the speaker has said. The listener plays a particularly important role in the

listening process by using his diverse knowledge to analyze what he hears in
order to understand the speech of the speaker.” [2]
- The definition of listening comprehension, according to Van Tan and
Nguyen Van Dam (1997) in 'Vietnamese Dictionary', is as follows: “Listening is
a process in which auditory receives external sounds and transitions. It reaches
the central nervous system. Here, these sounds are analyzed, transformed into
signals, and transmitted to the senses that help shape human reflections for those
sounds. " [3]
In teaching English, for teachers, combining the four skills: Listening Speaking - Reading - Writing is indispensable in order to comply with the
reform programs by the Ministry of Education and Training. Teachers need to
teach tricks for students to be distinctive, easily recognizable and well in actual
use, as well as the associated test concerned so that they can listen properly.
However, over the years, we have become familiar with such ideas as: "We do
not have listening competition for students at all levels."; "We need to help
students understand and use the phrases, grammar proficiency points as much as
possible, so that they can achieve high scores in these tests ". In fact, according
to the reforms enacted by the Ministry of Education, students learn Listening,
Speaking, Reading and Writing Skills equally, but they almost only use Writting
skill in their final exam. That may be the reason that we do not pay attention to
teaching Listening skills perfectly for students. This leads to the fact that pupils
have good grammar and are weak at listening and speaking ability. Like students
in other countries in Asia, they have been trained through a system focusing on
English grammar, very little on the listening and speaking ability to
communicate. Therefore, many students understand the rules of grammar well
but cannot express their opinions and have difficulties in listening and
pronunciation. Listening English seems to be the most difficult task of the
Vietnamese in general and students in particular. They frequently have some
errors in English as:
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+ Do not recognize the English tones:
When asked about the cause of difficulty with the sounds in English, 31%
of students said that this difficulty was because they could not distinguish
homophones, Similar pronunciations. 28% of students said that the confusion
between assertion and negative form is the main reason. In particular, 40% of
the students surveyed said that they did not recognize the key information they
needed to hear because of some of the features of connected speech in English
such as elision Weak form of sound, assimilation, contraction, linking, etc. Thus,
learners do not recognize the sounds in English mainly because they do not
distinguish between homophones and words with similar pronunciations,
confusion between assertions and forms Negative, especially due to some of the
effects of phonetic speech in English. [4]
+ Lack of concentration when listening:
The data from the survey shows that 30% of students think that the reason
for lack of concentration is due to poor health while the number of students is
higher (37%). Listening is the reason that makes them more and more difficult
to focus on listening. While 32% of the students surveyed think that their ability
to concentrate on listening is due to both. From these data it can be concluded
that listeners often lose the ability to listen while their health is poor and lack of
experience in listening comprehension.[4]
+ Can not capture the main idea of the listening:
According to data obtained, this is the most common cause of difficulty in
listening to learners (71%). When asked about the cause of this difficulty, 36%
of participants said they could hardly grasp the main idea of the article because
they did not know what the important information was. 37% of students said that
they could not deduce the main content of the list from key words that left them
unaware of the main idea. The number of people choosing both causes is 25%.
These data indicate that the cause of the difficulty in capturing the main content
of the listening post is (1) not distinguishing the information to be heard with the

remaining information and (2) Of hearing from important words.[4]
+ Have to understand every word.
Students tend to hear every word from the tapescript and think they are all
equally important. Actually, it is not true. If students do not have the ability to
select important words from the speech of others, they fail to understand others,
which will lead to utter frustration.
+ Cannot understand fast, natural native speech
This is because students have few opportunities to hear native speakers
say. Students only hear the words of the teachers who speak English slowly.
+ Find it difficult to keep up
Because students are familiar with the sayings of the teachers, when the
hear the words quickly in tapes, or direct native dialogue , they can’t understand.
+ Need to hear things more than once.
Few Vietnamese students can understand English words when hearing for
the first time. They have to listen to it so many times to be able to understand.
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Because of these difficulties, a teaching method which is effective and
makes the students excited is needed.
2.3.Measures for implementation:
In fact, with the reforms enacted by the Ministry of Education, students
learn Listening and Speaking Skills in paralell to Reading and Writing Skills,
but in their final exams Listening skill isn’t refered to. That may be the reason
why we do not pay attention to teach the listening skill for students perfectly.
However, this skill is very important on the way to reach the target language of
ours. And we will not develop speaking skill if we do not develop listening
skill. To have a successful conversation, students need to understand what
partners are talking to them. Listening also helps students permeable vocabulary,
sentence structures ... So, when teaching listening, teachers should teach

students to listen in different ways. Capturing small following skills will help
students' listening skill improve rapidly:
Step 1: Before - Listening:
At this stage, teachers need to apply some teaching tips to help students
think, discuss, explore the topic they are about to listen, how to attract the
interest of students, create their demands.
Set up the context: Ask students to look at pictures, hints by asking
questions related to the content of the listening lesson so that students can guess
the topic they are about to listen.
Teach or explain the vocabulary (Pre-teach): Just teach the active words
(about 3 – 5) from each lesson or from the part “ Listen and repeat
section”.
Aks the children guess the new words left on their own in the process of
listening or ignored. Teachers should also solve pronunciation difficulties,
necessary cultural knowledge for students to grasp.
Lastly, the teacher needs to tell the students how many times they will
listen (often 2 or 3 times).
Next, one of the following three tricks may be applied before listening.
Ordering Statements / Pictures: Normally, the teacher give the listening items
that have the same content as a story or a process. Use the sub-table or projector
to present some (5 - 7) sentences or pictures of the listening content, ask them to
rearrange them in the order so that they can predict the content of the story or
That process.
True / False Statements Predictions: Use the listening items such as a
paragraph or a conversation. Also use the sub-table or the projector to make
some statements, ask students to make correct guesses based on their
knowledge.
Open Predictions: It is often used for short, descriptive quotes. Students
can fill the gap with the data or characteristics, ... It can be the table with the
columns that data is missing. Ask the students to anticipate the data and

information. The teacher can use Networks / Brainstorm instead.
Besides, the teacher can use the Pre-Questions technique by giving some
hinted questions about the topic that you are about to ask students to think about
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and discuss the content or ask the students to make some questions themselves. I
hope the listening tapescript will answer.
Step 2: While - Listening:
This is an important step that requires students to understand the main
content by conducting some basic exercises.
Once the student has completed the Before-listening exercise, the teacher
asks the student to open the task to read and to check whether his / her
predictions are true or false, redundant or missing, to correct them. Therefore,
learners also can understand some of the main content of the listening
(Checking).
Next, students need to do one more exercise to deepen their knowledge,
for example: Gap-Filling (Listening to words in fill in the blank);
Comprehension questions (Listening and answering system questions).
Multiple Choice (Listen and select the correct answer); Identifying
specific information; True / False questions.
Listening and numbering pictures (Listening and numbering pictures);
Completing a dialogue.Completing the exercises, the students can understand
the listening tapescript specifically, , the next step is to help them have a basis
for developing thinking and reproducing the content of listening item.
Step 3: After - Listening:
This is the final stage of the lesson, students are required to do more some
types of exercises to reinforce their knowledge and broaden their thinking
abilities:Gap - Filling: Use words to fill in the blanks.Survey: Ask questions and
repond about the problem in the listening item in the classroom or outside of

life.Trasformation Writing: Based on the information in the article on a similar
issue.Recall / Retell: Speak again, retell the story.With which type of exercise, in
which step, when giving the exercises the teacher to proceed the following rules:
Set the scene: Set the sceneof the listening item. Give time for students (1
- 10 minutes) to do homework.Collect information from Ss./ Get feed back from
Ss: Get feedback from students.
Check and correct: Check information and correct.
During the implementation of the exercises can be inserted into the game
such as Lucky Number, Simon Say, Guessing Game, Introductions, Right-Left,
Information ... to increase the excitement of activities and excitement for
students. When learning to listen.
Introduce the topic, content related to the listening item, explain new or
difficult concepts to students when necessary.
Introduce through pictures, by giving a content-related question to
students to anticipate the content of the listening.
While listening the teacher should give some guiding questions;
Simultaneously divide the listening process into steps: Listen for the first time
(listen to the main idea); Second listening (more detail ...)
If the listening item is long, divide into short sections, there are specific
requirements for each section so that students are more likely to listen and they
do not damp.
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One of the essential things to listen to is the ability to anticipate situations.
When they listen, the teacher tells students what is going to happen in a certain
context . This activity can be performed on the lessons that are a conversation or
a story.
To test the effectiveness of these methods, I would like to teach the
test in 10B3, Unit 5, with the topic "Technology and you". [5]

UNIT 5 – TECHNOLOGY AND YOU
LESSON 3 – LISTENING
I. Objectives:
1- Educational aim: By the end of the lesson, the Ss will be able to pay
much attention to information technology as well as learn how to use the
technological devices to modernize their lives.
2-Knowledge:
- General knowledge: students will be able to listen to a monologue of
120-150 words about a company director’s story to do the tasks.
- Language: Words/ phrases related to the uses of modern inventionscomputer.
3- Skills: Listening for gist, listening for details, speaking.
II. Teaching aids: Text book, lesson plan, cassette, CD ..
III. Method: Communicative approach and leaner- centered approach.
IV. Procedures:
1. Organizations: Greeting, checking the attendances.
Class
10B3
Absentees
2. New lesson:
Teacher's activities
Students' activities
I.Warm-up
-Ss work individually.
*Name some modern devices you
know.
-Ss answer the questions from T.
modern devices
* Answer the questions:
- Do you know how to use a computer.
- Do you think it is dificult for old - Listen.

people to learn a computer ?
- T listen to the answers, corrects and
leads into the new lesson.
 Today we are going to listen a
passage talking about experiences of an
old man of learning how to use a
computer.
II. Pre-listening
- Predict the words through the
Activity 1:
explain of example of the teacher.
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* Vocabulary:
- worried (a): lo lắng
-> Gives example
- secretary (n): thư ký
-> Translates
- memory (n): trí nhớ
-> Translates
- refuse (v) : từ chối
->Gives synonym
- excuse (n,v)
-> Gives explanation.
* Checking the vocabulary: Matching
Activity 2:
Give some pictures of parts of a
computer, and ask students to discuss
and give their names in English

III. While-listening
Activity 3: (Task 1)
-T asks Ss to read the statements in the
book carefully.
- Ask Ss guess the answer.
-T plays the tape.
-T walks around and gives help if
necessary.

- Listen how to read.
- Read chorally.
- Read invidually.

-Ss read the statements in silence.
- Ss guess the answer
-Ss listen and discuss in pairs to
decide whether the statements are T or
F.

*Expected answer: 1.F was ->wasn’t
2.T
3.T
-T plays the tape again to checks the 4.T
result.
5. F understood -> didn’t understand
6. F happy -> tired
- Ss present their results.
- Ss read the story with the gaps in
silence, do the task in pairs.
*Expected answer:

1.invited
Activity 3: (Task 2)
2.still
-T asks Ss to read the story
3.refused
- T asks Ss to guess the words to fill in 4.excuse
the gap.
5.anything
-T plays the tape
-T plays the tape again to checks the
results
IV. Post-listening:
-Ss work in groups to fill the story.
Activity 1:
*Expected answer:
Fill in the blanks to complete the 1. secretary
summary:
2. office
teacher
secretary office
3. teacher
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lessons
excuse
4. lessons
The story is about an old man who 5. excuse
doesn't know how to use the computer.
He became worried when his (1)….

……asked him for a computer in the
(2) …….. He decided to take some
computing lessons. His son understood
about computer and he became his (3)
………... His son was helpful but he
didn't understand at all. After a few (4)
………. he began to feel tired and he
made an (5)……….., saying that he
had a headache. Finally, he didn't learn
computer.
Activity 2: T asks the Ss to stand up
and retell the story.
3. Consolidations:
- Listen for gist and specific information about using a computer
4. Homework:
- Learn by heart all the vocabulary.
- Do tasks again in book
- Prepare the next part.
2.4. Study effects:
After a year to implement innovative methods in teaching English,
especially English listening skill, I feel happy because of the better results. I
have found that students are interested in the subject , and especially when they
practise speaking and listening. Most students learn self-discipline, selfawareness and discuss the positive implementation of activities that teachers
require. After a period of teaching, students understand the lessons better and
better. The proportion of weak and lazy students has decreased remarkably.
Above all of students have made progress in English listening skill, resulting in
being better at the other skills. They are no longer timid and afraid of making
mistakes as the first time at school. They are much more confident in
communicating in English. At the beginning of the first semester I had a
listening test for the students of 10B3. The result was very low.

The result before implementing new method
Total students tested: 35
Class

Total
students

pretty good rather good average

bad

very bad

total % total %
total %
total %
total %
10B3 35
0
0 5
14,2 18
51,6 10
28,5 2
5,7
The result after implementing new method
Total students tested: 35
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Class Total students

pretty good rather good average

bad

very bad

total %
total %
total % total % total %
10B3 35
03
8,6 17
48,6 14
40 1
2,8 0
0
It can be seen from the 2 above tables that the application of the method
of teaching listening skills as I have mentioned above in actual teaching has
been effective. And it is more important that students become interested in
listening skills, which can help students develop their ability to communicate in
English. I believe I have made the right choice when using the new method to
impart knowledge to students.

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3.CONCLUSION AND PROPOSSALS
3.1. Conclusion
As mentioned above, teaching vocabulary is very important and necessary

because it helps the learners understand and grasp the information easily and
quickly. Moreover, it also helps the learners feel more confident and pleasant in
communication. However, teaching vocabulary is a difficult task. It requires the
teachers many things such as cleverness, intelligence, understanding of learners.
Also, the teachers spend much time choosing carefully the words they should
teach, the techniques and teaching aids. Pracically, many teachers feel confused
and difficult when designing the way to teach vocabulary. So as a teacher of
English in the near future, I have to do a research about The Way to Teach
Vocabulary Applied at High School.
From the difficulties, I would like to give some suggestions for a better
way of teaching vocabulary:
+Combine different techniques at the same time to teach one new
word.This will help the students understand and master the word more deeply
and quickly.
+Apply the techniques as much as possible in a unit so that the students
will not feel bored and dull when studying vocabulary:
+Translate the new words that are too difficult and abstract to the pupils.
+Let the pupils practise by making sentences, filling in the gaps,
answering the questions, so that they can remember the new words longer.
+Make a context clearly and easily understood by all the pupils in the
class so that the pupils can guess the meaning of the words.
+Picture must be colorful and vivid, and languguage must be familiar and
close to the pupils.
3.2. Propossals
As we all know, to organize a foreign language class is not simple.
Because each method only offers high efficiency when teachers know to choose
and use the activities in a reasonable way. Therefore it requires each teacher to
choose the practical and appropriate English songs when using music to teach
English listening skills so that students can have more fun.
The Department of Education and Training needs to organise the training

programs and workshops for the teaching methods, especially listening skills so
that the teachers in Thanh Hoa province can learn, practise and share the
experience to each other
CONFIRMATION OF THE HEAD
Thanh Hoa, May 20th, 2019
MASTER
I swear this is my initiative experience,
do not make the copy of the others.
Author

Nguyen van chuyen
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REFERENCES
[1] Dạy và học tích cực - Một số phương pháp và kỹ thuật dạy học Nguyễn Lăng Bình (Chủ biên), Đỗ Hương Trà, Nguyễn Phương Hồng, Cao Thị
Thặng - Nhà xuất bản Đại học Sư phạm, 2010.
[2] Anderson, A. & Lynch, T. (1988). Listening. Oxford. Oxford
University Press.
[3] ‘Từ điển tiếng Việt’ Văn Tân và Nguyễn Văn Đạm (1997)
[4] “ Kỹ năng nghe hiểu trong tiếng Anh, những khó khăn và biện pháp khắc
phục” – Ha Noi university of culture
[5] TIẾNG ANH 10, .

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ASSESSED INITIATVE EXPERIENCES
(DANH MỤC CÁC ĐỀ TÀI SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM ĐÃ ĐƯỢC
HỘI ĐỒNG ĐÁNH GIÁ XẾP LOẠI CẤP PHÒNG GD&ĐT, CẤP SỞ

GD&ĐT VÀ CÁC CẤP CAO HƠN XẾP LOẠI TỪ C TRỞ LÊN)
Author (Họ và tên tác giả): Nguyễn Văn Chuyên
Position (Chức vụ và đơn vị công tác): Giáo viên, trường THPT Như
Xuân

TT
1.

Tên đề tài SKKN

Cấp đánh giá
xếp loại
(Phòng, Sở,
Tỉnh...)

Kết quả
đánh giá
xếp loại
(A, B,
hoặc C)

Năm học
đánh giá xếp
loại

METHODS OF TEACHING
VOCABULARY FOR THE 10th
CLASS STUDENTS IN NHU
XUAN HIGH SCHOOL

Sở GD& ĐT
Thanh Hóa

C

2016

15