Some practical solutions for conducting an effective listening lesson in teaching english for grade 10

EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE
“Some practical solutions for conducting an effective listening
lesson in teaching English for grade 10”

PART A. INTRODUCTION.
I. Rationales.
Teaching English’s objectives in high schools is to take shape and
develop basic skills of English and intellectual quality needed for students
to continue with their tertiary education or labor life. There fore, “listening”,
“speaking”, “reading”, “writing” are all dignified with thematic approaches
in series of text books for English secondary level.
In fact, “listening” is a very important direct communication skill
which requires learners with their frequent practice in many daily
situations or circumstances. However, this seems to be the most difficult
part in reaching English improments, and it brings challenges to not only
students but also teachers of English.
Working as a teacher for nearly 16 years I myself understand the
nature of the problem and usually find it necessary to look for the ways to
improve the situation. I have tried my best to do this research with a view
to getting my students and my colleagues to benefit from it by giving them
more opportunities to practise and to better their English. For all the
reasons, I would like to conduct my research on the topic: “Some practical
solutions for conducting an effective listening lesson in teaching
English for grade 10”
II. Aims of the study.
Each work has its own aims, so does this study. The aims of my study are:
. To help teachers hold a useful and attractive listening lesson
. To illustrate typical procedures of an effective listening period
. To help students master more and more English knowledge and develope
communication skills
1

III. The object of the study.
+ Teachers and students’s mission in listening periods in Tong Duy
Tan high school.
+ First grade level: class 10A consists of 43 students-the most
brilliant students of our school’s Natural Science Department anhd
class 10G with 38 poor quality students when entering the school.
+ The students’ abilities in getting knowledge and developing
listening skills.
IV. Method of the study
•
•
•
•

Using analytic methods
Observing and asking colleagues for ideas and experiences
Practising the application of the study
Investigating methods: giving questions after lessons to test and
assess the students’ attainment
PART B. CONTENT

I.

Theoretical basis

Teaching aims
The aims of teaching a language not only provide students with its
knowledge but the last aim is to help students raise communicational

abilities through 4 skills: listening, speaking, reading and writting in
which, “listening” has to be obtained by continually practising. Outsides
school environment, English should be learned through many other
ways such as communicating in English frequently, listening to English
songs, watching foreign chanels, making pen friends oversea ... in order
to understand and to apply daily English speaking situations thoroughly.
1.

2.
a.
-

Basic elements determining the effect of a listening period.
For teachers:
Using new and active teaching methods, teachers play roles as
steerers to help students create and self develope listening skills.
In order to have and effective listening periods, the teachers ought to
conduct following basic elements:
2


b.

c.
-

-

d.
II.

. Choosing and aplying teaching techniques in active and suitable
ways.
. Arranging time and steering the class reasonably.
. Making use of teaching equipment
. Being creative, attracive and emotive.
Listening techniques
Good teaching methods of listening periods are ruled by their
conment. That means the content can govern the choice, the
implement of teaching techniquies. There are many ways to attain the
objectives of the lessons depending on reasonable techniques that
teachers use.
Teaching equipment and devices
All the content of listening passages or dialouges is recorded in tape
recorders whereas textbooks only contain the tasks. Therefore
teachers should use teaching equipment and devices in effective ways
with a view to obtaining the most useful practices. In addition to this,
teaching aids also motivate and attract students to further studying
activities.
Equipment and devices needed:
+ Tape recorder ( or tantamount devices)
+ Speakers
+ Real objects
+ Powerpoint lesson plan
+ Projector...
For students
Prepare lessons before going to school
Brain storm and search information relating to the topic of the lesson
at home
Listen carefully to teacher’s introduction

Follow techer’s guideness
Be active and creative
Make use of listening skills
The Reality

Strong points
Although there still are some of objective and subjective conditions that
affect the teaching procedures, we have got over the difficulties and
gradually raise the quality of listening lessons in particular and English
subject in general by having conducted the following activities:
1.

a.

For teachers:
3


-

Updating information on Internet or through workshops of English
Making use of typical techniques
Getting used to holding pairs work, groups work in active ways
Creating suitable teaching aids
Applying information technology in teaching
Having modern teaching equipment
Having the support and co-operation from the school, collaegues and
students

b.

-

For students
Being raised awareness of the importance of English language in
further study and their future
Being approached to English daily on mass media
More and more students are encouraged to study English from their
parents.
More and more students have good language skills.

2.
a.
-

Weak points
For some teachers:
Having difficulties in choosing listening techniques.
Being limited and confused in manipulating and process leading the
lessons’ situations.

b.
-

For some students:
Having less oppotunities of using modern devices and practising
English at home
Lack of learning motivation
Being shy when having mistakes in pronouncing
Being a little shocked with high speaking speed of native speakers

c.
-

Teaching aids:
Low quality of recorded tapes
Having few pictures and real objects that should be used in listening
lessons

Initial investigation result:
In the school year of 2018 - 2019, I have taken on 2 classes of grade
10. One with ralatively high input points and another one with very low
points of English when taking the entrance examination for upper
secondary education taken place in June of last year.
After 2 units of 10th English text book, I had a small listening test for both
of the classes:
d.

4


Exercise 1: Listen to the student talking about her life and study in an
international university then mark True(T) or False(F) statements.
1. She has classes in Spanish at La Guardia Community College.

T/F
2. The teacher of her class is very nice and good.

T/F

3. The speaker lives in an apartment with her sisters.

T/F

is easy to understand Annie
they speak slowly.
T/F

4. It

and Marine Kass because

5. Although it's very cold now, Central Park is lovely in the snow.

T/F
Tapescript
Dear Miguel. How are you? I'm fine. Here's a letter in English. It's good
practice for you and me!.
I have classes in English at La Guardia Community College. I'm in class with
eight students. They are all from different countries: Japan, Brazil,
Switzerland, Poland and Italy. Our teacher's name is Isabel. She is very nice
and a very good teacher.
I live in an apartment with two American girls, Annie and Marine Kass. They
are sisters. Annie's twenty years old and a dancer. Marine is eighteen and a
student. They're very friendly, but it isn't easy to understand them. They
speak very fast!
New York is very big, very exciting but very expensive! The subway isn't
difficult to use and it's cheap. it's very cold now but Central Park is lovely in
the snow. I'm very happy here.
Write to me soon.
Love,

Dorita
5


Exercise 2: You will hear a report of Lessons From Shanghai's Top Scores
on International Test. Listen carefully and then complete the missing
words.
ANDREAS SCHLEICHER: "Asian countries value education more than other
countries. They have given (1)……education………. a priority. Every child,
every teacher, every parent knows that education is the gateway to (2)……
success………."
Mr. Schleicher says other education (3)………systems……… can learn from
Shanghai. For example, he says education spending in the province has (4)
……increased………., including teacher pay and training. And administrators
are putting teachers into challenging classroom (5)……situations…….to
make them better at their jobs.
Tapescript
The Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, is a two-hour test
that compares the performance of fifteen-year-olds. In the latest test, the
countries with the best readers were South Korea and Finland. But students in
Shanghai, China, scored the highest of all in reading, mathematics and science.
The next strongest results were in Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, New
Zealand and Japan.
In all, around half a million students in more than seventy economies took the
test last year. The test has been given every three years since 2000. Last year
was the first time Shanghai took part.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development just released the
results. Andreas Schleicher is director of the Education Indicators and Analysis
Division at the OECD.
ANDREAS SCHLEICHER: "Asian countries value education more than other

countries. They have given education a priority. Every child, every teacher,
every parent knows that education is the gateway to success."
Mr. Schleicher says other education systems can learn from Shanghai. For
example, he says education spending in the province has increased, including

6


teacher pay and training. And administrators are putting teachers into
challenging classroom situations to make them better at their jobs.
The specific result:
Clas
s

Total

Points:
9 & 10

Points:
7& 8

Points:
5&6

Points:
3&4

Points:
0, 1 & 2

N0

%

N0

%

N0

%

N0

%

N0

%

10A

43

2

4.7

12

27.
9

18

41.
8

9

20.
9

2

4.7

10G

38

0

0

3

7.9

9

23.
7

15

39.
5

11

28.
9

The statistical results showed that the percentage of weak students are
still quite high. This indicates that their listening skills are limited, so the
essential problem is how to raise listening skills for students to be effective,
I have proposed solutions and used following methods to perform.
III.

Solutions

1. Making a careful plan

This duty is concducted constantly and methodical so the teachers have
to:
-

Look into the major content of the period from students’ book,

teacher’s book and follow standard knowledge of skills. This duty is
very essential because it helps teachers organise and control the
lesson more easily, intentionally.

-

Study carefully the objectives of the lesson. In a listening period or in
the any others, students are helped to practise and trained all of the 4
skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing ( in which Listening is the
centred skill). Generally, after the lesson, students can make out the
main ideas of listening passages or dialouges then fulfil all the tasks
from teachers.
7


-

Use listening devices in active ways. This can vary and depend on the
topics of the lessons, the abilities of students and conditional features
of the classrooms. To be more specific, for class 10A, with alot of fair
students and having a projector, I often use powerpoint in teaching
and search online update information related to the topics. On the
other hand, for class 10G, with most of weak students and having no
devices supported, I have to use a cassette player with low speed
speaking disks for each lesson, besides, I also bring real objects or
pictures related to the topics.

-

Choose and co-ordinate listening techniques based on approach to

the lesson’s aim such as:
+ brainstorming about the topic
+ surfing listening skill
+ pausing at key words or phrases
+ guessing the meaning of the text....

-

Prepare a scientific lesson plan with students’ activities, teacher’s
questions, students’ answers...

-

Give actual contacts: There are 16 topics in the text book of grade 10
and all of them are closed to daily life so it is essential for teachers to
take examples in reality to illustrate the situations or draw useful
lessons for students to follow.

-

Discuss with colleges about the possibility of the lesson.

-

Give students open questions about the topics and ask them to
prepare at home before the class time.

-

Distribute the time for each activity reasonally. It is not permanent for

all the lessons but we can take following hint:
+ Warm up: about 4 minutes
+ Pre-listening: about 7 minutes

8


+ While-listening: about 20 minutes
+ Post-listening: about 10 minutes
+ Consolidation and giving homework: about 4 minutes
2. Implementing the process of teaching a listening period

A typical procedure consists of 3 stages: Pre - listening, While listening and Post - listening. This process not only helps students
comprehend enough materials to finish the tasks but also assist them
in lively comunications. That means the teacher must be profesional
enough in the role of a “ferry man”.
a. Pre - listening

In this period, teachers should
-

Prepare psychosphere for students before listening by leading
directly; asking open questions about the topics; showing pictures,
words, phrases or sentences related so as to be predicted about the
topics of the lesson.

-

Elicit the excitement from students through small games involving
with the topics.

-

Help students be out of difficulties in pronoucing or new source of
knowledge by pre teaching some new key words, new structures or
introduce back ground knowledge.
This period often helps students thinking or having orientation about
themes or situations of listening passages. There are lots of ways for
teachers to teach in this part but the best choices for me are: True/
False Prediction; Open Prediction; Ordering and Pre-Questions

b. While - listening

It can’t be denied that this part is the main one of the lesson. It is the
chance for students to practise and develop listening skills.

9


Teachers have to introduce the tasks with a view to being sure that all
students know about their duties clearly.
Basing on the level of students and on how difficult to understand the
tapes, teachers can give the tasks easier or not in comparision with the
tasks printed in the text book and decide how many times the students
shoud be heard.
For example, the learners in class 10 A need hearing 3 times, whereas
the ones in class 10G need to be heard 4 0r 5 times:
+ The 1st time is for surfing - getting used to the voice of speaker,
recognizing the position of words and phrases and getting the main
ideas of the text

+ The 2nd time is for students to catch the information to fulfil the tasks.
+ The 3rd time is to check the answers and to correct the wrong ones.
There are also numerous ways of conducting this part as long as after
listening students meet the requirements of understanding the content
and getting over all the tasks given. In this part, I and my colleges often
use exercises such as: Selecting; Delibrate Mistakes; Grids; Listen and
Draw; True/ False Statements; Multiple Choice or Comprehension
Questions.
c. Post - Listening

This part is a good chance for students to have further practices or we
can call it “free pracice”. This is really important because students can
combine information in the “while-listening” part with their background
knowledge and language skills in real communicational situations
among classmates in pairs or groups under the guideness of the teacher.
This part should be applied in varied activities: Role play; Recall the
story; Write-it-up; Further practice...
3. Task redesigning

10


As mentioned above, my school is situated in a rural and poor area, It is
very hard for students to get a good result in learning English, especially
in listening skill development beacause of many reasons.
Having concerned about this fact, I intended to make it easier the tasks
in while-listening. I myself preciate this work because it has been the key
of success in my listening periods.
Most of the tasks in the text book are suitable for my students,
however, there are some of them seemed to be beyond their levels. If I

kept the original tasks, there would be nothing to be caught after
blistening.
From that point of view I have decided to change some of the tasks as
followed:
-

Mutiple choice exercises

It is difficult for the students to listen and fulfil the missing words of
more than three words or the questions with long answer. Therefore I
have moved these tasks from “fill in the blank” or “answer the questions”
to “ multiple choices. Let’s take these changes as good examples:
* Unit 6:

An Excursion

Task 2
1. The weekend picnic I enjoyed most ___________ weeks ago.
A. just few

C. was just a few

B. was just

D. were few

2. My class decided ___________ to the Botanical Garden.
A. pay a visit

C. paid a visit

B. to pay a visit

D. to visited

3. We met __________ on time.
A. at the school gate

C. a school gate
11


B. at a gate

D. the school mates

4. We made ____________ roud the garden.
A. short tours

C. a big cake

B. mistakes

D. a short tour

5. In the afternoon, we went on _____________ games.
A. to playing more

C.

playing

some

more
B. delaying more

*Unit 11:

D. to play some
National Parks

Tasks 2
1. Howmany provinces does Cuc Phuong National Park belong to?
A. 1

B. 2

C. 3

D. 4

2. How far is it from Hanoi to Cuc Phuong?

A.1960 km

B. 160 km

C. 200 km

D. 450 km

3. What do many people come to Cuc Phuong for?
A. to see the work being done to protect endanged species
B. to see friends and ralatives
C. to take photographs of buterflies and 1000-year-old-tree
D. to have a nice time
4. When did Nguyen Hue defeat the Qing invaders?
A. 1960

B. 2000

C. 1785

D. 1789

5. What do the Muong ethnic minoriry in Cuc Phuong live mainly on?
12


A. keeping cars and washing

C. bee keeping and farming

B. cutting trees and raising

D. guiding tours and farming

- True/False Statements
Another kind of exercises that I suppose better for my students is T/F

statements. It is simplified by changing from “answer the questions” tasks
*Unit 14

The World Cup

Task 2
1. As a football player, Pele was famous for kicking and holding the ball.

T/F → controlling
2. He participated in 3 world cup in 1958, 1962 and 1970

T/F
3. Before retiring, Pele played for American national football team.

T/F → American football club
4. After his retirement, he became international ambassador for peace.

T/F → sport
5. On be half of being an ambassador, he worked to promote peace and

understanding through friendly sport activities.
T/F
*Unit 16:

Historical places

Task 2:
1. The ancient town of Hoi An is situated 13 km south of Da Nang.

T/F → 30

13


2. Hoi An was known as an important trading centre in Southeast Asia

between the 16th and the 17th centuries
T/F
3. It is now famous for its old temples, pagodas, small thatch-roofed

houses and narrow streets.
T/F → small tile-roofed houses
4. The old houses in Hoi An were made of brick and their pillars were

carved with ornamental designs.
T/F → wood
5. The Assembly Hall of Cantonese Chinese Congragation is 164 years

old.
T/F (it was built in 1855)
6. Tan Ky House was built 200 years ago.

T/F ( 2 centuries ago)
7. The house was for Vietnamese merchants and now is not well-

preserved.
T/F → looks almost exactly as it did in the early 19 th
century
8. Hoi An was recognised by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage Site

in 1999.
T/F
...

4. Study environment
14


Propagating enough source of knowledge and meeting requirement of
fulfiling the tasks are the main objectives of the lesson, but one more
essential element in a language period is encouraging study
environment.
-

Teachers must always create and lead foreign language environment
in class, that means English is the main and sometimes the only
means of communication. It bases on the level of student, teachers
can choose to use short, simple sentences to be easy to understand
and remember.

-

Teachers should always encourage and make effort to help students
make full use of learned knowledge and skills to communicate with
each other.

-

Teachers should not pay too much attention to correct students’
mistakes while they are practicing speaking skills. Let they do that in

naturally.

-

Listening and speaking activities should be integrated through games
with rewards or compliments for the winners.

IV. Testing and Acquirement.
After the session of 16 units, I handed out a small listening test to check the
students’ acquirement of class 10A and 10G:
Exercise 1: True / Fasle Statements
You will hear a report on VOA (Voice of America) about the new testing
ways to recognize what makes a good teacher.
Listen and do the task below. Yould should listen three times.
1. According to the report, Bill Gates supports this project. T/F
2. The project began last month.

T/F

→ (last year)

15


3.The goal of this project is to help the educators and policy makers raise
money for education .
T/F
→ help the educators and policy makers identify and support good
teaching.
4.There are 11 American cities taking part in the project.

T/F

→ 7
5.Students were also tested in mathematics, English and biology.T/F
Tapescript
In recent years, Bill Gates has given financial support to improve American
education.
Late last year, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Measures
of Effective Teaching project. The project tests new ways to recognize what
makes a good teacher.
Its goal is to help educators and policymakers identify and support good
teaching.
The study is being carried out in public school systems in seven American
cities. Thousands of teachers volunteered to take part. They agreed to have
their classes recorded on video, but only for observation by expert
researchers.
Last spring, the project collected digital videos of thirteen thousand lessons in
the classrooms taught by the teachers. They were in grades four through nine.
Researchers also collected information from students. They asked students to
report their opinions of each teacher’s classroom. Students were also tested in
mathematics, English and biology.
Officials recently released early results of the project study. The report says
teachers’ past success in raising student scores on state tests is one of the
strongest signs of their ability to do so again. This is known as a teacher’s
“value-added.”

16

The teachers with the highest value-added scores on state tests also help
students understand math or show reading ability.
Exercise 2: Multiple choice
You will hear a speaker who talk about London. Listen and do the task
below. Yould should listen three times.
1. London is in the ………………of England.
A. north-east

B. north-west

C.south-east

D. south-west

2. London has a population of about …………million people.
A. 11

B. 12

C. 13

D. 20

3. Most people travel into the city to work by …………..
A. bus

B. bus and car

C. tube

D. underground train

4. Near the center of the city, people live in……….
A. large houses

B. flats

C. small house

D. hotels

5. The best thing about living in London is that………….
A. it is peaceful
B. it is cheap
C. there is a great mix of people from different countries and cultures
D. there are many beauty spots and lovely people
Tapescript
I come from London in the southeast of England. It's a very large city and has
a population of about twelve million people. Most people travel into the city
every day to work, usually by bus or underground train, which we call the
"tube". Many people work in offices or for big companies, but of course people
do all sorts of jobs here. I think the majority of people live in what we call
semi-detached houses, in the suburbs usually, but nearer the centre of the city,
17


people live in flats, too. London is great fun because there is so much to do,
erm, great restaurants, theater, museums, but it is very busy so it can be quite
stressful as well sometimes. One of the best things about living in London is
that it's so cosmopolitan, you know, there is a great mix of people from

different countries and cultures. I really love it here and I can't imagine living
anywhere else really.

The test result:
Clas
s

Total

Points:
9 & 10

Points:
7& 8

Points:
5&6

Points:
3&4

Points:
0, 1 & 2

N0

%

N0

%

N0

%

N0

%

N0

%

10A

43

8

18.
6

21

48.
8

14

32.
6

0

0

0

0

10G

38

2

5.3

13

34.
2

15

39.
5

6

15.
7

2

5.3

As can be seen from the tables above, the knowledge and listening
skills of the students in both classes were greatly enhanced. The excellent
marks (9,10) increased from 2 to 10. Especially, no mark was lower than 5
for class 10A, while listening level of students in class 10G is improved
remarkably. It is clear that my solutions were definitely successful.

PART C. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
I.

Conclusion

In the process of teaching English at Tong Duy Tan Upper Secondary
school, I realize that improving listening skill for 10th form students is
extremely important. This direct communicatinal skill should be
concentrated and developed so that they can apply to better their lives and
18


their next stage of learning English for grade 11 and 12 in both immediate
and long-term vision.
The teacher should choose, change the warm- up and practice activities in
the different lessons in order that the atmosphere of class is always lively

and not boring, monotonous for students. During this period, teachers act
only as guideliness and don’t give correct answers but they stimulate
students’ participation, arouse interest, curiosity of the children about the
lesson content.
To continuously improve the quality of student learning, teachers have to
prepare lessons, and creative exploration as lesson plans. And especially
they have to know how to select the appropriate option to boot form with
each different lesson. This work will create a difference between method
teaching and teaching without method. That is the key to create a
successful lesson. Specifically, in Listening lesson of English book 10, after
lessons, students can hear better, more confident, be able to relate to reality
when they have oppotunities to speak to natives, they can listen boldly and
communicate well. To practice listening skill well, teachers need to spend
much time preparing pictures, teaching aids, creating real situations for
students to raise language skills, use modern devices fluently and the most
important thing is that they have to understand the posibility of students to
give them suitable tasks.
This is my personsal study in teaching listening skill of English book 10,
so some mistakes are unavoidable. I am looking forwards to receiving
faithful comments from colleagues to help my reseach will become better
and more successful.
II.

Recommendations

Starting from the basis of theory and practice as well as the
successes and limitations, this subject contributes to arouse interest in
learning listening skill and improve the quality of students in English. I
would venture to suggest some comments as follows:
* To Thanh Hoa Department of Education and Training:

19


- The Department of Education and Training should be organized more
English work shops for teachers to exchange teaching experience.
- And should open far more training courses for all English teachers
attended to improve teaching methods and all can reach C1 level.
* To my school
- Equip function rooms for English subject with educational facilities such
as projectors, laptops, labs, and so on so that the teachers can have
opportunities to use up-to-date technologies in teaching.
- Open English clubs, give students more chances to be confident in using
English.
* To the colleagues:
- Encourage students not only to learn in class but also to practise at home
from reference books, radio, TV or foreign programs on mass media
- Teachers should take more time to feedback to colleagues, regularly
exchange experiences, exchange reference books to enhance the quality of
teaching.

THE CONFIRMATION OF THE

Thanh Hoa, May 25 th, 2019

HEADMASTER

I hereby declare that this is my
experience initiative and that no
parts of the initiative have been

copied or reproduced by me from
any

other’s

work

acknowledgement.
Writer

MA. NGUYEN VAN TINH

20

without


TRAN TO UYEN

REFERENCES

1. Teacher English Books 10, Department of Education and Training
2. English 10, by Hoang Van Van, the publisher of Vietnam Education
3. Regularly Fostering Documents for teachers in Upper Secondary
Education
- Stage III - Ministry of Education and Training, ( 2004- 2007 )

21

4. Teaching methods and checking reviews’students’assignments
renovation
for English at upper secondary schools
Ministry of Education and Training ( 2008 )
5 . English Dictionary (Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
6. A Listening / Speaking Skills Book-Judith Tanka & Lida R.Baker
7. Http://www.globaledu.com.vn/ViewDetail.aspx?contentID=2015
8. Http://prettyguy.violet.vn/present/show/entry_id/1855510
9. The Internet

CATEGORY

PART A: INTRODUCTION
I. Rationales ......................................................................

page 01

II. Aims of the study .........................................................

page 01

22


III. The object of the study..................................................

page 02

IV. Method of the study .....................................................

page 02

PART B: CONTENT
I. Theoretical basis ………………………………...…..…

page 02

II. The Reality ……………………………………….…...

page 03

III. Solutions ...............................………………………....

page 07

IV. Testing and Acquirement. ............................................ page 14
PART C: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
I. Conclusion ...................…………………………....…...

page 17

II. Recommendations ..........................................................

page 18

REFERENCES: ………………........….........................................

23

page 20