An investigation into the effects of extensive listening using TED talks on students’ listening comprehension an action research at faculty of languages in hanoi university of industry

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

NGUYỄN THỊ LAN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTS OF EXTENSIVE LISTENING
USING TED TALKS ON STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION:
AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT FACULTY OF FOREIGN
LANGUAGES IN HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY
(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ TÁC ĐỘNG CỦA VIỆC NGHE TĂNG CƯỜNG (SỬ
DỤNG TED TALKS) ĐỐI VỚI KHẢ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CỦA SINH VIÊN:
NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ, TRƯỜNG ĐẠI
HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

Hanoi – 2016


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

NGUYỄN THỊ LAN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTS OF EXTENSIVE LISTENING

USING TED TALKS ON STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION:
AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT FACULTY OF FOREIGN
LANGUAGES IN HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY
(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ TÁC ĐỘNG CỦA VIỆC NGHE TĂNG CƯỜNG (SỬ
DỤNG TED TALKS) ĐỐI VỚI KHẢ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CỦA SINH VIÊN:
NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ, TRƯỜNG ĐẠI
HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111
Supervisor: Dương Thu Mai, Ph.D

Hanoi – 2016


DECLARATION
I hereby certify that this thesis entitled ―An investigation into the effect of
extensive listening using TED Talks on students’ listening comprehension: An
action research at Faculty of Languages in Hanoi University of Industry‖ is
entirely my own work. I have provided fully documented references to others‘
work. The material in this thesis has not been submitted for a degree in any other
university or institution. I also accept all the requirements of ULIS relating to the
retention and use of M.A Graduation Thesis deposited in the library.
Hanoi, October, 2016

Nguyễn Thi Lan
̣

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This thesis would not be fulfilled without the help of some people, and in all
ways, I would like to thank those who has taught me, inspired me, challenged me,
and supported me throughout the realization of this thesis.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude towards my supervisor, Dr.
Duong Thu Mai, for her whole-hearted assistance, encouragement as well as her
profound guidance she gave me while I was implementing my research.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all lecturers
in Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International
Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their interesting lectures which
have inspired me to conduct this thesis.
I would also like to express my gratitude to the teachers of English and the
second-year students at Faculty of Languages in Hanoi University of Industry for
their willingness to participate in the research. Without their help, this project could
not be completed.
Last but not least, I am most thankful to my beloved relatives, especially my
parents and husband for their encouragement and great support during the time of
implementing this thesis.

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ABSTRACT
This study examines how TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design)
Talks, used as an extensive listening material, can affect HaUI English-major
students‘ listening comprehension and explores their awareness of benefits and
obstacles they may have during the project. This study also addresses key notions

about listening, listening comprehension, extensive listening with TED Talks and
then examined these issues in its merits and demerits. The quantitative and
qualitative data analyses, based on the results of students‘ pre-and post-tests and
their self-assessment paper, indicate that students (inter-mediate and upperintermediate levels) felt the lectures improved their listening comprehension,
enhanced their vocabulary, and accustomed them to listening to a variety of English
accents while students of the pre-intermediate group seemed to achieve less
progress. Finally, providing more talks with suitable levels to their comprehension
levels and conducting various types of scaffolding activities for lower proficiency
students are also discussed.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION ................................................................................................................ i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii
PART I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 1
1. Rationale ............................................................................................................ 1
2. Aims of the study ............................................................................................... 2
3. Scope of the study ............................................................................................. 2
5. Methodology of the study ................................................................................. 3
6. Design of the study ............................................................................................ 4
PART II: DEVELOPMENT ........................................................................................... 5
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................... 5
1.1. Definitions, significance and classifications of listening .......................... 5
1.2. Definitions of listening comprehension ..................................................... 7
1.3. Extensive listening ....................................................................................... 8
1.3.1. Definitions of extensive listening........................................................... 8
1.3.2. Benefits of extensive listening ............................................................. 10

1.3.3. Limitations of extensive listening ........................................................ 11
1.3.4. TED talks as an extensive listening source .......................................... 12
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY .............................................................................. 15
2.1. Setting............................................................................................................ 15
2.2. Research design ............................................................................................ 15
2.3. Participants ................................................................................................... 18
2.3.1. Students ................................................................................................... 18
2.3.2. Teachers .................................................................................................. 18
2.4. Data collection instruments......................................................................... 19
2.4.1 Pre and post tests ...................................................................................... 19
2.4.2. Self-assessment paper ............................................................................. 21
2.5. Data collection procedures .......................................................................... 21
2.5.1. Pilot test data collection .......................................................................... 22
2.5.2. Main data collection procedure ............................................................... 22
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2.6. Methods of data analysis ............................................................................. 24
2.6.1. Quantitative data analysis ....................................................................... 24
2.6.2. Qualitative data analysis ......................................................................... 24
2.7. Conclusion .................................................................................................... 25
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ....................................................... 26
3.1. Research question 1 ..................................................................................... 26
3.1.1. Pre-test‘s and post-test‘s descriptive statistics for three different levels of
students .............................................................................................................. 26
3.1.2. Overall test descriptive statistics for all students .................................... 31
3.1.3. One sample T-test results ........................................................................ 32
3.2. Research Question 2 .................................................................................... 33
3.2.1. Developing listening comprehension ...................................................... 33
3.2.2. Developing other aspects ........................................................................ 38

PART III: CONCLUSION ............................................................................................ 41
1. Summary of the findings and discussion .................................................... 41
2. Limitations .................................................................................................... 44
3. Suggestions for further studies .................................................................... 45
4. Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 47
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 48
APPENDIX 1 ....................................................................................................................... I
APPENDIX 2 ..................................................................................................................... II
APPENDIX 3 ................................................................................................................. VIII

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
HaUI: Hanoi University of Industry
TED: Technology, Entertainment, Design
IELTS: International English Language Testing System
EL: Extensive listening

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: A brief description of the pre-test and post-test
Table 2: Statistical results based on the collected pilot test scores
Table 3: Descriptive statistics related to the results of the pretest and the posttest of
Pre-intermediate students
Table 4: Frequency Distribution of the scores of Pre-intermediate students‘ pre-test
and post-test
Table 5: Descriptive statistics related to the results of the pretest and the posttest of

Intermediate students
Table 6: Frequency Distribution of the scores of Intermediate students‘ pre-test and
post-test
Table 7: Descriptive statistics related to the results of the pretest and the posttest of
Upper-intermediate students
Table 8: Frequency Distribution of the scores of Upper-intermediate students‘ pretest and post-test
Table 9: Descriptive statistics related to the results of the pretest and the posttest of
all students
Table 10: Frequency Distribution of the scores of all students‘ pre-test and post-test

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PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Extensive listening (EL) is one of the measures to tackle almost all
difficulties that students may encounter on the way of conquering their listening
comprehension. Rixon (1986) mentioned that students should be motivated to
listen outside the class by two main ways – have them ―exercise‖ their listening
outside the chool and listen for ―pleasure‖. This seems to lead to ―spontaneous
listening for pure pleasure‖. Therefore, EL appears to be regarded as a rewarding
motivator to facilitate students‘ learning.
In addition, TED Talks, the most popular conference and events website in
the world with over 1 billion informational videos viewed, provides academics with
increased popular exposure and is one of the highly recommended websites for EL.
First of all, TED Talks has featured lectures around the world on Technology,
Entertainment and Design which are posted everyday by both native and non-native
speakers. Using TED Talks as an authentic source for students to explore
knowledge and language seems to appeal to students. TED Talks also has
accompanied almost all lectures with subtitles of over 40 languages, including

English which is a highly supportive tool for students to recheck whether they
master the content or not. In other words, the subtitles make TED Talks less
demanding for students to enjoy listening instead of making their concerted
attempts when watching. For another feature, TED‘s mission is transferring ―ideas
worth spreading‖, which is presented by inspirational lectures with appealing
inventions as well as breakthroughs and even new perspectives on aspects of life.
This will keep students‘ interest in exploring and broadening their knowledge as
well as keep the passions. As a result, they may listen as a pleasure, not as a
required assignment to get high marks or pass exams and then enhance their
listening comprehension with academic talks.
Alhough EL seems to be highly recommneded with such the website, the
importance of listening, especially EL is not intentionally paid much attention in a

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plenty of colleges and universities in Vietnam. In particular, at Hanoi University of
Industry (HaUI), the second-year students are taught with a book named ―Listening
and Speaking Skills‖ by Cusack and McCarter (2007). Students have 4 periods per
week (15 weeks in total). During these weeks, students are trained both listening
and speaking skills; therefore, the amount of time to study listening in the class is
not a great deal. In addition, students are also guided listening theory for several
listening types in IELTS test in general, which they are tested at the end of every
semester. It can indicate that there are not many opportunities for students to
practice listening outside the class. Therefore, EL can probably aid them in meeting
the expected targets set at the beginning of the course.
On account of all the reasons above, ―an investigation into the effects of
extensive listening using TED Talks on students’ listening comprehension: an
action research at Faculty of Languages in Hanoi University of Industry‖ was
implemented, which aims to find out one of the best ways to assist students in

improving their listening comprehension skills.
2. Aims of the study
The research is conducted with the aim of discovering both whether students
can make progresses in their listening thanks to TED Talks as well as their
awareness of that progress. More specifically, this study is to examine the following
research questions:
1. To what extent is students‘ listening comprehension different between before and
after the project?
2. How do students view the effectiveness of the project to their listening
comprehension?
3. Scope of the study
In terms of literature review, on account of the lack of accessible online
sources as well as TED-Talks related topics in the library, this study can only make
use of several free sources on the Internet, especially few minor theses sharing
nearly the same interest.

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Besides, due to the small scale of the study as well as the limitation of time,
the results only assessed based on two data sources, students‘ results of the pre-and
post-tests and their self-assessment paper. As a result, this study mainly focuses on
evaluating students‘ listening comprehension using TED Talks. The other skills
such as reading, writing, speaking or even presentation skill are not within the scope
of the study.
Regarding the participants of the study, there are 90 English-major students
at the Faculty of Languages in Hanoi University of Industry. Hence, the results of
this study is expected to be possibly generalized to English-major students in other
universities and colleges.
4. Significance of the study

The findings of the thesis may serve as useful information not only for the
researcher, students but also for teachers at HaUI or even other universities and
colleges. In particular, the study is conducted to enable English-major students in
search of their passion for listening and then enhance their listening comprehension
with the support of a selected academic TED Talks list. Therefore, the results of this
study may be generalized to apply for students at the same levels. It is also hoped
that the thesis can make great contributions towards the development of students‘
listening comprehension at HaUI. Besides, recommendations for other research are
stated with the hope of taking the most advantages of the source - TED Talks.
5. Methodology of the study
To achieve the aims stated, both quantitative and qualitative methods were
used. The data collected for the study is analyzed from the results of pre-test and
post-test and students‘ self-assessment paper.
The pre-test and post-test which have been examined to have an equivalent
difficulty level, are used to test students‘ listening comprehension before and after
the project. The pre-test is delivered to students before the intervention and the posttest is made used of to collect the scores and then compared to the scores of the pretest.

3


The qualitative research method is used to measure students‘ perception of
the effects of TED Talks on their listening comprehension. Students presents how
they are aware of the merits as well as obstacles they might have when dealing with
TED Talks‘ Journals.
6. Design of the study
The study consists of three parts: the introduction, the development and the
conclusion. They are:
Part I: Introduction includes the rationale, aims, scope, significance and
methodology of the study
Part II: Development

Chapter 1: Literature review presents literature related to the study including
theories of listening, listening comprehension, the definition of extensive listening
and its benefits as well as limitations. The last part provides an example as well as
theoretical backgrounds of the reasons why TED Talks is selected to orient students.
Chapter 2: Methodology shows the setting, the background of participants as
well as data collection instruments and procedures for carrying out the research
including pre-post-test and students‘ self-assessment paper at the end of the
intervention.
Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion report the main findings obtained from
the data collection and discuss the prominent aspects.
Part III: Conclusion, the last chapter, is followed by the references and appendices.
The limitation of the study and suggestion for further study are also recommended.

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PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1.

Definitions, significance and classifications of listening
According to Bulletin (1952), listening is one of the fundamental language

skills. It is a medium through which children, young people and adults gain a large
portion of their education - their information, their understanding of the world and
of human affairs, their ideals, sense of values, and their appreciation. In this day of
mass communication, it is said that it is of vital importance that pupils be taught to
listen effectively and critically. In their book, Nation and Newton (2008) argue that
listening is considered to be ―least understood and most overlooked of the four
major language skills in the language classroom‖. This is due to the fact that more

importance is given to speaking in several approaches. Although Nunan (1998), as
cited in the book, claims that ―over 50 percent of the time that students spend
functioning in a foreign language will be devoted to listening‖, teachers still
consider listening as a method to demonstrate models for learners to copy and speak
as the aim of learning. Sharing the same thoughts, Hedge (2000) states that listening
has been ―neglected‖, ―overlooked‖ or ―taken for granted‖ due to people believing
in the automatic improvement in listening competence thanks to the exposure to the
language and practice of grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation.
Research by Gilman and Moody (1984, p. 331) demonstrates that adults
spend 40-50% of their communication time engaged in listening, 25-30% speaking,
10-15% reading and less than 10% writing. It seems logical to conclude from this
that language learners will take more extensive advantages of listening
comprehension skills than those of other language skills. Without the pressure of
speech production, learners are able to relax and direct their attention to
comprehending speech, developing listening skills, and internalizing vocabulary
and structure that will facilitate the emergence of other language skills. Moreover,
focussing on listening promotes a sense of success, which in turn fosters motivation
to continue learning (Rubin, 1988, p. 1). Gary (1975) (as cited in (Nation &
5


Newton, 2008)) proposes five benefits emerging from giving priority to listening
comprehension development, namely, cognitive, speed of coverage, motivation,
psychology and efficiency. Since students are relieved from the pressure to produce
speech, they would improve faster without stress. Moreover, the fact that activities
would easily be moved to realistic communicative one, learners would be largely
motivated. In other words, first, listening provides comprehensible input for the
learner which is essential for any learning to occur. Second, learners need to interact
with speakers to achieve understanding. Third, listening exercises help learners
draw their attention to new forms (vocabulary, grammar, interaction patterns) in the

language. Thus listening comprehension provides the right conditions for language
acquisition and development of other language skills (Krashen, 1989).
As for listening processes, there are two main types, top-down and bottomup. In Field (2003)‘s definition, as cited in (Nation & Newton, 2008, p. 40) bottomup process involves listeners going from small elements to the whole of the content;
while the process is reversed in top-down. However, Blyth (2011) suggests the
possibility of four listening approaches. The third type which is named ―the
borrowing‖ refers to a mix of either top-down or bottom-up with the other one,
while the last one might be the ―synergistic‖ one where listening is taught
holistically ―whilst considering the possible interactions between top-down and
bottom-up. About bottom-up processing, it describes in detail how people process
listening from the input of a single word to the final comprehension of sentences. In
this, listeners make use of their knowledge of words, syntax and grammar (Rubin,
1994, p. 210). It requires listeners‘ familiarity with single words and certain
grammar, as it closely connects with the listeners‘ linguistic knowledge. The
advantage of this model is that it clearly explains in detail the process of how a
listener receives incoming data to finally understand them. However, it has its own
disadvantage: When a listener‘s brain comprehends textual material, it depends not
only on linguistic knowledge because that cannot make efficient comprehension
(Ahmadi and Gilakjani, 2011, p. 979). Besides, Buck‘s (2001) also mentions that

6


top-down process is a better model because it sees the listening comprehension
process more interactive.
1.2.

Definitions of listening comprehension
There are many ways to define listening comprehension. Buck‘s (2001)

provides a concept that ―listening comprehension is a top-down process in the sense

that the various type of knowledge involved in understanding language are not
applied in any fixed order - they can be used in any order, or even simultaneously,
and they are all capable of interacting and influencing each other‖. (Buck, 2001,
p.3). Carrell and Eisterhold (1983) also pointed out that top-down processing is
based on a general and higher level of listening comprehension. They argued that
top-down processing requires background knowledge more than linguistic
knowledge. When a listener fails to understand the incoming data by depending
solely on his background knowledge, he has to depend on his linguistic knowledge.
With only linguistic knowledge, it is hard for a listener to comprehend, thus, topdown processing may result in failure of comprehension. In other words, listening
comprehension is more than obtaining meaning from utterance. It also involves a
process in which students match the utterance with what they already know about
the topic. When students know the concept or the topic, they can activate their prior
knowledge to get something from knowledge which is needed for comprehending
messages. Brown (2001, p. 2) states ―One very important idea for teaching listening
is that listening courses must make use of student‘s prior knowledge in order to
improve listening comprehension‖.
Additionally, according to Buck (2001, p. 31), listening comprehension is
an active process of constructing meaning and this is done by ―applying
knowledge to the incoming sounds‖ in which ―number of different types of
knowledge are involved: both linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic
knowledge‖. Vandergrift (1999, p. 168) also states that

―listening

comprehension is an active process in which the listener must discriminate
between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, interpret

7

stress and intonation, retain what was gathered in all the above and interpret it
with the immediate as well as the larger context of the utterances‖ (cited in
Nguyen, 2014).
Sharing the same ideas, Buck (1995) and Field (2003), as cited in
(Renandya & Farrell, 2011) stress on four main speech features speed,
variability, word blending and limited control over the speech. It is obvious that
students of low intermediate level would struggle to catch up with the speed of
speakers in the recording for advanced students. This is defined by Renandya and
Farrell (2011) as a critical level where ―speech rate above which comprehension
become impossible‖. According to Chastain (1971), listening comprehension is
the ability to understand native speech at normal speed in unstructured situations.
In the study of Major (2008) about “The Effects of Nonnative Accents on
Listening Comprehension: Implications for ESL Assessment‖: “The results
indicated that both native and nonnative listeners scored significantly lower on
listening comprehension tests when they listened to non-native speakers of
English‖ The finding of this study of the Effect of Non-native Accent on Iranian
EFL Learners' Listening Comprehension, focusing on Persian Accent of English
also suggest that ―accent familiarity (Persian accent) may function to the benefit
of the listener".
In conclusion, as discussed above, listening comprehension (top-down
listening) facilitates students to activate their background rather than linguistic
knowledge. Besides, the unsuitable speed for students of each levels and the
unfamiliarity with various accents may be obstacles for students‘ listening
comprehension.
1.3.

Extensive listening

1.3.1. Definitions of extensive listening
To answer to the difficulties that inhibit listening comprehension, ―extensive

listening‖ is regarded as a feasible measure. This term refers to various kinds of
listening activities which provide learners with comprehensible and enjoyable

8


listening input (Renandya & Farrell, 2011, p. 56). Krashen (1985) argues that
although it is of necessity to provide learners with input that is slightly beyond their
current level of competence to see their improvement, the best way to enhance
learners‘ proficiency is through providing comprehensible inputs and creating a
situation that encourages a low anxiety. According to Rixon (1986), ―there are two
ways in which you can encourage students to listen outside the school. The first is
to get students to exercise their listening outside school and the second is about
finding opportunities for listening for pleasure. The hope is that useful enjoyable
exercise may lead to spontaneous listening for pure pleasure.‖ He also affirms that
students might find themselves listening to something in a relaxed way. An example
might be the experience of listening to an interesting or amusing radio programme,
which poses no particular problems of language or difficulty of concepts. He
consolidates this by giving an example:
The sort of experience can last quite a long time, several minutes, as in the
case of easy stories read aloud by the teacher or heard on tape. They can also
be quite short, when, for example, they hear a short poem or joke, just for
pleasure or fun. In both cases they are not asked to do 'language work on
what they hear but have the satisfaction of an almost complete, direct,
understanding of something worth hearing. This type of listening can be
called extensive listening (by analogy with extensive reading, a term widely
used in the teaching world. See Chapter 1, Williams 1984).

It is an

experience which it is important to give all students to keep their motivation
and interest high, as well as giving them valuable extra contact with English
in its spoken form. (Rixon, 1986, p. 10)
In summary, EL is seen as listening to comprehensive materials outside school with
more pleasure and less anxiety. About its benefits, many studies have been largely
carried out and reached some conclusions.

9


1.3.2. Benefits of extensive listening
Extensive listening can be utilized as a useful tool to facilitate students‘
learning. Regarding the benefits of extensive listening, one of the most active
researchers is Chang whose work in 2009 until now has also provided hard evidence
on the benefits of this approach. The results of her study point out that students feel
more secured when they engage in the listening activities, which ensures the
improvement in their listening comprehension (Chang, 2009, p. 661). In the thesis
of Jean (2012), pre- and post-tests were used to assess improvements in listening
ability, and students also completed surveys regarding their feelings about graded
readers and about how much extensive listening they had done. All of their survey
data indicates that EL activities are some of the most helpful activities that students
can do to improve their background knowledge.
Besides, EL can be defined as all types of listening activities that allow
learners to receive a lot of comprehensible and enjoyable listening inputs (Renandya
and Farrell, 2011). In particular, one of the primary aims of EL is to improve
listening fluency. Listening fluency can be defined as, ―the speed of recognition of
words and grammar in a listening text‖ (Waring, 2008). Students may learn through
EL by listening smoothly to vocabulary and grammar that can be quickly processed.
Furthermore, listening with over 90% of the content understandable will
afford the learner to focus on the content. The aim of EL is not the explicit learning

of vocabulary and grammar through listening, but as a result of listening to texts,
new or repeated, learners will be introduced to grammar and vocabulary many times
and may learn implicitly through context and have a greater opportunity to meet the
word and grammar structure again and again. A learner‘s background knowledge in
the subject will also help them keep listening.
The benefits of pronunciation were also explained in the study of
Trofimovich, Lightbown, Halter, and Song (2009:632, as cited in Borges 2010) that
carried out a research on two groups. The experimental group followed a
comprehension - based program and the second was still a typical learning language

10


program. In addition, Yonezawa and Ware (2008, cited in Borges 2010) carry out
an EL study using six university classes. They did pre- and post-listening tests plus
two surveys. The majority of students in this study reported that doing EL and
shadowing was effective in enhancing their English.
In summary, EL seems to have a great contribution to the improvement of
students‘ background knowledge, their listening fluency, vocabulary, grammatical
structures and even pronunciation.
1.3.3. Limitations of extensive listening
Although there are several benefits as mentioned previously, there exist a
few drawbacks. To measure retention rates for newly-encountered vocabulary, in
the Brown‘ study of incidental vocabulary acquisition, thirty-five Japanese
university students participated. The researchers (Brown et al., 2008) found that the
extensive listening participants were unable to recall any of the new words after
three months. The results for reading-while-listening participants were only slightly
better. However, a study of native speaking children (Elley, 1989) showed
considerable vocabulary acquisition as a result of EL. There was no explanation
given by the researchers of the 2008 study for these differences. He only stated that

―the subjects encountered considerable obstacles when trying to comprehend the
story and substitute words they met in listening-only mode. Clearly, the inaccurate
perception of the pronunciation of words and phrases is potentially a greater barrier
in listening than in reading.‖
In addition, in the study of Joshua (2010), the students were told to choose
between six and fourteen (nine on average) audio books during the eight-week
treatment that they were interested in, and to not be afraid of exchanging a book that
was too difficult or not interesting. The author also explained that if this study were
done in a classroom setting, the number of students who reached the target of six
(audio) books over the eight weeks would likely be higher. Nonetheless, as the
author emphasized, this study was conducted during the fall semester when all of
the participants had a full class schedule; as a result, some of the students did not

11


have enough time to dedicate to this study and were unable to read or listen to the
required amount of material. Hence, they seemed not to make any progress after the
project. Similarly, they failed to acquire high values that the EL activity may have.
In general, there are still several weaknesses in implementing EL on account of
some subjective different reasons.
1.3.4. TED talks as an extensive listening source
The use of authentic TED Talks furnishes students with the opportunities of
practicing EL. An incredible variety of themes and topics offered on the TED
website allows instructors to choose presentations that are suitable, enjoyable and
representative for students. Teachers must spend a considerable amount of time
searching for relevant presentations in terms of content and language levels. Waring
(2008) indicated that listening materials should be at a level where students are able
to understand 90% or more of the content; if not, students‘ frustration can result in a
failed or wasted lesson or class. Waring (2008) also adds that students can

overcome frustrations if the material is of interest or matches students‘ background
knowledge or area of specialty. Besides, EL using TED also enhances students‘
motivation. The authenticity, together with exhilarating presentations offered on the
website allows students to maintain enough motivation so that autonomous learning
may occur. It is also due to the fact that TED Talks have intention to accomplish its
mission: ―Ideas worth spreading.‖ Romanelli (2014) also suggested: ―TED Talks do
seem to accomplish their goals of spreading ideas while sparking curiosity within
the learner.‖ According to Crotty (2013), ―if the academic research world wants to
reach the mainstream audience in a fascinating and entertaining manner, there is
much to learn from TED Talks.‖ Shea (2004) also agreed with that point: “a TED
talk (the acronym stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design) is one of the
routes to academic stardom‖. In other words, TED Talks may give more knowledge,
which seems to appeal to students.
In terms of academic aspects of TED Talks, according to Romanelli (2014),
―in the interim, the academy could learn from the TED phenomenon‖. He added

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that ―While TED has limitations and is subject to valid criticisms, educators could
use the talks as a component of an overall course sequence that helps students
connect with materials or spark students‘ interest in particular topics that are then
explored in greater detail within the curriculum.‖ More specifically, using TED
Talks could also be regarded as an active-learning strategy, where students are
either asked to critique an existing TED Talk and/or design their own TED Talk
regarding a particular topic of interest or relevance.
In particular, Safavi (2014), said: ―Obviously, TED talks can better your
listening skill. They are short, fascinating and full of useful language, and more
importantly, they are pretty much like section four of the IELTS listening test‖. As
for Schwartz, the effect of TED stardom has been most evident in the shelf life of

his 2003 book The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less (Ecco), which continues
to sell 7,500 to 10,000 copies a year. "New people discover it every day, and they
don‘t discover it from the book—they discover it from the talk." He doubts,
however, that this kind of popular fame carries much currency in the academic
world. In the comprehensive study of over 1,200 TED Talks videos and their
presenters, lead author Cassidy R. Sugimoto, an assistant professor in IU
Bloomington's Department of Information and Library Science, and a team of
researchers from Great Britain and Canada, also looked at the demographic makeup of TED Talks presenters -- only 21 percent was academics with academic ideas.
According to the estimated results, with the total of over 2, 200 talks, there are
approximately 500 academic TED talks.

Therefore, using TED talks for

educational purposes, especially as an EL tool may be feasible if a selective
academic list is provided beforehand.
Besides, EL is also proved to be effective to learners in some cases and
ineffective in others, so further studies should be conducted to probe which type of
materials or instructions is useful for EL learners. According to Field (2002), ―we
focus on the product of listening when we should be interested in the process – what
is going on in the heads of our learners‖ (p.246). In other words, students need to be

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undergone training themselves outside their studying in the class. It is likely that
listening to authentic materials from inspirational speakers from all over the world
is one of the best measures to guide students to explore on their own. This is
supported by Takaesu (2013) from International Christian University with a study
about ―TED talks as an EL Resource for EAP Students‖. The results represent that
―it is noteworthy that the TED lectures motivated some students to independently

pursue their own interest‖. However, the study only uses two surveys to make
conclusions; the difficulties as well as strategies to overcome them to conquer the
listening comprehension during the listening process have not been stated.
Therefore, another study should be approached in another way in order to
consolidate related perspectives.
In summary, this chapter has addressed key notions about listening, listening
comprehension, extensive listening with TED Talks and then examined issues in its
merits and demerits. In terms of listening processes, there are top-down and bottomup processes. Bottom-up process requires listeners‘ familiarity with single words
and certain grammar, which closely connects with the listeners‘ linguistic
knowledge while top-down process tends to base on a general and higher level of
listening comprehension. About listening comprehension, beside the lack of
vocabulary and grammatical structures, the unsuitable speed for students of each
levels, the unfamiliarity with various accents and lack of background knowledge
may be obstacles for students‘ listening comprehension. Regarding extensive
listening, its definition with benefits and limitations were also illustrated with some
research. Out of the most useful suggested sources, TED Talks, has also become a
subject in some studies with two perspectives, strength and weaknesses. All of these
issues, where possible, have been supported by academic literature. It is hoped that
they serve as a consolidated basis to carry out the study in the next chapter.

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
To address two research questions and achieve the aims, this study was
conducted among 90 English major students at Hanoi University of Industry.
Details of the setting, the participants, the instruments, the procedures of data
collection and method of data analysis are stated as below.
2.1. Setting
The study is conducted at Hanoi University of Industry. In the listening

course at this university, EL is not deliberately supported, especially listening to
authentic listening materials. What is more, students are required to sit an adapted
IELTS listening exam, which has a small change of the number of questions at the
end of the course. About the core curriculum, students have 15 weeks with 60
periods in the class, 120 self-study periods, it seems not to be straightforward to
make a great deal of progress as well as attain any breakthroughs without EL
intentionally. The EL activity also motivates them to spend their self-studying time
effectively so that their listening comprehension can be improved as expected.
2.2. Research design
Action research design was selected in this study. According to Mettetal
(2001), Classroom Action Research is research designed to assist teachers in
figuring out what is happening in his or her classroom, and then makes use of that
information to make changes for the future. The selection of action research may
have a great contribution to improve students‘ performance and even suggest openended outcomes. Moreover, action research can promote ―teachers' growth as an
empowered professional‖, ―teachers' confidence in their teaching ability‖, and their
―problem-solving skills as well‖ (Briscoe and Wells, 2002: 429). In particular,
when being engaged in action research, teachers can be more aware of ―the gaps
between their beliefs and practices and of what their pupils are thinking, feeling,
and learning‖ (Biott, 1983; Elliot, 1980; Noffke & Zeichner, 1987; Ruddick, 1985;
Zeichner, 1993 cited by Tabachnick and Zeichner, 1999: 310)

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An action research was applied to this current study with the teacher as the
researcher for some reasons. First, students‘ listening comprehension has noticeably
concerned both educational people and students. Moreover, beside many other
sources, TED Talks is reviewed as a useful source for studying to what extent.
Second, action research is often carried out both outside the classroom and inside
the classroom. Hence, that is very suitable for current setting of the study. Third,

action research is aimed at changing things as well as suggesting a reference source
for other research. From findings of the effects of EL using selected academic TED
Talks, some constructive suggestions will be given so that teachers can facilitate
students‘ listening comprehension.
When using the action research approach, the current study follows the five
phases proposed by Susman (1983)
1

5

2

3

4

Figure 1 Susman’s Action Research Model (1983)
In the light of the model, the study started when there was a need to improve
students‘ listening comprehension with an authentically useful source. In other

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