Applying the “questioning” technique at the pre listening stage to motivate the 11th form students at nong cong 3 high school

TABLE

OF

CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION
I.1. Rationale
I.2. Aims of the study
I.3. Scope of the study
I.4. Methodology
I.4.1. Participants of the study
I.4.2. Methods of the study
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
II.1.Theoretical background
II.1.1 Theory on listening
II.1.2. Types of listening process
II.1.3. Stages of a listening lesson
II.1.4. Pre-listening phase and the role of pre-listening techniques
II. 1.4.1. Pre-listening phase
II.1.4.2. The role of pre-listening techniques
II.1.5. The “Questioning” technique
II.1.6. Textbook adaptation
II.1.6.1. Definitions of textbook adaptation
II.1.6.2. Why and how to adapt textbooks
II.1.6.3. Reasons for textbook adaptation.
II.1.6.4. Methods of adapting
II.2. Practical background: Factors that hinder students’ performance
in listening lessons and teachers’ task at Nong Cong 3 School
II.2.1 The teachers’ and students’ problems
II.2.2. Some limitations of the Tieng Anh 11 text book

II.3. Solutions to the problems
II.4. An overview of listening sections in the book “Tieng Anh 11”
II.5. Application of “Questioning” technique in some listening
sections in the textbook “Tieng Anh
II.6. Results
III. CONCLUSION
III.1 Summary of the study
III.2 Limitations and Recommendations for further study
REFERENCES

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I. INTRODUCTION
I.1. Rationale
The acquisition of listening skills in a foreign language is a priority for
millions of learners in Vietnam. This is understandable as teaching English in
Vietnam aims to provide the students with the abilities to understand written
materials. What is more, English is taught and learned in a non- native
environment so listening is not only an important means to gain knowledge but
also a means by which further study takes place. According to Carrell (1984)
[1], for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four macro
skills, particularly in English as a second or a foreign language. This is also true
to the 11th form non- English majors at Nong Cong 3 high school because the
listening skill offers them a wide range of interesting information as well as a
variety of language expressions and structures, which are of great usefulness for
developing other skills.

Among the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, listening
is the most difficult. There are various reasons for this: students’ background
knowledge, their limited reservoir of vocabulary and structures, their lack of
preparations for the task, etc (Boyle, 1984) [5]. Many students have associated
listening courses with pain and boredom and usually complain that they benefit
little from listening lessons. Therefore, it is necessary for teachers of English
language to realize the importance of how to make listening classes more
interesting and know how to motivate students so that they can make progress
and feel interested in listening comprehension
In teaching and learning of listening skill, motivation is of great
usefulness and importance. It is easy to assume that if students are enhanced,
especially from the first minutes of the listening lesson, their listening tasks can
be completed more successfully. However, creating a motivated learning
environment for students in a students’ needs, interests, feelings, teachers’
listening techniques, the topic of the text, the text type.
For the teachers at Nong Cong 3 gifted school, they also have to take such
things into consideration to increase the students’ motivation for listening with
the hope of helping them to improve their listening skills.
It stands to reason that a good pre-listening stage can arouse the students’
interests in reading as well as can provide them some language preparation,
which can be helpful clues to their listening comprehension. It is also evident
that exploiting pre-listening techniques effectively for this stage is challenging
for teachers because they have to take things into account such as the objectives
of the lesson, the settings, the students’ needs, etc when delivering the
techniques. For the 11th form non- English majors at Nong Cong 3 school, the
listening with the ultimate goal is to help them to increase the listening skills.
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In spite of the teachers’ effort, the students’ motivation is sometimes low

and the listening lesson is said to be boring. This issue has brought the author a
desire to conduct a research study named “Applying the “questioning”
technique at the pre-listening stage to motivate the 11 th form students at Nong
Cong 3 High School”. In this study, I would like to introduce the “questioning
technique” to encourage students’ interest in listening lessons and assist them in
performing the listening tasks in the next stage more easily.
I.2. Aims of the study.
The study aims at:
- facilitate students’ process of learning listening skill
- giving some suggestions for implementing “questioning” techniques to
motivate the 11th students at the first stage in some listening sections of
the book ‘Tieng Anh 11’.
I.3. Scope of the study
The study only focuses on introducing the technique of “questioning”
through linguistic data given in the pre-listening stage and based on listening
contents in the textbook Tieng Anh 11 of the 11th form 11th students at Nong
Cong 3 school. From that, some models are given for teachers to improve
teaching listening skills and to motivate their students in and beyond the selected
context.
I.4. Methodology
I.4.1. Participants of the Study
The study was carried out with the participation of 125 11 th form students
from three classes 11A3, 11A4, 11A6 which are mainly specialized in
mathematics, physics and chemistry respectively. The students under
investigation are in the second term of grade 11. Their ages are between 16 or
17. They come from many communes of Nong Cong district and were selected
after an entrance exam in Mathematics, Literature and English.
The reason why I chose these students is that these classes have been
assigned with a relatively equal proportion of good, average and poor English
proficiency students and these classes are at different levels of English.

Moreover, it is convenient for me to observe these students who completed the
questionnaires in their classes. Hopefully, the students selected in this study
could be representatives for the 11th form non - English majors at Nong Cong 3
high school.
I.4.2. Method of the Study
In order to achieve the goal of the study, which was to encourage students’
interest in listening through the “questioning” technique, a questionnaire survey
and small interviews are chosen for this research.
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II. LITERATURE REVIEW
II.1.Theoretical background
II.1.1 Theory on listening
There are different points of view on the definition of listening:
Listening is an invisible mental process, making it difficult to describe.
Listeners must discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and
grammatical structures, interpret stress and intention, retain and interpret this
within the immediate as well as the larger socio-cultural context of the utterance
(Field, 1998, p.38).
Anderson and Lynch (1988,p.21) defines listening in a simpler way:
Listening comprehension means to understand what a speaker says: the
listener has a crucial part to play in the process by activating various types of
knowledge, by applying what he knows to what he hears and trying to
understand what the speaker means [2].
All in all, listening involves a multiplicity of skills. It is a complex, active
process of interpretation in which listeners match what they hear with what they
already know.
II. 1.2. Types of listening process.
Researchers agree that in listening, there are two simultaneous and

complementary ways of processing a text: top-down processing and bottom-up
processing.
In bottom-up processing, learners rely on their linguistic knowledge to
recognize linguistic elements- vowels, consonants, words, sentences to do the
construction of meaning. They build meaning from lower level sounds to words,
from grammatical relationships to lexical meanings in order to arrive at the final
message. In top-down processing, learners use their prior knowledge to make
predictions about the text.
Listening comprehension is not either top-down or bottom-up processing,
but an interactive, interpretive process where listeners use both prior knowledge
and linguistic knowledge in understanding messages. The degree to which
listeners use the one process or the other will depend on their knowledge of the
language, familiarity with the topic or the purpose for listening. Therefore,
teachers need to help students organize their thoughts, to activate appropriate
background knowledge for understanding and to make predictions, to prepare
for listening. This significantly reduces the burden of comprehension for the
listener.
II.1.3. Stages of a listening lesson.
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It is a common knowledge that a listening consists of three important
stages: pre-listening, white-listening and post-listening. Obviously, each
stage has its own characteristics and tim allocation.
 Pre-listening stage.
The stage is carried out before the students begin listening to the texts.
Obviously, it plays an essential part in the whole process of a listening lesson.
The purposes of the pre-listening stage are:
- To introduce and arouse interest in the topic
- To motivate learners by giving a reason for listening

- To provide some language preparation for the text
Normally, pre-listening phase often lasts from two to ten minutes depending
on each lesson. Before delivering activities for this stage, the teacher needs to
take the objectives of the lesson, the situation of teaching and learning, the
students’ needs into account.
 While- listening stage
While-listening stage is the main part of a listening lesson with the following
specific aims:
- To help understanding of the writer’s purpose
- To help understanding of the listening structure
- To clarify listening contents
The teacher, at the while- listening stage, needs to help their students
comprehend the text thoroughly while the students have to apply to the best their
listening skills to understand the text as well as the writer’ purposes conveyed
through the listening text. Apparently, time allocation for this is nearly two
thirds of the whole lesson.
 Post-listening stage.
It is the last step of a listening lesson so it is the time for students’
production. What they produce will reflect how well they comprehend the text.
The post-listening stage is aimed at consolidating or reflecting upon what has
been read and relating the text to the learners’ own knowledge, interests or
views’. Normally, it takes ten or fifteen minutes to complete all activities at this
stage.
To conclude, these above-mentioned stages are essential for a listening
lesson. Additionally, it is not necessary to carry out all these stages mechanically
on every occasion. However, being aware of the benefits of the pre-listening
stage the researcher intends to explore more about it.
II.1.4. Pre-listening phase and the role of pre-listening techniques
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II. 1.4.1. Pre-listening phase
This phase is carried before students begin listening. A “before –
listening” activity needs to be short - five or ten minutes. However, it depends
on each lesson. Before doing activities for this phase, the teacher needs to take
into account the objectives of the lesson, the situation of teaching and learning
and the student’s needs.
The purposes of the pre-listening phase are:
- To introduce and arouse interest in the topic
- To promote an active and flexible learning environment
- To help increase learners’ motivation for learning
- To motivate learners by giving a reason for listening
- To provide some language preparation for the text
II.1.4.2. The role of pre-listening techniques
In fact, it is difficult to ask students to listen to the tape straight away.
Without doing any activities before listening, students will certainly feel
discouraged. As a result, the passive attitude will keep students from making
progress in listening comprehension. These activities play an important role in
the whole process of teaching listening. Broughter (1978) [6] emphasizes that
pre-listening techniques keep students’ interest in learning and therefore,
improve their language competence. The pre-listening phase is considered to be
good if:
- The students are provided with language items necessary to understand
the listening text
- The students are interested in the topic and eager to explore it.
Actually, the teacher can employ various techniques to organize the prelistening stage such as:
- giving a brief introduction of the listening text
- giving pre-listening questions
- predicting the content of the listening text
- explaining the instructions of the text

- using a brainstorming web
However, from my experience, pre-listening questions or guiding
questions are the most necessary and easily-used because they give the students
“a reason to listen and to arise their desire for listening”. However, guiding
questions should be concerned with the general meaning or with the most
important points of the listening text.
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More importantly, pre-listening questions should be fairly easy to answer
and not too long.
II.1.5. The “Questioning” technique
Pre- questions help students understand the text by focusing attention on
key words and ideas. They are also intended to indicate the basic structure of the
text, and help students’ anticipation. Actually, asking students questions will
make them think about the topic before they listen. By doing so, students can
build on their prior knowledge and at the same time, use vocabulary and
structures that are connected with a particular function. Questioning activity can
do much in listening classes such as creating a relaxing atmosphere between the
teacher and the students, building the students’ confidence and having the thrill
of something spontaneous. Above all, it makes students feel interested and gets
them involved in the coming listening activities.
II.1.6. Textbook adaptation
II.1.6.1 Definitions of textbook adaptation
There are many ways to definite “textbook adaptation”
According to Ellis,M (1986:47) [3] “Adaptation is the process of
retaining, rejecting, reordering and modification”.
Meanwhile, Tomlinson (1998:58) [7] considered adaptation as the process
of reducing, adding, omitting, modifying and supplementing.
All in all, adapting textbook activities is not just something teachers

should do as the need arises but also to arouse the interest from students of
different levels.
II.1.6.2 Why and how to adapt textbooks
II.1.6.2.1 Reasons for textbook adaptation
Once teachers have accepted the idea that they can make changes to the
text, the decision to change has to be made based on the content of each activity.
While the objective of an activity may be important for students, its presentation
might be too simple or uninteresting for them. Of course, care is required before
making major changes to textbooks, since doing so could undermine the studentteacher relationship. Students might, for example, question the teachers’
judgment or resent paying for a textbook that is not fully used. Thus, deciding
wisely whether to use an activity (and if so, to use it as is or to modify it) or not
to use it (and then whether to simply omit the activity or replace it with another)
is the key to good textbook adaptation. Furthermore, if a decision has been made
to adapt an activity to better meet the needs of a particular classroom, the
teacher must have and be able to articulate a clear idea why the material in the
text needs to be made better. Among the reasons McGrath (2002) [8] offers
teachers to consider when they are contemplating adaptation of material are the
following:
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1• To localize it, by replacing a Western setting or context with local or
regional ones that let students focus more on language objectives, rather than on
the culture (e.g., preview a lesson on city life by showing and discussing with
students a photo of a local police officer before they read a text centered on a
British one).
2• To personalize it, by devising examples and activities that relate
directly to students, ones that reflect their academic or professional interests and
let them use their life experience and learned knowledge (e.g., help students
create menus in English featuring their favorite local dishes before they read a

text focusing on a Western restaurant menu).
3• To modernize it, by updating language or cultural settings that seem
out of date (e.g., read aloud or have students read a recent article in English on a
work-related issue, such as the use of mobile phones in the workplace, from an
online news source or local newspaper before they listen to a dialogue set in a
conventional office).
4• To simplify it, by streamlining procedures to make activities more
accessible. (e.g., edit texts to reduce linguistic difficulty or break down complex
tasks into more manageable pieces).
II.1.6.2.2. Methods of adapting
Any of the above aims can be useful in determining why to customize
textbook lessons; however, a teacher must also decide how to adapt an activity,
which can be especially difficult when time and resources are scarce. Followings
are the techniques to adapt textbook:
1• Re-ordering parts of a lesson or lessons within a unit. Example: If
many students in the class find the reading exercises difficult, start with the
lesson’s listening activity to introduce key ideas and vocabulary before they
begin the reading.
1• Reducing by cutting out activities that are not necessary for learners to
achieve the lesson’s objectives. For example: When doing in-class exercises on
what is usually considered a difficult grammar point, such as using relative
clauses as modifiers, move on before completing all of the exercises if the class
already “gets it” and doesn’t need further practice.
1• Adding more practice or other activities. For example: If, unlike in the
situation above, students are struggling with relative clauses, create simple
activities (e.g., have students work in groups to use relative clauses to write and
share descriptions of important people or places in the community).
1• Re-writing or replacing material with Internet-based or “home-grown”
resources. For example: After students skim a textbook reading on transport that
describes subway systems around the world, help them use the format of the

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article to write their own articles on the use of motor taxis, and trucks as means
of public transport.
II.2. Practical background: Factors that hinder students’ performance in
listening lessons and teachers’ task at Nong Cong 3 school
II.2.1 The teachers’ and students’ problems
Most of the teachers are willing and enthusiastic towards their teaching.
However, they all meet some difficulties when teaching at the school. First, the
teachers do not have enough materials, which are very necessary for both the
teachers and students at a specialized school where the requirement and the
demand is bigger than at any other school. The second difficulty is that the
teachers do not have chances to contact with native speakers or specialists who
can give very precious help and advice.
Therefore, the teachers may become less active and to some extent, the
students are bored with their way of teaching. It’s very necessary to find out how
far the students’ are satisfied with their lessons and then give some
recommendations and suggestions on the teachers’ way of teaching.
The school has about 1000 students who range from fifteen to eighteen.
They have three periods of English per week and each period lasts only 45
minutes which is rather short. The problem is that most of the students don’t
have a good command of English and this number of students is the majority.
Meanwhile some other students are very excellent at English. Therefore, it’s
very difficult for the teachers to make a balance in teaching these classes. As a
result, some of the students are not satisfied with their lessons.
There are also many other reasons why students find listening difficult.
Students do not have large enough vocabulary nor sufficient grasp of the
structures of English for the materials they are listening to. Another trouble that
influences students’ motivation is their background knowledge.

What’s more, one of the most common fear students have is that not
understanding a word will keep them from understanding the meaning of a
sentence. Finally, exercises in the listening classroom may also increase
students’ anxiety. They may feel a pressure, whether internal or external, to get
the right answer immediately.
For students, especially the students in a rural school with a low level of
proficiency, their main problem in learning listening is that they cannot fulfill a
listening task themselves without the help of the teachers. Their lack of
background knowledge prevents them from finding suitable ideas and forms for
different types of listening. Furthermore, they are confused in understanding
vocabulary and grammatical structures during listening lessons. They also lack
the skill of listening. These causes make many of the students feel bored with
learning listening skill and consider it a very difficult skill to master.
II.2.2. Some limitations of the Tieng Anh 11 text book [1]
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The Tieng Anh 11 textbook consists of 16 units organized broad topic:
friendship, personal experiences, a party, volunteer work, illiteracy,
competitions, world population, celebrations, the post office, nature in danger,
sources of energy, the Asian Games, hobbies, recreation, space conquest, the
wonders of the world. Each unit is divided into 5 parts: Reading, Speaking,
Listening, Writing and Language Focus. The teacher only covers one of the
above five parts in each period. After every three units, there is a TEST
YOURSELF, which provides some exercises for the students to do in order to
test how good they are at English. The listening texts in TIENG ANH 11 are
various. Many of them are not very difficult at all and the topics are very
interesting (Unit 1. Friendship, Unit 2. Personal experiences, Unit 3. A party,
Unit 6. Competitions, Unit 8. Celebrations, Unit 12. The Asian Games, Unit 13.
Hobbies, Unit 14. Recreation). However, some listening texts are difficult and

have too many new words, which can sometimes not be covered within a period
of only 45 minutes. They are unit 4, 5, 10, 11 and 12 focusing on such topics as
volunteer work, illiteracy, nature in danger, sources of energy and the Asian
Games respectively. All listening lessons are designed with pre-listening
activities, while- listening activities and post- listening activities.
Most pre-listening activities are “using pictures and questionnaires to
introduce the topic” or combining two of these. However, some questions are
either difficult or unsuitable to the topic of the listening lessons. Regardless of
the fact that questions given in the textbook are in such few number that students
find it difficult to take an interest in the lesson.
Therefore, it is necessary for all the teachers to organize, arrange and
apply some new activities to avoid boredom in the classroom.
In one word, it is obvious that there still exist the problems originated
from the teaching and learning process in reality mentioned above. However,
these problems can be solved to make the listening sections easier for both
teachers and students by applying the techniques of adaptation made by the
teachers’ flexibility.
II.3. Solutions to the problems
In this part, I would like to suggest the adaptation of pre-listening
activities in some sections by raising useful and topic-focused questions from
which such items as vocabulary, grammatical structures, the contents of the
listening text can be exploited and employed for the main listening task.
Instructing students how to listen, providing them with everything necessary for
their listening after questioning makes the listening task much easier for students
to carry out. From my practical teaching experience, applying the technique of
questioning is one of suitable, easily-used and convenient solutions to reduce the
difficulties encountered in teaching listening to students in a mixed- level class.
In addition, this technique can be used during all three stages of teaching and
normally teachers can reuse these effective pre- questions in the post-listening
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phase as a key tool in guiding their students to summarize their lesson. Last but
not least, it doesn’t take much time to design and to deliver as well as it is not
difficult to handle. Therefore, despite its popularity and somewhat boredom, the
advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
II.4.1. An overview of listening sections in the book “Tieng Anh 11”
Table 4.1. Check list of writing tasks in the Textbook “Tieng Anh 11”[1]
Units

Required tasks

Questions in prelistening stage

Unit 1

Monologue:

Available, suitable

Friendship

- Deciding on True or False
statements
- Listening and taking notes

Unit 2

Dialogue:

No questions

Personal experiences - Deciding on True or False
statements
- Gap-filling
Unit 3
A party

Monologue:

Available but not
- Deciding on True or False enough
statements
- Comprehension questions

Unit 4

Monologue:

Volunteer work

- Gap-filling

No questions

- Comprehension questions
Unit 5

Monologue:

Illiteracy

- Extensive listening: multiplechoice questions

Available

- Comprehension questions
Unit 6
Competitions

Monologue:

Available but not
- Deciding on True or False enough
statements
- Comprehension questions

Unit 7
World population

Monologue:

Available but not
- Extensive listening: multiple- enough
choice questions
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- Comprehension questions
- Summarizing main ideas

Unit 8

Dialogue:

Celebrations

- Selective listening

No questions

- Comprehension questions
Unit 9

Monologue:

The post office

- Extensive listening: multiplechoice questions

Available, OK

- Comprehension questions
Unit 10

Monologue:

Nature in danger

- Deciding on True or False
statements

No questions

- Comprehension questions
Unit 11

Monologue:

Sources of energy

- Extensive listening: multiplechoice questions

No questions

- Gap-filling
Unit 12

Monologue:

The Asian Games

- Extensive listening: multiplechoice questions

Available, OK

- Comprehension questions
Unit 13

Monologue:

Hobbies

- Deciding on True or False
statements

No questions

- Gap-filling
Unit 14

Monologue:

Recreation

- Deciding on True or False
statements

No questions

- Comprehension questions
Unit 15

Monologue:

Space conquest

- Deciding on True or False
statements

No questions

- Comprehension questions
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Unit 16

- Gap-filling

Available, OK

The wonders of the - Comprehension questions
world
II.5. Application of “Questioning” technique in some listening sections in
the textbook “Tieng Anh 11”
In my opinion, each technique has its own upside and downside and we
can not apply one technique in all lessons nor should we use too many tips in
one lesson.
In listening sections of the textbook “English 11”, questions are mostly
given in the pre-listening stage. However, I sometimes find it unsuitable and not
much related to the main topic. Besides, although some of them are relatively
good but to make the lessons more effective and exciting, I would like to change
some of them to avoid the boredom among classes.
We can using the “questioning technique” in many ways such as :
- using pictures
- organizing games
- giving hands-out in which many kinds of questions are presented
- interviewing
- showing a video
- providing an unexpected model

- setting the scene
- ………………………………
Thanks to the variety of methods mentioned above, a flexible and creative
teacher can frequently apply and change. As a result of this, tediousness during
the lesson can be remarkably reduced. Moreover, questions are often used
during the whole lesson.
With over ten-years’ practical teaching experience, I would rather suggest
some ways I employed in the textbook “Tieng Anh 11”. I find these, to some
extent, effective and especially applicable in mixed-level classes in general and
in those at Nong Cong 3 School in particular. Followings are my procedure in
the pre-listening stage:
1. Unit 2. Personal Experiences
Applying questioning techniques by using and exploiting the picture
given in the textbook at the same time
a. Aims: By the end of this phase, students will be able to listen for
specific information about the fire and understand the whole passage after
listening
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b. Time suggested to apply this technique: 7 minutes
c. Procedure:
The listening lesson focuses on the fire which is one of the most
unforgettable experiences that Christina has met in her life. The fire took place
at her house.
In the pre-listening stage, the textbook provides a useful picture which
helps teachers teach some new words easily such as firemen (fire fighter), fire
truck or to put out,…
However, to make the lesson more-centered and organizational, the
teacher should combine the picture and asking the questions at the same time to

exploit the listening content. Questions should be arranged in time order of the
fire:
-

What is it?

-

When did the fire happen?

-

Where did the fire happen?

- What are the mothers and the girls doing? → they are getting away or
they are trying to escape from the fire
- How did they feel at that time? → they felt terrified
- What were they doing when the fire happened?
- Why did it happen? → Her mother forgot to turn off the gas store
- Did the fire take many things from her?
- How did the girl feel after the fire? -> She appreciated things more
(The underlined words are new ones that students need to be taught)
By doing so, teachers have naturally guided students to gasp the overall
idea of the listening lesson. They can imagine the situation when, where and
how the fire took place…As a result, students feel more confident and
excited to learn.
2. Unit 3. A party
The studied method is used basing on students’ memory about their
previous birthday party or their plan about the coming one.
a. Aims: After being questioned, students are ready to decide on True or

False statements of the text and can answer the questions related to the party.
b. Time suggested: 5 minutes
c. Procedure:
In this lesson, some questions are available but I’d rather add some more to
assist students to bear in their mind what is going to be listened
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The questions in the textbook are:
- When do you like to organize your birthday, during the day or evening?
- What foods and drinks are often served at your birthday party?
- What activities do you often have at your birthday party?
Some of my additional questions:
- Where do you do like to hold a party? Why?
- How many people do you plan to invite and who are they?
- How do you feel after the party?
One reason for my extra questions above is that listening text is about
Mai’s birthday party in which the place and people invited to the party are
mentioned, which helps students think about and find the answer easily when
doing task 1.
Another reason is that this assists students much in remembering and
summarizing the listening content after doing the two tasks required.
Accordingly, they can tell about the plans on their next birthday party in front
of the class.
3. Unit 7. World population
a. Aims: Pre-questions here assist students in developing extensive listening
skills for specific information. Also, students can predict the listening
content.
b. Time suggested: 7 minutes
c. Procedure: The questioning technique used in this lesson is based on the

teacher’s knowledge about the world population.
The outstanding point of this listening lesson is two meaningful questions
given in the textbook. With these two questions, teachers are successful at
introducing about the input material: overpopulation. They are:
- Do you think that our world is overpopulated?
- What continent has the largest population?
However, these are only a small part of the listening text. Therefore, the
following questions are suggested with the aim of helping students narrow
down the topic and concentrate on listening:
- How many people are there in the world today?
- What are the main reasons for population explosion?
- And what should we do to solve this problem?

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Teachers can write down the answers in brief on the board so that students
can easily follow, remember and can use them in the post-listening stage as
well.
While asking the above questions, new words (which are underlined) are
taught as follows:
- Questions: “How many people are there in the world today?”; “What
continent has the largest population?” -> Latin American ranks first ;
Experts calculated that the population of the world could be over 7 billion
by the year 2010.
- Question: “What are the main reasons for population explosion?” ->
introducing the word “illiteracy”
- Question: “What should we do to solve this problem?” -> make people
aware of ………; provide inexpensive birth-control methods; implement
a family planning policy …..

In my view, students are well –prepared for the listening text thanks to
these questions.
4. Unit 8. Celebrations
a. Aims: Students can imagine what the New Year in Japan might like and are
able to listen and pick up specific details.
b. Time suggested:8 minutes
c. Procedure:
In this unit, I’d like to apply the “questioning” technique through the
mining game. This can be carried out as follows: At home I will prepare
some cards on which some activities the Japanese often do on their New
Year’s Days have already been written. They are:
Card 1: wearing special clothes
Card 2: preparing special food, fruits
preparation ( a pine tree)

….. (some peaches) or special

Card 3: going to the shrine (picture)
Card 4: people praying
Card 5: drinking rice wine
Card 6: watching television
On teaching in the classroom, I am going to divide the students in two
groups. Students from each group will go to the board and do some actions
written on the cards prepare by me. Questions are asked while and after the
students do the miming. Accordingly, some necessary new words are
introduced as follows:
Card 1: Making a sentence: Japanese people often put on kimonos
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Card 2: - Showing a picture: a pine tree
-Asking students: What does a pine tree represent for?
(“represent” means “to symbolize”)
- Making a sentence: It represents longevity and constancy
(On board: longevity: long life; constancy: sự kiên định)
(The underlined words are new words needed to teach for students)
The rest cards (card 3, 4, 5, 6) are aimed at warming up the atmosphere in
the classroom and arousing students’ interest in the lesson. They may be made
fun of by mining actions their friends do and therefore, are excited about the
lesson.
In one word, by questioning, students can envisage what the Japanese do
before and during the New Year and learn some more new words
simultaneously.
5. Unit 10. Nature in danger (Using questioning technique by giving handsout with some multiple-choice questions)
a. Aims: Students will be able to predict what they are going to listen. They
can understand the general ideal and pick up the specific ones
b. Time suggested: 5 minutes
c. Procedure:
This listening section provides neither questions nor pictures. Therefore, it
is essential for teachers to use pre-listening techniques to provide necessary
language items and encourage students to listen.
For a start, teachers can ask students some relating questions such as:
- Why have any national parks in the United States been founded?
- Can you tell me some danger these national parks can face with?
For these two questions above, answers are not important. My purpose
here is to help students narrow down the topic of listening.
Next, I distribute some hands-out with multiple choice questions. This is
intended to help students prepare for listening to specific information in the
lesson.
Here is the hands-out:

1. How many national parks are there in the US?
A. 50

B. 52

C. 53

D. 55

2. Do national parks protect and preserve the natural beauty of the land?
A. Yes

B. No
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3. Which of the followings are the problems that national parks are currently
facing?
A. Having animals are killed or hunted for fur, skin or other parks
B. Trees are cut down for food
C. Devastating fires are caused by careless people
D. All the correct
4. What should be done to protect national parks?
A. Increase the numbers of visitors to earn more money for the parks.
B. These problems should be solved gradually
C. Money should be raised for the park’s staff and maintenance of their
resources.
D. If there is not enough money, some national parks should be destroyed.
After finishing the hands-out, it is certain that students can envisage the
listening content

6. Unit 11: Sources of energy
a. Aims: Students can remember sources of energy, some new words and are
ready to listen to the tape for specific and general information.
b. Time suggested: 8 minutes
c. Procedure: In this lesson, I plan to use the questioning technique by
organizing a competition game “Word Search”. Questions are raised simply to
guide the students to take part in the game.
I divide the class into small groups of 3-4 students. Then I distribute the
following puzzle handout for students to do in their groups. Which group
finishes first and has all the correct answers will be the winner.
Find the words hidden in this puzzle. The words go across, up, down,
backward and diagonally.
SOURCES OF ENERGY
R

E

C

O

L

O

G

I

S

T

E

E

A

S

C

V

B

E

O

L

N

O

S

A

E

U

O

N

H

A

E

N

E

O

C

E

A

N

E

N

W

R

A

S

U

N

F

U

N

D

A

L

I

N

G

R

A

S

S

T
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B

O

O

S

A

I

C

E

I

H

L

Q

O

U

E

N

H

E

M

E

E

A

I

S

F

G

H

I

S

I

U

N

L

I

M

I

T

E

D

W

After finding, some words are revealed including resources, renewable,
unlimited, ecologist, ocean, land, sun, grass. They are shown in bold as follows:
R

E

C

O

L

O

G

I

S

T

E

E

A

S

C

V

B

E

O

L

N

O

S

A

E

U

O

N

H

A

E

N

E

O

C

E

A

N

E

N

W

R

A

S

U

N

F

U

N

D

A

L

I

N

G

R

A

S

S

T

B

O

O

S

A

I

C

E

I

H

L

Q

O

U

E

N

H

E

M

E

E

A

I

S

F

G

H

I

S

I

U

N

L

I

M

I

T

E

D

W

Some of the words are new ones (renewable, ecologist, resources). Only
some excellent can find these or even none of them can identify them. However,
this is of no importance because it is the teacher’s duty to help students find

these and understand the meaning of the words.
After organizing the game, I intend to raise another question: “What
sources of energy are renewable or nonrenewable ?”. This question is for
students to predict what they are going to listen. Teachers can check the answers
during the while-listening or post-listening stage.
7. Unit 12. The Asian Games (Adapting the question technique by showing
a video clip)
a. Aims: Students can listen to specific information about the 22 nd Sea Game
sports
b. Time suggested: 6 minutes
c. Procedure:
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In this listening lesson, I intend to show a short clip on the 22 nd Sea Game
in which some sports are played such as gymnastics, running, swimming and
bar-jumping and points and records set by the participants.
After students watch the clip, I ask them questions that are similar to the
content of the listening lesson and introduce new words as well.
For example, for swimming performance, I introduce the phrase “to set a
record time of….” and “win a medal”.
In the gymnastics event, the phrase “get an average of………” is also
introduced.
Questions can be asked after using the clip:
- What are the names of the sports shown?
- How many gold medals have been won in swimming event?
- What points did she get in her gymnastics event?
- How did the participants feel after finishing their performance?
By using the above questions, students are encouraged to listen to
information in detail in the listening lessons like the time, the point and the

numbers of medals recorded. Therefore, they may find it easier to remember
the content.
8. Unit 13. Hobbies
a. Aims: After pre-listening stage, students will feel more curious and eager
to listen. Besides, they are well-prepared for listening to both specific and
general ideas.
b. Time suggested: 6 minutes
c. Procedure:
In this unit, I am going to use questions through brainstorming activities.
What future plan?
How useful

Reading as a
hobby

Why collected

How to classify
Questions are specifically raised as follows:

How to collect
How to keep an classify
When started

- Name: what is the name of your collection?
- How to collect: how do you collect books?

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- How to keep: how do you keep books? On the book shelf or on the table
in a separated room?
- When started: when did you begin to collect books?
- How classified: do you classify books or not? And how? According to the
initial letter of the book’s name or basing on the different subjects the
books focus on
- Why collected: why do you like collecting books?
- What future plans: what are you going to do with your collection in the
future?
II.6. Results
After employing the questioning technique in listening periods, some
encouraging results have been shown. For students, I realized that pre-questions
are among the most useful methods which help the students understand the basic
listening content. The students can develop naturally and actively to receive the
knowledge. In addition, most of my students have made considerable progress in
practicing the listening skill in class because they felt more motivated and ready
before listening to the text. Needless to say, the students could concentrate on
their lesson. They found it easy to perceive, practice and use the new language
item with confidence and creativity. Thanks to these, the atmosphere in the
classroom was more exciting and interesting. Since then our students have been
fond of listening lessons.
For teachers, I could save a lot of time from trying to present or
explaining a new language item and exploit the lessons effectively as well. More
importantly, I found this technique easy to handle especially in such mixed-level
classes as those at Nong Cong 3 school.
In general, all the students showed their pleasure in the lessons with new
and different listening activities from those in the textbook. The new in my
methods and techniques of teaching has aroused students’ curiosity. Some of the
students interviewed affirmed that they felt more excited and were looking
forward to the listening lessons than ever before. They loved games, pictures

and questions the teacher applied in the lessons.
Thus, with my practical teaching experience and the students’ positive
attitude towards from the interview and my observation in the classroom while
teaching, I am certain to conclude that adaption is of great essential and
usefulness to encourage the students’ involvement in listening activities.

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III. CONCLUSION
III.1 Summary of the study
The teachers as well as the students at Nong Cong 3 School often face with
difficulties in teaching and learning listening skills. One of the most typical
problems is the lack of motivation for listening. Being a teacher for some years,
I as well as my colleagues am fully aware of the necessary role of pre-listening
techniques. All of us, teachers, try to use different techniques to encourage our
students to learn, especially at the very first stage of the lesson that may exert
influence on the students’ motivation for listening, meanwhile, the students are
not always actively involved in exerting their listening activities.
Pre-listening techniques play an essential role in motivating students for
listening. However, pre-listening activities used by the teachers are not always
effective in arousing the students’ interest. What pre-listening techniques the
teachers apply somewhat differ from the students’ preferences.
To better the situation, the teachers need to take into careful consideration
such things as students’ needs, feelings, interests, background knowledge and
their levels of English proficiency. More specifically, the teachers should make
efforts to adopt various techniques flexibly and appropriately when any kinds of
techniques are applied at the first stage of a listening lesson.
Of all the techniques, I only concentrate on investigating and using the
questioning one, which I try to make use of adopting in many listening lessons

in the textbook “English 11”. Although teachers can come up with more
excellent ideas and apply a variety of useful methods, questioning, to some
extent, in my opinion, is the most convenient and available one. Even in a
minute can we ask a mass of questions without any preparation at home before.
As a result, it helps us save time and energy.
Finally, it is hoped that some questions suggested in the pre-listening stage
can make a modest contribution to develop and improve the teaching and
learning of English listening skills at Nong Cong 3 School.
III.2 Limitations and Recommendations for further study.
In most research projects, limitations are inevitable, and this study is of no
exception.
Firstly, due to limited time and knowledge, my study only focuses on using
the questioning technique to motivate students at the first stage of listening. I
have not yet discussed about the while - and post - listening techniques.
Secondly, on account of the scope of the study and with certain ability, the
research is only on teachers’ techniques at the “before” listening phase, not focus
on other factors that may impact students’ motivation such as students’ language
aptitude, students’ interests and feelings, etc.
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Last but not least, I haven’t covered all the methods of adjustment as
amended, removed or reduced…, which are also very effective if used in stages
of listening.
This technique is only written for grade 11 students, other methods for
students at lower or higher level, therefore, may be a good subject for further
research.
CONFIRM
OF THE HEAD OF THE UNIT

Thanh Hoa, May 15th, 2019
COMMITMENTS DO NOT COPY

Vũ Ngọc Văn

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REFERENCES
1. Textbook “English 11” (2007), Education Press.
2. Anderson A. & Lynch T. (1988), “Listening”, Oxford, Oxford University
Press.
3. Ellis.M. (1984). “Factors affecting listening comprehension”, ELT Journal.
4. Carrell. (1994), “Teaching English as a Foreign Language”, London,
Longman
5. Boyle G (1978), “Teaching by principles”, Pren Hall Regents
6. Broughter (1989), “Towards a new methodology for listening”, Oxford,
Oxford University Press
7. Tomlinson.D (1972) “Attitude and motivation in Second Language Learning”,
Mass-Newsbury House
8. Mc Grath (2002) “Listening Activities for effective top-down processing”,
Oxford University Press

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