A study on problems 10th grade students at hung yen high school encounter when doing comprehension questions in english listening exercises and some suggested solutions

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

ĐỖ THỊ THÚY

A STUDY ON PROBLEMS 10TH GRADE STUDENTS AT
HUNG YEN HIGH SCHOOL ENCOUNTER WHEN DOING
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH LISTENING
EXERCISES AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS
(Nghiên cứu về những vấn đề học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Hưng
Yên gặp phải khi làm những câu hỏi nghe hiểu trong phần bài tập
nghe tiếng anh và một số giải pháp khắc phục)

M.A. Minor Programme Thesis

Field:

English Teaching Methodology

Code:

60.140.111

HANOI - 2014


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

******

ĐỖ THỊ THÚY

A STUDY ON PROBLEMS 10TH GRADE STUDENTS AT
HUNG YEN HIGH SCHOOL ENCOUNTER WHEN DOING
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH LISTENING
EXERCISES AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS
(Nghiên cứu về những vấn đề học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Hưng
Yên gặp phải khi làm những câu hỏi nghe hiểu trong phần bài tập
nghe tiếng anh và một số giải pháp khắc phục)

M.A. Minor Programme Thesis

Field:

English Teaching Methodology

Code:

60.140.111

Supervisor: Prof. Nguyễn Hòa

HANOI - 2014


DECLARATION
I - Đỗ Thị Thúy, a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (TEFL) hereby state
that I accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of

Master‟s Graduation Paper deposited in the library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the
library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance
with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or
reproduction of the paper.
Signature

Đỗ Thị Thuý

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This section brings me a favourable chance to express my profound
indebtedness to a number of people whose invaluable support and encouragement
were of great help in the completion of my thesis.
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my
supervisor, Prof. Nguyen Hoa, for his insightful guidance, constructive advice as
well as critical comments during almost one year of the research process. Without
his tireless support, this thesis could not have been completed.
Secondly, my special thanks go to my respected colleagues at Hung Yen
high school for their kindness of saving me much time to pursue the study.
I would also like to acknowledge forty tenth graders at Hung Yen high
school for their full participation and cooperation during the data collection process.
Last but not least, my special words of thanks are sent to my beloved family
and my roommates in the hostel of ULIS, VNU for their constant encouragement,
inspiration and unconditional love.

ii

ABSTRACT
The present study entitled “A study on problems 10th grade students at Hung Yen
high school encounter when doing comprehension questions in English listening
exercises and some suggested solutions” was conducted to examine the difficulties
of tenth graders at the local high school when dealing with English listening
comprehension questions in the course book 10 and also give some pedagogical
implications for the teachers at the research site. The study used questionnaires and
interviews for the collection of quick, valid, and updated data from the respondents.
There were four prevailing problems which coincidentally emerged from both
questionnaires and interviews namely new words, fast speech rate, speakers‟
unclear pronunciation and inability to recognize words that students already know.
From these findings, some suggestions were given to help the teachers improve
their teaching of listening comprehension skills at high school.

iii


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Declaration ................................................................................................................ i
Acknowledgements .................................................................................................. ii
Abstract ................................................................................................................... iii
Table of contents ..................................................................................................... iv
List of abbreviations ............................................................................................... vii
List of charts .......................................................................................................... viii
INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................1
1. Rationale ...................................................................................................1

2. Aims of the study ......................................................................................2
3. Significance of the study ............................................................................3
4. Scope of the study ......................................................................................3
5. Method of the study ...................................................................................3
6. Design of the study ....................................................................................3
DEVELOPMENT ...................................................................................................4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Definition of key terms ..........................................................................4
1.1.1. Listening ....................................................................................4
1.1.2. Listening problems ....................................................................4
1.1.3. Listening exercise......................................................................5
1.2. Listening comprehension questions .......................................................5
1.2.1. Basic comprehension ...............................................................6
a. Gist questions .................................................................................6

iv


b. Detailed questions ...........................................................................6
1.2.2. Pragmatic understanding..........................................................7
c. Pragmatic understanding questions ................................................7
1.2.3. Connecting information ............................................................8
d. Organization questions ...................................................................8
e. Relationship quesions......................................................................8
1.3. The process of listening comprehension ...............................................10
1.4. Review of previous studies ..................................................................11
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODS
2.1. Context of teaching and learning English at Hung Yen high school ....14
2.2. Participants ...........................................................................................14
2.3. Data collection methods ........................................................................15

2.3.1. Questionnaires ........................................................................16
2.3.2. Semi-structured interview .......................................................17
2.4. Data collection procedures ....................................................................17
2.5. Data analysis methods and procedures .................................................19
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. Data from the questionnaires ................................................................20
3.2. Data from the interview ........................................................................30
CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................36
1. Summary of the study ..............................................................................36
2. Pedagogical implications .........................................................................37
3. Limitations of the study ...........................................................................39

v


4. Suggestions for further studies .................................................................39
REFERENCES .....................................................................................................40
APPENDICES ......................................................................................................... I

vi


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
L2: Second language
EFL: English as a Foreign Language
MOET: Ministry of Education and Training

vii

LIST OF CHARTS
Chart 1: Message-related problems
Chart 2: Speaker-related problems
Chart 3: Listener-related problems
Chart 4: Physical setting problems

viii


INTRODUCTION
The initial chapter encompasses five sections. Starting with the rationale, it
continues with setting the research‟s aims, its significance, scope and method,
followed by the design of the study in the last section.
1. Rationale
No one can deny the great important role of listening. According to Gilakjani and
Ahmadi (2011), “of the total time spent on communicating, listening takes up 4050%, speaking 25-30%, reading 11-16%, and writing about 9%”. Likewise,
Stepanovienė (2012) and Wolvin and Coakley (1988) claimed that listening was the
skill most frequently used in both the classroom and daily life.
Remarkably, Tomoko Kurita (2012) considered listening as “the heart of language
learning” because it makes significant contributions to the development of other
language skills. Specifically, it helps enhance vocabulary, develop language
proficiency and improve language usage (Barker, 1971). Moreover, as Stepanovienė
(2012) noted, “students‟ ability to comprehend written material through reading as
well as to express themselves through speaking and written communication are
directly related to students‟ maturity in the listening phase of language
development”. Likewise, according to Dunkel (1986), developing proficiency in
listening comprehension is “the key to achieving proficiency in speaking”.
In spite of its significant role, listening has been regarded as the most difficult
language skill by L2 learners so far (Hasan, 2000; Graham, 2003). Many authors
share the same opinion that all the L2 learners face problems when listening to the

target language (Velička 2007, Kavaliauskienė 2008 and Abedin 2010). Some
obstacles have been discovered by various studies of such authors as Goh (2000),
Stepanovienė (2012), Hamouda (2013), Wu (2013)..., and Phung, T. H. T. (2008).

1


However, none of the researchers above investigate students‟ problems in a
particular kind of listening tasks. In addition , their research subjects are mainly
students of tertiary level, not high school students.
As an effort to fill in the gap, the current study is conducted on “problems that 10th
grade students at Hung Yen high school encounter when doing comprehension
questions in English listening exercises and some suggested solutions”.
Specifically, the study will pinpoint common difficulties of English learners when
they deal with short-answer questions. This kind of listening task is chosen because
it is one of the three most common listening tasks in the current tenth grade
textbook namely short-answer questions, gap filling and True/ False questions.
Moreover, according to Supornsirisin (2007), “the question-answer approach is one
of the most frequently used ways of giving language practice in the classroom.
Similarly, in testing listening skills, very often a teacher gives students questions in
order to test their listening ability”. Further, the survey results (see Appendix 2)
showed that the local students found short-answer questions the most problematic.
This survey‟s finding was also in accordance with that of Le, S.‟s (2013) study.
By investigating problems of 10th graders at Hung Yen high school when they deal
with short-answer listening comprehension questions, the researcher hopes to offer
some new and useful information that the predecessors have not found out.
2. Aims of the study
The research is conducted to pinpoint most common difficulties, underlying reasons
and then generate pedagogical implications for the local teachers to overcome the
existing drawbacks.

With these aims, the study finds answers to the following research question:
What are the problems that 10th graders at Hung Yen high school encounters when
doing comprehension questions in English listening exercises?

2


3. Significance of the study
The awareness of problems that students encounter when doing English listening
comprehension questions in the listening exercises would benefit teachers. First,
they will know what hinders their students‟ listening comprehension most in this
kind of exercise. Then, they can modify their teaching methods and take necessary
treatment measures to improve their students‟ listening ability.
4. Scope of the study
Due to time constraints, instead of dealing with all kinds of exercises available in
the current English course book of grade ten, the study only focuses on shortanswer questions. Besides, the investigation is carried out with a modest sample of
forty tenth grade students at Hung Yen high school.
5. Method of the study
The selected methods are qualitative and quantitative data analysis. First, the
questionnaire is used to get information about problems that students face when
they deal with short-answer listening comprehension questions. Then a semistructured interview will be applied to elicit hidden reasons for students‟ difficulties
and some possible solutions to overcome those perceived drawbacks.
6. Organization of the study
The study consists of three parts. In the first part, the author gives the reasons for
choosing the topic, the research‟s aims and a brief description of its significance,
scope, method and organization. Nextly, the second part includes three chapters.
Chapter one covers an in-depth review of the literature. Chapter two clarifies the
research methods while chapter three demonstrates the findings and further
discussion. Lastly, the summary of the research, pedagogical implications,
limitations and suggestions for further studies are discussed in the Conclusion part.

3


DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter gives an overview of the literature related to the present study. In the
chapter, definitions of key terms (listening, listening problems and listening
exercise), selected theoretical background about listening comprehension questions
and the process of listening comprehension are respectively presented. Then comes
the review of problems that L2 students face in English listening comprehension.
1.1.

Definition of terms

1.1.1. Listening
There are many different ways to define listening. Despite some slight variations in
its definitions, listening can be generally understood as “a language skill involving a
wide range of “sub-skills”. It is more than simply hearing; it is “decoding” sounds
and understanding the meaning behind those sounds.” (Forseth, 1996)
It should be added that English learning process includes four skills namely writing,
speaking, reading and listening. The last skill can be also referred to as listening
comprehension, “the skill of being able to understand the oral messages that people
transmit” (Landa & Santos 2003). Listening comprehension is, then, a complete
process that a learner hopes to acquire when she or he manages the listening skill
successfully.
1.1.2. Listening problems
In the current study, the author adopts Goh‟s (2000) definition of listening problems
as “the internal and external characteristics that might interrupt text understanding
and real-life processing barriers directly related to cognitive procedures that take

place at various stages of listening comprehension” (as cited in Hamouda, 2013).

4


1.1.3. Listening exercise
Oxford dictionary defines “exercise” in two senses. First, it is “an activity requiring
physical effort, carried out to sustain or improve health and fitness”. Second, it is
“an activity carried out for a specific purpose”. In this paper, the term will be
understood in the second meaning. Particularly, “exercise” is “a task set to practise
or test a skill”.
The following section will further discuss the concept of “a task” to have a full
understanding about “listening exercise”.
Bygate et al. (2001) defined a task as an activity which requires learners to use
language, with emphasis on meaning, to attain an objective.
Rost (2002) supposed that although there are many ways to define a task, there is a
convergence at three points. First, a task is a fundamental “learning structure”,
designed for the purposes of increasing learning. Second, a task involves distinct
input (oral and/ or visual), a clear set of procedures, and a tangible outcome. Third, a
task can be monitored and evaluated by the teacher, who can provide some forms of
feedback and evaluation on performance.
1.2.

Listening comprehension questions

Like other skills, listening skills can be measured through the use of different types of
tools. Some of the tasks commonly used to test listening comprehension are True/
False questions, multiple-choice, gap-filling summary, cloze test, dictation and openended or short-answer questions. The following section will focus on the last one.
Supornsirisin, K. (2007) proposed some strengths and weaknesses of this type of
task. Regarding the former, open-ended questions have no guessing problems that

are great troubles of multiple choice or T/ F questions. Moreover, open-ended
questions are easy to write and they permit the test constructors to ask any questions.
Hence, they play an important role in testing listening comprehension.

5


In terms of the latter, Supornsirisin (2007) stated that “open-ended questions are not
easy to score because more than one answer can be reasonably interpreted as
correct”. Besides, this kind of task may confuse test-takers if there is no sufficient
indication of how much information should be included in the answer (Buck, 1990).
Corresponding to the three level comprehension assessment given by Weir
(1993)

namely

“Direct

meaning

comprehension”,

“Inferred

meaning

comprehension” and “Contributory meaning comprehension”, Philips (2006)
suggested five types of listening comprehension questions as follows:
1.2.1. Basic Comprehension
As being defined by Supornsirisin, K. (2007), basic comprehension questions are

“ those intended to elicit the entire answer which is in the passage”. They are
grouped into 2 kinds including gist questions and detailed ones.
a. Gist questions
Gist questions ask about the overall ideas of a passage as a whole. They require
students to identify the subject, the topic, main ideas or overall purpose of a
passage by hearing the direct statement in the passage, or by synthesizing
information from different parts of the passage. The following are typical
questions of this type.
- What is the subject of the passage?
-

What is the topic of the passage?

-

What is the main idea of the passage?

-

What is the purpose of the passage?

b. Detailed questions
Detailed questions ask about specific pieces of information that are stated in a
passage, exemplified by the two questions below.
6


- What is stated in the passage?
- What is indicated in the passage?
1.2.2. Pragmatic Understanding

Questions at the level of pragmatic understanding consist of one question type,
called pragmatic understanding questions.
c. Pragmatic understanding questions
Pragmatic understanding questions may ask students to identify either the
purpose or the stand and attitude of the speakers.
To deal with the former, students need to understand not just what the speaker
said but why the speaker said it. In other words, they must listen to what is said
in a particular context and draw a conclusion about the speaker‟s purpose in
saying it; for example, to apologize, explain, clarify a point, change a topic,
indicate a change of opinion, or suggest a new action (Supornsirisin, 2007). A
typical wording of this question type is:
- Why does the speaker say this?
Regarding the latter, students are often asked about the speaker‟s feelings, such
as “positive or negative, happy or sad, impressed or unimpressed, or
enthusiastic or bored” about a particular topic. To identify how he or she feels,
learners must combine what they hear with the context and also the way the
utterance is made because the speaker hardly reveals directly about his or her
feelings. Below are examples of this question type.
- What is the attitude, opinion, point of view of the speaker?
- Select the sentence that best expresses how the speaker feels.
- What does the speaker mean?

7


1.2.3. Connecting information
Questions about connecting information involve a number of ideas rather than a
single detail. These questions are categorized into two types encompassing
organization questions and relationship questions.
d. Organization questions

Organization questions ask about the organization of the ideas. They may
specifically ask about how the heard information is organized, or they may ask
students to fill out a chart that shows the organization. It is noteworthy that this
type of question is based on an understanding of the main points and how they
are organized rather than on a single point, as demonstrated below.
- How is the information in the passage organized?
- Please fill a chart to show the organization of the passage.
e. Relationship questions
Relationship questions ask about how different ideas or pieces of information
in the passage are related. Examples of this question type are shown below.
- What is most likely…...?
- What is implied……?
- What can be inferred……?
Apart from the five types of questions mentioned above, Shohamy and
Inbar (1991) suggested three types of questions to assess the learners‟ listening
ability according to the variety of answers presented in the passage. The first
type of question is the global question which requires students to synthesize
information, draw conclusions and focus on cause and effect relationships and
inferences. The second type is the local question which requires students to
locate details, understand single words with contextual support, paraphrase or
8


recognize facts.

The last type of question is the trivial question which

requires students to understand precise details which are not related to the
main topic. Trivial questions are a subcategory of local questions and usually
relate to numerical details such as numbers, dates, and percentages or names of

people and places which are not directly related to the main topic.
Similarly, Davey (1988) proposed three types of questions to assess
different levels of comprehension based on the different kinds of answer.
First, replication questions require students to answer either word for word or
with only minor changes in the lexical form of the text. The answers to these
questions could be found within a single sentence of the text which can be
underlined or copied. These questions involve finding information about
who, what, when, and where. Next, synthesis questions require students to
connect the information which spreads across the sentences, or paragraphs
of the text.

This type of question requires an understanding of the

relationships in the text such as cause and effect, sequence, comparison and
contrast or the topic and sub-topic. The answers have been found in more
than one place. Finally, according to Buck (2001), inference questions which
require students to make a deduction, inference, or implication from what they
understand of the text message, integrated with their own background
knowledge can be utilized at many levels of language processing. In another
way, inference questions may be used to ask information which is not clearly
stated but indicated by the speaker by using choice of words or tone of voice or
asking the meaning of indirect speech acts.
The three types of questions proposed by Davey above are also known as
literal comprehension questions, reinterpretation questions and inference
questions respectively (Nuttal, 1996). Like replication questions, literal
comprehension questions require answers that are explicitly presented in a
text or contained in the words of a text.

9

Reinterpretation questions or


Davey‟s

synthesis

questions

require students

to reinterpret or obtain

information from various parts of a text and put it together. Inference
questions so named by both Davey and Nuttal, need answers that are not stated
explicitly but require listeners to draw a conclusion from the available
information. Among various ways to name and group listening comprehension
questions, the author of the current paper is in favor of the last one.
1.3.

The process of listening comprehension

Modes of listening process fall in three types encompassing bottom-up, top-down
and interactive processing (Gilakjani & Ahmadi, 2011).
First of all, bottom-up processing is closely associated with the listener‟s linguistic
knowledge. Accordingly, students make use of their knowledge of words, syntax
and grammar to make sense of what they hear (Rubin, 1994 as cited in Gilakjani &
Ahmadi, 2011).
On the other hand, top-down processing is explained as employing background
knowledge to comprehend the meaning of a message. This knowledge can be

content schema (general knowledge based on life experience and previous learning)
or textual schema (knowledge of language and content used in a particular
situation).
The third is interactive process, which is the combination of both aforementioned
processes to augment the listening comprehension. Accordingly, when the content
of the material is familiar to the listeners, they can employ their background
knowledge at the same time to make predictions of what the speaker is going to say
or to overcome barriers of unfamiliar words. By contrast, if the listeners are
unfamiliar with the content of the listening text, they can only depend on their
linguistic knowledge, especially the lexical and syntactical knowledge to make
sense of the information.

10


Understanding how listeners process listening comprehension will provide students
and teachers with a lot of ideas to listen more effectively. It is also necessary to
consider the possible problems students often encounter in learning to listen to
English.
1.4.

Review of previous studies about L2 listening comprehension problems

Wu, H. (2007) and many other authors (Vandergrift, 2007; Kavaliauskienė, 2008 &
Hamouda, 2013) come to an agreement that studies on the L2 listening
comprehension have not gained enough attention from researchers. As Goh (1997:
161) pointed out, “there are fewer insights about the process of listening and the
way it is learned”. Similarly, Richard (1983) claimed that “there is little direct
research on second language listening comprehension”. For that reason, skills of
listening “shifted to a secondary position” (Kavaliauskienė, 2008).

Although studies on the L2 listening comprehension is limited, some valuable
sources offer valid comments on the problems associated with this kind of receptive
skill (Wu, 2013). Specifically, Underwood (1989) identified seven obstacles to
efficient listening comprehension including: (1) lack of control over the speed at
which speakers speak, (2) not being able to get things repeated, (3) the listener's
limited vocabulary, (4) failure to recognize the signals, (5) problems of
interpretation due to the lack of contextual knowledge, (6) inability to concentrate,
(7) established certain learning habits. To clarify the last problem, Underwood
supposed that students may wish to understand every word, which results in their
mood of embarrassment or discouragement when they fail to understand a particular
word or phrase. According to him, vagueness and incompleteness of understanding
should be tolerated by listeners.
Another investigation conducted on Arabic speakers by Hasan (2000) showed three
groups of factors that hindered L2 listening comprehension encompassing message
factors, speaker elements and listener issues. With regard to the first one,
„unfamiliar words‟, „difficult grammatical structures‟, and „the length of the spoken
11


text‟ were found most problematic to listeners. In terms of speaker factor, it was
revealed that „clarity‟ was the main cause of EFL listening difficulties. Referring to
the last group, „lack of interest‟ and „the demand for full and complete answers to
listening comprehension questions‟ were two main barriers of EFL students.
Focusing on EFL learners with Chinese backgrounds, Goh (2000) investigated
listening comprehension drawbacks by collecting data from learner diaries, small
group interviews, and immediate retrospective verbalization. Findings include ten
problems in relation to three cognitive processing phases proposed by Anderson
(1995) namely perceptions, parsing, and utilization. Problems experienced at the
first stage had mainly to do with recognizing sounds and losing attention. In
particular, four barriers listed in this phase consist of “don‟t recognize words they

know”, “neglect the next part when thinking about meaning”, “cannot chunk
streams of speech”, “miss the beginning of texts and concentrate too hard or unable
to concentrate” (Goh, 2000).
Nextly, problems with developing a coherent mental representation of words heard
were covered in the second phase. Three matters being mentioned by the students
were “quickly forget what is heard”, “unable to form a mental representation from
words heard” and “do not understand subsequent parts of input because of earlier”
Lastly, utilization problems concern the use of background knowledge to interprete
the input. Goh‟s studies clarified two difficulties: “understanding words but not the
intended message” and “confused about the key ideas in the message”.
In addition, Goh‟s research showed that “Do not recognise words they know”,
“Neglect the next part when thinking about meaning”, “Quickly forget what is
heard”, “Unable to form a mental representation from words heard”,
“Understanding words but not the intended message” were the five most largest
barriers to the students of his study. (Goh, 2000)

12


Another ten most important factors affecting L2 listening comprehension were
recently revealed in the the research of Stepanovienė (2012). These elements are
“rate of delivery”, “phonological reduction”, “vocabulary”, “syntactic reduction”,
“cross cultural elements”, “sequencing of information”, “breaking down speech into
words”, “groups of words”, “lack of knowledge of English idioms”, “lack of
redundancy and lastly, rhythm”.
It can be seen clearly that various studies are separated, but their findings tend to
overlap. This strengthens Hamouda‟s (2012) conclusion that “difficulties in
listening in a foreign language are typical to listeners from different language
background”.
Hence, some taxonomy of factors affecting L2 Listening comprehension

was

proposed. Boyle (1984) suggested a division into four groups including listener,
speaker, stimulus and context factors. Yagang (1994) followed a categorization of
four aspects: the message, the speaker, the listener, and the physical setting.
Meanwhile, Rubin (1994) classified these elements into five categories
encompassing text, interlocutor, task, listener and process characteristics.
Within the scope of the present study, the author adopted the second taxonomy of
Yagang (1994) because it is clear, easy to understand and best serves the study.
Summary
This chapter has provided the definitions of several key terms, selected theoretical
background and a review of related studies on students‟ English listening
comprehension problems. The details of the research, including the methodology
and the findings, will be described in the next chapters.

13


CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODS
This chapter focuses on describing the research implementation. Starting with the
context of teaching and learning English at Hung Yen high school, it continues with
the details of participants, methods and procedures of data collection, accompanied
by data analysis methods and procedures at the end.
2.1. Context of teaching and learning English at Hung Yen high school
Hung Yen high school is a public educational institution located in the centre of
Hung Yen city. In the school year 2013-2014, there were eleven tenth grade classes
encompassing seven natural science oriented classes (from 10A1 to 10A7), another
two groups of social science major (10C1, 10C2) and the rests belonging to D
group (10D1 and 10D2). Although students are taught up to three periods of English

each week, they have not put much attention to this subject compared with others
such as Maths, Physics and Chemistry.
Regarding the official learning material, the New English Coursebook 10 compiled
by Hoang Van Van et al. is chosen for all classes. This document consists of
sixteen units among which one unit is officially omitted. There are five sections
included in each lesson encompassing Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and
Language focus. Students are exposed to various kinds of listening tasks such as
numbering pictures, sequencing events, multiple choice, True or False, gap-filling,
and short-answer questions. The three last kinds are the most common ones for
tenth graders. However, as being aforementioned, the research only focuses on the
problems of students when they deal with short-answer questions because it is the
most problematic to them and they did not have much chance to practise this kind
of task in junior high schools.
2.2. Participants
The target sample of the research consisted of forty tenth grade students (twenty
males and twenty females) from group 10A2 at Hung Yen high school who have
14


been learning English as a compulsory subject.
These students were of the same age, same class, but different levels. In terms of
their results in the school year 2013-2014, only 4.7% of them were classified as
good at English. Their final grades ranged from 8.0 to 8.3. Another 41.9 % owned
the final marks from 6.5 to 7.9 and the rest was of average rating. None of them was
below average.
The main reason for choosing those students was that 10A2 was one of the two
tenth grade classes that the researcher was in charge during the past school-year.
Hence, it would be easier for her to raise the students‟ awareness of the important
role of the participants in the study and ask them to complete the questionnaires
seriously and responsibly. Moreover, based on her teaching experience, the

students‟ performance and their results in the class, the author saw that members of
class 10A2 were of mixed ability. Therefore, the data collected from them would be
more extensive.
In addition, with the time constraint, the number of forty participants suited the
nature of the study. Hence, it would be undoubted that the choice of the population
supported to ensure the validity, reliability and objectivity of the present study.
2.3. Data collection methods
In the current study, both quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed to
address the aforementioned research question.

While the former provided

objective, quantifiable and generalized data (Bordens & Abbott, 1999), the latter
was “close to the insider perspective” and helped to yield “real, rich and deep data”
(Brown & Rodgers, 2002, p.103). Hence, as Nunan (1992) recommended, the
combination of these two research methods helped to reduce potential limitations of
applying a single approach and consequently enhanced confidence in the collected
data. In other words, it would provide “confirmatory results” for the whole study
(Harris & Brown, 2010).

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