Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards listening activities in the piloted english 10 textbook a survey at bien hoa gifted high school, ha nam

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

ĐỖ THU HƯỜNG

TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS
LISTENING ACTIVITIES IN THE PILOTED ENGLISH 10 TEXTBOOK:
A SURVEY AT BIEN HOA GIFTED HIGH SCHOOL, HA NAM
THÁI ĐỘ CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH VỀ CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG NGHE
TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 10 THÍ ĐIỂM:
MỘT KHẢO SÁT TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN BIÊN HÒA, HÀ NAM

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

HANOI - 2017


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

ĐỖ THU HƯỜNG

TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS
LISTENING ACTIVITIES IN THE PILOTED ENGLISH 10 TEXTBOOK:

A SURVEY AT BIEN HOA GIFTED HIGH SCHOOL, HA NAM
THÁI ĐỘ CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH VỀ CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG NGHE
TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 10 THÍ ĐIỂM:
MỘT KHẢO SÁT TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN BIÊN HÒA, HÀ NAM

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111
Supervisor: Dr. Dương Thị Nụ

HANOI - 2017


DECLARATION
I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “Teachers and students‟ attitudes
towards listening activities in the piloted English 10 textbook: A survey at Bien Hoa
gifted high school, Ha Nam” is my own study in the fulfillment of the requirements
for the Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of
Languages and International Studies, Hanoi National University - Vietnam.
Hanoi, 2017
Signature

Đỗ Thu Hường

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis would not have been fulfilled without the support, assistance and

encouragement of a number of people.
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my
supervisor, Dr. Dương Thị Nụ, for her professional guidance, valuable advice and
continuous support throughout this study. Her wholehearted support has enabled me
to develop an understanding of the subject and greatly contributes to the
accomplishment of this thesis.
Second, I am very grateful to many of the teachers in Post-Graduate Studies
Department, College of Foreign Languages and Studies, Vietnam National
University of Hanoi for their beneficial lessons from which I developed a good
research method and created meaningful ideas for my study.
Furthermore, I am thankful to the participants in this study for their
cooperation and contribution. This study would not have been successful without
their help and enthusiasm.
Finally, I would like to show my profound gratitude to my beloved family,
who are always by my side, supporting and encouraging me. Had it not been for
their assistance, this study would not have been possible.

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ABSTRACT
English has increased its importance in people‟s life and work over the last
years. As an international language, it is widely used in all fields throughout the
world. In Vietnam, English is taught as an important part and a compulsory subject
in most high schools. A new set of textbooks for the Vietnamese upper secondary
school, which follows the systematic, cyclical and theme-based curriculum
approved by the Minister of Education and Training, has been designed to develop
students‟ communicative competence in listening, speaking, reading and writing.
This research aims at exploring the BHGHS teachers and students‟ attitudes
towards listening activities in listening section of the piloted English 10 textbook,

then suggesting some feasible measures to develop listening teaching and learning.
The data will be collected by means of survey questionnaire and interview. It is
hoped that when successfully conducted, the research will be useful to English
teachers and learners of grade 10 at Bien Hoa gifted high school as well as those
who are concerned about this issue.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION ........................................................................................................ i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................... iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................vii
LIST OF CHARTS ................................................................................................. viii
LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................... ix
PART 1 – INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................1
1. Rationale .................................................................................................................1
2. Aims of the study ....................................................................................................2
3. Research questions ..................................................................................................2
4. Scope of the study ...................................................................................................2
5. Significance of the study .........................................................................................2
6. Methodology of the study .......................................................................................3
7. Structure of the study ..............................................................................................3
PART 2 – DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................4
1.1. Communicative language teaching (CLT) ...........................................................4
1.1.1. Definition ..........................................................................................................4
1.1.2. Main characteristics of CLT..............................................................................4

1.1.3. CLT in teaching listening ..................................................................................5
1.2. Listening skill .......................................................................................................6
1.2.1. Definition of listening .......................................................................................6
1.2.2. Definition of listening comprehension ..............................................................7
1.2.3. The importance of listening in language learning .............................................8
1.2.4. Listening processes ...........................................................................................9
1.2.5. Difficulties students usually encounter in the process of listening .................12
1.2.6. Listening activities ..........................................................................................13

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1.3. Attitudes .............................................................................................................20
1.3.1. Definition ........................................................................................................20
1.3.2. Components of attitudes ..................................................................................21
1.4. Textbook recordings...........................................................................................22
1.4.1. Definition of textbook .....................................................................................22
1.4.2. Textbook recordings – a good source of listening ..........................................22
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................................23
2.1. Research context ................................................................................................23
2.1.1. The institution .................................................................................................23
2.1.2. The teachers ....................................................................................................23
2.1.3. The students ....................................................................................................23
2.1.4. The listening materials ....................................................................................24
2.2. Research method ...............................................................................................24
2.2.1. Participants ......................................................................................................24
2.2.2. Instruments ......................................................................................................25
2.2.3. Data collection ................................................................................................26
2.2.4. Data analysis ...................................................................................................26
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ...................................................27

3.1. Findings by means of the survey questionnaire and discussion ........................27
3.1.1. Students‟ attitudes towards listening skill in language learning .....................27
3.1.2. Students‟ attitudes towards listening activities in the listening section of the
textbook .....................................................................................................................29
3.2. Findings by means of the survey interview and discussion ...............................36
3.2.1. Teachers‟ attitudes towards listening skill ......................................................36
3.2.2. Teachers‟ attitudes towards listening activities in the listening section of the
textbook .....................................................................................................................37
3.3. Main findings………………………………………………………………….39
PART 3 – CONCLUSION ......................................................................................40
1. Conclusions ...........................................................................................................40

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2. Pedagogical implications of the study ..................................................................41
3. Summary of the study ...........................................................................................44
4. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study...................................45
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................46
APPENDIX 1 ............................................................................................................. I
APPENDIX 2 ............................................................................................................ V
APPENDIX 3 .......................................................................................................... IX

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
BHGHS:

Bien Hoa gifted high school

E10:

English 10

Ts:

Teachers

Ss:

Students

CLT:

Communicative language teaching

EFL:

English as Foreign Language

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LIST OF CHARTS
Chart 1: Students‟ perceptions on the importance of listening skill
Chart 2: Students‟ perceptions on learning listening skill
Chart 3: Students‟ interest in learning listening skill
Chart 4: Students‟ frequency of practicing listening skill
Chart 5: The benefits students get from using pre-listening activities

Chart 6: Students‟ frequency of lacking confidence and interest in
the post-listening phase
Chart 7: Students‟ options to improve listening activities

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Students‟ difficulties in listening lessons
Table 2: Students‟ ideas about the listening topics
Table 3: Students‟ general perceptions on listening lessons in class
Table 4: Students‟ opinion about the necessity of using pre-listening activities
Table 5: Suitability of while-listening activities with students‟ levels
Table 6: Students‟ opinions about the difficulty of post-listening activities

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PART 1 – INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
In the globalization era, English, undeniably an international language, is of
prime importance in assisting people in effective communication and swift
interaction with technological development and information. It is essential that a
man should master his English if he desires to obtain success in the society.
Of the four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) that are generally
recognized as the key to “knowing” a language, listening is probably the least
understood, the least researched and, historically the least valued. In the past,
foreign languages were learnt mainly by reading and translating rather than
listening. In the second half of the twentieth century, increased research into how
people learn both first and second languages, as well as developments in linguistics,

sociology and anthropology, led to an understanding that listening is probably the
key initial skill. After all, we cannot talk without listening first. Visibly, listening
plays a vital part in language learning because it provides input for learners and it
has also an important role in the development of learners‟ language knowledge.
Teachers and scholars have increasingly recognized the prominence of
listening comprehension in English language classroom and education developers
have paid more and more attention to advancing listening section in the students‟
textbooks with the aim of meeting the demand of English competence.
At Bien Hoa gifted high school, where I have been working as an English
teacher for a long time, in some classes, listening skills have been experimentally
taught based on the set of piloted textbooks English 10, 11, 12 published by the
Minister of Education and Training. From my personal observation and professional
experience, I have realized that teaching and learning listening skills have still
encountered certain difficulties and the students‟ ability to listen to English has not
improved much. I have always been haunted by the questions what difficulties in
listening the teachers and students get into and how to improve the students‟
English listening ability successfully. Exploring and analyzing the attitudes of the
teachers and students towards activities in listening section in the piloted English 10
textbook will help me find out the situation of teaching and learning listening skills
in general and teaching and learning listening skills in this textbook in particular.

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From the result of the investigation, some possible measures will be taken to
improve the situation.
2. Aims of the study
With the above-presented rationale, the specific aims of the study, accordingly, are:
-

to investigate the attitudes of Ts and Ss at BHGHS towards listening skill.

-

to find out the attitudes of Ts and Ss at BHGHS towards listening activities
in the piloted English 10 textbook.

-

to propose some possible solutions to increase the effectiveness of listening
lessons.

3. Research questions
In order to achieve the mentioned aims, the following questions have been
proposed:
 What are the Ts and Ss‟ attitudes towards listening skill?
 What are their attitudes towards listening activities in this textbook?
 What should be done to improve listening lessons?
4. Scope of the study
As it has been stated above, the study is designed to investigate teachers‟ and
students‟ attitudes towards listening activities in the piloted E10 textbook in the
context of Bien Hoa Gifted High School, Ha Nam in order to make some
recommendations for teaching and learning listening skill effectively. The
researcher focuses on listening activities including pre-, while- and post-listening
activities in listening section but not other sections of the book.
The study also limits itself to focus on the Ts and the tenth-form non-English
major Ss at BHGHS who have taught and studied the piloted E10 textbook.
Besides, attitudes are explored in terms of feelings, opinions and behaviors, to some
extent. As this is only a small-sized scale study, a number of issues, though
intriguing, would be beyond the scope of inquiry and would be best dealt with in a

further study.
5. Significance of the study
The study highlights the Ts and Ss‟ attitudes towards the newly- designed
listening section in the piloted E10 textbook. It gives the impressions of the Ts and
Ss towards this experiment. Hence, This will be a good indicator in evaluating the

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listening section and in working on improving it further in the following school
years based on the feedback received from the Ts and Ss. This research is expected
to be beneficial to both English Ts and Ss at BHGHS in particular and those at other
high schools in general where the piloted E 10 textbook has been applied.
6. Methodology of the study
To achieve the aims stated, a survey research was conducted at BHGHS. The
survey questionnaire was used as the main instrument to collect the needed data
from the learners. Besides, the survey interviews with five English Ts at the school
were also carried out. The data acquired from the questionnaire and interview were
then analyzed by means of descriptive statistic devices. It is hoped that with the
combination of these data collection instruments, reliable findings would be yielded
from the research.
7. Structure of the study
The study consists of three main parts, a list of reference and appendices.
Part 1 is the introduction which deals with the reason for the research, the aims,
research questions, scope, significance, methodology and structure of the study.
Part 2 is the development which includes three important chapters:
Chapter 1 is intended to give some theoretical background related to
communicative language teaching, listening skill, attitudes and textbook recordings.
Chapter 2 is the methodology. It presents the research context and the
method of the research. Also included in this chapter is the information of the

research participants, instruments, method of data collection and data analysis.
Chapter 3 – Findings and discussion - provides the details of the analysis
which has a general description of findings and discussion. It ends with the
summary of main findings.
Part 3 is the conclusion which consists of conclusions, pedagogical implications,
summary of the study, limitations and suggestions for further study.

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PART 2 – DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
The literature relevant to the current study is presented in four major categories:
communicative language teaching, listening skill, attitudes and textbook recordings
1.1. Communicative language teaching (CLT)
1.1.1. Definition
According to Richards (1992), Communicative Language Teaching is an
approach to teach foreign or second language which emphasizes to acquire
communicative competence.
Littlewood (1981) states that CLT pays systematic attention to functional as
well as structural aspects of language, combining these into a more fully
communicative view. CLT advocates go beyond teaching grammatical rules of the
target language, and recommend that, by using the target language in a meaningful
way, learners will develop communicative competence.
To conclude, communicative language teaching is aimed at improving
learners‟ communicative competence in the target language and to enable them to
use the target language appropriately as a means of communication in any given
social context.
1.1.2. Main characteristics of CLT
In CLT, the teacher spends less time on the structures of the language and

more time encouraging the children to use the language. This gives children the
opportunity to say what they want to say, and the teacher does not always have
control over their language. Fluency plays a big role in CLT.
In a real language situation (e.g. writing to a pen friend or speaking to
visitors in English), children will focus more on what they are saying rather than the
grammatical structures of English. CLT tries to bring this idea into the classroom,
and helps children communicate effectively in the world outside school. Fluency
activities provide this practice because during these activities children often have to
check that they have understood each other, repeat themselves, or change what they
say, just like in real life.

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Fluency isn‟t the only skill practiced these types of activities. Accuracy is
important too, and the teacher should balance activities which focus on accuracy
(correct grammar) as well as fluency. However, the main point behind CLT is that
accuracy alone isn‟t enough, and children improve accuracy through focusing on
fluency.
Teachers can provide motivating communication activities such as games
and puzzles, and ask students to complete the activity working in pairs or groups.
They do not correct or intervene too much during the activity, and provide most of
the feedback after the students have finished the task.
David Nunan (1991:279) lists five basic characteristics of CLT:
1) An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target
language.
2) The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation.
3) The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on the language but
also on the learning process itself.
4) An enhancement of the learner's own personal experiences as important

contributing elements to classroom learning.
5) An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outside
the classroom.
In short, CLT emphasizes the use of English for real communication rather
than demonstration of target grammar and vocabulary. Using information-gap
activities, role-plays, games, discussion of real issues, etc, CLT seeks to engage the
student on a personal level through meaningful interaction and personalization.
1.1.3. CLT in teaching listening
The crucial factor of CLT related to teaching listening is starting from the
term “input”. According to Rost (1994) and Ziane (2011), listening comprehension
is a process through which we get input and without its comprehension, learning
does not happen. Helgesen (2003) stated that input hypothesis means learners
understand input language that contains linguistic items and the way to use
language in particular situation. The Ts may use bottom-up or/ and top-down in

5


teaching listening. Bottom-up means Ss begin with component parts whereas topdown based on Ss‟ general knowledge or prior experience (Helgesen, 2003).
Communicative language teaching shifted the emphasis from the teacher to
the learner. The choice of listening material in a communicative approach is done in
such a way that it meets learners‟ expectations and interests. It also serves to
motivate them. Moreover, teachers might give several listening tasks and different
listening types depending on Ss‟ level. Helgesen (2003) suggested that listening
task is necessary to know what Ss need to improve their listening skill. The other
main development in listening in CLT stems from the ways in which the passages
are used – in other words, what the students do with them. In CLT there is more
room for personal, emotional or critical responses to the content, and less emphasis
on drilling and repetition. Listening in CLT has a communicative purpose in that
students are expected to use the information they hear, just as we do when we listen

outside the classroom.
CLT brought with it significant developments in terms of listening to second
language. It emphasizes reality of materials, contexts and responses. The passages
Ss listen to in a communicative approach tend to be closer to real-life use of
language than was the case in, say, Audiolingualism, which often used contrived
dialogues as carriers of the target grammar. According to Ma (2010:464) and
Adelmann (2012:512), The communicative situation includes real-life activities
such as listening with a purpose, listening to the news on radio or exchanging news
over the telephone, discussions with colleagues, asking for directions, asking
questions, arguing and taking notes, receiving instructions to go somewhere or do
something, retelling stories, participating in an interview, or attending a seminar,
lecture or listening to a speech.
In short, the communicative approach had a noticeable impact on the way in
which listening was taught and is still being taught. The effect is apparently
expressed through the emphasis on listening‟s importance, the use of realistic
materials and a learner-centered approach.
1.2. Listening skill
1.2.1. Definition of listening

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“Hearing” and “Listening” are habitually used interchangeably, but there is a
great difference between these two terms. Hearing is merely picking up sound
vibrations. Listening is understanding what we hear. That is, listening requires
paying attention, interpreting, and remembering sound stimuli. Hearing occurs
when your ears pick up sound waves being transmitted by a speaker whilst listening
involves making sense out of what is being transmitted (Hamilton, 1999) as he
quoted “Hearing is with the ears, listening is with the mind”
Particularly, Listening is variously defined.

Thompson & Rubin (1996: 331) defines listening as "an active process in
which listeners select and interpret information that comes from auditory and visual
clues in order to define what is going on and what the speakers are trying to
express"
Another definition identifies listening is "the active and dynamic process
of attending, perceiving, interpreting, remembering, and responding to the
expressed (verbal and nonverbal), needs, concerns, and information offered by
other human beings" (Purdy, M. 1997:8).
Rost (2011: 2-4) share the same idea about listening when the author points
out listening as a process of receiving what the speaker actually says, constructing
and representing meaning, negotiating meaning with the speaker and responding,
creating meaning through involvement, imagination and empathy.
From the definitions of listening discussed above, it is clear that listening is
the ability to identify and understand what the speaker is saying through
understanding his accent, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and grasping his
meaning. Moreover, listening plays an important role in acquiring a foreign
language and language Ts as well as Ss need to be aware of the importance of
effective teaching of listening skills.
1.2.2. Definition of listening comprehension
There are different definitions of the term “listening comprehension”.
According to Hamouda (2013), listening comprehension refers to the understanding
of what the listener has heard and it is his/her ability to repeat the text despite the
fact that the listener may repeat the sounds without real comprehension.

7


Listening comprehension used to be characterized as a passive activity which
means that learners nearly get information passively while practice listening skill in
the class like “tape recorder or trained parrot”. (Anderson and Lynch, 1988). In

other words, listeners inactively absorb what the speakers say without taking
enough notice of the discourse such as the background knowledge or the speaker‟s
purposes, attitudes and implications.

However, many theorists realized that

listening is not a passive but an active process of constructing meaning from a
stream of sounds (Berne, 1998; Vandergrift, 1999). Listeners actively attempt to
grasp the facts and feelings in what they hear by attending to what the speakers say,
to how the speakers says it, and to the context in which the message is delivered
(Purdy, 1997). O„Malley, Chamot, and Kupper (1989) also have the same point of
view when supposing that listening comprehension is an active process in which the
listener constructs meaning through using cues from contextual information and
from existing knowledge, while relying upon numerous strategic resources to
perform the task requirement.
In short, although defined in many different ways, listening comprehension
certainly requires the activeness of listeners. It demands to “get inside” the
speaker‟s head to understand the communication from his point of view. A
successful listener actively engage in the process of comprehension thanks to both
his linguistic knowledge and his nonlinguistic knowledge, but not merely absorb
and record the information given.
1.2.3. The importance of listening in language learning
Listening is always regarded as a key skill in language learning. Listening
comes before speaking, reading, and writing (Wolvin & Coakley, 1988). Children
“listen before they speak, speak before they read, and read before they write”
(Lundsteen, 1979, as cited in Coakley & Wolvin, 1997, p.180). It is the most
regularly used language skill in human communication. Morley (1990) clarifies
further that “we listen twice as much as we speak, four times as much as we read,
and five times as much as we write” (p.1). Apparently, listening holds a prominent
place in language learning. Although the other skills such as reading, speaking and

writing are essential to

develop

language proficiency, listening contributes

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predominantly to language expertise. Listening awakens the awareness of the
language as it is a receptive skill that first develops in a human being. Learning to
listen to the target language improves language ability. The sound, rhythm,
intonation, and stress of the language can only be perfectly adapted through
listening. To understand the shades in a particular language, one must be able to
listen. As we get to understand spoken language by listening, developing the other
skills and gaining confidence become much easier.
Furthermore, listening is believed to be the basic for communicative
competence in terms of CLT. This results from that listening provides the aural
input and enables learners to interact in spoken communication. It helps the
language learner to acquire pronunciation, word stress, vocabulary, and syntax and
the comprehension of messages conveyed can be based solely on tone of voice,
pitch and accent; and it is only possible when we listen. Without listening skill, no
communication can be achieved. Besides, every study carried out concerning the
language skills acquisition has showed that when communicating, we gain 45% of
language competence from listening, 30% from speaking, 15% from reading and
10% from writing. With the utmost percentage of involvement in the exchange of
information in effective communication, listening has to be considered a language
forerunner. With the advent of CLT and the focus on proficiency, the teaching and
learning of listening have received more and more attention, and understandably
should be concentrated on as much as possible.

1.2.4. Listening processes
Listening comprehension, is an active process of constructing meaning by
means of attending to and processing aural input (Buck, 2001:31). He also explains
this as follows: “Meaning is not something in the text that the listener has to extract,
but is constructed by the listener in an active process of inferencing and hypothesis
building.” In the process of listening comprehension, one has to keep in mind that
both linguistic and non-linguistic types of knowledge are involved. Linguistic
knowledge involves phonology, lexis, syntax, semantics and discourse structure,
whereas non-linguistic knowledge which plays a role in understanding is knowledge
about the topic, knowledge about the context and general knowledge about the

9


world and its workings (Buck, 2001:1-2). To understand how these two types of
knowledge are applied to help learners make sense of what they hear, a distinction
is made between bottom-up processing and top-down processing.
1.2.4.1. Bottom-up processing
Richards (2008:4-5) points out that to understand utterances from speakers
using bottom-up processing, one needs to mentally break down the message into its
components; a process he refers to as „chunking‟. Richards notes that chunking
helps the listener to understand the underlying core meaning of the expressed
message. The „chunks‟ or units of meaning are what the listeners remember, and not
the form in which the message was heard.
Bottom-up processing is the term used in the application of linguistic
knowledge in comprehension, whereby the sounds, words, clauses and sentences of
a passage are decoded in a fairly linear fashion to elicit meaning (Buck, 2001:2;
Rost, 2002:36; Graham & Macaro, 2008:748).
Bottom-up processing is used when a listener builds meaning from the
sounds he or she hears. The listener converts the sounds into words, then into

grammatical relationships, and upwards until he or she arrives at a meaning (Nunan,
1998:25).
Because bottom-up processing is a strategy in which the listener depends on
the message of the language, the learner creates meanings to understand the
message sequentially from sound to words and from words to grammatical relation.
Thus, Bottom-up processing necessitates linguistic knowledge; especially,
knowledge of vocabulary and grammar.
In conclusion, the bottom-up model highlights the decoding of the
smallest units – phonemes and syllables – to lead us towards meaning. The
approach is based on separate units of language in the text. The listener‟s
lexical and grammatical competence in a language provides the basis for
bottom-up processing. The input is scanned for familiar words, and
grammatical knowledge is used to work out the relationship between elements
of sentences.
1.2.4.2. Top-down processing

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That top-down processing is also known as knowledge-based processing
means that learners start with their background knowledge to understand the
meaning of a message. Listeners use what they already know to create expectations
of what they can expect to hear and to interpret what they have heard. One‟s
background knowledge has a great influence on comprehension. The amount of
knowledge a person has about a particular topic is crucial to how they will
ultimately interpret the passage. The prior knowledge about a specific topic will
help a listener to come up with and confirm hypotheses about passage content. This
type of approach helps Ss to be able to bypass vocabulary deficiencies by not
relying on every word in the passage for overall meaning.
To understand the top-down information processing theory, the concept

„schemata” needs to be clarified. Schemata (the plural form of “schema”) is defined
as “complex mental structures that group all knowledge concerning a concept”
(Vandergrift, 2013:18). Schema theorists proposes that listeners understand new
inputs by stimulating relevant schemata in their minds. Schematic processing
permits people to interpret new inputs rapidly and sparingly, making intelligent
guesses as to what is likely, even before they have explicit evidence.
In brief, the top-down model emphasizes the use of background knowledge
to predict content. It relies on prior knowledge and experience to build the meaning
of a listening text using the information provided by sounds and words. To grasp
the meaning of a text, the listener draws on his knowledge of the context, topic,
speakers, situation, and the world, matching it to the aural input.
1.2.4.3. Bottom-up processing or Top-down processing
More and more arguments have been arisen about which model is most
salient when we listen to foreign languages. Most errors in listening comprehension
are assumed to be caused by Ss mishearing individual words – a failure of the
bottom-up process. Whereas, according to recent research, it is often the top-down
process that causes mistakes in listening tasks, a typical occurrence being that the
students know the topic, hear some familiar vocabulary and make wild guesses
about the content. Although many Ts tend to favor such top-down activities as
comprehension questions, predicting, and listing, listening practice should

11


incorporate bottom-up exercises for pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary that
allow learners to pay close attention to language as well. Clearly, it is necessary that
both the top-down and the bottom-up should be practiced simultaneously in the
classroom.
1.2.5. Difficulties students usually encounter in the process of listening
It is undeniable that listening plays an important role in the success of

communication. Nevertheless, listening second language is a source of enormous
difficulties for foreign language learners.
Boyle (1984) said that the main components that affect listening
comprehension are listener, speaker, medium, and environment factors.
According to Underwood (1989), some obstacles to effective listening
comprehension process can be listed as follows. First, listeners cannot control the
speed of speech. Second, listeners cannot have words repeated and this can cause
critical difficulties for them. Third, listeners do not have high vocabulary
knowledge. Fourth, listeners may lack contextual knowledge. Listeners can
sometimes comprehend the surface meaning of a passage but they can have
substantial problems in understanding the whole meaning of a passage unless they
are familiar with it. Fifth, it is not very easy for listeners to concentrate on the
listening text. Sometimes a shortest break in attention can prevent comprehension.
If the listening passage is interesting for listeners, concentration will be easy for
them.
Liaison, elision and colloquial words as Yagang (1994) think, are difficulties
which listener often face while listening.
Hasan (2000) indicated that unfamiliar words, difficult grammatical
structures, and the length of the spoken passages are the most important factors that
cause problems for learners‟ listening comprehension. He continued that clarity,
lack of interest, and the demand for complete answers to listening comprehension
questions are the serious difficulties of students‟ listening comprehension.
Buck (2001) mentioned a lot of problems in listening activities like unknown
vocabularies, unfamiliar topics, fast speech rate, and unfamiliar accents.

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Vandergrift (2004) and Walker (2014) indicated that oral passages exist in
real time and should be processed rapidly and when the passage is over, only a

mental representation remains. Listening needs immediate processing to access the
spoken input again, making the skill more complex than reading. Students‟
background knowledge can have an important role in their listening comprehension.
Based on the results of the studies by different researchers, the author would like to
classify the problems learners often confront while listening into 3 major groups:
Problems from listeners:
-

Lack of vocabulary and grammatical structures

-

Lack of background knowledge

-

Lack of concentration

Problems from listening materials:
-

Poor tape quality

-

Long listening

-

Speed of speech

-

Different accents

-

Linguistic features (elision, linking words, colloquial words)

Problems from physical settings:
-

Noise

-

Poor facilities

1.2.6. Listening activities
1.2.6.1. Pre-listening activities
According to Rixon (1986:63), pre-listening is “things to do before the Ss
hear the passage, to help them get the out most of what they are going to hear”.
More specifically, Underwood (1989) mentions pre-listening is a kind of
“preparatory work” that Ss should be “tuned in” or provided some relevant
information so that they know what to expect, both in general and for particular
tasks. Sharing the same opinion, Ur (1992: 4) stated that “It would seem a good idea
when presenting a listening passage in class to give Ss some information about the
content, situation and speakers before they actually start listening.” According to
Richards (2005:87), pre-listening sets the stage for learners to practice listening for

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comprehension through activities which require activating of prior knowledge and
making predictions as well as reviewing key vocabulary.
In short, pre-listening usually involves activating background knowledge to
help Ss to predict the content of the listening passage, setting up the goal of
listening and pre-teaching vocabulary and grammatical structures. Unquestionably,
pre-listening plays a crucial role in listening process. It helps Ss achieve success
less difficultly in listening tasks and as a result, improves their listening ability.
Activating background knowledge
There are some practical ways to activate the schemata and get students to predict
what they will hear.
 Brainstorming
The first goal of brainstorming is to making list of relating words, phrases; generate
large numbers of ideas based on a topic or a problem. The next stage involves
selecting words or phrases and whittling the ideas down to those which may be
practically applicable.
In this activity, Ss often brainstorm words, phrases, their own ideas about the topic,
then possibly share them in pairs, in groups or presenting before the class.
Brainstorming can encourage learners to think more freely and creatively than if
they were doing a more controlled planning exercise. It allows learners to remember
what they know, and to teach each other. It is a dynamic and stimulating way to
lead learners into a topic.
 Using visual aids
Used in pre-listening activities, visuals have many advantages: they are immediate
and evocative. Moreover, many students have a visual learning style; they learn
better when seeing images that correspond to the things being taught. Visuals can
help activate the schemata relating to any theme and any type of listening passage.
Pictures and videos can be used to help Ss recognize the lesson theme. They send

out a message about the topic of the lesson. The Ss can simply look at the picture or
see the video and guess what the listening text will be about. Usually the pictures
and videos will contain something intriguing, so there would be multiple
interpretations possible in order to get the students to think creatively. They

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