Using internet-assisted learning method to developlistening skills for business English studentsat national Economics University

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PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC SỬ DỤNG INTERNET
NHẰM PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU
CHO SINH VIÊN TIẾNG ANH THƯƠNG MẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KINH TẾ QUỐC DÂN
Lê Th Thu Mai, Ph m Th Tuy t H
ơng
Trường Đại học Kinh tế Quốc dân
Tóm t t: Việc ứng dụng phương pháp dạy tiếng

tham gia hoạt ñộng giảng và học kỹ năng nghe hiểu

Anh có sự trợ giúp của internet (IAL) tại Việt Nam cũng

tiếng Anh có sự trợ giúp của internet trên phòng máy,

như tại Bộ môn (BM) Tiếng Anh thương mại (TATM),

SV có thể cung cấp ñủ dữ liệu giúp ñánh giá hiệu quả

Trường Đại học Kinh tế Quốc dân (ĐHKTQD) vẫn còn

của phương pháp giảng dạy và học tập này, ñồng thời

nhiều hạn chế và cần ñược nghiên cứu chuyên sâu

có thể nêu lên một số ñề xuất giúp việc ứng dụng

hơn. Là giảng viên, ñồng thời là trưởng nhóm Kỹ năng

phương pháp dạy và học này hoàn thiện hơn.

nghe hiểu tại BM, tác giả ñã nhận thức ñược những lợi
ích cũng như bất cập của phương pháp giảng dạy IAL
ñối với việc phát triển các kỹ năng tiếng Anh nói chung,
và kỹ năng nghe hiểu tiếng Anh nói riêng.

Abstract: Useful as it is, the application of internetassisted learning (IAL) in teaching English in Vietnam
as a whole and at Business English Department (BED),
Faculty of Foreign Languages, National Economics

Nhìn chung, hầu hết các sinh viên (SV) BM TATM

University (NEU) in particular is still limited and needs

tại ĐHKTQD gặp rất nhiều khó khăn trong thời gian

more thorough studies. Being a lecturer and leader of

ñầu học tại BM, mặc dù họ nắm từ vựng và ngữ pháp

the Listening Group in BED, contributing to the growth

khá tốt. Do ñó, chương trình học Kỹ năng nghe hiểu

of this course from initial steps, the researcher of the

chủ yếu ñược thiết kế dành cho SV ñã theo học tiếng

study has been aware of the advantages as well as

Anh hệ 3 năm hoặc 7 năm tại phổ thông, nhưng chưa

disadvantages

quen với hoạt ñộng rèn luyện kỹ năng nghe hiểu. Khóa

development of English language skills in general, and

học nhằm từng bước mục ñích giúp SV luyện tập và

in listening skills in particular.

nâng cao kỹ năng nghe hiểu tiếng Anh.

that

IAL

have

brought

to

the

Generally, most students at BED, NEU (herein
d ng

referred to as BED students) have difficulties in

năng nghe hi u cho

listening comprehension on their first days at a

sinh viên ti ng Anh th
ơng m i, Tr
ng Đ i h c

university specializing in English, while they have quite

Qu c dân“ nhằm các mục tiêu: (i) tìm hiểu

a good command of vocabulary and grammar.

nhận thức của SV TATM về lợi ích của phương pháp

Accordingly, the listening courses are mainly designed

học có sự trợ giúp của mạng internet ñối với việc phát

for students who have learnt English at high school (in

triển kỹ năng nghe hiểu tiếng Anh; (ii) tìm hiểu các bất

either the 3-year or 7-year program) and who haven't

cập, khó khăn khi ứng dụng phương pháp dạy và học

got used to listening skills. These courses aim at

này; và (iii) nêu ra một số ñề xuất giúp các giảng viên

equipping students with practical skills to improve their

(GV) và cán bộ quản lý tổ chức thực hiện phương pháp

listening skills step by step.

Nghiên cứu "Ph
ơng pháp d y h c có s
internet nh m phát tri n k
Kinh t

dạy và học này hiệu quả hơn.

The ultimate purpose of the study of “Using

Nghiên cứu ñược tiến hành với sự tham gia của 87

internet-assisted learning method to develop BED

SV TATM Khóa 54 và 3 GV ñang giảng kỹ năng nghe

students’ listening skills” is to: (i) explore BED

hiểu tiếng Anh tại BM trong kỳ 2, năm thứ nhất (năm

students’ perceptions of benefits of internet-assisted

học 2012-2013). Tại thời ñiểm này, SV ñã có thời gian

learning

làm quen với máy tính và mạng Internet. Sau một kỳ

development; (ii) investigate obstacles to the use of IAL

708

(IAL)

to

their

English

listening

skills


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activities in learning English listening skills at BED,

had enough time to be familiar with the college life and

NEU; and (iii) propose some recommendations to

to gain some knowledge about using computers and

relevant teachers and

administrators for better

the Internet. After a semester taking part in the

organization of IAL activities for BED students to

application of teaching and learning listening in the

improve their English listening skills.

laboratory with the assistance of internet websites,

The participants were 87 first year English majored
students of BED, NEU. The time to conduct the
research was during the second semester of the
students’ first year (2012-2013), when the students had

these students were supposed to provide enough data
to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching listening skill
in the internet-assisted laboratory as well as provide
ground for suggestions to be made.

USING INTERNET-ASSISTED LEARNING METHOD
TO DEVELOPLISTENING SKILLS FOR BUSINESS ENGLISH
STUDENTSAT NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

1. Background

students were randomly chosen from 144 first
year BED students. They belong to three classes.
Useful as it is, the application of internetInstead of randomly selecting the individuals, the
assisted learning (IAL) in teaching English in
investigator randomly selects the groups or classes
Vietnam as a whole and at Business English
for investigation. Thus, the students chosen in this
Department (BED), Faculty of Foreign Languages,
study could be representatives for the whole group
National Economics University (NEU) in
of freshmen at BED.
particular is still limited and needs more thorough
The time to conduct the research was during
studies. Being a lecturer who has contributed to
the growth of this course from initial steps, the the second semester of the students’ first year
researcher has been aware of the advantages as (2012-2013), when the students had had enough
well as disadvantages that IAL has brought to the time to be familiar with the college life and to gain
development of English language skills in general, some knowledge about using computers and the
Internet. After a semester taking part in the
and in listening skills in particular.
application of teaching and learning listening in
2. Purposes of the study
the language laboratory with the use of websites,
The ultimate purpose of the study “Using these students were supposed to provide enough
internet-assisted learning method to develop data to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching
listening skill in the internet-assisted language
Listening skills for Business English students at
laboratory as well as provide ground for

National Economics University” is to: (i) explore
suggestions to be made.
students’ perceptions of benefits of internet4. BED students’ perceptions of IAL in
assisted learning (IAL) to their English listening
skills development; (ii) investigate obstacles to the listening skill development
use of IAL activities in learning English listening
4.1. Students’ perceptions towards IAL in
skills at BED, NEU; and (iii) propose some English listening skill in the multimedia
recommendations to relevant teachers and classroom
administrators for better organization of IAL
The first question in the survey questionnaire
activities for BED students to improve their
deals with the perceptions of learning English
English listening skills.
listening skill through Internet-assisted activities
3. Selection of participants
in the listening multimedia classrooms. Their
The participants of this study were 74 first year attitudes towards this new approach of teaching
English major students of BED, NEU. These and learning are revealed in Chart 1.
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Ti u ban 5:

ng d ng công ngh và thi t b trong gi ng d y và nghiên c u v ngo i ng

Cha rt 1: S tude nts ' a ttitud es to wards inte rne t-as s is te d le ar ni ng
Englis h lis te ning sk ill in the multime dia cla ss room

40

35
30
25
20
15
10

36
28

v er y effec tive
e ffe ctiv e

not ve ry effec ti ve

7

5
0

not effec ti ve a t all

3

Generally speaking, the students were positive
about internet-assisted learning English listening
skill in the multimedia classroom (Chart 1).
Although almost all of them indicated their
satisfaction with this new approach of learning
English listening skill (64 out of 74 students),

some still have doubts. This could be explained as
the term "effective" might not have been the best
word to use in the questionnaire since it is vague.
It is also difficult for students to judge the
effectiveness of a new technology after only being
familiar with it for a semester. These students also
gave reasons for their dissatisfaction, which would
be referred to in the next part of the study.
4.2. Students' attitudes towards the
appropriateness of the listening course in the
new teaching approach

Overall, the students were positive towards the
appropriateness of IAL activities (Table 1),
especially its function in supplementing in-class
learning (84%). However, they did not show as
much agreement when asked whether the program
was suited for their English proficiency level
(55%). This is probably due to the fact that
students in these classes have varied English
proficiency levels to start with. Moreover, over
two thirds agreed that the materials on the selected
websites were related to their current English
lessons (68%). More interestingly, a high
proportion of the respondents (80%) expressed
their pleasure with this listening course in the new
teaching approach explaining that the course
provided them with further listening skill.

Table 1: Students’ attitudes towards the appropriateness of

the listening course with the Internet assistance
Number of
students

Percentage
(%)

The course was an appropriate supplement to in-class
instruction.

62

84%

The course was appropriate for the skill level of the
students.

46

55%

The course was appropriately related to the current
listening lessons.

50

68%

The course provided us with further listening skills.

59

80%

Options

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4.3. The effectiveness of IAL in improving
their English listening skill
a.

Concentration

Two students said that internet-assisted
learning English skill in the self-study period gave
them a great chance to be concentrated when they
can occupy their own cabin in the multimedia
classroom. This made their listening more
effectively.
b.

Interest

Four of the respondents felt that this learning
activity is very interesting and can attract their
attention throughout the lesson. They provided

lots of their satisfaction as well as leisure
throughout their practice sessions.
c.

Updated material

One more benefits that nearly half of the
students interviewed recognized is that the
listening activity gets them updated. They all
seemed eager to discover current things happening
around them.
d.

Authentic English language

Surprisingly, many students enjoyed the
authenticity of the materials on the recommended
websites. They felt quite interested in the way
native speakers pronounced. Their intonation,
accent and voice seemed attractive to students.
Some of the students find it best to study some of
the colloquial and spoken language from listening
to the authentic material in their listening lessons.
They can not only be able to approach updated
with news and information in the target language
but also learn a lot from pronunciation and
intonation of English native speakers.
e.

Time saving

Moreover, two students said that internetassisted listening activity saved a lot of their time.
They explained that time was very precious in
their learning responsibilities as they needed to
study many other language skills and other
courses in the curriculum. But now this learning

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approach helped them to practise listening skills in an
effective way without having to spend so much time.
f.

Convenience

Two respondents thought that it was quite
convenient when they learn English listening skill
through internet-assisted activities just by sitting
in front of the computer screen as well as enjoying
the totally free resources online.
g.

Independence

More than half of the students interviewed
agreed that this learning activity helps them to
build their independence. They thought that it
gave them a very clear purpose and goal at the
beginning of the lesson. They can find their own
needs and expectations. They actually realized the

importance of persistent practice. The reasons
they gave are quite understandable. These are two
of the main reasons given by the respondents,
namely practicing a lot at home and choosing their
favorite activities for self-practice.
h.

Motivation

Interestingly, most of the students are really
motivated by this new learning approach. They
felt more eager in the lesson, especially in the selfstudy period. Through her class observation, the
researcher could see the difference in the students’
classroom behavior and performance when they
were in the multimedia classroom compared to
that in traditional ones. First, class attendance was
higher compared with that in the traditional
classrooms. In most cases in traditional
classrooms, there were one or two students absent
and many students were late for class. But during
listening periods in the multimedia classrooms,
fewer students were absent or late for class.
During the self-study period, nobody dozed off,
although the classes were in the afternoon. They
were active in taking notes, discussing with their
partners, and checking their understanding. Seeing
this attention and conscientiousness on the
students’ part, the researcher felt quite rewarded
and thought efforts of the group of teachers of
listening were not in vain.

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On the other hand, students became more
enthusiastic about practicing listening. In addition
to their attentive behavior in the class, the students
also did a lot of practice after class as shown from
the interview. From the informal small questions
besides the interview, I could see that all the
students finished the tasks as required and about
1/3 of them even listened to the files again at
home or in Internet shops where they can get
access to the Internet.
5. Difficulties encountered by students in the
internet-assisted English listening activity
Besides the above positive attitudes toward the
new learning approach, students also encounter
some difficulties, which are detailed as follows.
a. Lack of computer skills
The most popular difficulty reported is the
unfamiliarity with computer functions. As
mentioned in the previous part, nearly half of the
respondents of the survey do not own a computer,
this difficulty is understandable. Although
students attend a training session of how to use the
facilities in the multimedia classroom before

joining the course, this amount of time is not
adequate for them to feel confident when using
these modern facilities.
However, a few students think that using a
computer is not that much difficult. Most of these
students come from cities and have been using
computers since they were at high schools.
b. Technical problems
The second most frequent problem is technical
ones. Although the multimedia laboratories are
well furnished with modern computers connected
to the Internet, they are not periodically
maintained. Besides, the dense frequency of using
these facilities’ qualities may also be worsened.
Therefore, students sometimes have technical
problems with their computer in the laboratories,
such as problems with sudden computer crash,
outdated software which does not allow the
installation of new programs suggested in
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websites, headphone volumes, slow speed Internet
disconnection, and so on.
c. Getting lost
Besides the following popular difficulties,
three of the student interviewees share the same
problem of getting lost when they do listening
exercises online. They explained that, after they
finished the listening assignments in the suggested
websites, they continued surfing the Internet. They

were too interested in what they found online and
kept glued to the screen.
6. Students’ suggestions to improve the
effectiveness of the Internet-assisted listening
learning
6.1. Suggestions to the administrator
a. Improving facilities quality
As mentioned above, students said that they
encountered lots of technical problems while they
studied in the lab. Therefore, the suggestions they
all made to the administrators is to improve the
quality of facilities. They said that the computers
need to be faster. They preferred an LCD screen to
avoid eye problems. Headphones in the lab should
be checked to provide the adequate quality to
enhance their listening rather than annoying them.
b. Training computer skills
Many students come from rural areas and are
not familiar with using computers. Therefore, it is
understandable for them to ask for more thorough
computer skill training at the beginning of the
course. Only one training session is not just
enough for them to be comfortable using the
computer. This suggestion was made by seven out
of fifteen student interviewees.
c. Improving classroom layout
The students interviewed also made a
suggestion related to the interaction among
students in the laboratory. As the room is
equipped with forty computers, its layout is not

convenient for them to interact, especially in pair
or group activities.


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6.2. Suggestions to the teachers
Besides, students also wanted to make some
suggestions to their listening teachers. These
suggestions will certainly be of great help for
teachers to enhance the effectiveness of the
Internet-assisted listening learning activities.
a. Creating more activities to motivate
students
Almost all students interviewed said that the
teacher should give more activities to motivate
them during the lesson. This suggestion is highly
appreciated as these activities would help to hold
the students’ attention and enthusiasm throughout
the lesson.
b. Being skillful in technical issues
Three of the interviewees even expressed that
the teachers should be more skillful in technical
issues. In that case, the teacher could help them
when they got into trouble with their computers
during their listening practice.
c. Choosing appropriate materials
Interestingly, about half of the students
interviewed said that they are quite satisfied with
the types of online listening exercises that their

teachers suggested. They thought the topic chosen,
the language used in the materials, and the levels
of difficulty of the materials are quite suitable to
their needs and levels. However, three students
felt that some materials are too hard for them to
listen. Two of them even commented that the
content in some website material is not interesting
enough. They would like the teacher to choose
more appropriate materials. This is not difficult to
understand because the students do not have the
same level and interest.
6.3. Suggestions to the students themselves
Surprisingly, the students also give very
interesting suggestions to themselves.
a. Learning to use computers professionally
Five students expressed their needs to learn to
use the computer professionally. This is

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reasonable as they have recognized the importance
of this new learning approach and wanted to
improve their computer skills in order to gain
more from learning in this way.
b. Being strict to themselves during the selfstudy period
From the interview, the researcher is glad to
see that students’ autonomy is quite good. About
half of the student interviewees said that they need
to be stricter to themselves while they are
practising their listening skill during the self-study

period. They explained that if they were stricter,
they would find listening more comfortable and
could catch more from the listening passages.
7. Conclusion
In line with the findings, the research implies that:
i. Internet-assisted learning does have certain
benefits to students’ English listening skill
development. The application of the Internet to the
teaching and learning of English listening skill is
really necessary.
ii. Students have recognized the vital
effectiveness that Internet-assisted learning have
on their English listening skill development.
However, they still encountered some key
problems during their learning process in the
multimedia classrooms.
iii. Students have provided useful suggestions
which would be of great help to enhance the
benefits of Internet-assisted learning to students’
English listening skill development.
8. Recommendations
Based on the major findings or the research, it
is of optimistic view of the researcher that
multimedia classroom could be beneficially taken
advantage to provide great assistance for students
to improve their English listening skills. This
research is hoped to give administrators and
teachers of other universities some ideas about
how to utilize their multimedia classrooms as well
as apply the IAL activities as suggested for this

purpose.
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APPENDIX 1: Reference materials for self-study session:
Internet websites are collected by the teacher and suggested to the students during their self-study
session:
1.

2.

3.

4.
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11. />12. />13. />14. />15. />Listening_Practice.htm
16. />
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