A study on using songs in teaching english to 10th graders at nguyễn hữu cảnh high school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY

LE THI PHUNG

A STUDY ON USING SONGS IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO
10TH GRADERS AT NGUYỄN HỮU CẢNH HIGH SCHOOL

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Nghe An, 2019


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY

LE THI PHUNG

A STUDY ON USING SONGS IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO
10TH GRADERS AT NGUYỄN HỮU CẢNH HIGH SCHOOL

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
Code: 8.14.01.11

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION
Supervisor: Tran Quang Hai, Ph.D.

Nghe An, 2019


i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

The work, which contained in this research, has not previously been admitted
for a degree or diploma in any university. The data and findings collected and
analyzed in this thesis are true, used with permission, and have not been published or
written by another person.
Nghe An, July 15th, 2019
Author

Lê Thị Phụng


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ABSTRACT

Using English songs in listening skill is one of the best ways that can help
teachers increase students’ interest and enhance students’ listening skills. Research in
this area has concentrated on the benefits of using English songs to students’ listening
improvement. The aim of this thesis is to study to evaluate the benefits of using
English songs on EFL high school student’s listening skill. In the research, two
groups studied a listening course, which lasted six weeks. One group was taught with
using English songs and the other was not taught with using English songs. To
evaluate the students’ listening skill, a pre-test and a post-test of listening were used.
After participating in the six listening sessions, the students’ listening skill was
assessed. The findings showed that most students in two groups made progress in
listening skill. However, the group with using English songs made greater
improvement in listening skill.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis would not have been possible without the generous support and
encouragement of many individuals whom I am immensely grateful.
First, I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to supervisor Tran Quang Hai,
Ph. D. He agreed to act as my supervisor. His suggestions toward a new aspect and
object of study inspired me to conduct this thesis. Moreover, the useful references he
provided a long with his enthusiastic instruction and valuable feedback throughout
the entire work helped raise my thesis to its present standard. Without his help, the
thesis would not have been completed.
Second, I would also like to thank the students of the classes I taught to gather
information for my research. Without their help, this study could not have been
successful.
Finally, I wish to give my special thanks to my colleagues, friends and and
my beloved family for their warm support and encouragement during the time I
conducted this thesis.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP .................................................................. i
ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................... ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................. iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................. iv
LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................... vii
LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................... ix
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................... 1
1.1 Rationale ..................................................................................................... 1
1.2 The aims and objectives of the study .......................................................... 2

1.2.1 Aims ......................................................................................................... 2
1.2.2 Objectives ................................................................................................. 2
1.3 Research questions ...................................................................................... 2
1.4 Scope of the study ....................................................................................... 2
1.5 Significance of the study ............................................................................ 2
1.6 The organization of the study ..................................................................... 2
CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND............................................ 4
2.1. Previous studies .......................................................................................... 4
2.2 Theoretical background............................................................................... 6
2.2.1 Teaching English listening skill .............................................................. 6
2.2.1.1. Definition of listening .......................................................................... 6
2.2.1.2. Types of listening ................................................................................ 8
2.2.1.3 The role of listening in language learning .......................................... 11
2.2.1.4 The importance of listening skills ....................................................... 12
2.2.1.5 Strategies for developing listening skills ............................................ 13
2.2.1.6 Difficulties in listening skill................................................................ 14
2.2.1.7 Principles of teaching listening skill ................................................... 15


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2.2.2 Songs ...................................................................................................... 16
2.2.2.1 Definition of a song............................................................................. 16
2.2.2.2 The Role of songs in language learning ............................................. 17
2.2.2.3 Benefits of using songs for developing listening skill ....................... 17
2.2.2.4 Factors contributing to listening comprehension of song .................. 19
2.2.2.5 Teaching competence and motivation of teachers .............................. 20
2.2.2.6 Steps for improving listening skills .................................................... 21
2.2.2.7 The basic elements of a song .............................................................. 22
2.2.2.8 The use of song procedure .................................................................. 23
2.2.2.9 Listening material for students............................................................ 24

2.2.3 Vocabulary development ....................................................................... 25
2.2.4 Pronunciation development.................................................................... 25
2.5 Summary ................................................................................................... 28
CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY ................................................................... 29
3.1. Participants ............................................................................................... 29
3.1.1 Students .................................................................................................. 29
3.1.2 Teachers ................................................................................................. 29
3.2 Data collection .......................................................................................... 29
3.2.1. Instruments ............................................................................................ 29
3.2.2. Tests ...................................................................................................... 29
3.2.2.1. Pre-test ............................................................................................... 30
3.2.2.2. Post-test .............................................................................................. 30
3.2.3. Questionnaire for teachers .................................................................... 30
3.2.4. Questionnaire for students .................................................................... 31
3.3. Data collection and analysis procedure.................................................... 31
3.4. Experimental process ............................................................................... 33
3.4.1 Participants ............................................................................................. 33
3.4.2. Principles of using English songs in teaching listening skill ................ 34


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3.4.3. Steps for using English songs in teaching listening skill ...................... 34
3.4.4 The difficulties during experimental process ......................................... 35
3.5. Textbook................................................................................................... 36
3.6. Lesson plans ............................................................................................. 37
3.7. Summary .................................................................................................. 38
CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ............................................. 39
4.1 Results ....................................................................................................... 39
4.1.1 Pre - test results ...................................................................................... 39
4.1.2 Post-test results....................................................................................... 40

4.1.3 The difference between the post-test scores and the pre-test scores by the
control group and the experimental group ...................................................... 41
4.2 Questionnaire for students ........................................................................ 42
4.2.1. Students’ awareness to the use of English songs .................................. 42
4.2.2 The improving of students’ listening skill after having been taught with
English songs .................................................................................................. 43
4.2.3 Students’ opinion about the benefits of using English songs in
listening skill ................................................................................................... 44
4.2.4 Students’ favourite activities while they are listening to English songs.46
4.2.5. Reasons of listening to English songs ................................................... 47
4.2.6 Students’ opinion about the difficulties of using English songs in listening
skill. ................................................................................................................. 47
4.3. Questionnaire for teachers ....................................................................... 48
4.3.1 The frequency of using English songs to teach listening skill ............... 48
4.3.2. Teachers’ opinion about the advantages of using English songs to teach
listening skill ................................................................................................... 48
4.3.3 Teachers’ opinion about the disadvantages of using English songs to teach
listening skill ................................................................................................... 49
4.3.4 Type of tasks the teachers usually designed to teach students with using
English songs .................................................................................................. 51
4.3.5 Criteria for selecting songs of the teachers ............................................ 51


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4.3.6 Teachers' solutions for better listening lessons ...................................... 52
4.4 Suggested solutions ................................................................................... 53
4.5 Summary .................................................................................................. 55
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION ......................................................................... 60
5.1 Conclusion................................................................................................. 56
5.2 Implications ............................................................................................... 57

5.2.1. For teachers ........................................................................................... 57
5.2.2. For course-book designers .................................................................... 58
5.2.3. For educational administrators .............................................................. 58
5.3 Limitations ................................................................................................ 59
5.4 Further research ......................................................................................... 59
REFERENCES ................................................................................................ 61
APPENDIX 1 .................................................................................................. 65
APPENDIX 2 .................................................................................................. 69
APPENDIX 3 .................................................................................................. 73
APPENDIX 4 .................................................................................................. 75
APPENDIX 5 .................................................................................................. 77
APPENDIX 6 .................................................................................................. 81
APPENDIX 7 .................................................................................................. 85
APPENDIX 8 .................................................................................................. 92
APPENDIX 9 .................................................................................................. 94
APPENDIX 10 ................................................................................................ 96


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LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1.1. The scores of pre listening English test by the control group (Group 1) and
the experimental group (Group 2)....................................................................................... 39
Table 4.1.2. The scores of post listening English test by the control group (Group 1) and
the experimental group (Group 2)....................................................................................... 40
Table 4.1.3. The difference between the post-test scores and the pre-test scores by
the control group and the experimental group ............................................................ 41
Table 4.2.3 Students’ opinion about the benefits of using English songs in listening
skill .............................................................................................................................. 44
Table: 4.2.4 Students’ favorite activities while they are listening to English songs .. 46

Table 4.2.5: Reasons of listening to English songs ..................................................... 47
Table 4.3.1 The frequency of using English songs to teach listening skill ................. 48
Table 4.3.2 Teachers’ opinion about some advantages of using English songs in
class ...................................................................................................................................... 49
Table 4.3.3 Teachers’ opinion about some disadvantages of using English songs in
class ............................................................................................................................. 50
Table 4.3.4 Type of tasks the teachers usually designed to teach students with using
English songs........................................................................................................................ 51
Table 4.3.5 Criteria for selecting songs of the teachers ..................................................... 51
Table 4.2.6: Teachers' solutions for better listening teaching and learning with songs . 52


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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 4.1.1 Pie chart of the pre listening English test scores by the control group and
the experimental group .............................................................................................. 40
Figure 4.1.2 Pie chart of the post listening English test scores by the control group
and the experimental group ....................................................................................... 41
Figure 4.2.1 Pie chart of students’ awareness to the use English songs .................. 42
Figure 4.2.2 Pie chart of the improving of students’ listening skill after having
been taught with English songs ................................................................................. 43
Figure 4.2.3 Bar chart of students’ opinion about the benefits of using English songs
in listening skill ......................................................................................................... 44
Figure 4.2.4 Bar chart of students’ favorite activities while they are listening to
English songs ............................................................................................................ 46
Figure 4.3.1 Pie chart of the frequency of using songs to teach listening
skill ............................................................................................................................ 48
Figure 4.3.3 Pie chart of type of tasks the teachers usually designed to teach students
with using English songs. .......................................................................................... 50

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CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 RATIONALE
According to Hidayat (2013), “listening is considered as an important ability
that has to be mastered. How well someone listens has a major impact on the quality
of their relationship with others” (p. 21). Harmer (2001) says that “songs or piece of
music change “atmosphere” in the classroom” (p. 242). I agree with Ocak (2012)
“songs are important teaching tools in teaching EFL (English as a foreign language)
because most teachers find out that students love listening to the music in the
language classroom” (p. 333). So, using English songs in EFL classrooms can bring
about affective learning such as providing a harmonious classroom atmosphere,
reducing students’ anxiety, fostering their interests and motivating them to learn the
target language. From the reason mentioned above researcher thinks that English
songs can help to teach listening effectively. That is also the reason why researcher
chooses the topic: “A study on using songs in teaching English to 10th graders at
Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh high school” for studying.
From the result of the research, researcher expects that English teachers and
learners can have some useful solutions for using English songs in teaching and
learning listening skill.
1.2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
1.2.1. Aims
The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of using songs in
teaching listening skill to the students at Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh High School.
Moreover, this study will be useful for those concerning about how to use
English songs to teach listening to students.
1.2.2. Objectives

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To gain the mentioned aims, researcher has some objectives as following:
 To find out what are benefits of using English songs in teaching listening
skill
 To find out what problems teachers have in teaching listening through
English songs.
 To find out the suggestions that can be applied for using English songs in
teaching listening skill at Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh High School.
1.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
In order for all the aforementioned aims and objectives to be achieved, the
following research questions are put forward:
The study answers three research questions:
1. What are benefits of listening English songs for improving listening skill of
10th students at Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh High School?
2. What are the difficulties the teachers/learners often face when
teaching/learning listening lessons with English songs?
3. What are the suggestions in using English songs to enhance students’
listening skill?
1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The Scope of our study focuses on using some popular English songs that have
soft music with quite simple words and easy to listen to teach listening for students at
Nguyen Huu Canh High School. It involved 60 students at Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh High
School in the year 2018-2019.
1.5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The researcher hopes the study can help students interest in learning listening
and help them to memorize the lesson easily. Moreover, she also hopes this study can
help teachers at Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh High School and others teach listening skill with
English songs effectively.

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1.6. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
This study consists of 5 chapters as follows:
Chapter 1: INSTRUCTION
This chapter includes rationale, aims and objectives, research questions, scope
of the study and organization of the study.
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter presents the previous study related to the thesis, the theoretical
background of the study.
Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY
This chapter introduces participants; materials and procedure.
Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
This chapter focuses on identifying and analyzing the efficiency of using
English songs in teaching listening skill.
Chapter 5: CONCLUSION
This chapter includes Conclusion, Implications, limitations, and suggestions
for further study.


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CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter consists of 2 parts:
 The previous studies: Reviewing the points of view and results of some
researches related to the thesis.
 Brief introducing some concepts and theoretical framework that could be used
as the background for explanation in the following chapters
2.1. Previous Studies

It can be said that listening is one of the most important skills for both EFL
teachers and learners. Therefore, more and more studies of the issues of teaching and
learning listening skill in general and of teaching and learning listening skill through
English songs in particular have been particularly concerned by a lot of researchers
and educators. Many researchers have written books about teaching listening and the
use of songs in teaching English.
Andrew Yau Hau Tse, a teacher of English in Malaysia conducted a thesis on
“Malaysian teachers’ perspective on using songs in English language teaching”. The
aim of his study is to examine the angles of Malaysian ESL teachers on the
employment of songs. Specifically, it aims at observing their philosophy on the
pedagogical value, attitudes, and cerebration on the impact of songs in English
teaching.
Hans Mol in Australia investigated the use of songs in English classroom. He
said that songs can help learners become familiar with word stress and intonation,
and the rhythm with which words are spoken or sung and that songs also help
memorization.
Yagang (1993) pointed out four major factors that made listening difficult to
learners such as the message, the speaker, the listener and the physical setting. He
also suggested some solutions to these problems so that EFL teachers could provide


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their students with suitable listening materials, background and linguistic knowledge,
comfortable classroom conditions, enabling skills and useful drills to encourage them
to gain listening strategies effectively.
Jian (2005) paid attention to teaching listening in a communicative classroom.
She demonstrated the disadvantages of traditional listening teaching and discovered
some communicative ways to teach listening from her experience. In the traditional
classes, teachers act as “a tape - recorder player” and students are “passive listeners”.
In contrast, in the communicative classes, students are given a real communicative

environment with a variety of listening tasks, materials and listening strategies so that
they can become more active and skillful in listening. Therefore, the Communicative
Language Teaching requires teachers to eradicate the traditional image of recording
players and equip themselves with more knowledge and skills.
Millington (2011) discussed how songs could help learners improve their
listening skills and pronunciation, and how they could be useful in the teaching of
vocabulary and sentence structures.
Sevik (2012) presented the relevant literature in relation to the importance of the
listening skill for young foreign language learners and to discuss the importance,
advantages, and teaching procedures of songs as listening activities. Besides, there
have been many books written about using songs in teaching foreign languages such
as “ESL song book” by Adonnowski (1997), “A practical handbook of language
learning” by Cross (1991), “Music and songs” by Murpley (1992) …. But there are
only a few books about using songs in teaching a particular language skill in
particular place with particular conditions.
In Vietnam, this issue has also been received much attention via various studies.
Do Van Hoa (2010) proposed that the third-year students at Hong Duc
University in Thanh Hoa province could improve listening skills through portfolio.
The study emphasized the importance of portfolios to the students' self- study in
general and the listening skills in particular. Pedagogically, the findings of the study


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were believed to be useful for teachers to be aware of the essential role of portfolios
to the students' self- study in the listening skills.
Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen (2010) suggested using songs as a supplementary
material in teaching listening for the first-year non-major students of English at
Phuong Dong University in Hanoi to eliminate their prejudice against listening skill,
evoked their like and improve the students’ listening state.
Tran Thi Tuyet Mai (2010) at Duy Tien High school conducted a study titled

“Using English traditional songs to improve students’ pronunciation” with its aims
are finding out whether the use of English traditional songs to teach pronunciation for
high school students is effective or not and working out the most effective ways of
using English songs to teach pronunciation for high school students.
Tran Thi Oanh (2008) conducted a study titled “The use of song to improve
listening skill for students at ITC foreign language center in Hai Duong”. In her
study, she paid much attention to investigating the effectiveness of using songs in
teaching listening skill.
Bui Thi Thu (2011) showed songs to motivate students in learning English
grammar. She illustrated that the English songs play an important part in helping
students memorize the grammatical rules more easily.
In conclusion, it can be seen from the above review that researchers have
focused on studying either the general principles for teaching listening skills or the
problems faced by learners in learning listening and suggested solutions to enhance
their listening skill. They are really significant for the listening class. However, some
aspects related to the use of English songs in teaching listening have not been fully
and systematically explored. This thesis, therefore, focuses on the studying the use of
English songs in teaching listening skill.
2.2. Theoretical Background
2.2.1. Teaching English listening skill
2.2.1.1. Definition of listening


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Listening is an important medium of information gathering in our life. In
addition, listening is the language activity that is used most frequently. As said by
Cahyono & Widiati (2009) a new-born baby will first listen to the voices and sounds
in his or her environment in order to internalize linguistic input, before he or she
speaks and learns to read and write. Wolvin (2012) estimated that people listen for as
much as 55% of their day. The primacy of listening is not just a matter of time on the

task. Moreover, Brown (2010) affirms that people do listening than speaking.
Hsu et.al. (2013) mentions that listening is an important capability of social
interactions, and it has been found that people receive new messages more efficiently
via listening than reading. From four aspect of skill (listening, speaking, reading, and
writing), listening is naturally considered as the primary skill in the acquisition of the
native (first) language (Cahyono & Widiati, 2009, p.194).
As defined by Oxford (1993, p. 206), listening is a complex problem solving
skill and it is more than just perception of the sounds. Listening includes
comprehension of meaning words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and connected
discourse. Furthermore, according to Bulletin in Saricoban (1999), listening is one of
the fundamental language skills. It is a medium through which children, young
people and adults gain a large portion of their information, their understanding of the
world and of human affairs, their ideals, sense of values, and their appreciation.
Rivers in Hasyuni (2006, p. 8) says that listening is a creative skill. It means we
comprehend the sound falling on our ears, and take the raw material of words,
arrangements of words, and the rise and fall the voice, and from this material we
creative a significance. Russel and Russel in Hasyuni (2006, p. 8) also say that
listening skill is listening with comprehension, attention and appreciation. Then,
listening activity needs integrating skill of language, such as pronunciation,
vocabulary mastery, writing, speaking, and reading.
Listening skill can be meant as ability to pay attention or to hear something. But,
listening is not same as hearing. Hearing is essentially an automatic, passive activity.


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It is possible to hear sounds without consciously engaging in the process. While, in
listening the brain doesn’t automatically translate the words into the message they are
conveying. That is essentially what listening is determining the meaning and the
message of the sounds or words. It is active process that involves much more than
assigning labels to sounds or words. As mentioned in Mee (1990), listening is a

complex process in which many things happen simultaneously inside the mind.
Besides being complex, listening is far more difficult than many people can imagine.
So, previous researches indicated that listening is the ability to identify and
understand what others are saying. It is also a complex activity, and we can help
students comprehend what they hear by activating their prior knowledge.
Furthermore, it will consider another way teachers can help to ease the difficulty of
listening by training students in different types of listening.
2.2.1.2 Types of listening
According to Wolvin and Coakley (1996) (cited in Goh, 2000), five types of
listening have been identified according to their purposes as follows:
 Discriminative listening
 Comprehensive listening
 Critical listening
 Therapeutic listening
 Appreciative listening
Discriminative listening is where the objective is to distinguish sound and visual
stimuli. This objective does not take into account the meaning; instead the focus is
largely on sounds. In a basic level class, this can be as simple as distinguishing the
gender of the speaker or the number of the speakers, etc. As mentioned before the
focus is not on comprehending; but on accustoming the ears to the sound. If one
thinks she/he can see that this is where L1 listening begins - the child responds to
sound stimulus and soon can recognize its parents’ voices amidst all other voices.


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Depending on the level of the students, the listening can be discriminating sound to
identifying individual words.
Comprehensive listening is a kind of listening, which the focus is to understand
the message. The writers consider this as the basis for the next three types of
listening. However, the problem can come in the form of understanding the same

message in different ways. Lots of work in teaching listening in the classroom has to
happen here in facilitating the students to develop their comprehension skills.
Therapeutic listening is one kind of listening where the listener’s role is to be a
sympathetic listener without verbal response. In this kind of listening, the listener
allows somebody to talk through a problem. This kind of listening is very important
in building good interpersonal relations.
Critical listening is the fourth kind of listening where listeners have to evaluate
the message. Listeners have to critically respond to the message and give their
opinion.
Appreciative listening focuses on enjoying what one listens. When students
listen to English music, even if they do not understand, they still enjoy challenging
notion of comprehensive listening as the basis for other three types of listening.
Generally, students listen to the songs once and try to make out the lyrics before
listening a second time with the lyrics. Then they recalled that they appreciated the
song better during the second time and were able to see the relation between how one
would enjoy something that she/he is able to make sense of.
In this way, the discussion of the five types of listening turned out to be quite
informative and thought provoking for all underscoring the adage when one teaches
to learn.
According to Johna Kline (1996, p. 29 - 42), different situations require
different types of listening. We may listen to obtain information, improve a
relationship, gain appreciation for something, make discriminations, or engage in a


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critical evaluation. While certain skills are basic and necessary for all types of
listening, each type requires some special skills. He identified five types of listening.
Informative listening is the name we give to the situation where the listener’s
primary concern is to understand the message. Listeners are successful as far as the
meaning they assign to messages is as close as possible to that which the sender

intended. Informative listening, or listening to understand, is found in all areas of our
lives. Much of our learning comes from informative listening.
Relationship listening aims at either helping an individual or improving the
relationship between people. Therapeutic listening is a special type of relationship
listening. Therapeutic listening brings to mind situations where counselors, medical
personnel, or other professionals allow a troubled person to talk through a problem.
However, it can also be used when you listen to friends or acquaintances and allow
them to get things off their chests. Although relationship listening requires you to
listen for information, the emphasis is on understanding the other person. Three
behaviors are key to effective relationship listening: attending, supporting and
empathizing.
Appreciative listening includes listening to music for enjoyment, to speakers
because you like their style, to your choices in theater, television, radio or film. It is
the response of the listener, not the source of the message that defines appreciative
listening. The quality of appreciative listening depends in large part on three factors:
presentation, perception and previous experience.
As for critical listening, the ability to listen critically is essential in a
democracy. On the job, in the community, at service clubs, in places worship, in the
family there is practically no place you can go where critical listening is unimportant.
Politicians, the media, sales clerks, advocates of policies and procedures, and our
own financial, emotional, intellectual, physical and spiritual needs require us to place
a premium on critical listening and the thinking that accompanies it. Effective critical
listening requires careful judgment about the expertness and trustworthiness of the


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speakers. In fact, ethos or speaker credibility may be the most important single factor
in critical listening and thinking. However, ethos without logos is not enough.
The final type of listening is discriminating listening. It may be the most
important type, for it is basic to the other four. By being sensitive to changes in the

speaker’s rate, volume, force, pitch and emphasis, the informative listener can detect
even nuances of differences in meaning. Detection of differences between sounds
made by certain instruments in the orchestra, or part sung by the cappella vocal
groups, enhances appreciative listening. Finally, sensitivity to pauses, and other vocal
and nonverbal cues, allows critical listeners to more accurately judge not only the
speaker’s message, but his intentions as well.
In my opinion, the effectiveness of listening, whether informative, relational,
appreciative, critical or discriminative requires skills. In some cases, the skills are the
same for the various types of listening; in some cases, they are quite different.
2.2.1.3 The role of listening in language learning
Teaching listening skills was ignored until the 1960s but it has recently gained
importance. It was thought that learners could develop their listening comprehension
skills while learning grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. Over the last two
decades due to increasing significance of communicative competence, the role of
listening skills has been highlighted (Joiner, 1997). In particular, from 1980s to
1990s, listening skills became popular in foreign language learning (Brown & Yule,
1983; Feyten, 1991). Yet the role of listening in communication establishment cannot
be underestimated, therefore sufficient amount of attention should be given to the
development of listening comprehension.
It was known that the major component in foreign language learning was
communicative competence. In other words, when learners had good communication
skills, they were considered as effective users of the language, yet Dunkel, Henning,
and Chaudron (1993) state that listening skills is more important than speaking skills
because without understanding speaker‘s message, the listener cannot respond thus


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communication between them cannot be established. In a study carried out by Feyten
(1991) it was found that 70 % of a working day is spent on verbal communication
and 45 % of this amount is spent on listening. Underwood (1989) states that in a

listening process listeners pay attention to speakers and tries to understand what they
say therefore listening and speaking skills should be integrated to develop oral
communicative competence of learners. In real life, these two skills are in integration,
therefore real success in language teaching and learning occurs when learners use it
skillfully and efficiently both inside and outside the classroom.
2.2.1.4. The importance of listening skills
Listening is said to be the most common communicative activity in daily life:
“we can expect to listen twice as much as we speak, four times more than we read,
and five times more than we write” (Morley, 1991, p. 82). It has been estimated that
we spend almost half communication time listening, and students may receive as
much as 90% of their in – school information through listening to instructors or to
one another.
Oral communication cannot take place without listening. Listening plays an
important part in the whole process of language learning. It is tied to the essential
cognitive elements of comprehension and understanding. In order to participate in
oral communication, the first thing anyone must have is the ability to absorb the
pieces of information from the speakers by listening. When nobody listens to a
speaker or when a listener fails to understand the message, communication is broken
down. Moreover, listening is an important way of acquiring the language, a good way
of picking up vocabulary, structures and getting new information.
In learning English, listening to spoken English is also very important.
According to Harmer (2000), it helps students hear different varieties and accents
apart from their teacher’s voice, hear different ones for the real world listening such
as telephone conversations, speeches, broadcast news, announcement, advertisement,


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etc. In Vietnamese situation where the learners do not have a chance to hear English
spoken around them every day and cannot acquire it easily, the teacher needs to give
them as much opportunity to listen to spoken English on tape as possible.

In summary, listening provides the aural input serving as the basis for second
language acquisition and enabling learners to interact in spoken communication. And
an old saying tells us that if you are a good listener, everywhere you go, people will
like you; and after a while, you'll learn something.
2.2.1.5 Strategies for developing listening skills
Listening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the
comprehension and recall of listening input. Listening strategies can be classified
according to how the listener processes the input. Top-down strategies are listener
based; the listener taps into background knowledge of the topic, the situation or
context, the type of text, and the language. This background knowledge activates a
set of expectations that help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate what
will come next. Top-down strategies include
 listening for the main idea
 predicting
 drawing inferences
 summarizing
Bottom-up strategies are text based; the listener relies on the language in the
message, that is, the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates
meaning. Bottom-up strategies include
 listening for specific details
 recognizing cognates (equivalents)
 recognizing word-order patterns
Listeners also use cognitive strategies to plan, monitor, and evaluate their
listening. They plan by deciding which listening strategies will serve best in a


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particular situation; monitor their comprehension and the effectiveness of the selected
strategies; evaluate by determining whether they have achieved their listening
comprehension goals and whether the combination of listening strategies selected

was an effective one.
2.2.1.6 Difficulties in listening skill
Ur (1996, p. 111), says that there are some students difficulties in learning
listening: trouble with sounds, have to understand every word, cannot understand fast
and natural native speech, need to hear things more than once, find it difficult to keep
up, and get tired.
The other problem in learning listening is the students have no control over the
speed of what they are hearing and they cannot go back or rewind to listen again.
Although, in class the listening materials are recorded and can be played again or
students to listen again, it is usually under the control. Also, because the speed at
which native speakers usually speak, students feel that the teacher asks the students to
listen to the overall message and forget about what they could not catch, which
probably means what they did not understand, the teacher has no idea that sometimes
what they do not really understand can add up to 75% of what is heard (Rixon, 1986,
p. 37) Moreover, Underwood (1989, p.17) mentions some other kinds of difficulties
that are directly related to the students themselves. One of the problems which the
students have established learning habits in the sense that they were encouraged to
understand everything by listening carefully to teachers who probably speak slowly
and clearly. Hence, when they fail to understand every word while listening, they
stop listening and lose the thread, which seems to be the reason for state of panic and
worrying they usually show before and during listening.
In relation to those problems, we cannot deny that students’ motivation plays an
important role in learning listening. As mentioned in Brown (2006, p1), another
theme will be motivation.