TP Vinh, 2021

TP Vinh, 2021
 ACKNOWLEDMENTS

During the implementation of this thesis, I received a lot of enthusiastic and

valuable help from teachers and friends working in the English department, Vinh
University.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to Pham Thi Mai Anh who
enthusiastically instructed, guided the science and created all the best conditions for me
during the time of this thesis.

I would also like to express my deep gratitude to my loved ones in family and
friends who are a valuable source of spiritual encouragement for me to complete this
thesis.

Finally, I would like to thank the teachers and students who had implemented
various listening strategies, helped me to collect and analysis feedbacks in order to
complete this thesis.

Despite many efforts, in the framework of an essay, the shortcomings cannot be

avoided. I hope to receive the suggestions of teachers and friends to make this thesis to
be more completed.

Thank you sincerely!

 ABSTRACT

Derived from the nature of listening strategies, unconscious activities of learners

but conscious of teachers, in combination with the researcher‟s challenges in teaching
listening, the research is implemented to investigate listening strategy instructions and
applications. Research question that decides content of the research is how listening
strategies are instructed and applied in EFL class. It was carried out in Europe-Vietnam
Language School where learners are motivated by their apparent learning purposes. Six
participants contain three EFL teachers and three EFL students from the teachers‟
classes. Two instruments used were observation and stimulated recall. As a result,
despite teachers‟ different preferences of using strategies, learners only get familiar
with cognitive and social-affective strategies. Their weaknesses found were their
inability in controlling listening processes, problems in pronunciation, and difficulties
in building up learning spirit due to their passive learning style. With the investigation
into the reality of using listening strategies, the research is in the hope to help teachers
and learners remedy their current strategy use with the help of their private school.
 PART A. INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale

Followed the initiation of economic reform and exercising the open-door policies
that took place in 1986, English has quickly emerged to be the most popular foreign
language in Vietnam. Throughout the rapid growth and expansion of socio-economy
and science – technology in more than 30 years, English remained the first priority
language to be taught in Vietnam. English is the compulsory subject for the Vietnamese
12-grades education system, and is one of the six national entrance examination for
students who want to pursuit higher educational level, including university and post-
graduate, or even studying abroad. Nowadays, English also serve to be the key to many
more job opportunities while Vietnam is in the process of globalization.

While English hold crucial impacts in every aspect of economy expansion and
advancement of science and technology, the method of teaching English in schools
proven to be outdated and ineffective. While schools focus students to study more on
grammars to fulfill testing purposes whereas tests are mostly revolves around grammars
and vocabularies, it totally neglects the communicative purposes of the language and
leaves students with insecurities with their listening and speaking skills. Thus, most
students resort to study in private English centers to improve their English competence,
where speaking and listening are emphasized. But after working a long time in several
English centers, we have found that many students still struggle to improve their
listening skills, even after spending a good amount of efforts. It seems that, however
effective a teaching method can be, it can’t apply to every student. Therefore, we need
to study in a systematic way which listening strategies should be implemented.

2. Research objectives
 This study is conducted in order to investigate the difficulties of English learner
in improving listening skill, to find out which and when listening strategies should be
implemented.

3. Research questions

The general question addressed in this study is: What kind of listening strategies
should be applied to teach a certain group of students?

This question can be answered by addressing these specific questions:

1. What are the difficulties for students when learning english, especially
listening skill?
2. Which/when listening strategies should be implemented to students and
how to apply them?
3. Determine how multi strategies should be implemented simultaneously?

4. Context of the study

The research is carried out in the English faculty - Foreign languages department
of Nghe An College of Education , which is located in No. 389, Le Viet Thuat street,
Vinh city. Established in 1998. Since then, the English faculty has continuously
developed and became one of the most prestigious english facility in Vinh city. Having
a team of esteemed teachers who are both experienced and devoted into teaching, the
English faculty continued to pioneer the English education quality in Vinh city.

In the context of this study, we have chosen the communication course based on
three main criterias: firstly, this course focus on listening and speaking skills, and since
listening and speaking are essential in any mean of communication and are
correspondent, thus can’t be seperated. Secondly, the students on this course varied in
ages and background, so it is neccesary to divide them into groups for easier
managements and teaching. Last but no least, the results of all strategies applied to
student are responsive to teachers and they can get feedback from student regularly
during the course.

As we can see, the context of the study meets the need of the thesis, and the
results of student’s learning efforts are collected and analysed for the purpose of the
study.

5. Research outline

This study is conducted through the following process:

Step 1: Gather data from student in english background, ages and character:
study has found that student are more open to study when in a group with the same skill
and ages, timid students are also more likely to follow ther active peers.

Step 2: Based on the characteristic of a group, teacher decide which listening

strategies are most suitable for the group and apply that strategies.

Step 3: Collecting feedback from students and adjust strategies based on

feedback, also move students to higher/lower groups to keep up with their study
abilities.

Step 4: After a period of 1 months, collect results from all students to see their
improvement and propose more suitable strategies for each student.
 PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 LITEARATURE REVIEW

1.1 Listening comprehension

“Listening comprehension is an active process of constructing meaning, and that

this is done by applying knowledge to the incoming”

1.1.1 The nature of listening

Listening is the cognitive process whereby we attach meanings to aural signals. It

is the active intellectual process of decoding, interpreting, understanding and evaluating
messages. It is a mode of communication just as important as the other modes like
speaking, reading, and writing.

There have been different definitions of the term “listening comprehension.”

Rost (2002) and Hamouda (2013) defined listening comprehension as an interactive
process in which listeners are involved in constructing meaning. Listeners comprehend
the oral input through sound discrimination, previous knowledge, grammatical
structures, stress and intonation, and the other linguistic or non-linguistic clues (as cited
in Pourhosein Gilakjani & Sabouri, 2016). Nadig (2013) defined listening
comprehension as the various processes of understanding and making sense of spoken
language. These involve knowing speech sounds, comprehending the meaning of
individual words, and understanding the syntax of sentences (Pourhosein Gilakjani &
Sabouri, 2016). According to Brown and Yule (1983) and Hamouda (2013), listening
comprehension is an individual understanding of what listener has heard and it is the
listener’s ability to repeat the text despite the fact that the listener may repeat the sound
without real comprehension. There are several different types of listening, based on
how deeply you are listening to the other person.

1. False listening - occurs where a person is pretending to listen but is not hearing
anything that is being said. They may nod, smile and grunt in all the right places, but do
not actually take in anything that is said.

2. Initial Listening - sometimes when listener the first few words and then start to
think about what they want to say in return. they then look for a point at which can be
interrupted.

3. Selective Listening - involves listening for particular things and ignoring

others. Listener thus hear what they want to hear and pay little attention to 'extraneous'
detail. Partial Listening is what most people do most of the time. They listen to the
other person with the best of intent and then become distracted, either by stray thoughts
or by something that the other person has said.

4. Full Listening - happens where the listener pays close and careful attention to
what is being said, seeking carefully to understand the full content that the speaker is
seeking to put across.

5. Deep Listening - listener carefully listen between the lines of what is said,
hearing the emotion, watching the bodylanguage, detecting needs and goals, identifying
preferences and biases, perceiving beliefs and values, and so on. To listen deeply, they
need a strong understanding of human psychology (which speakers seeks to give) and
to pay attention not just to the words but to the whole person.

Listening, in addition, is a complicated process requiring people’s serious

concentration and profound knowledge. According to Brody (2004), focusing is never
enough for a good listener. The complicated nature of listening is also revealed by
language components, such as phonology, syntax, semantics, as well as knowledge of
context, which must be done simultaneously (Pearson, 1983 cited in Butt et al., 2010).
From the definitions of listening, a conclusion of the skill is drawn. It is not simple to
deal with and the level of success in the skill requires numerous factors of an active
learning process. Nevertheless, why must learners attempt to be good at the
complicated and active process? The reasons will be discussed in the following part.

1.1.2 Significance of listening

Listening comprehension needs more concentration and a quick understanding is

also required. When listening, a lot of factors should be specifically paid attention.
They are context, facial expressions, and body gestures that are very important for the
listeners to facilitate the understanding of what is conveyed by speakers (Ziane, 2011).

According to Rost (1994) and Ziane (2011), listening comprehension is very

important because it is a process through which we get input and without its
comprehension learning does not happen. Doff (1995) and Ziane (2011) represented
that listening has a significant effect on developing speaking. That is, we cannot
develop our speaking ability unless we develop our listening skill. If learners have good
listening ability in English language, it would be very easy for them to listen to the
radio, to study, watch films, or communicate with foreigners. Learners should have a
lot of practice and exposure to English in order to develop this ability. There is a
relationship between listening to a language and learning it. If we compare two
learners; one is living in a country where the target language is the first language and
the other is living in a country where English is only spoken in academic places. The
difference is that the first learner can acquire English more easily, effectively, and
rapidly than the second one. Consequently, learners need as much exposure to English
language as possible.

According to Hedge (2000), listening has an important role in everyday life and
when people are engaged in communication: 9% is spent to writing, 16% to reading,
30% to speaking, and 45% to listening which shows the significance of listening in the
communication process. Lundsteen (1979) expressed that listening is the first skill to
appear. He continued that children listen before they speak. Hedge (2000) indicated that
modern society likes to change from printed media towards sound and its variaties.
Therefore, the significance of listening cannot be ignored. He emphasized that listening
is of great importance in English language classrooms.

1.1.3 Difficulties in listening comprehension

 As the importance of listening skill discussed, the demand to master it is
necessary. However, due to its complicated nature, its success seems to be a challenge.
According to Siegel (2013), listening has been considered the most awkward of the four
macro skills. The difficulties of listening derive from the following sources.

Number Sources of listening problems Percentage

1 Speaking rate 100

2 Distraction 95
3 Unable to recognize words they knew 90
4 New vocabulary 85
5 Missing subsequent input 80
6 Nervousness 70
7 Sentence complexity 60
8 Background knowledge 55
9 Anxiety and frustration 45
10 Unfamiliar pronunciation beside what 40
they usually listen to
Table 1. 1: Top ten listening problems (Renandya & Farrell; 2010, 54)

From the above problems, I sort them into four main groups; group of numbers 1,
2, and 5 belongs to problems with spoken language, group of number 3 and 10 is
problems in dealing with sounds, numbers 4, 7, and 8 relate to problems of knowledge.
Finally, numbers 6 and 9 refer to problems of listeners‟ mood. The four problems are
explained below prior to discussion on their solutions presented in section 2.2.

1.1.3.1 Problems with spoken language

The three aspects counted here are speaking rate, missing subsequent input, and
distraction. At first, speaking rate, or speed, is a challenge for EFL learners because it is
impossible to use strategies in written texts, such as “breaking down a word into its
components, looking a word up in the dictionary, or guessing the meaning of a word
from its context” (Ridgway, 2000, 181). There is almost no chance to check previous
information right before any input. Secondly, there are various tasks to do
simultaneously during listening, including word meaning identification, context,
attitude of speaker, meaning inside the heart of words, and so on (Eysenck and Keane,
1995). Hence, missing adequate input seems hardly avoidable. Finally, Siegel (2013)
claimed that learners often got distraction in listening. When listeners miss previous
information due to speaking rate, unknown words, or other subjective reasons, they
easily turn to neglect following ideas (Rahimi, 2012). In short, the three difficulties
derived from spoken language are barriers for learner to approach listening success.

1.1.3.2 Problems in dealing with sounds.

Problems learners encounter in the sections are recognizing known words and
unfamiliar sounds. Firstly, Goh (2002) identified that learners failed to listen to what
they had learned due to their inadequate knowledge in pronunciation. Even an EFL
listener who is rich at vocabulary, the variety of speech may confuse him/ her because
“sometimes the words are fully articulated, but most of the time, they undergo radical
phonological changes. It is quite natural for speakers to modify, drop, and add sound
when speaking” (Renandya & Farrell, 2010, 53). Especially, while listening to tapes or
CDs, EFL learners in this case do not have chance to interact and to receive support
from non-verbal gestures (Renandya & Farrell, 2010). Secondly, the problem becomes
more serious when they adapt into different kinds of accent. There are a variety of
spoken English, such as British English, American English, Australian English, and
other kinds all around the word. Without a long time experiencing various listening, it
seems to be a big trouble for learners. Briefly, difficulty with sounds due to lack of
listening affects listening totally negatively.
1.2 Listening strategies

1.2.1 Nature of strategies

The word “strategy” appears as an essential part of learning. Discussing about the
origin of the word, Oxford (1990) cited that it “comes from the ancient Greek word
“strategia”, which means steps or actions taken for the purpose of winning a war”
(p.21). The control and goal-directedness remain in the modern version of the word.
Oxford (1990) defines language learning strategies as “approaches or techniques that
learners use to enhance their progress in developing L2 skills” (p22). From the
definition, Li (2010) concluded that foreign language learning strategies refer to
behaviors or thinking in learning process to make it effective.

1.2.2 Categories of listening strategies

Goh (2000) said that it is very important to teach listening strategies to students
and before doing this, teachers should increase learners’ knowledge of vocabulary,
grammar, and phonology. According to Vandergrift (1999), the development of
strategy is significant for the training of listening and learners can guide and assess their
own understanding and answers. Many researchers such as Conrad (1985), O’Mallay
and Chamot (1990), and Rost and Ross (1991) and Azmi Bingol, Celik, Yidliz, and
Tugrul Mart (2014) expressed that there are three types of strategies in listening
comprehension. They are cognitive, metacognitive, and socio-affective. These
strategies can change based on the level of learners.

1.2.2.1 Metacognitive listening strategies

According to Rubin (1988), metacognitive strategies are management techniques

used by learners to control their learning through planning, checking, assessing, and
changing. For instance, for metacognitive planning strategies, listeners clear the aims of
a listening task and apply specific features of the aural language input that make easy
the understanding of aural input. Holden (2004) and Azmi Bingol, Celik, Yidliz, and
Tugrul Mart (2014) stated that in this strategy students are aware when listening to the
text. In this strategy, learners learn how to plan, monitor, and evaluate the collected
information from the listening part. According to Wenden (1998), learners who use
metacognitive strategies can learn faster and integrate the knowledge outstandingly, can
be constant receivers and deal with all situations, have self-confidence to get help from
partners, teachers, or family, and can observe and assess themselves. Salataci (2002)
indicated that the use of metacognitive strategy in the listening process increases
learners’ self-confidence, motivation, and ability to complete the activities.

According to Baker and Brown (1984) and Abdalhamid (2012), there are two
kinds of metacognitive skill: knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition.
Knowledge of cognition deals with the learners’ consciousness of what is going on, and
regulation of cognition deals with what learners should do to listen effectively. Bacon
(1992), O’Malley and Chamot (1990), Goh (2000), Vandergrift (2003), and
Abdalhamid (2012) indicated that the difference between skilled and less skilled
listeners can be understood through their application of metacognitive strategies.
O’Malley et al. (1989) demonstrated that skilled listeners utilize more repair strategies
to redirect their attention back to the activity when there is a comprehension failure,
while less skilled listeners cease listening. Vandergrift (2003) and Abdalhamid (2012)
showed that skilled listeners applied twice as many metacognitive strategies as their
less-skilled learners. According to Henner Stanchina (1987), metacognitive strategies
played an important role in listening comprehension. She mentioned that skilled
listeners can permanently explain and what they hear through (1) utilizing their prior
knowledge and predictions to create theories on the text; (2) connecting new
information with their continuing predictions; (3) making deductions to fill
comprehension breaks; (4) assessing their predictions; (5) improving their theories.
Henner Stanchina (1987) continued skilled listeners can identify failure in
understanding and activate their background knowledge to get better comprehension

1.2.2.2 Cognitive strategies

Cognitive strategies are related to understanding and gathering input in short

term memory or long-term memory for later use. Comprehension begins with the
received data that is examined as consecutive levels of formation and a process of
decoding. Cognitive strategy is a problem-solving method that learners apply to deal
with the learning activity and facilitate the learning of knowledge (Azmi Bingol, Celik,
Yidliz, & Tugrul Mart, 2014). Derry and Murphy (1986) defined cognitive strategies as
problem-solving techniques that learners use for the acquisition of knowledge or skill.
Brown and Palincsar (1982) and O’Malley and Chamot (1990) and Abdalhamid (2012)
expressed that cognitive strategies are related to the learning activities and include
direct utilization or change of the learning materials. According to Goh (1998), learners
utilize cognitive strategies to assist them process, keep, and remember new information.

There are two kinds of cognitive strategies in listening: bottom - up and top
-down. Bottom-up strategies are word-for-word translation, arranging the rate of
speech, repeating the oral text, and concentrating on prosodic characteristics of the text.
Top-down strategies involve forecasting, guessing, explaining, and visualization.
Advanced learners use more top-down strategies than beginners (Conrad, 1985; Tsui &
Fullilove, 1998; O’Malley, Chamot, & Kupper, 1989; Abdalhamid, 2012). A think-
aloud procedure was used to examine the listening strategies of university students
learning Spanish. The results of quantitative study showed that participants utilized
more cognitive than metacognitive strategies and that females applied more
metacognitive strategies than males. The findings of qualitative study indicated that
success in listening was related to factors like the application of many strategies, ability
and flexibility in modifying strategies, stimulation, self-control, and sufficient use of
prior knowledge (Abdalhamid, 2012).

1.2.2.3. Social affective strategies

Vandergrift (2003) and Abdalhamid (2012) expressed that socio-affective

strategies are techniques that listeners use to cooperate with others, to check their
comprehension, and to reduce their apprehension. Gardner and MacIntyre (1993) said
that affective strategies are very significant because the learning situation and learners’
social-psychological factors are closely related to each other. There is a significant
relationship between low anxiety and high listening performance: that is, the use of
affective strategies makes easy and improve listening (Aneiro, 1989). O’Malley and
Chamot (1987) represented that among the four strategies of listening comprehension,
social and affective strategies had the most effect on the learning context. Wilson
(2003) said that socio-affective strategies are related to students’ interaction with other
speakers and their reactions towards learning. Habte-Gabr (2006) said that in socio-
affective strategy, students should know how to decrease anxiety, feel confident during
listening activities, and raise motivation in improving listening skill.

1.3 Teachers’ roles in listening

1.3.1 Why listening strategies are taught in the context of classroom

 As mentioned in the first part of the chapter, the nature of listening is
complicated and learning listening in a language which is not a native one is a
challenge. In the situation, language learner must be guided and observed from the
beginning (Zhang & Liu, 2008). Classroom is an ideal environment which can
eliminate unexpected interruption. “Setting clear, challenging and realistic goals can
help students see their own progress and hopefully, by becoming consciously aware of
their progress, the students’ motivation for learning would be increased” (Zhao, 2013,
242). Moreover, learners cannot measure if their listening is improved if they do not
look at scores on tests of listening proficiency (Buck, 2001). Via the tests, they can
evaluate their competence and look for their teachers‟ assistance to improve their
backwardness. For the reasons, listening must be taught in classroom to enhance
learners‟ knowledge and strategies for future use. The development of listening skill
seems to be fast if learners only focus on it in an environment which eliminates learning
distractions.

1.3.2 What a teacher does in a listening class

TEACHER AS A LEARNER: Teaching and Learning is a continuous process

and wherein strategies may differ with the moving generations. Though we find many
changes in the education system, but the role of a teacher will remain the same but with
slight changes. The teacher’s job is to convince the student that education fulfills the
need and learning in the classroom. A Teacher has to think from the learners’
perspective before she plans to interact with the students. When a teacher plans with the
learners’s perspective and starts teaching, students can receive the information without
any hesitation in grasping the things.

TEACHER AS A FACILITATOR: It is very significant that students should

sense that their teachers concern about them and thus teacher should become the best
facilitator to the students in all the aspects. As a facilitator she has to direct and support
students in learning for themselves as a self-explorer. Teachers should develop best
learning environment which reflects the students’ life in societal, intellectual and
linguistic occurrences. As a facilitator a teacher should lay a strong foundation for their
personal growth.

TEACHER AS AN ASSESSOR: As a Teacher, assessing is one of the important

tools for extracting students’s knowledge by giving continuous feedback. Teacher’s
role is not complete just by teaching a lesson. Assessing is the effective tool for making
students learning perfect. A Teacher before assessing a student has to first assess their
own conclusions, as to what extent a student will be benefitted with their correct
assessment. These assessments can be carried out through verbal feedback, by
conducting quizzes, by giving some tasks etc. An assessment makes a teacher to plan
for her future teaching techniques and in guiding them to master their language

TEACHER AS A MANAGER: Teacher’s role as a manger is a very significant

and imperative role in managing a class. A Teacher has to plan well in advance
regarding handling the classes within the stipulated time, covering academics as well as
interpersonal skills with various teaching techniques which is obviously a path to
practical approach. An experienced teacher can manage the timings according to their
own experience. Perfect classroom management by a teacher using the major
mechanisms will lead to success of teaching-learning methods.

TEACHER AS AN EVALUATOR: As everyone is aware that evaluation plays a

prominent role to a teacher’s success. Evaluation is a subjective process, which is
related to academics. Teacher has to be an effective evaluator while evaluating the
student. True and fair evaluation should be done by a teacher in order to do justice to a
student’s career. A student has a wide scope of learning through the mistakes
committed. As an evaluator a student should also be focused on the areas of
competence rather than on the weaknesses and every student should be adhered to
positive expectations.

1.4 Reviews on previous implementations of listening strategies

Research 1:

Rahimi and Katal (2013) researched on the effects of metacognitive instruction

on EFL learners‟ listening comprehension and oral language proficiency. In the end,
they concluded that instructing strategies is necessary for EFL students in listening.
Fifty students with the age range of 19 to 24 of two upper-intermediate English courses
were participants of the research. There were divided into experimental group (18
female and 7 male students) and control group (17 female and 8 male students).

The researchers applied the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire

(MALQ) to investigate participants‟ awareness and application of listening strategies.
In the questionnaire, 21 items were divided into problem-solving, planning evaluation,
mental translation, person knowledge, and directed attention. Besides, the researchers
provided a TOEFL ibt test to check learners‟ ability before and after training. After
sixteen weeks the experimental group participated in metacognitive instruction of
listening to promote their metacognitive awareness of listening strategies was compared
with the control group received listening instruction without any focus on strategies.
The result revealed that, while controlling for students‟ beginning metacognitive
awareness and English listening and speaking proficiency, the instruction heightened
the experimental group‟s metacognitve awareness at the end of the experiment.

Research 2:

Wond and Nunan (2011) investigated the learning styles and strategies of
effective language learners to find out key differences of more and less effective
learners, such as in the overall learning style, the individual learning strategy
preferences, the amount of time spent, the area of academic specialization in perception
of the importance of English, self-rating of language ability, and enjoyment of learning
English. The differences affect directly the result of listening process. The two groups
of participant were defined by their scores in examination. The strong competence-
group has an A in the examination. The weak group has E or F grade. There is a survey
with two parts. In the first part, information of learners is filled sufficiently, including
their faculty, years of study, use of English grade, number of hour for practice English a
week, percentage of learning in English, rating of importance of English, self-rating of
language proficiency on a five point scale, extent to which the student enjoy English.

The second part consisted of a 30 item-questionnaire from Willing‟s (1994)

survey. The questions aimed at finding out the effects of learning strategies on learning
process. It also included software to analyze and categorize data. The level of using
strategies corresponds to ability of learners. Each element has its own impact onto
learning process.

Research 3:

Selamat and Sidhu (2011) researched student perceptions of metacognitive

strategy use in lecture listening comprehension. They explored ESL students‟
perceptions towards a metacgonitive strategy instruction program to improve their
lecture listening comprehension abilities. The study involved 34 first-year students
from the Faculty of Education in a public university in Malaysia. Instrumentation for
the study involved the use of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Data
revealed that the students perceived the MetSI training as helpful in proving their
lecture listening skills and in enabling them to be more effective in extracting
information from lectures. Findings from the study affirmed that there were numerous
problems in listening strategies. It also suggested the need for students to play a more
active role in overcoming their listening difficulties.
 CHAPTER 2: DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING LISTENING SKILL

2.1 Objectives of the Module

2.1.1 Overall objectives of the module

The students will acquire necessary listening skills in order to follow and comprehend
discourse such as lectures, conversations, interviews, and discussions.

The students will develop adequate listening skills to communicate effectively to

follow academic courses at university level.

A listening text refers to any lecture at the upper-intermediate level of at least 600
words.

The students will be equipped with necessary listening skills through integration of
other skills.

The students will acquire FCE skills to be able to reach the required English proficiency
level for admission to academic programs.

The students will expand their vocabulary so as to enhance their proficiency in

listening to academic texts.

The students will develop necessary strategies for successful independent learning.

2.1.2. Objectives for listening skill

The students will identify main ideas, identify important details.

The students will distinguish more important ideas from less important ones.

The students will learn to use strategies to listen actively.

The students will learn strategies to take clear notes and use their notes to organize their
ideas.

The students will identify words and/or phrases related to the topic, draw inferences
relying on the context.

The students will express themselves fluently.

The students will convey their ideas clearly.

The students will participate in discussions, analyze and synthesize information

presented in different sources.

The students will identify and extract the main ideas and details from a listening text.

The students will paraphrase what they hear and summarize what they hear

2.2. Investigation on some difficulties that students encountered in listening class

2.2.1. Data

Through inverviewing 17 students, asking them question regarding which are

found to be hindering them to improve their listening skills, I have collect a set of
information to decipher the main difficulties for students in listening classes.

2.2.2. Findings analysis

Through analyzing the data gained from the classrooms, I have come into
conclusion that the difficulties students often encounter are listed below:

Cultural differences

Being unfamiliar of cultural knowledge of language plays a great role

understanding the context. The marriage between language and culture is indivisible
(Brown, 1994). The topic may contain completely different cultural matter than the
students have. In this case students may have difficulties to imagine what has been told.
Here the instructors should give prior knowledge about the topic beforehand. For
instance, if the listening part is about Easter Day and it is not common in the area that
language is being taught students cannot catch some points.

Accent

Munro and Derwing (1998) claimed that too many genres of accented speech
would result in a significant reduction in comprehension. Fan (1993) pointed out that
usually ESL/EFL listeners are used to “their teacher’s accent or to the standard variety
of British or American English”. In this case teachers havr to familiarize the students
both British and American accent. It is an endless debate that what is the Standard
English? Some says the British English is the standard. But English is spoken all over
the world by Indian, Australian, Chinese, Turkish, and so on. So, the best one is the one
you can use to communicate.

Unfamiliar vocabulary

Hung (1998) informed that listening passages with known words are easier for
learners to understand, even if the theme is unknown to them. His research represented
that knowing the meaning of the words might arouse students learning interest and lead
to a positive effect in listening ability. Another problem is here that many words have
more than one meaning and if they are used their less common usage students get
confused.

Length and speed of the listening

The levels of students play a great role when listening long parts and keeping all
the information in the mind. It is not easy for the lower level student to listen more than
three minutes long listening then completing the desired activities. Short listening texts
facilitate listening comprehension and diminish boredom, keep learners concentration
alive (Atkins et al 1995). If the text contains a lot of information, it is not easy to store
everything in mind, exceptional listening ability and strategy required to understand
(Carroll, 1977). Another reason makes listening text difficult is the speed. If the
speakers speak faster than normal listener may have difficulties to catch target words.
Underwood states that on the contrary of reading comprehension the listener cannot
control speed of the speaker and this cause the greatest difficulty with listening
comprehension (Underwood, 1989, p. 16). It is clear for most language learners and
teachers that a slower speech speed would facilitate beginner learners’ listening
comprehension (Flaherty, 1979; Griffiths, 1990, 1992; King & Behnke, 1989; Zhao,
1997). Blau (1990) concluded that lessen the input speed is one of the effective technics
that helps comprehension for second language learners.

Physical conditions

Sometimes inconvenience of classrooms affects students listening

comprehension. In the large classrooms students who are sitting on the back rows may
not hear the recording as students sit in front. Students who prefer to stay next to the
windows also effected by the noise that come from outside. The size of the classroom
also makes difficult for teacher to manage the all class in group activity or to get
feedback from students. The temperature of class can be counted as a factor that makes
listening comprehension difficult. The class that does not have air conditioner or heater
may be too hot in summer or too cold in winter.

Lack of concentration

Students’ motivation is one of the crucial factors that affect listening

comprehension. It can be difficult for students maintaining the concentration in a
foreign language learning classroom. In listening comprehension, even the smallest
pause in attention may considerably spoil comprehension. When students find the topic
of the listening text interesting, comprehending would be easier. For all that, students
find listening very boring even if they are interested in the topic because it needs a huge
amount of effort in order to not miss the meaning.
 CHAPTER 3 APPLICATION OF SOME EFFECTIVE LISTENING
STRATEGIES INTO INTERGRATED ENGLISH SKILL MODULE 5

3.1 Suggestions on the use of effectives listening strategies

3.1.1 For Teacher

In order to define an effective use of listening strategies on student, I have

conducted experiments and collect data from 3 teachers who work at Foreign languages
department of Nghe An College of Education

 Teacher A

Teacher A is the head teacher of communicative active learning staff. He is the

most experienced teacher and specialized in communicative program. He has passion to
increase the reputation of the center by developing learner’s skill overall and dealing
with concerns about learner’s limitation.

Teacher A is in charge of the third year class, whose English levels are upper-
intermediate and advanced. With his belief that teachers should not be the one to give
knowledge to students as they will be dependable on him, but the one to give them the
method of self-learning and self-checking. His main listening strategy is metacognitive
ones, such as planning, monitoring, and self evaluating listening lessons, are the most
pivotal for a teacher to instruct his students. However, he also uses cognitive and social
affective strategies as addition to improve the results to be more effective.

Before his lesson, he uses in cognitive strategies as he demands students to study

vocabulary and background knowledge, which are important material to access a topic.
His action was only checking vocabulary and provoking learners’s background
knowledge so that they are ready to listen, because in upper-intermediate and advanced
class, most learners possesses quite sizable vocabs and good grammar.

In classes, he instructs metacognitive listening strategies: When starting the

lesson, he let learners clarify objectives to propose suitable strategies because he
wanted learners to thoroughly understand their responsibilities. For instance, to identify
main ideas of a topic, he suggested that students should not go into detail but to listen to
overall meaning of the dialogs. Meanwhile, in some kinds of exercises, such as finding
data, numbers, percentages, fractions, spellings, which require focus on details, he
instructs students to listen carefully and with concentration.

During listening tasks, he guided learners how to monitor their listening process.
He often reminds the learners not to be distracted, as their whole listening process can
be seriously affected, so he tells them to keep calm and focus on what’s left of the task.
In the final step to finish the lesson, he summarizing the lesson by letting his students
check their listening again by double check knowledge in class and review what have
been done in the class at home, without this action, learners will easily forget the instant
information.

In term of social affective strategies, which affect learners’s psychology

interaction, He manages to build enthusiastic and willing to learn for students, in which
they expressing their thinking by extending the topic. In his view point, the final
purpose of listening is communication. Therefore, interaction – an active way to
express learners‟ thinking – should be encouraged.

Briefly, in teacher A’s perspective, teachers are consultants, use both power and
encouragement to instruct learners to self-study. Therefore, metacognitive listening
strategies are considered a key to his strategy instructions.
  Teacher B

Teacher B is a senior of University of languages and international study, she has

a master degree on teaching methodology and is one of the most competent teacher in
the center, currently she is undertaking the primary level class, where she mainly uses
cognitive listening strategies. She claimed that despite the importance of metacognitive
and socialaffective listening strategies, cognitive strategies were the most essential to
control the two kinds above as it provide the foundation to study English in any means.
Her perspective is found in the main result of Wong and Nunan’s research (2011) that
the level of using strategies corresponded to learners’s background via cognitive
strategies.

At first, her standpoint is found in the work of Anderson (1995) that, without the
deployment of appropriate cognitive strategies, the potential of these metacognitive
strategies was curtailed.

In pre-listening, she provided learners background knowledge and knowledge

about sound, vocabulary, and structure because she believes that the clearer knowledge
equipped, the better the result gained. While listening, she did not interfere because she
said any interruption could affect listening process. After listening, she let students
check their results by piecing parts of sentences. In general, her students depend on her
to grasp the purpose of the lessons and are unable to study on their own

About other strategies, she did pay attention, but their use seemed to be of little.
Where learners in primary classes lack grammar and vocab and the use of language; it
was hard to control each of their learning processes. Especially in low level classes,
when cognitive strategies were difficult to acquire, metacognitive strategies seemed to
be impossible, she often reminded them to do homework and prepare lessons at home
as well as review previous lessons, but they hardly did it.

In social-effective listening strategies, during pre-listening and post-listening, she

attempted to create interaction with learners and encourage them. However, learners
seem to be passive and afraid of talking in her class. She trys to give learners
instructions, encouragements, and verbal interactions, but this action does not work
much because of the lack of knowledge. Therefore, she chosed to provide them with
knowledge via cognitive strategies. When they are better, other strategies will be
practiced.

Briefly, Teacher B uses cognitive listening strategies low level learners, who still
depend heavily of teachers.

 Teacher C

Teacher C is a young, enthusiastic and ambitious, she graduated from National

university of singapore 2 years ago and has choosen a career in teaching english, her
specializations are IELTS and communicative English. She wants to address all
student’s difficulties and dealing with them one by one in order to gain experience for
further studying processes.

Different from the two previous teachers, Teacher C combined the strategies
together to instruct to learners at intermediate level. She appreciated the signicicance of
three kinds of strategies thanks to their different impacts on learners, where she uses all
three strategies equally. To her, the key elements to decide applicable strategies are
learners’s level and their attitudes to study.

In cognitive strategies, Teacher C would let student do some tasks, to provide

they vocabulary and grammar needed for the lesson. However, in higher level, which
requires more complicated background knowledge and learners’s competence, she
assists learners filter suitable background knowledge to study on their own.

Next, she accepted that it was hard for learners if they could not control their
listening. So at the beginning of the lesson, she asked students questions about
background knowledge and taught them new vocabulary. She said that the strategies
overlapped each other in this case because in her belief, a good preparation for the
lesson means you do metacognitive and cognitive strategies at the same time.

During listening, she observed and gave interference to students who got
distraction. Later, she double checked learners’s knowledge to give them something for
later use.

Finally, she especially emphasizes the role of social affective strategies into
learning listening. She always encourages learners’s spirit and activeness via
interactions in class. As she always provides learners with comfortable environment so
that they can fulfill their will and joy while studying - which are the spirit of the active
learning course.

Briefly, different from the two previous teachers, Teacher C combined the three
strategies together because cognitive strategies give learners basic knowledge,
metacognitive bring them autonomous learning and self-studying, and social affective
provides them with motivations to interest during learning. She is confident that after a
long time training the three strategies simultaneously, learners could see their
improvement.

In summary, there are differences in the instructions of strategies. Firstly,

Teacher A considers metacognitive listening strategies as an umbrella term that covers
up the two other categories - this is suitable for students with good background and
possess certain knowledges to the language. Secondly, Teacher B emphasizes the
preponderance of cognitive listening strategies, believes that it is the best course for
primary course level students, whom have little knowledge about english and lack the
foundation to study on their own. At last, T3 claims that the three kinds of strategies are
important depending on the level of classes and requirement of tasks. In the
researcher’s viewpoint, the three strategies should be instructed simultaneously and
mutually because all three kinds facilitate listening process It cannot be refused that the
success of teachers’s instructions is measured by the success of their learners’s
applications - which seems to be effective in intermediate level classes. A question
raised is that, do the three teachers’s standpoints lead to different learners’s
performance? The following part will discuss what the learners did in class specifically
as well as strategies that they usually apply in their learning listening.

3.1.2. For learner

The three groups of learners in this research were selected from the classes
observed. They were given listening strategy instructions from different teachers’s
styles. Group A, who are from third year class got instructions from Teacher A, whose
preference is metacognitive listening strategies. Group B consist of first year students
came from Teacher B’s class, received cognitive listening strategy instructions
carefully. And Group C, whose students are sophomore, instructed by Teacher C, who
implemented three kinds of strategies simultaneously in each and every lessons. From
the point of view of an observer, the researcher wondered that whether their
performances differ, and to what extend can they be analyzed.
  Group A

When being asked about the listening strategies, Group A was surprised as the
terms were unfamiliar to them. However, after the stimulated recall, they came to a
realization that they were using some kinds of strategies unconsciously. Unsurprisingly,
most students in the group prefer metacognitive listening strategy over cognitive and
social-affective strategies.

Their cognitive strategies included preparing background knowledge, learning

knowledge about language, and checking result by identifying content words or each
separated segments of a sentence. They would prepare for the lecture at home by
answering questions relating to background and linguistic knowledge for they are the
essential resources to improve listening skills. And in social affective strategies, as the
teacher encourage, they interacted with teachers and classmates actively. she could
keep calm and encourage herself when any unexpected problem took her attention
away. However, in listening sessions, most of them only paid attention to main ideas
because they had difficulties dealing with details, numbers, and percentage due to the
the lack of concentration and memorization.

With the instruction from the teacher A, Group A begun to pay more attention to
metacognitive listening strategies, including preparing, monitoring, reviewing and
evaluating progresses. Most of them failed to pay attention due to distraction while
listening and panic when the distraction happened. At first, when they reevaluated their
own abilities, they were unable to analyze their strength and weaknesses, but after
receiving guidance from the teacher, they slowly became more concious about
themselves and finally recognized their lack of concentration comes from the inability
to organize information input in listening, got lost after receiving too many information
and failed to grasp the detail in tasks. Since they had understanded their own weakness,
they are working hard to find a way to surpass their shortcoming and improve in the
future.

 Group B

Like Group A, the concepts of listening strategies aren’t familiar with group B,
as they only followed teachers’s instructions to complete requirements of listening
tasks. As a primary learner, what they did only belonged to cognitive strategies. Due to
the lack of confidence and the background knowledge in general; they could not control
what happening in their mind during a listening tasks and show unsatisfied
performances despite giving great efforts throught studying.

Follow cognitive strategies instructed by the teacher, their activities in classroom

included gathering background knowledge, learning vocabulary and grammar, and
checking result by piecing words. Without background knowledges, they depended
heavily on Teacher B’s instruction. In social affective strategies, they studied in a
passive way, sometimes they interact with the teacher in Vietnamese but mostly afraid
to voice their own oppinions even being encouraged by the teacher. In metacognitive
strategies, they rarely apply any preparing, monitoring, and evaluating listening results.
Thus, their gained very slow progresses over the course and show some dishearten in
spirits.

 Group C

The theories of listening strategies seem to be alien concepts to all groups of

students. However, under the instruction of Teacher C, who balanced the three types of
strategies in a lesson, but emphasize on cognitive and social-affective strategies.
 In cognitive strategies, group C were able to identify main ideas but not all
details due to their trouble in enunciations. In social affective strategies, thanks to
teacher C’s activeness and encouragement, they maintain connections with other
effectively and keep calm when any distraction happened. Besides, a good point noted
was that their background knowledges was broaden with various ideas relating to the
topic. Finally, as a practice of metacognitive strategies, they took notes and drew
diagrams to summarize listening tasks and store information for later use.

Briefly, unlike the two other teachers. She practiced all three listening strategies,
but emphasized on cognitive and social-effective. The students are able to analyze their
own weakness and strength in order to improve themselves, on top of having good
grammar and vocabularies and maintain their enthusiasm in learning the language.

In summary, the three groups of learners all used cognitive strategies. In fact,
the strategies were compulsory basing on teaching and learning sequences (Anderson,
1995, cited in Goh, 2000, 56). However, based on the characteristic of learner whether
they are active or not in order to perform social-affective strategies well. The cognitive
strategy is essential for gaining background knowledges but if it is the only method
applied, it make students become depend on teacher and study in a passive way, which
in turn make them progress slowly for the courses. The metacognitive strategy is the
main strategy when it come to quickly and stablely increase student’s listening skills, as
it enables student to be active in studying, reflect on their shortcomings and giving
solutions to it.
 PART C: CONCLUSIONS

1 Summary of the study

First of all, it is necessary for teachers to instruct theory of listening strategies for
learners. According to Gerami and Baighlos (2011), learning strategies are the
conscious thought and actions to achieve a learning goal. Especially, researchers of
Rahimi and Katal (2013) emphasized the role of metacognitive instructions in teaching.
If learners study autonomously, they have to prepare, monitor, and evaluate their
learning. However, time limitation for course curriculum somehow restricts teacher
from doing this activity. The school should provide teachers time to orient learners the
strategy theory and practice. Besides, teacher should be the instructor who supervises
the process, not the leader who does the process for learners. To learners, after
receiving the knowledge, they should get familiar with it by practicing controlling their
learning even at home.

Secondly, in cognitive strategies, phonetic problems prevent learners from

studying. Similar to Goh (2002) finding in his work, the problems include phonetic
system, liaisons, and spoken forms. To deal with it, at first, the school should open
some extra classes specializing on the matter. Moreover, bottom-up, used to improve
learners‟ sound identification, should be practiced more (Richard, 1999). Secondly,
teachers should provide learners cognitive theory and practice in all communicative
classes. Thirdly, in term of learners, they have to supply it by their self study before
requiring the help of the school. The action is vital because without the cognitive
strategy, other strategies become meaningless.

Last but not least, attitude, which makes up social-affective strategies, partly
decides listening process (Brown, 2006). The school should encourage them become
more active via speaking activities. Importantly, teachers should follow, encourage,
draw out progress, and have learners relieve stress because they perform passively
partly because they feel nervous and stressed (Jung, 2003; Brown, 2006). To learners,
to remedy the passive way while listening, they should plan what to do. If they cannot
see their progress, they must find out solutions for their weakness and require help from
teachers and classmates.

In short, learners’s improvement is the responsibility of teachers and private

schools. When the weaknesses were exposed, remedies should be put into use.
However, it is never enough if the learners themselves failed to deal with their own
problems (Goh, 2002). Therefore, with the corporation of the three sides, school,
teachers, learners, the researcher hope that learners can gain better results in their
learning.

2. Limitations of the study

There is some limitation that affects directly the results of the research. At first,
there was only one month taken for the investigation with three teachers and three
groups of students involved in the research. The lack of time and participants may lead
the research to subjective. Secondly, “stimulated recall” method requires filming so that
the researcher gains the most objective and reliable results. However, due to the
restriction of the school, no filming was available, there were only records instead and
interview with the students and teachers. Thirdly, students who are low motivated or
demotivated students show little progress eventhough listening strategies are
implemented. The level of effectiveness of strategies depend on the kind of students.
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 APPENDIX 1: LIST OF STRATEGIES

FOR OBSERVATIONS AND STIMULATED RECALLS

Metacognitive
strategies
Pre- listening
1. Clarifying the objectives of an anticipated listening talk to propose
strategies for handing it.
2. Preparing mind to concentrate
3. Requesting oneself to make progress
While listening
4. Trying to guess if learners are unfamiliar with speakers‟ accents
5. Checking results
6. Double checking
7. Being aware of my inattention and correct it while doing listening test
Post listening
8. Reflecting on my problems, such as the key words that I don‟t understand.
9. Evaluating how much they could understand
10.Writing down the words I don‟t know and take notes information
Cognitive strategies
Bottom-up strategies
11. Learning vocabulary before listening
12. Identifying content words
13. Noticing on content words and transitional words and wh questions
14. Piecing parts of a text into details
Top-down strategies
15. Listening for main ideas first and then details
16. Inferring missing words by prior knowledge.
17. Predicting or make hypotheses on text by titles
18. Guessing the meaning based on the context
19. Forming pictures mentally to help me comprehend texts
Social affective
strategies
20. Asking teachers or classmates for unclear information
21. Keeping calm, not being nervous
22. Encouraging themselves through positive self talk
 APPENDIX 2: OBSERVATIONS
TEACHER 1’S CLASS

00: 00 Pre Can you tell me some benefits of

 4: listening:
25 discussed swimming? So I can improve … health.
benefits The health improved, ok. But improve what? What part
of the body improved?
of sports
The who parts…
The whole body? The whole body improved? Really?
There are parts that cannot be improved…?
Your eyes.
What can affect your eyes?
Your skin.
Your skin also. Sometimes it makes your eyes...
Red.
If you don‟t cover your eyes, it can.. get red. Ok. You
lose your hair? (laugh) do you often go swimming?
Before I sometimes went swimming with my colleague.
Colleague? But now?
I‟m busy.
My student goes swimming every week. And, look at
her skin there (show a tanned girl)
Asked a girl: you go swimming really often? Really?
Asked another man: and what kind of sport do you like?
Do you like cycling?
Yes.
I used to cycle a lot. When I was a boy, I used to be
athletic. My health was full of energy. But now not.
Because of beer (laugh)
So, what benefit does cycling bring about? Don‟t tell me
00: 00 Pre So now we study unit 5, restaurant. First of all, answer my
 6: listening: question: what are you favorite kind of restaurants? You go
20 discuss with your partners or your friends? Here, there are many kinds
food of restaurants, such as Thai, French, Mexican, Korean,
students Japanese, Chinese, fast food. So which one do you like? Just
like one, many, a lot?
Student 1: I like Vietnamese.
Why?
Because I like my mother‟s food.
So you like your mother food? Yes.
Student 2, how about you?
I like Vietnamese food. Because I live in Vietnam, so I like
Vietnamese food.
Teacher confirmed: there are many Vietnamese people, but
they always like another food, foreign food. So how about
you, student 3?
Student 3: Vietnamese food.
Why?
Because I‟m Vietnamese.
Student 4: I like French food.
Why?
Because it‟s delicious.
How about you, student 5?
I like Japanese and Korean, because they are delicious.
Have you ever tried Japanese, Chinese, Korean food? Where,
where do you often?
Restaurants.
And in our city, there are a lot of restaurants. And how about
you, student 5?
I like Thai, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese?