An investigation into the 11th graders' EFL listening problems and listening learning strategies at Duong Van Duong high school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

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AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE 11TH GRADERS’ EFL

LISTENING PROBLEMS AND LISTENING LEARNING

STRATEGIES AT DUONG VAN DUONG HIGH SCHOOL

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of

the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts (TESOL)

Submitted by TRAN THI HOANG TRANG

Supervisor: DUONG MY THAM, PhD.

Ho Chi Minh City, 2018

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that this thesis entitled “An Investigation into the 11th Graders’ EFL

Listening Problems and Listening Learning Strategies at Duong Van Duong

High School” is my own work.

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contain material

published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have

qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma.

No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text

of the thesis.

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other

tertiary institution.

Ho Chi Minh City, August 2018

TRAN THI HOANG TRANG

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This Master of Art in TESOL thesis is the result of a fruitful collaboration of all the

people whom have kindly contributed with an enormous commitment and enthusiasm

in my research. Without the help of those who supported me at all times and in all

possible ways, it would not have been feasible for me to complete my M.A. thesis.

I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Dr. Duong My Tham, from Ho Chi Minh City

Nong Lam University, whose compassion, encouragement and guidance throughout

the research have helped in the completion of this thesis. I have truly learned from the

excellence of his skills and from her wide experience in research; no words are

adequate to describe the extent of my gratitude.

I would like to express my particular gratitude to my beloved husband and little

daughter for their unconditional love, understanding, encouragement, financial and

spiritual support over time and distance.

I would like to thank my TESOL friends, including M.A. Truong Minh Hoa and M.A.

candidate Le Thi Hoai Thu, who shared their constructive opinions on my thesis.

I am also much obliged to the English teachers at Duong Van Duong high school, who

enthusiastically helped me to distribute and collect questionnaires.

I owe a great debt of gratitude to the eleven-grade participants at Duong Van Duong

high school who contributed data to this thesis.

ABSTRACT

In learning a foreign language, learners are subjected to four skills in a natural order of

acquisition that are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. And listening is deemed

to be the most difficult language skill to be acquired. Specific to the Vietnamese high

school context, students often encounter with several listening problems. To enhance

their listening comprehension, the students need to be fully aware of listening learning

strategies and use them frequently and appropriately. This study, therefore, aimed at

investigating (1) the listening problems that the 11th grade students are facing in their

listening comprehension learning and (2) the frequency of using listening strategies

for their learning.

To achieve these purposes, relevant literature on background of listening skill, types

of listening problems, classifications of listening learning strategies, and previous

studies were reviewed in the theory chapter to shape the theoretical framework of the

study.

The study was conducted at Duong Van Duong high school (Nha Be District, Ho Chi

Minh City) with the participation of 368 eleventh – grade students. Mixed – methods

research was employed in this study, i.e., both quantitative and qualitative data were

collected from questionnaires and semi – structured interviews. As for data analysis,

descriptive statistics (e.g., mean, standard deviation, and frequencies/percentages)

were used to analyze quantitative data, whereas qualitative data were analyzed

through content analysis.

The findings of the study indicated that almost all the eleventh – grade students were

fraught with three listening problem groups. In specific, they faced phonological and

lexical problems (e.g., high speech rate, unfamiliar vocabulary), syntactic and

semantic problems (e.g., long sentences, unfamiliar topics) and discoursal problems

(e.g., complex overall structure of main ideas and details). Along with it, the types of

listening learning strategies were variously practiced among the students in terms of

frequencies. The findings implied that a majority of the high school students were in

favor of cognitive strategies (e.g., note – taking, translating), metacognitive strategies

(e.g., planning), social and affective strategies (e.g., asking for clarification, checking

answer, breathing deeply). However, memory strategies (e.g., using background

knowledge, grouping) and compensation strategies (e.g., guessing from contextual and

linguistic clues) were not preferred by these students.

Based on the research findings, the paper concluded with some pedagogical

implications, and a recommendation for further study in the line of research on using

listening learning strategies.

TABLE OF CONTENT

Page

STATEMENT OF AUTHORITY…………………………………………………………i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………………ii

ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………….……………………iii

TABLE OF CONTENT………………………………………………………………….......v

LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………………......ix

LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………………x

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………1

1.1. Background to the study………………………………………………………………1

1.1.1. The context of EFL teaching and learning in Vietnam…………………………………1

1.1.2. The background of listening instruction in Vietnamese high schools…………………3

1.1.3. The background of listening learning strategies……………………………………5

1.2. Rationale for the study…………………………………………………………………5

1.3. Research aims……………………………………………………………………………6

1.4. Research questions………………………………………………………………………6

1.5. Significance of the study………………………………………………………………6

1.6. Thesis outline……………………………………………………………………………7

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………………………8

2.1. The concept of listening…………………………………………………………………8

2.1.1. Definition of listening…………………………………………………………………8

2.1.2. Definition of listening comprehension…………………………………………………9

2.1.3. Stages of listening……………………………………………………………………10

2.1.3.1. Pre – listening………………………………………………………………………10

2.1.3.2. While – listening……………………………………………………………………11

2.1.3.3. Post – listening………………………………………………………………………11

2.1.4. Listening process………………………………………………………………………12

2.1.4.1. Bottom – up processing……………………………………………………………12

2.1.4.2. Top – down processing………………………………………………………………13

2.1.4.4. Interactive processing………………………………………………………………13

2.1.5. Problems regarding listening comprehension…………………………………………14

2.2. Background of listening learning strategies…………………………………………16

2.2.1. Definition of listening learning strategies……………………………………………16

2.2.2. Categories of listening learning strategies……………………………………………17

2.2.2.1. Memory strategies…………………………………………………………………19

2.2.2.2. Cognitive strategies…………………………………………………………………20

2.2.2.3. Compensation strategies……………………………………………………………21

2.2.2.4. Metacognitive strategies……………………………………………………………22

2.2.2.5. Social strategies……………………………………………………………………23

2.2.2.6. Affective strategies…………………………………………………………………23

2.3. Previous studies………………………………………………………………………24

2.4. Chapter summary………………………………………………………………………29

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY…………………………………………………………30

3.1. Research design………………………………………………………………………30

3.2. Research questions……………………………………………………………………31

3.3. Research site and participants………………………………………………………32

3.3.1. Research sites…………………………………………………………………………32

3.3.2. Research participants…………………………………………………………………32

3.4. Research instruments…………………………………………………………………33

3.4.1. Student questionnaire…………………………………………………………………33

3.4.2. Student semi – structured interview …………………………………………………35

3.5. Data collection and analysis procedure………………………………………………36

3.5.1. Collecting and analyzing quantitative data from the student questionnaire…………36

3.5.1.1. Collecting phase……………………………………………………………………36

3.5.1.2. Analyzing phase ……………………………………………………………………37

3.5.2. Collecting and analyzing qualitative data from the student interview ………………..37

3.5.2.1. Collecting phase ……………………………………………………………………37

3.5.2.2. Analyzing phase……………………………………………………………………37

3.6. Ethical issues…………………………………………………………………………38

3.6.1. Consent form…………………………………………………………………………38

3.6.2. Anonymity and confidentiality………………………………………………………38

3.7. Chapter summary………………………………………………………………………39

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS………………40

4.1. Data analysis……………………………………………………………………………40

4.1.1. Listening problems faced by the eleventh graders……………………………………40

4.1.1.1. Overall problems……………………………………………………………………40

4.1.1.2. Perception problems…………………………………………………………………42

4.1.1.3. Parsing problems……………………………………………………………………46

4.1.1.4. Utilization problems…………………………………………………………………49

4.1.2. Listening learning strategies used by the eleventh graders……………………………53

4.1.2.1. Overall strategies……………………………………………………………………53

4.1.2.2. Memory strategies…………………………………………………………………56

4.1.2.3. Cognitive strategies…………………………………………………………………59

4.1.2.4. Compensation strategies……………………………………………………………62

4.1.2.5. Metacognitive strategies……………………………………………………………64

4.1.2.6. Affective strategies…………………………………………………………………67

4.1.2.7. Social strategies……………………………………………………………………69

4.2. Discussion of findings…………………………………………………………………72

4.2.1. Listening problems faced by the eleventh graders (Research question 1) ……………72

4.2.2. Listening learning strategies used by the eleventh graders (Research question 2) …76

4.3. Chapter summary……………………………………………………………………84

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS………………………85

5.1. Conclusions……………………………………………………………………………85

5.1.1. Listening problems faced by the eleventh graders………………………………….85

5.1.2. Listening learning strategies used by the eleventh graders …………………………86

5.2. Recommendations……………………………………………………………………87

5.2.1. For students……………………………………………………………………………87

5.2.2. For teachers……………………………………………………………………………89

5.2.3. For further research……………………………………………………………………90

5.3. Limitations……………………………………………………………………………90

5.4. Chapter summary………………………………………………………………………91

REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………92

APPENDIX A: STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE (VIETNAMESE VERSION) ………96

APPENDIX B: SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW (ENGLISH VERSION) ……100

APPENDIX C: CONSENT FORM (ENGLISH VERSION) …………………………101

LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table

2.1 Rebecca Oxford’s Strategy Classification System (1990, pp. 18-22)……………18

3.1 The Link between the Research Questions and the Instruments…………………......33

3.2 Reliability Analysis (Cronbach’s Alpha) …………………...………………….........35

3.3 The Results of the Pilot Study………………………………………………………37

4.1 Overall Listening Problems Faced by the Eleventh Graders…………………...........41

4.2 Questionnaire Results of the Eleventh Graders’ Perception Problems…………….43

4.3 Questionnaire Results of the Eleventh Graders’ Parsing Problems………………....47

4.4 Questionnaire Results of the Eleventh Graders’ Utilization Problems………………50

4.5 Overall Listening Learning Strategies Used by the Eleventh Graders………………54

4.6 Questionnaire Results of the Eleventh Graders’ Used Memory Strategies…………57

4.7 Questionnaire Results of the Eleventh Graders’ Used Cognitive Strategies…………59

4.8 Questionnaire Results of the Eleventh Graders’ Used Compensation Strategies……62

4.9 Questionnaire Results of the Eleventh Graders’ Used Metacognitive Strategies……64

4.10 Questionnaire Results of the Eleventh Graders’ Used Affective Strategies…………67

4.11 Questionnaire Results of the Eleventh Graders’ Used Social Strategies……………70

LIST OF FIGURES, CHARTS

Page

Figure

3.1 Research procedure…………………………………………………………………31

Chart

4.1a Perception Problems Faced by the Eleventh Graders…………………......................41

4.1b Parsing Problems Faced by the Eleventh Graders…………………............................41

4.1c Utilization Problems Faced by the Eleventh Graders…………………......................41

4.1d Overall Listening Problems Faced by the Eleventh Graders…………………...........41

4.2 Overall Listening Learning Strategies Used by the Eleventh Graders……………..55