Pre-listening activities for faciliating listening comprehension skills in efl classes

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The study investigates the effects of pre-listening activities in facilitating the students’ listening comprehension in English as Foreign Language (EFL) classes. 203 freshmen of Business English classes participated in this study. Data were collected through questionnaires and then quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed.

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PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES FOR FACILIATING LISTENING COMPREHENSION SKILLS IN EFL CLASSES Tran Thi Dung1 Nguyen Thi Trung2 Abstract: The skill of listening is proved to be the most dif cult skill to acquire for learners of English in general and Business English students in particular. There are a lot of factors affecting the students’ listening comprehension such as sound linking, speed rate, poor intonation, various accents, and learners’ limited knowledge. The study investigates the effects of pre-listening activities in facilitating the students’ listening comprehension in English as Foreign Language (EFL) classes. 203 freshmen of Business English classes participated in this study. Data were collected through questionnaires and then quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. The ndings indicated that pre-listening activities are believed to be of great signi cance in building con dence, generating interests, activating background or cultural knowledge, increasing input and greatly assisting comprehension. Accordingly, pedagogical implications as well as recommendations on how to employ pre-listening activities at the preparatory stage more effectively in the listening process will be provided. Key words: pre-listening activities, perception, attitudes, bene ts, listening comprehension 1. Introduction Listening pla s a ke role in dail communication because people not onl express their feelings or thoughts but also have to understand and react to what has been said b others as well. We hardl have trouble in listening to our mother tongue, but in a foreign or second language, listening is proved to be the most dif cult skills to develop due to unfamiliar sounds, words, structures or speed. This is even more dif cult if we do not know the topic under discussion, or who is speaking to whom. It seems a little unfair to simpl ask students to listen to something and answer some questions without telling them beforehand what to expect and what to listen for. As a result, it makes listening comprehension reall challenging. It ma be greatl useful for language learners to perform some activities named pre-listening activities before the actuall do a listening task. These kinds of activities get students to be interested, to be con dent, and to facilitate their listening comprehension (Berne, 1995; Rost, 2001). The not onl help learners develop background knowledge, but improve their understanding of the spoken text as well. Therefore, how to design and carr out pre-listening activities in classrooms occupies a crucial position in determining the success of a listening lesson. In this paper, 1 . ThS Tr n Th Dung, Khoa Ngo i ngữ, Tr ờng Đ i h c tài chính TPHCM, 2. ThS Ngu n Th Trung, Khoa Ngo i ngữ, Tr ờng Đ i h c Quảng Nam; 9
PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES FOR FACILIATING LISTENING... we shall take the bene ts of pre-listening activities into consideration, focusing on how pre-listening activities are performed and what dif culties the students face in the process of learning listening skills and giving some recommendations on how to emplo pre- listening activities in order to help the students activate their own schematic knowledge that are relevant and closel related to the listening text and have educated anticipations in such a wa that the relationship between predictions is relevant to the listener; as a result, facilitating their listening comprehension. 2. Literature Review 2.1. Previous studies There have been a number of studies conducted so far in terms of nding out the causes and solutions to listening problems in English as Foreign Language (EFL) classes. For example, Chiu (2006) found that adult language learners frequentl adopted such listening comprehension strategies as guessing unknown items, translating incoming messages, and note- taking, etc to regenerate their learning motivation and improve their English pro cienc . Gilakjani & Ahmadi (2011) identi ed some factors that in uence students’ English listening comprehension skills and suggested that teachers should create an environment which provides students with opportunities to practice listening skills and to engage activel in the listening process, transforming teaching and learning processes from being teacher-dominated to student-centered. In a similar vein, Wang & Fan (2015) indicated that text and processing related variables are the most important factors leading to low- pro cienc Chinese learners’ listening dif culties, and suggested building up substantial linguistic knowledge should be given priorit for an tangible improvement in the listening skill. Bao (2017) conducted a stud investigating how non-English major students use and teachers teach listening strategies and concluded that there was correlation in the teachers’ and students’ using listening strategies. However, there is still a certain gap on the application of cognitive and social/affective strategies, to which the teachers attach much importance while the students neglect the later. It can be inferred from the reviewed literature that the majorit of studies focus on factors affecting students’ English listening comprehension skill and listening strategies, the current stud explores how pre-listening activities are carried out in EFL classes at the Facult of Economics at Vietnam National Universit Ho Chi Minh cit in order to give some implications for effective deplo ment of pre-listening activities in accordance with the situation. 2.2. Theoretical background De nition of pre-listening activities As the words suggest – pre-listening activities, these kinds of activities should be 10
TRầN THị DUNG, NGUyễN THị TRUNG performed before listening in order to get the learners prepared for the coming listening tasks. According to Medle (1977), pre-listening activities can be subdivided into “readiness activities” and “guidance activities”. “Readiness activities” aim at activating students’ prior knowledge b reading the title, new words of the text, sometimes looking at the picture given before the exercises in the textbook, and also b asking provocative questions or introducing background knowledge. “Guidance activities” are intended for speci c aspects of language input b letting them bear certain purposes in mind in advance, that is, letting students know what task or tasks the are going to do with the text, or letting the students themselves decide what the want to do with the text. Nunan (2006) also shares the idea that in pre-listening activities, learners do tasks to “activate their schemata”, that is, helping them anticipate a situation and what the ma hear based on their previous knowledge. In addition, he de nes “Pre-listening is how we can help learners achieve the balance between top-down and bottom-up processing.” Underwood (1989) describes pre-listening activit as “preparator work” in which a teacher prepares some previous knowledge and helps learners expect some possible answers, then matches what the hear with what the expect to hear and nall , uses their schemata to make sense of it. To sum up, pre-listening activities are those served as a preparation for listening. The are carried out before students begin listening to a passage with a view to generating interest, building con dence, and facilitating comprehension. Common pre-listening activities Pre-listening activities can comprise of reading, writing, speaking or all three. It provides opportunities for listening to be integrated with other parts of the students’ work. This kind of integrated approach provides opportunities for students to use language in the wa in which it is used in real life, and enables them to associate written and spoken language with language read and heard (Underwood, 1989). Man researchers and methodologists such as Andrew (1989), Baker & Westrup (2000), Craven, Doff (1988), Hassan (2000), Lingzhu (2003), Rees (2002), Rost (1990), Sui & Wang (2005), Underwood (1989), and Ur (1984) stud ing pre-listening activities tend to agree that these activities aim at activating learners’ prior knowledge and then help increase their listening comprehension. For learners with/without suf cient schematic knowledge of the topic, for instance, such activities provide an opportunit to remind or gain some related knowledge, which helps them to follow the listening text. Additionall , the pa a particular attention to the six kinds of activities thanks to their advantageous and bene cial factors, including Brainstorming, Using a class discussion, Questioning and answering session, Predicting the content of the listening text, Pre-teaching new words or dif cult key words, Studying the listening tasks. 3. Methodology As the purpose of this research is to investigate the students’ perspectives and 11
PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES FOR FACILIATING LISTENING... attitudes towards the pre-listening activities applied b the teachers in EFL classes and to nd out basic factors that have negative in uence on the students’listening comprehension, quantitative and qualitative approaches were combined. Qualitative approach was useful for describing, explaining, and investigating the factors that have an in uence on the rst- ear students’ listening comprehension skills in the hope of gaining effective pedagogical strategies and techniques. Quantitative approach, in contrast, was mainl for a full anal sis of the descriptive data relating to the answers to the research questions based on the responses from the questionnaires. The questionnaires were distributed to 203 rst- ear students of Business English classes to learn about their perceptions, attitudes, dif culties and requirements for learning listening skills, The data from the learners’ responses to the questionnaire are coded in numerical values ranking from (1), (2), (3), (4), (5) and the statistics have been processed b means of SPSS software program. 4. Findings and Discussion The data from the questionnaires were categorized into three main themes, namel (1) students’ attitudes towards English skills and listening comprehension skills; (2) students’ perceptions of pre-listening activities; (3) students’ evaluations about their material and suggestions 4.1. Students’ attitudes towards English skills and listening comprehesion skills The surve reveals that the majorit of the respondents view listening as the most dif cult skills to improve with 49.8% and 38% choosing the response ‘ver dif cult’ and ‘dif cult’ respectivel even when it is compared to speaking (22.2%, ‘ver dif cult’ and 55.7%, ‘dif cult’). Around half of the students (45.3%) rank writing and more than half of them (52.2%) view reading as neutral. Table 1. First- ear students’ perceptions toward the dif cult level of the four English skills Number of responses/percentage Ver Ver Total Skills Dif cult Neutral Eas dif cult eas responses (2) (3) (4) (1) (5) 101 77 23 2 0 203 Listening (49.8%) (38%) (11.2%) (1.0%) (1.0%) (100%) 45 113 38 6 1 203 Speaking (22.2%) (55.7%) (18.7%) (3.0%) (0.5%) (100%) 16 58 106 17 6 203 Reading (7.9%) (28.6%) (52.2%) (8.4%) (3.0%) (100%) 12
TRầN THị DUNG, NGUyễN THị TRUNG 21 74 92 14 2 203 Writing (10.3%) (36.5%) (45.3%) (6.9%) (1.0%) (100%) In order to check how important the students consider listening comprehension skills, the level of importance of those four skills is raised. In general, the level of importance is rather equall put for listening and speaking skills and reading and writing skills as shown in Table 2. More interestingl , like the degree of dif cult , listening is ranked the ver priorit for language learning with the highest population of 156 (76.8%). Table 2. First- ear students’ evaluation toward the importance level of the four English skills Number of responses/percentage Completel Ver Total Skills Unimportant Important Unimportant important responses (2) (3) (1) (4) 1 46 156 203 Listening (0.5%) (22.7%) (76.8%) (100%) 53 150 203 Speaking (26.1%) (73.9%) (100%) 1 2 138 58 203 Reading (0.5%) (1.0%) (68%) (28.6%) (100%) 2 8 141 50 203 Writing (1%) (3.9%) (69.5%) (24.6%) (100%) This raises a huge question that wh the students label listening the most dif cult skills while the are full aware of its importance. It might be inferred that EFL learners’ awareness of importance to a certain skill fails to get positive effect on their language learning but other factors ought to be taken into consideration. It is likel that listening has been supposed to be so new, challenging, and hard to digest. Besides, listening strategies and listeners’ linguistic knowledge should be taken into account. It ma be true that not all listeners are trained to listen effectivel and that linguistic knowledge considerabl affects their listening comprehension. As a matter of fact, nearl all language learners (87.7%) view listening skills among the four language skills as the most dif cult and struggling to improve. Partl , the level of dif cult in listening ma have a negative in uence on the students’ learning attitude toward the skill as Figure 1 below reveals that a smaller proportion of the students nds listening lessons enjo able with 42.4% and 7.4% selecting much and ver much respectivel . Additionall , while 34% of the participants sa that the enjo listening lessons a little, half of them confess the do not enjo it at all. It is obvious that the nding emerges a problem. While the students rank listening important (22.7%) or ver 13
PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES FOR FACILIATING LISTENING... important (76.8%) among the four skills, the do not much show their interest in stud ing listening skills. A likel conclusion might be drawn that the rst- ear students’ awareness of the important role of listening ma not shape their learning attitude towards the skill; conversel , the level of dif cult of the message ma do. Because of this, it seems urgent for language teachers to investigate obstacles the students face in the whole process of listening in order to help them better listening skills. With reference to the factors that make it dif cult for the students to listen and comprehend a listening text, the nine factors namel , (1) Different speakers produce the same sounds in different wa s, (2) The speed of the input of the spoken material is out of control, (3) Speech is more likel to be distorted b background noise, the media, etc, (4) Language learners often have to deal Not at all A little Much Ver much simultaneousl with another task Figure 1. Students’ enjo ment in listening (e.g. note-taking, gap- lling) while lessons listening, (5) Language learners show a lot of wrong stress (word stress and sentence stress), (6) Language learners are not trained listening strategies, (7) Pre-listening activities are not performed as a preparation, (8) Language learners own poor intonation, (9) Language learners are not used to sound linking, are mentioned is to get to know how much the students agree with each. The students’ agreement on the factors can be summarized in Table 3 below: Table 3. Factors having negative effects on the students’ listening comprehension Number of responses/percentage Central Qs Completel Disagree Agree Completel Total responses Disagree agree tendenc (2) (3) (1) (4) 7 27 140 29 203 4.1 2.94 (3.4%) (13.3%) (69%) (14.3%) (100%) 3 17 111 72 203 4.2 3.24 (1.5%) (8.4%) (54.7%) (35.5%) (100%) 3 30 134 36 203 4.3 3.00 (1.5%) (14.8%) (66.0%) (17.7%) (100%) 6 59 110 28 203 4.4 2.79 (3.0%) (30.0%) (54.2%) (18.3%) (100%) 14
TRầN THị DUNG, NGUyễN THị TRUNG 5 15 98 85 203 4.5 3.30 (2.5%) (7.4%) (48.3%) (41.9%) (100%) 6 41 104 52 203 4.6 3.00 (3.0%) (20.2%) (51.2%) (25.6%) (100%) 2 61 102 38 203 4.7 2.87 (1.0%) (30.0%) (50.2%) (18.7%) (100%) 2 14 111 76 203 4.8 3.29 (1.0%) (6.9%) (54.7%) (37.4%) (100%) 1 8 107 87 203 4.9 3.38 (0.5%) (3.9%) (52.7%) (42.9%) (100%) Generall speaking, the majorit of the participants agree with all the factors presented on the questionnaire in the wa that most responses fall into the last two scales - Agree and Completel agree. That is, the number of responses for agreement and complete agreement is ranged from 138 (72.5%) to 194 (95.6%). The table conve s the message that the rst- ear students not onl identif the factors troubling their meaning interpretation from a listening passage but emphasize some factors called speed (5.2), stress (5.5), intonation (5.8) and sound linking (5.9). More importantl , the nding reveals that linguistic knowledge, particularl pronunciation pla s a primar role while the qualit of CDs, different accents, doing listening tasks, listening strategies, and especiall , pre- listening activities at the preparator stage pla a secondar part in preventing the students from listening comprehension. For closer observation, the Figure 2 below about the central tendencies illustrates the level on each factor. Figure 2. Comparison of negative factors 15
PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES FOR FACILIATING LISTENING... Noticeabl , sound linking is the most in uential factor troubling the rst- ear students in understanding the spoken text (the central tendenc is 3.38 out of 4). Coming next on the list are three other linguistic factors: mispronunciation and stress, poor intonation, and speed rate (3.30, 3.29 and 3.24 out of 4 respectivel ). It is surprising that the learners’ limited linguistic knowledge is reall a barrier on their wa to get the message. It is also be ond our anticipation that the students do not view lacking pre- listening activities at the preparator stage as one of the most important factors preventing them from listening comprehension (though the central tendenc is still positive, 2.87 out of 4). This proves the truth that listening skills remain the hardest one even though both the teachers and learners at the Facult of Economics are full aware of the important role of pre-listening activities as well as their performance at the preparator stage of the listening process. Another point worth of notice is that poor listening strateg and poor facilit and qualit of CD equall affect the students’ comprehension (the central tendenc is 3.00 out of 4). It seems that not all students are trained effective listening strategies and the fact that poor-qualit equipment and noise, including both background noises on the recording and environmental noises, can take the listener’s mind off the content of the listening passage. Doing listening tasks simultaneousl also troubles the students’ listening comprehension but at the lowest degree among the mentioned factors, with the tendenc 2.79 out of 4. 4.2. Students’ perception of pre-listening activities Listening skills prove to be dif cult to man students. It is important for teachers to note that activities done at the pre-listening stage are bene cial to students to some extent, both for activating background knowledge and facilitating comprehension. The students will become more con dent, active and thus eager to listen if there is something interesting and helpful done at the earl minutes of a lesson. There exist a variet of pro ts but the stud focuses on the ve most common bene ts namel , (1) Facilitating comprehension, (2) Becoming an active participant, (3) Activating background or cultural knowledge, (4) Building con dence, (5) Increasing the input. Table 4. Students’ awareness of the bene ts of pre-listening activities Number of responses/percentage Completel Completel Total Central Qs Disagree Agree Disagree agree responses tendenc (2) (3) (1) (4) 2 6 140 55 203 6.1 3.22 (1.0%) (3.0%) (69.0%) (27.1%) (100%) 4 8 126 65 203 6.2 3.24 (2.0%) (3.9%) (62.1%) (32.0%) (100%) 16
TRầN THị DUNG, NGUyễN THị TRUNG 3 15 131 54 203 6.3 3.16 (1.5%) (7.4%) (64.5%) (26.6%) (100%) 1 22 127 53 203 6.4 3.14 (0.5%) (10.8%) (62.6%) (26.1%) (100%) 1 16 141 45 203 6.5 3.13 (0.5%) (7.9%) (69.5%) (22.2%) (100%) The Table 4 offers an overview of the students’ cognition of the ve valuable pre- listening activities. The gures in the table above show that the treatment to these activities seems relativel equal, demonstrated b central tendencies ranking around from 3.22 to 3.11 out of 4. Besides, no participants gives an other bene ts to the question. It can be said that those suggested items almost cover all the cases the rst- ear students have. This is quite helpful for a complete anal sis and conclusion to the situation. As Buck (2001) emphasizes that “listening comprehension is an active process”, the ver large proportion of the students perceives becoming an active participant the most outstanding pro t pre-listening activities result in (with the highest central tendenc – 3.24 out of 4). The nding clearl indicates an absolutel positive attitude toward the given advantages of pre-listening activities that have been considered to be far more effective than others. In terms of the students’ enjo ment in taking part in pre-listening activities, it is interesting to nd that 79% of the students surve ed for their attitudes toward pre-listening activities reveal that the enjo doing some activities before a CD or tape is pla ed. Moreover, while onl 4% confess the do not enjo involving in the activities at all, 17% sa that the enjo it a little. The negative view might be due to the fact that the activities emplo ed b their teacher are be ond their interest or unsuitable for their abilit of English. Probabl , that much smaller proportion (4%) Figure 3. Students’ enjo ment in participating belongs to the group who do not have pre-listening activities close insight of what pre-listening activities are, and thus the do not think of the advantages of the activities. Another aspect examined in the stud is the frequenc of pre-listening activities emplo ment in the class. Table 5 displa s the students’ perception of their teacher’s emplo ment in the six pre-listening activities: (1) Brainstorming words, structures or ideas, (2) Using a class discussion about the rubrics, (3) Asking students some questions 17
PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES FOR FACILIATING LISTENING... about the rubrics, (4) Pre-teaching new words or dif cult ke words, (5) Making students predict the content of the text, (6) Helping students understand listening tasks. Table 5. Students’ responses of teachers’ performance of pre-listening activities Number of responses/percentage Total Central Qs Never Seldom Sometimes Often Alwa s responses tendenc (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) 23 49 62 54 15 203 8.1 2.95 (11.3%) (24.1%) (30.5%) (26.6%) (7.4%) (100%) 21 37 67 57 21 203 8.2 3.10 (10.5%) (18.2%) (33.0%) (28.1%) (10.3%) (100%) 6 33 74 58 32 203 8.3 3.38 (3.0%) (16.3%) (36.5%) (28.6%) (15.8%) (100%) 2 14 58 93 36 203 8.4 3.72 (1.0%) (6.9%) (28.6%) (45.8%) (17.7%) (100%) 16 33 65 65 24 203 8.5 3.24 (7.9%) (16.3%) (32.0%) (32.0%) (11.8%) (100%) 2 25 53 79 44 203 8.6 3.68 (1.0%) (12.3%) (26.1%) (38.9%) (21.7%) (100%) Generall speaking, the majorit of the subjects view their teacher’s performance of pre-listening activities in a quite positive manner. Most interestingl , the greatest central tendencies do not lie in the highl appreciated activities including prediction, question- answer section, and discussion, but the lie in the activities of pre-teaching new words (3.73 out of 4) and stud ing listening tasks (3.68 out of 4). The highest central tendenc reveals an unpleasant truth that the teachers have spent so much time and effort teaching new words at the pre-listening stage. Thus it can be argued that a balanced treatment to such those activities needs considering. In addition, the activit for brainstorming words, structures or ideas is also worth considering. Though the central tendenc in this activit comes last on the list (2.95 out of 4), it still indicates that brainstorming is useful in the wa that it activates students’ prior knowledge and enables learners to make inferences and form expectations about the given topics (Sui & Wang, 2005). The comparison of the central tendencies in the teachers’ emplo ment of pre- listening activities in their students’ perceptions presented above can be illustrated b the following chart: 18
TRầN THị DUNG, NGUyễN THị TRUNG Figure 4. Comparison of central tendencies in teachers’emplo ment of pre-listening activities in their students’ perceptions 4.3. Students’ evaluations about their material and suggestions “A coursebook can be a vital aid and resource for our teaching…” but it is important for instructors to remember that “no book is perfect in itself, or for a particular teaching-learning context” (Davies, 2000:150-151). The present textbook for their course is Business Basics b David Grant and Robert McLart . The result of the surve with ve detailed pieces of material evaluation: (1) Suitable for students’ interests, (2) Effective in helping students improve listening skills, (3) Suf cientl varied, (4) Simple and not suf cient, (5) Boring is summarized in Table 6 below. Table 6. Summar of students’ evaluation on their material Number of responses/percentage Completel Disagree Agree Completel Total Central Qs disagree agree responses tendenc (1) (2) (3) (4) 4 83 111 5 203 10.1 2.58 (2.0%) (40.9%) (54.7%) (2.5%) (100%) 7 83 102 11 203 10.2 2.58 (3.4%) (40.9%) (50.2%) (5.4%) (100%) 6 69 114 14 203 10.3 2.67 (3.0%) (34.0%) (56.2%) (6.9%) (100%) 19
PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES FOR FACILIATING LISTENING... 14 73 102 14 203 10.4 2.57 (6.9%) (36.0%) (50.2%) (6.9%) (100%) 26 61 98 18 203 10.5 2.53 (12.8%) (30.0%) (48.3%) (8.9%) (100%) Worr ingl , nearl 50% of respondents express negative perspectives of the idea that the textbook is suitable for students’ interests (40.9% for Disagree and 2.0% for Completel disagree) or effective in helping students improve listening skills (40.9% for Disagree and 3.4% for Completel disagree). The fact ma result from the variet of English so called ESP in general and English for business in particular. According to the editor of the book “Business Basics is ideal for professionals alread in business, and for students preparing to work in an international business environment” (Grant & McLart , 2001). However, the rst- ear students, with limited knowledge of the speci c workplace conditions as well as circumstances, ma not be greatl interested in the eld. Being asked about the variet of listening lessons in the textbook, more than half of samples (56.2% for Agree and 6.9% for Completel agree) show positive opinions since listening items occup the most among the eight items in the book (19 out of 84). The rest of students in the surve complain that the listening lessons are not varied enough and this number (34.0% for Disagree and 3.0% for Completel agree) is large enough to worr two groups of subjects as well as the result of listening teaching and learning at the FE. It is also remarkable that the ver large number of frequenc (50.2% for Agree and 6.9% for Completel agree) confesses that the listening items are simple and not varied; and a similar treatment is to boring (48.3% for Agree and 8.9% for Completel agree). In terms of the students’ preferences for six pre- listening activities compared to the teachers’ frequenc of the activities in the classroom including (1) Helping students understand listening tasks, (2) Using a class discussion about the rubrics, (3) Making students predict the content of the text, (4) Pre-teaching new words or dif cult ke words, (5) Asking students some questions about the rubrics, (6) Brainstorming words, structures or ideas, the ndings are shown in Table 7 below. Table 7. Students’ agreement on suggestions for pre-listening activities Number of responses/percentage Completel Disagree Agree Completel Total Central Qs disagree agree responses tendenc (1) (2) (3) (4) 4 12 136 51 203 11.1 3.15 (2.0%) (5.9%) (67%) (25.1%) (100%) 4 16 127 56 203 11.2 3.16 (2.0%) (7.9%) (62.6%) (27.6%) (100%) 20
TRầN THị DUNG, NGUyễN THị TRUNG 5 14 130 54 203 11.3 3.15 (2.5%) (6.9%) (64.0%) (26.6%) (100%) 1 10 133 59 203 11.4 3.23 (0.5%) (4.9%) (65.5%) (29.1%) (100%) 2 15 119 67 203 11.5 3.24 (1.0%) (7.4%) (58.6%) (33.0%) (100%) 4 38 118 43 203 11.6 2.99 (2.0%) (18.7%) (58.1%) (21.2%) (100%) In general, the majorit of the subjects agree with all the suggestions for the pre- listening activities presented in the questionnaire in which pre-teaching new words is put nearl the highest rank (the central tendenc is 3.23 out of 4) and brainstorming words, structures or ideas is ranked the lowest. In addition, the participants order predicting in the fourth level. It ma be inferred that the students are somewhat satis ed with the current practices of teaching and learning listening skills at the preparator stage and that the teachers’ adoption in pre-listening activities get on rather well with their students’ suggestions. However, there come some unbalanced treatments; for example questioning and discussing. The question-answer session is suggested for the top rank while it is emplo ed in the third one b the teachers; similarl , using a class discussion is suggested for the third position while it is emplo ed in the fth one. The results indicate questioning and discussing activities are proved to be more effective, more popular and thus highl preferred. The comparison of the students’ suggestions on the six activities is represented in the following bar chart: Figure 5. Comparison of central tendencies in students’suggestions on pre-listening activities 21
PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES FOR FACILIATING LISTENING... To sum up, it can be said that most of the rst- ear students are full aware of the signi cant role of listening as well as pre-listening activities of the listening process. The majorit view pre-listening activities as an important factor in activating background knowledge, becoming an active and con dent participant, generating their interests and thus facilitating their listening comprehension. The students, however, still nd listening skill hard to master and underestimate the current textbook. 5. Conclusion and Implications It is clear that pre-listening activities help learners become active listeners, predict the content of the message, build con dence, generate interests and greatl assist comprehension. Therefore, it seems logical to activate the students’ prior knowledge of the target topic since a learner can utilize the schematic knowledge for comprehension purposes when the do not have suf cient linguistic input to support understanding (Kreshen, 1982). Whatever t pes of listening tasks or contexts are, one or some of such those six activities have ever been widel implemented and proved to be much more effective than others. However, the appropriateness and exibilit for the chosen activities ought to be taken into consideration to better the situation for the sake of the students. In other words, depending on learners’ level of pro cienc and their personal factors such as feelings, interests, needs, and so on, some t pical activities are devoted to motivate and simultaneousl facilitate their listening comprehension (Lingzhu, 2003). What’s more, depending on the educational setting, the teacher should decide if more linguistic or background knowledge is needed to choose proper pre-listening activities. More particularl , a wide range of pre-listening activities should be exibl and appropriatel emplo ed in accordance with the students’ level of pro cienc and their familiarit with the topic. REFERENCES [1]. Bao, X. (2017). A Stud on Listening Strategies Instructed b Teachers and Strategies Used b Students. International Journal of English Linguistics, 7 (2), 186-195. [2]. Berne, J.E. (1995) “How does Var ing Pre-listening Activities Affect Second Language Listening Comprehension?” Hispania, 78 (2), 316-329. [3]. Buck, G. (2001). Assessing Listening. Cambridge: CUP. [4]. Chiu, B. E. (2006). An Investigation of English Listening Strategies Used b Continuous Education Program Students in Taiwan. Retrieved October 30, 2008 from http://web.nan a.edu.tw/tcof/tcrd/word [5]. Gilakjani, A.P. & Ahmadi, M.R. (2011). A Stud of Factors Affecting EFL Learners’ English Listening Comprehension and the Strategies for Improvement. Journal of Language Teaching and Research. 2 (5), 977-988. 22
TRầN THị DUNG, NGUyễN THị TRUNG [6]. Grant, D. & McLart , R. (2001). Business Basics: OUP. [7]. Krashen, S,D. (1982). Principle and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. New york: Pergamon Press. [8]. Lingzhu, J. (2003). Listening Activities for Effective Top-down Processing. The Internet TESL Journal, 9 (11). [9]. Medle , F.W (1997). Reading Assignments versus Reading Instruction: Native Language Strategies and Techniques for Use in the Foreign Language Classroom. Illinois: National Textbook Compan . [10]. Nunan, D. (2006). Practical English Language Teaching: Listening. New york: McGraw Hill. [11]. Rost, M. (2001). Listening: The Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Edited b Ronald, C & Nunan, D. Cambridge: CUP. [12]. Sui, H & Wang, y. (2005). On Pre-listening Activities. Sino-US English Teaching. 2 (5). [13]. Underwood, M. (1989). Teaching Listening. Longman Group UK Limited: Longman. [14]. Wang, L. & Fan, J. (2015), Listening Dif culties of Low-Pro cienc EFL learners: A Comparison of Teacher and Learner Perspectives. Asian EFL Journal. 17 (3), 85-110. CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG TRƯỚC KHI NGHE NHẰM HỖ TRỢ KHẢ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU TRONG CÁC LỚP HỌC TIẾNG ANH NHƯ NGOẠI NGỮ TRầN THị DUNG NGUyễN THị TRUNG Tóm tắt: Kỹ năng nghe là kỹ năng khó nhất đối với người học tiếng Anh nói chung và sinh viên tiếng Anh thương mại nói riêng. Có rất nhiều yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến khả năng nghe hiểu của sinh viên như nối âm, tốc độ, ngữ điệu kém, giọng nói khác nhau và kiến thức hạn chế của người học. Nghiên cứu này điều tra tác động của các hoạt động trước khi nghe trong việc hỗ trợ khả năng nghe hiểu bằng tiếng Anh cho sinh viên các lớp học tiếng Anh như ngoại ngữ (EFL). 203 sinh viên năm nhất các lớp tiếng Anh thương mại tham gia vào nghiên cứu này. Dữ liệu được thu thập thông qua bảng câu hỏi và sau đó phân tích định lượng và định tính. Nghiên cứu chỉ ra rằng các hoạt động trước khi nghe có ý nghĩa rất lớn trong việc xây dựng sự tự tin, kích thích sự hứng thú, kích hoạt kiến thức nền hoặc kiến thức văn hóa, tăng cường ngữ liệu đầu vào và hỗ trợ rất nhiều cho khả năng nghe hiểu. Trên cơ sở đó, đưa ra gợi ý về cách sử dụng các hoạt động trước khi nghe trong giai đoạn chuẩn bị một cách hiệu quả hơn. Từ khóa: Hoạt động trước khi nghe, Nhận thức, Thái độ, Lợi ích, Nghe hiểu. 23