Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm THPT: Enhancing listening skill by using online listening homework

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To reach the aim of the study, there are two questions need answering: What are students’ perceptions towards online listening homework? Do they want to continue this method to improve their listening skill? Is the listening online homework effective?

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SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TỈNH ĐỒNG NAI THPT Trấn Biên Mã số: ................................ SÁNG KIẾN ENHANCING LISTENING SKILL BY USING ONLINE LISTENING HOMEWORK Người thực hiện: Thái Thị Quỳnh Trang Lĩnh vực nghiên cứu: - Quản lý giáo dục  - Phương pháp giáo dục  - Phương pháp dạy học bộ môn: .............................  - Lĩnh vực khác: .......................................................  Có đính kèm: Các sản phẩm không thể hiện trong bản in sáng kiến  Mô hình  Đĩa CD (DVD)  Phim ảnh  Hiện vật khác (các phim, ảnh, sản phẩm phần mềm) Năm học: 2019 - 2020
SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TỈNH ĐỒNG NAI THPT Trấn Biên SÁNG KIẾN ENHANCING LISTENING SKILL BY USING ONLINE LISTENING HOMEWORK Người thực hiện: Thái Thị Quỳnh Trang Lĩnh vực nghiên cứu: - Quản lý giáo dục  - Phương pháp giáo dục  - Phương pháp dạy học bộ môn: .............................  - Lĩnh vực khác: .......................................................  Năm học: 2019 - 2020
CONTENT Content Page 1 Introduction 1 2 Literature Review 3 3 Methodology 12 4 Results 16 5 Assessment 25 6 Conclusion 29 7 References 30 8 Appendix 34
THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ SÁNG KIẾN 1. Tên sáng kiến: Cải thiện kĩ năng nghe bằng bài tập online ở nhà 2. Lĩnh vực áp dụng sáng kiến: Phương pháo dạy học bộ môn 3. Tác giả: - Họ và tên: Thái Thị Quỳnh Trang. Nam (nữ): Nữ - Trình độ chuyên môn: Thạc sĩ - Chức vụ, đơn vị công tác: Giáo viên trường THPT Trấn Biên - Điện thoại: 0367162228 Email: trangthai163@gmail.com Tỷ lệ đóng góp tạo ra sáng kiến (%): 100%
1 ENHANCING LISTENING SKILL BY USING ONLINE LISTENING HOMEWORK I. Introduction 1. Background information It cannot deny that English is the lingua franca that is popularly used most in the world. It has become a primary communication tool among countries and a crucial means to approach to the world’s knowledge. As a result, being exposed to this language not only creates a new horizon for foreign language learners but also gives them the opportunity to have a broader perspective of the world. Realizing the importance of English, Vietnamese’s MOET has introduced and made this language become a compulsory subject at every high school around the country. To meet this demand, a lot of EFL instructors have designed listening online homework for their students to practice outside of class since they realize that this useful way supports them to give feedback immediately, send the authentic materials to the learners, give students their own space to practice and help them find the most suitable way to learn language which can enhance their language acquisition (Sagarra & Zapata, 2008). Sharing the same idea with the EFL teachers, the researcher also wanted to create her own online listening system as homework for their high school students to help them get more time to listen to authentic materials through podcasts or videos. Hence it was expected that learners’ listening skill would be improved and they would have positive attitudes when accessing the online listening system. 2. Problem statements There has been various research carried out to examine the effectiveness of online homework and students’ perception toward this method and the interpretation is still
2 considered under debate. Having conducted the research, several researchers claimed that there were developments in students’ performance after doing online homework and online listening exercises (Tian & Suppasetseree, 2013; Liu, 2014). Meanwhile, others stated that there were no significant effects on students’ performance when using online homework (Bonham, Beichner, & Deardorff, 2001; Dillard-Eggers, Wooten, Childs, & Coker, 2008). Although the answer of students’ attitudes about this technological method is almost positive, some cases still found out that students still prefer paper-based homework than web-based homework (Dillard-Eggers, Wooten, Childs, & Coker, 2008). 3. Significance and purpose of the study As a result, the researcher needed to review the research conducted to investigate the effectiveness of online listening homework and students’ perception toward this trend to examine the results to see whether it can help the learners enhance listening skill and whether the students’ perspective is positive or not. As far as the researcher’s acknowledges, the research that she has accessed so far just implemented online homework at universities (Dillard-Eggers, Wooten, Childs, & Coker, 2008; Zerrr, 2007; Alshaikhi & Madini, 2016; Liu, 2014; Sagarra & Zapata, 2008). Hence, the researcher realized that it is necessary to design an online listening homework system and conduct a study to examine students’ attitude towards this method in which participants are students from high school or lower school because they may face more difficulties in dealing with technological problems which they are less familiar with. Moreover, listening tests need to be designed to measure the effectiveness of online listening homework. To be more important, there has not been any research about this aspect carried out in Tran Bien high school. Therefore, the study is conducted to find out the perception of 40 grade 10 students in Tran Bien high school towards online listening homework. From the results, the researcher can know exactly her students’ feelings about online listening homework and the validity of the method
3 to decide to continue and apply this system to other classes to help students get better listening performance and encourage them to learn language. 4. Research questions: To reach the aim of the study, there are two questions need answering:  What are students’ perceptions towards online listening homework?  Do they want to continue this method to improve their listening skill?  Is the listening online homework effective? II. Literature review 1. Homework For a long time, homework has been considered as a feature in most schools all over the world and it is an assigned task given to students to complete at home by the instructor (Gu, 2015; Albelbisi, 2008; Leong & Alexander, 2014). It is also viewed as a necessary part of the teaching-learning process and this activity will help students learn better, improve the language learning’s quality, therefore, they will reach the educational aims faster (Xu & Wu, 2013; Hong, Wan & Peng, 2011; Amiryousefi, 2016). It is believed that homework can bring to instructors and learners numerous advantages. According to Amiryousefi (2016), homework expands the time that students engage in learning, strengthens their learning, helps learners have better scores, become more self-regulated and have a better study habit. Increasing learners’ creativity is another benefit that Ilgar and Ilgar (2012) found out when they conducted their research. According to Cox (2011), when the homework is graded, it enhances and motivates students to get higher grades as well (as cited in Nour, 2018). Cooper, Robinson and Patall (2006) said that the more homework students did, the more successful they would get. Palocsay and Stevens (2008) also claimed that problem
4 solving and critical thinking are skills that can be improved and developed in the process of doing homework (as cited in Albelbisi, 2018). Homework also a connector between school and family, between the teacher and parents. The events in the classroom will be informed to the parents and it encourages them to stay next to their kids to support and monitor their work (Amiryousefi, 2016). Moreover, through doing homework, teachers will realize their learners’ strengths and weaknesses. Hence, it will help them to choose suitable materials and arrange homework activities properly (Amiryousefi, 2016). However, homework still has some demerits that the instructor needs to consider carefully before applying in the teaching curriculum. It can create stress for the students and reduce their leisure time for outside activities. According to Loveless (2014), homework is viewed as a punishment given by the teacher and it makes students bored and tired and students believe that homework is wasting learners’ time and energy. There are also some results that prove that homework did not improve study skills as well as students’ academic achievement (Kohn, 2007; Kralovec & Buell, 2005). Therefore, the effectiveness of homework has been a controversial topic until now. 2. Online homework Traditionally, homework is designed on paper with some kinds of exercises such as choosing the best answer, answering questions, matching, filling in the blank or writing the essay which can make students feel tired and waste time. To deal with this problem, the teacher can use the technology and internet to create online homework which may have more interesting activities, colorful images and authentic materials for students to practice learning language. To understand the phrase “Online homework systems”, Leong and Alexander (2014) define that they are systems that contain computerized homework problems
5 designed to help the teacher give grade and feedback automatically and immediately. This definition is consonant with the meaning that Lunford and Pendergrass (2015) share in their article. Jacobson (2006) and Kinney (2001) add that online homework also may create plentiful diagnostic instructional hints or tutorial assistance when defining this term. 3. Advantages of Online homework There are numerous merits that make the teacher choose online homework instead of paper-based homework. The first benefit people can obviously see that online assignment can reduce the tree used to make paper. It also cuts down the cost and energy producing this material. Hence, the nature of environment can be maintained and preserved. They are not afraid of losing the paper work when transiting from classroom to home as well (Dodson, 2014). Another benefit that Dodson (2014) also found out when conducting his research is online homework helps the teacher save time because they do not need to collect homework and grading for them is more quickly and easily. Dillard-Eggers, Wooten, Childs and Coker (2008) say that as instant feedback and assistance of online homework help the teacher has more time for other classroom activities and duties instead of meeting each student to give small details about homework. Giving immediate feedback seem to be the utmost beneficial thing for both teachers and learners. Students and instructors always report that the thing they are interested in online homework than conventional homework is the availability of direct feedback (Dillard-Eggers, Wooten, Childs, & Coker, 2008; Zerr, 2007; Sagarra & Zapata, 2008; Tian & Suppasetseree, 2013; Paker & Loudon, 2013; Doorn, Janssen, & O’Brien, 2010; Leong & Alexander, 2014). Learners can receive feedback at any time which is suitable for their schedules. From then, they can understand and comprehend immediately the knowledge and know their mistakes to fix it for the next
6 exercise. In terms of the teacher, feedback allows them to supervise students’ progress and change their strategies accordingly (Lunford & Pendergrass, 2015). In the online system, gone are the wasted moments of providing detailed feedback to a large group of students, which almost teachers are scared of. The fourth strong point of online homework is the various materials that the internet provides for both instructors and learners. According to Kilimci (2010), students can gather information, exposure to various topics and subjects, eliminate the comprehension barriers thanks to the internet (as cited in Alshehri, 2017). Zerr (2007) also has the same viewpoint when this researcher shares that the internet has become a crucial means for publicizing numerous educational materials to learners. Moreover, these materials are authentic, practical and up-to-date as well. Dodson (2014) claims that “Having digital homework can also be one way to keep curriculum fresh within the classroom”, which means this kind of homework can help teachers update their website, so reduce the time they spend on keeping the materials contemporary and advanced. There has been some research that has stated that the grades and performance of students who do online homework are better than the students doing paper-based homework or do nothing (Zerr, 2007; Tian & Suppasetseree, 2013; Brewer, 2009). At least homework does no harm for the students or maintains their performance (Dillard-Eggers, et al., 2008, Lunford & Pendergrass, 2015; Dodson, 2014). Last but not least, online homework as well as paper-based homework encourages a lot of important skills in real life for students. The student’s autonomy will be improved when they do homework by himself or herself. Moreover, how to manage the time and schedule to do the task is also another skill that students can learn through doing homework. According to Olin-Scheller and his coworkers (2010), students who always feel shy and uncomfortable to interact in class can also enhance
7 their communicative skill thanks to some useful internet services (as cited in Alshehri, 2017). Research and analysis skills are also enhanced when doing online homework (Alshehri, 2017). 4. Disadvantages of online homework On the other side, online homework also creates some demerits that the instructor needs to consider carefully before applying this system. Students’ health is the first thing that can be affected by online system. The long time that students use and access to the internet could influence their eyesight and backbone posture (Alshehri, 2017). Moreover, their mental health is also affected by cyberbullying activities on the internet. If the instructor does not choose the materials carefully, some videos, text or pictures will not appropriate for children, which may result in some violent actions or sexual behaviors. According to Johnson and Gotestam (2004), there are also some problems related to technic that students may cope with when doing online homework such as they are not familiar with the system or cannot connect to the website or lose their information if it has not saved correctly (as cited in Alshehri, 2017). Academic dishonesty is another disadvantage since students can still plagiarize others’ work or share their passwords to their classmates (Gu & Kristoffersson, 2015). Both paper-based homework and online homework are done outside the classroom so they are out of teachers’ observation, which can lead to the cheating of the students. Online homework also increases the gap between learners because of their backgrounds and their levels of motivation (Gu & Kristoffersson, 2015). The student who studies in a large room with sufficient equipment, internet and support from family will be better than the one who learns in a small room without essential equipment.
8 5. Students’ perception towards online homework According to Tin (2006), the researchers and teachers need to listen to learners’ voices to find out their feeling about homework assignment. From then, they will know exactly what needs to improve and develop and “this can help teachers stand out of their practice and assess it from a wider perspective” (as cited in Amiryousefi, 2016). Bulut and Uguten (2003) agree with this point because, in their opinion, learner’s perceptions are really important in the teaching and learning process. They need to consider about their learners’ preferences before planning and applying the lessons and materials widely and frequently (as cited in Sulaiman, Muhammad, Ganapathy, Khairuddin, & Othman, 2017). As a result, conducting research about students’ attitudes toward something new in their learning process is necessary and important. Almost the research that the researcher has accessed so far has positive attitudes of students towards online homework. Leong and Alexander (2014) realize that immediate feedback is the factor that makes students are keen on because it helps them enhance their understanding and learning. 10.8% of participants in the research of Sagrra and Zapata (2008) also agreed that they appreciate receiving immediate feedback. With some students, online homework helps them understand more the materials, the topic, the lesson in class, then prepare for the exams. (Doorn, Janssen, & O'Brien, 2010). Dillard-Eggers, Wooten, Childs and Coker (2008) examined the research about the effectiveness of online homework in accounting class and found out that more than half of the students believed that online system supports them to understand the topics and problems. The findings of the research of Parker and Loudon (2013) suggest that learners’ learning, experiences and success in the courses are also improved after doing online homework. The findings of Tian and Suppasetseree
9 (2013) are in line with these above researches when they conclude that their online task-based interactive listening encourages EFL students to enhance their listening skills and learn more effectively. 53 percent of students from the research of Dillard-Eggers, Wooten, Childs and Coker (2008) said that the quality of the time they spent studying was increased. Students from the calculus class at the University of North Dakota also were in accordance with this viewpoint when they said that their time spent outside of the class was productive (Zerr, 2007). As a result, a lot of students want to continue or have the same online homework system for the other subjects and they will recommend it to their friends (Zerr, 2007; Richards-Babb, Drelick, Henry, & Robertson-Honecker, 2011). 6. Applying online homework in improving listening skills. Thanks to the improvement and development of technology and internet, there have been some researchers attempting to use online system to design homework with the aim to extend practice time and enhance their students’ listening ability. Alshaikhi and Madini are two researchers conducting the research “Attitude toward enhancing extensive listening through podcasts supplementary pack” (2016), which aims to examine the perception of 120 Saudi elementary level students and their teachers towards the content and criteria of podcasts using for extensive supplementary listening pack. The findings of this research show that all students participating in this research had positive perspectives about using short authentic podcasts as listening supplementary packs. Nearly 60 percent of teachers and 40% of students said that they liked the mobility feature of podcasts which encourages them to listen anytime and anywhere. They also prefer the transcription which helps them follow the speed rate of the native speakers. Nearly half of teachers and students joining in the research have the same idea that the curriculum should contain various
10 podcasts topic since their listening level could be improved when coping with various difficult podcasts that are beyond their current level. Another research using podcasts as online material for improving students’ listening ability is the research “Podcasts for listening skills” conducted by Kavaliauskiene and Anusiene (2009). The purpose of this research is to identify the perceptions of learners toward online listening to podcasts and evaluating the performance of individual listening practice and find a way to enhance listening skill. In this research, the participants could select two podcasts online to listen at home freely which could match their level. The findings show that students believed “it had been easier for them to follow American speakers than British Speakers” (p. 32). Nearly 80 percent of students had positive attitudes toward the technique using podcasts as listening material. In conclusion, the researchers suggest that using podcasts may enhance language awareness because they can be done at home with convenient time and own pace and without threatening conditions. “Comparing the outcomes of online listening versus online text-based tasks in university level Italian L2 study” of Absalom and Rizzi (2008) is another research that the researcher review. As mentioned in the title, the objective of this research is to compare the results of two kinds of online tasks occurring in the background of the study of Italian at The University of Melbourne. After investigating the research, the researchers conclude that thanks to “the complex nature of listening in L2, online listening tasks in L2 require students to activate more learning resources than is the case with text-based tasks and adopt a deep, integrative approach to learning” and online listening tasks also result in “greater retention of information and vocabulary” (p.64). Instead of using technology and internet for designing online listening homework, Smidt and Hegelheimer from University of Minnesota and Iowa State University
11 created online academic lectures to improve their students’ vocabulary and listening comprehension incidentally. The participants of this research include 24 ESL adult students taking part in a listening comprehension class at Midwestern university. The results of this research indicate that the instructors may use multiple media to design online lectures “such as transparencies and other visual aids” to improve listening comprehension, especially for intermediate adult students (p. 541). In addition, they suggest that the teachers should have suitable strategies to teach and guide their learners to use online media and resources. Tian and Suppasetseree (2013) are two authors of the research “Development of an instructional model for online task-based interactive listening for EFL learners”. Their participants are quite difficult with other researches. They are three experts who have got Ph.D. degree from two universities in Thailand and they work both in “instructional system design and the English language teaching field”. The research infers that three experts strongly agree that this new model is suitable for English listening teaching for EFL students and it can improve “learner instructor, learner- learner and learner-content interaction with a task-based approach”. Furthermore, it also provides immediate feedback and it has “sufficient flexibility to be effective in teaching and learning in current instructional context”. Two classes are required to take part in the experiment to examine the effectiveness of online task-based interactive listening in the second semester as well. The results indicate that the model helps EFL students “learn more effectively and develop their listening skills and ability as expected”. It can be concluded that almost the researches that the research has accessed until indicate positive attitudes toward online listening exercises. However, they just apply these exercises as voluntary work so that the result of effectiveness might belong to the learners’ autonomy and strategies to work at home. Therefore, the attitudes about
12 using online listening tasks also are influenced. Furthermore, the participants of the above researches are almost students from universities who are nearly familiar with technology and internet. As a result, the researcher needs to conduct research that occur in the context of high school since the students studying at school still cope with some difficulties related to high-tech and under the observation of parents. Their time of using computers and internet might be still depended on their parents’ allowance which can affect students’ results and perceptions toward online listening homework. III. Methodology 1.Participants: There are several ways to choose samplings such as simple random sampling, stratified sampling, multistage cluster sampling or snowball sampling; however, the researcher chooses convenience sampling approach in which she can select participants who are willing and available to be studied. Although these participants cannot be representative of the whole population, it can save time for the researcher while still being able to contribute helpful information for answering questions (Cresswell, 2012). As a result, 80 students from two classes 10A10 and 10A11 in Tran Bien high school taking part in this project. The class 10A10 is asked to do online listening homework through the system “Edmodo” by the researcher who is also their English teacher at school so it is more convenient for her. Doing online listening homework is compulsory for them because their exercises are graded and these scores occupy 10% in their final result. The class 10A11 is not required to do online listening homework. Because of the limited time, the researcher has just applied online listening homework for 12 weeks. The students have to complete three listening exercises per week. They contain fill in the blank exercises, multiple choice questions, matching
13 activities, dictation, etc. which are extracted from KET/ PET books, online postcard and videos from YouTube. 2. Method of data collection Almost the research that the research has approach using a questionnaire to identify students’ perceptions. A questionnaire is defined as “a form used in survey design that participants in a study complete and return to the researcher. The participant chooses answers to questions and supplies basic personal or demographic information” (Cresswell, 2012, p. 382) According to Dőrnyei (2003), using a questionnaire has three benefits: “Firstly, the attractive feature is exceptional efficiency in terms of a researcher’s time, effort and finance. Secondly, much more information can be obtained within a shorter time frame, in comparison with interviews with the same number of people. Thirdly, a well-constructed questionnaire can process the data quickly and relatively straightforwardly by using computer software. However, the primary disadvantage is that respondents usually give very simple and superficial answers, mainly because they are unwilling to spend more time than necessary in answering the questionnaires” (as cited in Liu, 2014, p. 20). Because of these benefits, the researcher also applied a questionnaire to find out her students’ attitudes towards online listening homework. She used a cross-sectional survey, which can “examine current attitude, beliefs, opinions or practices” (Cresswell, 2012, p. 377). However, the researcher wanted to know more detail about the participant’s answer, she also designed open-ended questions. This kind of question might help the researcher has a deeper understanding, explore many “possibilities that individuals might create for a question” and “allow participants to create responses within their cultural and social experiences instead of the researcher’s experiences” (Cresswell, 2012, p. 386, 387).
14 However, it is predicted that the participants do not want to be recognized so when doing the questionnaire, background questions or demographic questions which assess the personal characteristics of each participant in the research will not appeare in the questionnaire. Moreover, all of their information will be kept confidential to avoid ethical research problems and make sure the participants will volunteer to do the survey. During the thirteenth week, students from the experimental group were required to complete a survey which includes 16 statements arranged to form Likert-type scale with five-point spread. Participant scoring options are (1) strongly agree, (2) agree, (3) no opinion, (4) disagree, and (5) strongly disagree. They were also asked to answer two open-ended questions to help researcher find out more possible responses and ideas to improve the online listening homework system. To measure the effectiveness of the online listening homework, a quasi- experimental pretest/posttest is administrated to answer the question. Before taking this method, all 80 students will take a pretest to measure their English speaking competence and ensure there are no inequalities between two groups. After that, class 10A10 serves as the treatment group and take part in online listening homework. Class 10A11 serves as the control group and does not have to do these listening exercises at home. At the end of the research, post-test will be carried out to the students to see the differences in students’ performance in English listening skills of two groups. 3. Method of data analysis After being collected from the survey, the data is analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to see the percentages of each statement among students. From then, the researcher can determine the students’ perceptions towards online listening homework.
15 The scores of the tests will be put in Excel and use the formula to see the average scores between two groups in both pretest and posttest. 4. Procedure Before applying this new method, the teacher asks both groups to do pretest to check their performance and make sure that the inequalities do not exist. The control group only does the listening exercises following the schedule of school and in the textbook of MOET at school. However, the teacher still encourages this group to practice listening and doing lots of exercises to improve listening skill at home. The experimental group not only do the same thing as control group but they also do the listening online homework at home three times a week. At school, the teacher introduces the method and explain the reason why she conducts this way for her students. After that, the website “EDMODO” is shown for all the students on the screen. The teacher slowly instructs the steps to sign up on the website, join in online class and do the exercises. Then, students go home, sign up their own account and do the online exercises three times a week. During the research period, if students have any difficulties in doing the online listening homework, they can ask the teacher for help. The exercises are scored to ensure that all the students participate in doing the homework. This website also helps the teacher to give mark automatically, analyze the result and check the frequency. Therefore, the teacher can save a lot of time rather than using paper homework. After twelve weeks, a posttest is done by all the students in two groups to check whether the performance of the experimental group is better than the control group. IV. Results 1. Students’ perceptions of the experimental group
16 General perceptions towards online listening homework When being asked the preference between online homework and paper-based homework, there were a lot of students choosing web-based style. The table 1 below will present the percentage of students agreeing with the statement “I prefer online homework than paper homework” Table 1: I prefer online homework than paper homework Frequenc Valid Cumulative y Percent Percent Percent Valid strongly agree 36 45.0 45.0 45.0 agree 27 33.8 33.8 78.8 neutral 7 8.8 8.8 87.5 disagree 9 11.2 11.2 98.8 strongly 1 1.2 1.2 100.0 disagree Total 80 100.0 100.0 It can be clearly seen that nearly half of students gave the strongly agree point and more than one third of them agree with this statement. However, there were still some learners who did not find this kind of modern homework outweigh the traditional one. 11.2% of participants disagreed and only one student strongly disagreed with the idea that they spend their love more for online homework than paper homework. In