(th Nat!o"al VTTN ELT )o"fere" e *++, -a"o!

IMPROVING WEAK STUDENTS LISTENING SKILLS Tran Van Co,

ELT Specialist Binh Dinh DOET I. The problem of tea h!"# l!$te"!"# A new series of English textbooks for students have been used in schools in Viet Nam for some years and there has been a lot of feedback from teachers who have used them. One of the problems they face is that they are not satisfied with their teaching of listening. Although they have been trying to find ways to make their listening activities more effective, the results they obtain are not as good as what they want. ome conclusions have been made to explain the situation. !any teachers stated that the new textbooks which contain a large amount of knowledge, hinder the students" learning. Others stated that they have many weak students who lack vocabulary, grammatical knowledge and have poor pronunciation, reduce classroom learning potential learning environment. ometimes the problem originates from the teachers themselves. !any teachers think that if they teach in a class with many weak students, they can"t spend a lot of time teaching listening. #hey do not use all of activities they had designed when writing lesson plans because if they do, the weak students can"t keep up. II. What the tea her$ %"o& abo't tea h!"# l!$te"!"#. All $ualified English language teachers know that a listening activity consists of three stages and each stage has its own purpose. #here are many different activities to use in each stage. #he most important listening skills they should train the students to gain are listening for gist and listening for specific information. #hey help the students to focus on the information re$uired to finish the listening tasks. %hat the teacher"s do &as mentioned' only work well in the class where there are many good students. !any teachers have the opportunity to attend the workshops on teaching listening. #hey are trained to use lots of techni$ues for each stage of the listening. #hey tried them out at the workshop in the presence of their peers. #hey received feedback from fellow teachers and useful tips from the trainers. After the workshops, the teachers went back to their schools with the eagerness to apply what they had learnt into their own language classes. ome classes were successful while other"s still had problems. #here were no improvements from the weak students when they listened to the tape or did the activities instructed by the teacher. #his shows that no matter how effective the listening activity itself can be, teachers and students are still facing obstacles in the classroom.

III. What &e $ho'l. .o to help .e/elop l!$te"!"# $%!ll$ !" &ea% E"#l!$h la"#'a#e $t'.e"t$. A. I$$'e$ relat!"# to the la"#'a#e lear"er$ After finding out that our teachers used the listening techni$ues they were trained in the workshop, but not successfully in every language class, we looked into other issues relating to language learning which have been discovered so far. 0. P$1 holo#1 %e should take into account the psychology of learning habits and skills. (ertain psychological factors should be considered such as memory. %e should consider their mental condition, their ability. *. Mot!/at!o" a". lear"!"# ) tudents learn well if they are well)motivated. %e can motivate even unmotivated students. 2. Lear"!"# $t1le$ ) Visual learners learn through seeing. ) Auditory learners learn through listening. ) #actile*+inaesthetic learners learn through moving, doing and touching. 3. T1pe$ of M'lt!ple I"tell!#e" e ) Visual* patial ,ntelligence- ability to perceive the visual. ) Verbal*.inguistic ,ntelligence- ability to use words and language. ) .ogical*!athematical ,ntelligence- ability to use reason, logic and numbers. ) /odily*+inaesthetic ,ntelligence- ability to control body movements and handle ob0ects skilfully. ) !usical*1hythmic ,ntelligence- ability to produce and appreciate music. ) ,nterpersonal ,ntelligence- ability to relate and understand others. ) ,ntrapersonal ,ntelligence- ability to self)reflect and be aware of one"s inner state of being. It is believed that each person has at least 3 or 4 types o intelli!ence" So #e cannot thin$ that #ea$ learners are %nintelli!ent people" (. Wea% $t'.e"t$ %eak students are the students who usually lack basic knowledge or skills, have difficulty in comprehension. ome teachers say that in the classroom the weak students often lack concentration. %eak students are easily confused so in the classroom the teacher should give clear, step by step, instructions. #he teacher should anticipate that weak students may need extra help, extra explanations. 4. What &e .o to help &ea% $t'.e"t$ !" L!$te"!"#. 0. At the pre5l!$te"!"# $ta#e- have more time at the pre)listening stage by shortening the post)listening stage.

At this stage, we carefully prepare the lesson reading the tapescripts and using #he #eaching .istening (hecklist &see Appendix 2'. #he following activities can be used based on the content of each lesson) 1evise vocabulary. ) 1evise grammatical structure. ) (reate a gap)filling task or other tasks based on the tapescript. ) #rain listening skills. &see Appendix 3' ) #rain microskills for listening. &see Appendix 4' ) 5ive some listening tips.

*. At the &h!le5l!$te"!"# $ta#e) 1emember to tell the aim of listening before you let the students to listen to the tape. ) %rite a very easy $uestion so that the students can answer after the first listening. &to encourage them to listen, to make them have a feeling of success'. ) %rite more additional $uestions to the listening tasks to make them easy for the students. ) Ask the students to guess before they listening to the tape. &6o not say what they guess is wrong or right, ask why they guess so if necessary'. ) /e flexible when getting the students to listen to the tape. 1ead the listening text if you find it helpful to your students. AN E6AMPLE O7 LISTENING LESSON 7OR WEAK STUDENTS 8 U"!t 0 9 L!$te"!"#: Ta$% 0 9 The 0+th 7orm Te;tboo%. < The follo&!"# !$ the l!$te"!"# Ta$% 0 =pa#e 0>? from the Te;tboo% a". Tape $ r!pt.

7 Ta$% 0- 8ou will hear !r .am, a cyclo driver, talk about his morning Activities. .isten to his talk and number the pictures in their correct order.

* Tapescript &ello everyone, 'y na'e is La'" I(' a cyclo driver in &o Chi )inh City" I %s%ally have a b%sy #or$in! day" I !et %p at ive thirty in the 'ornin!" I start #or$ at si*" )y irst passen!er is %s%ally an old 'an" I ta$e hi' ro' District + to District ," - ter I drop hi' at a ca e near &o Chi )inh City Colle!e o Ed%cation, I pedal to

Thai Binh )ar$et" )y ne*t passen!er is a lady #ho does shoppin! there every t#o days" I help her p%t all her p%rchases into the cyclo and then ta$e her to her shop in Tran &%n! Dao Street" -t abo%t ten thirty I ride o to#ard .!%yen Thi )inh /hai School" There I par$ 'y cyclo, chat #ith so'e o 'y ello#s and #ait or 'y third passen!ers" They are t#o school p%pils, a !irl and a boy" I ta$e the' ho'e" -t t#elve I have l%nch at a ood stall near Ben Thanh )ar$et" - ter l%nch, I par$ 'y cyclo %nder a tree, ta$e a short rest and then contin%e 'y a ternoon(s #or$" ,n #he #ieng Anh 29 textbook in Viet Nam, activities in the three stages are ready for the teachers to use. #he problem is that many students are still weak at learning English, particularly, listening. cassette players, and grasp nothing. ometimes they are fed up with listening activities because they are forced to listen to stories or conversations from the ometimes they feel happy in listening activities, because they 0ust pretend to do some activities the teacher asks them to do, pretend to listen to the tape carefully, finish one or two tasks in the textbook and wait for the answers to the tasks the teacher tell them or someone of their classmates who is lucky to get the teacher"s book. ,n the .istening lesson of :nit 2 ; #he 29 th form #extbook currently used in upper secondary schools in Viet Nam, the teacher has to go through the two tasks. <or #ask 2, the students are asked to listen and number the pictures in the correct order. %e can do the following activities to help the students complete the task successfully and develop further their language skills. A. At the pre5l!$te"!"# $ta#e2. 1evise vocabulary- get up, old man, a lady, fellows, school pupils, take a short rest. :se the pictures in the textbook to help the students to find out the Vietnamese e$uivalence. 3. =elps the students to find out the Vietnamese e$uivalence of other English words given in the taskdistrict, routine, office, pedal, purchase, drop, ride, park, food stall, passenger. .ote0 - ter the t#o above activities, st%dents can obtain 'ore #ords needed or listenin! to do the tas$" 4. Ask the students to pay attention to some clues> #he time- five thirty, six, after, twelve. > #he words- first passenger, next passenger, third passengers. 4.a. Ask the students to use the given words to complete the spaces in the following sentences 1The sentences are e*tracted ro' the listenin! te*t2&or% #et 'p par% foo. $tall r!.e off a. , ?? at five thirty in the morning. b. At about ten thirty , ??. toward Nguyen #hi !inh +hai chool. c. , start ?.. at six. d. At twelve , have lunch at a ??.. near /en #hanh !arket. e. After lunch, , ??. my cyclo under a tree. 4.b. #ell the students that the above sentence belongs to a paragraph about the daily routine of a cyclo driver, but they are not in their correct order. Ask the students to put them. 13o% can %se Vietna'ese or the instr%ction i yo% ind it help %l and yo% #ant to save the ti'e in case yo%r st%dents do not %nderstand the instr%ction in En!lish2.

@. Ask the students to put the following sentences in their correct order 1The sentences are e*tracted ro' the listenin! te*t2a. !y next passenger is a lady who does shopping there every two days. b. !y third passengers are two school pupils, a girl and a boy. c. !y first passenger is usually an old man. .ote0 The activities 3"b and 4 serve to help the st%dents to be a'iliar #ith the orderin! tas$" A. Ask one student to mime what a cyclo driver does everyday. .ote0 This activity #ill chan!e the at'osphere in the classroo' beca%se it is %nny and it helps the tactile learners to sho# the'selves" -ctivities +, 4 is or vis%al learners or st%dents havin! verbal intelli!ence" -ctivities 3"b and 4 are or st%dents havin! lo!ical intelli!ence" A. D'r!"# the l!$te"!"# $ta#e) Ask the students to listen to the tape for the first time and answer the following $uestions#he listening text is about ?? . A. a cyclo driver /. a school student (. a college lecturer. ) <or the second or third, or fourth listening the teacher should help the students to finish the listening task in the textbook. & ee Appendix @'

IV. )o" l'$!o" Our way of teaching listening is that we change our attitudes towards the students" ability in listening, prepare the lesson plans carefully in class, exploit the transcript, try our best to lead the listening lessons in a flexible way and study other issues in relation to teaching and learning such as motivation, psychology and learning styles. 8ou, certainly, have your own difficulties in teaching listening and you have your own way of teaching listening and helping your students to listen in English. /ut one more thing , would like to say is that do not think or say about your difficulties in teaching listening. %hen you think you have difficulties, you cannot do anything because everything will be difficult for you. ,dentify the difficulties you have and your students have and find the way to overcome those.

Refere" e$ ) ,n ; service teacher training materials by !OE# of Viet Nam. ) ,ntroduction to #E O. ; #eaching .istening.htm. ) A Brofile of the low .earner ; #eacher Education Bro0ect &:. .A'. ) English Now ; ,ssue C, November 399@. ) .istening in Action, !ichael 1ost, Brentice ) =all, 2CC2. ) !ac 8in !ee &:niversity of !alaysia' ; #eaching .istening- An overview. #he English #eacher. Vol D,D Euly, 2CC9. ) Adrian #ennant ; .istening matters- Brocess .istening. OnestopEnglish. ) !iriam 5reif ) F%eak .earnersG in =igh chool ; !ust they readH Appe".!; 0@ TEA)-ING LISTENING )-E)KLIST Tran Van Co 5 ELT Specialist 5 Binh Dinh DOET adapted the ollo#in! ro' Listenin! in -ction, )ichael 6ost, 7rentice 5 &all, +88+ or trainin!" 1E*tracted ro' En!lish .o# Iss%e 82 %hen teaching .istening, do you help your students?H 2. discriminate between sounds 4. identify grammatical groupings of words @. connect linguistic cues to intonation and stress A. use their background knowledge and context to predict and to confirm meaning J. recall important words and ideas L. think about their relationship to the speaker 29. organiIe what they hear 23. know their reason for listening 2@. guess unknown words and expressions Appe".!; *@ LISTENING SKILLS ) .istening for general information. ) .istening for specific information ) .istening for details ) 1ecognising words. K. deal realistically with the situation C. get clarification 22. plan their response 24. pay attention to the key content words 2A. activate what they know about the topic 3. recogniIe words

) .istening for the main idea ) students listen to identify the overall ideas expressed in the whole recording. ) .istening for details ; students listen for groups of words and phrases at sentence level. ) .istening for specific information ; students listen for particular information at word level. ) Bredicting ; students try to guess key information contained in the recording before they listen. ) ,nferring meaning ; students listen to identify the difference between what the speaker says and what they actually mean. ) ,dentifying emotion ; students listen to identify the mood of certain speakers. ) .istening for opinions ; students listen to identify the attitude of certain speakers. ) ,nferring relationships ; students listen to identify who the people are in the recording and what the relationship is between them.

) 1ecogniIing context ; students listen to aural and contextual clues to identify where the conversation takes place, who is speaking, etc.

Appe".!; 2@ MI)ROSKILLS O7 LISTENING )OMPRE-ENSION 2. 1etain chunks of language of different length in short term memory. 3. 6iscriminate among the distinctive sounds of English. 4. 1ecogniIe English stress patterns, words in stressed and unstressed positions, rhythmic structure. @. 1ecogniIe reduced forms of words. A. 6istinguish word boundaries, recogniIe a core of words, and interpret word order patterns and their significance. J. Brocess speech at different rates of delivery. K. Brocess speech containing pauses, errors, corrections, and other performance variables. L. 1ecogniIe grammatical word classes &nouns, verbs, etc.', systems &e.g. tense, agreement, pluralisation', patterns, rules, and elliptical forms. C. 6etect sentence constituents and distinguish between ma0or and minor constituents. 29. 1ecogniIe that a particular meaning may be expressed in different grammatical forms. 22. 1ecogniIe cohesive devices in spoken discourse. 23. 1ecogniIe the communicative functions of utterances, according to situations, participants, goals. 24. ,nter situations, participants, goals using real world knowledge. 2@. <rom events, ideas, etc, described, predict outcomes, infer links and connections between events, deduce causes and effects, and detect such relations as main idea, supporting idea, new information, given information, generaliIation, and exemplification. 2A. 6istinguish between literal and implied meanings. 2J. :se facial, kinesics, Fbody languageG, and other nonverbal clues to decipher meanings. 2K. 6evelop and use a battery of listening strategies, such as detecting key words, guessing the meaning of words form context, appeal for help, and signalling comprehension of lack thereof. Appe".!; 3@ -a/e the $t'.e"t$ l!$te" to the tape %hen the students take the listening test, they listen to the tape twice and then use what they have heard to do the test. After some days the students will be informed the test result. ,f the teacher do the same in the class, that means he does not teach but test listening. ,n the listening lesson, the teacher has to finish the lesson in @A minutes with the two listening tasks in the textbook. ,f we ask the teachers how many times they should let the students to listen to the tape we can get various answers. ome of them say at least three times, the others say more than three or as many as possible. #he ways they do are as follow2. #he teacher lets the students listen to the tape twice and ask them to do the listening task 2 in the textbook and then call out the answers to the $uestions. ,f the students do not give the correct answers, the teacher lets them listen to the tape more.

3. #he teacher lets the students listen to the tape once and asks the students to do the listening task 2 in the textbook. And then he lets them to listen to the tape the second time, asks the students to do the task. After the third time of listening the teacher starts to ask the students to give the answers. 4. #he teacher lets the students listen to the tape three times in succession and then asks the students to do the listening task 2. #he same steps are repeated for the listening task 3. Nothing wrong with the above mentioned steps the teachers use and the times they let the students listen to the tape. #hree or four times of listening are all helpful providing that the students" listening skills are developed. %hat we want to discuss here is that if you do not help the students to listen &if you are not the helper' they cannot hear anything. 1Tran Van Co2 MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM