Nghien Cuu Khoa Hoc PDF
Nghien Cuu Khoa Hoc PDF
Nghien Cuu Khoa Hoc PDF
ISSN: 2501-7136
ISSN-L: 2501-7136
Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu
Abstract:
Listening comprehension is one of the important skills for learning a foreign language.
Among four basic skills in language leaning, many researchers say that listening skill is
applied the most frequently. Therefore, strategies for listening comprehension and the
ability to employ them effectively are indispensable in language learning. This paper was
an attempt to investigate the listening strategies employed by English non-majored
students at Tay Do University. A total of 64 students of two different majors at the
university participated in this study to answer a widely used language learning strategy
questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of 31 questions including metacognitive
strategies, cognitive strategies, social and affective strategies. The data were analyzed by
SPSS 11.5 program. The findings indicated that most students applied listening strategies
with different degrees and they needed guidance from their instructors. Moreover, the
study also presents the relationships among these listening strategies. Finally, the results
of this study provide implications for improving the quality of teaching and learning
listening skill in the Vietnamese context.
1. Introduction
1.1 Rationale
English is considered like the emperor of languages because it is the most widely used
all over the world. According to a British Council’s statistics (2011), there are about
61.850.000 people using English as their mother tongue and there are more than 1.6 billion
people using English as a second language or foreign language. Especially, in the period
2. Literature review
In this chapter, researcher will present (1) listening comprehension, (2) Factors affecting
EFL learner’s English listening comprehension, (3) the importance of learning strategies
for language learning, (4) strategies for listening comprehension, (5) previous studies on
listening strategies.
remembering and responding to the expressed (verbal and nonverbal), needs, concerns and
information offered by other human beings”(p.8). In the same way, Underwood (1989, p.1)
said that “listening is the activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from
something we hear”. From these definitions, it gives some definitions about listening
comprehension. Mendelsohn (1994) defined listening comprehension as “the ability to
understand the spoken language of native speakers”. Similarly, Howatt and Dakin (1974)
described listening as the ability to identify and understand what others are saying. And
according to these experts, they thought that it was a process including understanding
speakers’ accent or pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and meaning comprehension.
These four things can be done simultaneously by an able listener. O’ Malley, Chamot and
Kupper (1989, p.19) offered a more extensive definition that “listening comprehension is an
active and conscious process in which the listener construct meaning by using clues from
contextual information and from existing knowledge, while relying upon multiple strategy
resources to fulfill the task requirement” In brief, listening comprehension is a process that a
person consciously receive information, interpret it and respond to the speakers.
listening strategies may contribute to prevent L2 learners’ listening ability. For instance,
the habit of listening word by word is believed to cause difficulty in listening process.
Different from Hedge, Underwood (1989) stated that there were seven causes
affecting efficient listening comprehension. First, the listeners cannot catch or control the
speed of speech. He said “the greatest difficulty with listening comprehension for many English
language learners is they cannot control how quickly a speaker speaks”. Second, it is difficult for
students to have words repeated because in the classroom, teachers can not usually
identify whether the students have understood any particular section of what they have
heard or not (Underwood, 1989, p.17). Third, that is the limitation of vocabulary power
of listeners. While speaking or communicating, speakers may choose words the listeners
do not know. At that time, the listeners tend to find out the meaning of the words rather
than concentrate on the context and thus cause missing the next part of the speech. It is
examined in Chu’s (2004) study and it is true. Fourth, it is hard for listeners to recognize
the signals which indicate that the speaker is moving from one point to another. Fifth,
listeners lack contextual knowledge such as mutual knowledge and common content. If
they have enough amount of contextual knowledge, communicative process will happen
more smoothly and more successfully. Sixth, it is difficult for listeners to concentrate in a
foreign language. For example, if listeners have a short break in attention or neglect a
moment in the listening process, it can seriously impair comprehension. Seventh, certain
learning habits such as understanding every word is also one of factors make learners fail
in listening comprehension.
In brief, there are many factors which influence the listening comprehension such
as the speaker, the information, the listener and the environment. These factors limit the
comprehension or the listening process. Therefore, it requires the strategies to enhance
the learning process. The next part will present the learning strategies.
language. The second one is affective strategies which learners use to control factors such
as emotions, attitude, motivation and values. The last one is social strategies which
facilitate interaction with others, often in a discourse situation. These sub-strategies are
described in Appendix1. Different from classification for listening strategies of Oxford
(1990), O’ Malley and Chamot (1989) categorized listening strategies into three main
types: meta-cognitive strategies, cognitive strategies and social-affective strategies and
they are described in the following:
1) Meta-cognitive strategies are a kind of the self-regulated learning. It includes the
attempt to plan, check, monitor, select, revise and evaluate. Generally, it can be
discussed through pre-listening planning strategies, while-listening monitoring
strategies and post-listening evaluation strategies. With pre-listening planning
strategies, listeners will set a purpose to help them have better preparation before
listening. While-listening monitoring strategies are strategies that listeners need to
be ‘self-conscious’ while listening to be able to monitor their comprehension. For
post-listening evaluation strategies, they are strategies that listening process is
completed, listeners evaluate their overall comprehension progress and access
how well they have done.
2) The cognitive strategies are related to comprehending and storing input in
working memory or long-term memory for later retrieval. Cognitive strategies are
the special actions that contribute directly to the learning processing. They are
investigated from the aspects of bottom-up strategies and top-down strategies. For
bottom-up processing, it refers to using the incoming input as the basic for
understanding the message. Comprehension begins with the received data that
are analyzed as successive levels of organization-sounds, words as a process of
decoding. On the other hand, top-down processing strategies go from meaning to
language (Richard, 2008). Learners can try to predict what will utter by signal. The
listener employs prior knowledge of the context and situation within which the
listening or message occurs to understand what the speaker speaks. “Context and
situation involve such as knowledge of topic, the speakers and their correlation with the
situation and previous events.” (Gilakjani & Ahmadi, 2011). The listening process can
employ the top-down or bottom-up strategies. However, it depends on the levels
of the learners or the purpose of listening such as listening to recognize sounds,
words or understanding the meaning of the message that require bottom-up or
top-down strategies or both. Chiu (2006) and Lu (2008) claimed that listening
comprehension was neither top-down nor bottom-up processing. They should be
combined to enhance listening comprehension.
3) Social-affective strategies are the strategies as the techniques listeners used to
collaborate with others, to verify understanding or to lower anxiety. For social
strategies, they are considered to be a ‘social activity’. In learning situation there
are always mixed ability groups within which learners can develop some
appropriate strategies for sharing ideas or asking for help. Affective strategies are
emotions, attitudes and values that learners need to help them control themselves.
2.5 Previous studies on listening strategies and related studies on learning strategies
There are many studies related to listening strategies that have been conducted by many
scholars and researchers with many different aims. They would like to carry out these
studies in order to identify what strategies that learners applied to enhance their
comprehension, or how frequently these strategies are employed and the relationship
between listening strategies. Some current studies related to this study are presented
below
Jou’s (2010) study concentrated to explore what strategies are frequently used by
students at Technological University. She surveyed a sample of 239 students. A
questionnaire and a test were used as tools to measure the degree of using strategies in
listening process. The questionnaire consisted of 30 questions about strategies that
participants applied in their listening comprehension tests and the test was adapted from
the basic level of the GEPT (General English Proficiency Test). It was found that most
students used strategies given in the questionnaire of learning listening. The results also
showed that meta-cognitive strategies (Mmeta=3.52) were effective to improve their
application of pre-listening planning, while-listening monitoring, and post-listening
evaluation strategies. However, cognitive strategies (Mcog=3.61) were used the most
effectively. In the terms of cognitive strategies, bottom-up strategies (M=3.76) were
applied more than top-down strategies (M=3.58). For social and affective strategies, they
were used positively with mean score (Msoc=3.5, Maff=3.26); however, strategies of be
confident in understanding the whole contents was applied well especially for low-
intermediate learners.
In Vandergrift’s (2003) investigation, it aimed to examine the types and the
differences of listening strategies used by more skilled and less skilled 7th grade listeners
when they listened to authentic texts in French. A think-aloud procedure was employed
to gather the data and it was further analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The study
lasted for 2 years as longitudinal investigation in which the progress of an experimental
and control group of 36 learners was compared. The researcher used a taxonomy of
listening comprehension strategies to code the think-aloud protocols. This taxonomy was
divided into three major strategies (metacognitive, cognitive and social-affective) as well
as the sub strategies within each category. The mean and percentage for the use of each
strategy by the more skilled and less skilled listeners were calculated. Firstly, the
quantitative analysis showed that all participants used metacognitive and cognitive
strategies. The strategy that did not appear to be used was evaluation strategy. Next, the
more skilled listeners gained more control of the listening process through the use of
metacognitive strategies, primarily monitoring strategy and elaboration strategy. Finally,
the less skilled listeners engaged in more direct translation. Their approach appeared to
involve primarily bottom-up processing, which prevents the development of a
conceptual framework and the efficient construction of the meaning. On the other hand,
qualitative analysis also conducted to compare and capture the true phenomenon about
how a given strategy was used or the particular combination of strategies used to build
meaning. The results expressed that a less skilled listener engaged in translation and
applied only a bottom-up approach. To sum up, the study shed light on listening
strategies in several perspectives. First, more skilled listeners have tendency for applying
metacognitive strategies to improve their listening skill. Next, less skilled listeners
showed their frequent engagement in superficial translation strategies.
Lee (1997) explored the listening strategies used by 190 Taiwanese Junior College
EFL students, including 150 females and 40 males. The participants completed the
Chinese listening comprehension questionnaire, including 33 items. The finding
identified that the most frequently used strategies involved asking speakers for repetition
or paraphrasing to clarify comprehension (Mean = 3.80), trying to understand each word
(Mean = 3.79), self-questioning for comprehension (Mean = 3.54), and checking
comprehension (Mean = 3.45). On the other hand, the least frequently used strategies were
thinking only in English (Mean = 2.28), deciding in advance to listen for specific aspects
of texts (Mean = 2.23), listening for structures (Mean = 1.95) and setting oneself up for tasks
(Nil). Another study concerning learner’s listening strategies was conducted by Goh
(2002). The study was to identify the comprehension and learning listening strategies
used by 118 Chinese ESL learners in a Singapore university. The results indicated that
more proficient listeners used both cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies to achieve a
meaningful interpretation of a text, and demonstrated the ability to use prior knowledge,
linguistic cues and contextual information.
Chao’s (1999) research investigated the strategies used by English majors while
viewing an authentic English video text. Three hundred and sixteen students were
randomly selected from six universities in Taiwan to participate in this study. The results
showed that eight strategies with the highest mean reported by the subjects included
grasping the overall meaning of the text (Mean=4.08), relate the text to what one already
know the topic (Mean = 3.96), focusing attention on the listening (Mean = 3.95), clear one’s
mind (Mean = 3.78), relate to personal experience or knowledge (Mean = 3.76), guessing
the meaning based on the context (Mean = 3.75), set oneself up for the task (Mean = 3.69),
and keeping up with the rate of speech (Mean = 3.65). The subjects did not listen well for
the grammatical structure (Mean = 2.35). Briefly, the research findings showed that the
learners tended to use top-down strategies more frequently than bottom-up strategies
during listening. For example, “grasp the overall meaning of the text” and “relate the text
to what I already know about the topic”, got the highest and the second frequencies (4.08
and 3.96 respectively). Most of them tended to employ self-reliance strategies more
frequently but tend to use social strategies least frequently. For instance, strategy for
asking for help (M = 2.45) got the lowest average frequency of response
Peacock and Ho (2003) investigated the relationship between the use of LLSs and
the proficiency level of 1006 English for Academic Purposes students in eight different
majors in Hong Kong. The results of the study showed that there were significant
correlations between strategy use and proficiency level. Cognitive and metacognitive
strategies showed very high correlations with the proficiency level of the participants and
were used by high-proficient learners. Compensation strategies, however, were shown
to be favored by both high- and low-proficient students.
Zare-ee (2007) conducted a study reporting on an investigation into the
relationship of test-takers’ use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies to the EFL
reading test performance. Data were collected from 30 randomly selected EFL learners
studying English language and Literature at Kashan University, Iran. The participants
included six male (20%) and 24 female (80 %) learners. SPSS version 13 was used to
compute descriptive statistics, MANOVA and Pearson product moment correlations.
Results obtained from conducting Pearson product moment correlations showed that the
correlation between meta-cognitive strategies and cognitive strategies was .630 and it is
significant at the 0.01 level. MANOVA also showed that students at higher levels of
reading ability use meta-cognitive strategies more often that less successful readers. The
findings of the study suggest that the use of meta-cognitive strategies can account for
variation in EFL reading achievement and needs to be promoted by EFL teachers. Gender
did not have a determining role in the use of either cognitive or meta-cognitive strategies
in this study.
In brief, this chapter reviews this literature about definition of listening
comprehension, significance of listening, factors affecting EFL learners’ English listening
comprehension, the importance of learning strategies, strategies for listening
comprehension and previous studies on listening strategies. The next chapter will present
the method of research.
3. Research Method
In the previous chapter, the literature on the major issues relating to the theoretical
background of the study has been reviewed. In this chapter, the researcher will describe
the research methods of the study including research questions and hypotheses the
research design, participants, he researches instruments and the procedures of the study
and data analysis.
3.1.2 Hypotheses
Through the literature review and the research questions, it was hypothesized that most
of English non-majored students at Tay Do University would apply strategies in listening
process. Moreover, these strategies would be useful tools in improving their listening
comprehension in certain degree. Finally, there would be a significant relationship
among these listening strategies.
3.3 Participants
The study was conducted from February to May of 2012. The participants in the research
were 64 students studying Literature in class 6A and Banking Finance in class 6C at Tay
Do University. All of them were English non-majored students; however, English was
one of compulsory subjects in their credits. They were taught four skills of English
language such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. Therefore, these freshmen
were selected as the suitable subjects for the study. Their ages were ranged from 19 to 22.
Among 64 students, there were 13 male (20%) and 51 female (80%). Most of them have
studied English at least 7 years. They study the same English textbook and the same
studying environment. All of them speak Vietnamese as mother tongue and English was
considered as their foreign language.
3.4 Materials
The participants in the present study are English non-majored students. They are first-
year students. The textbook used in their curriculum is General EL level 1. This textbook
consists of four parts including conversation, grammar, reading and writing. There is no
listening section. To help students increase their listening skill, teacher used Know-how
textbook opener as extra source. This textbook has pictures or questions to guide students
to the listening text. Besides, it has some exercises for students to check their
comprehension.
3.6 Procedure
The study was conducted during 16 weeks from February to May of 2012. It consists of
four stages. In the first stage, the information was collected from newspapers, articles,
and internet. After consulting and collecting enough information for the study, the
questionnaire was designed in the second stage. The third stage was undertaken three
weeks later. In the third stage, there were 64 students in total selected to complete the
questionnaire. After that, the data collected would be analyzed at the fourth stage. Then,
the paper was completed.
4. Research Results
This chapter aims to report the results of the data collection based on the questionnaire.
The results showed the statistical evidence on the general result, meta-cognitive
strategies, cognitive strategies, social strategies, affective strategies.
To find out which strategy used most in listening process, the data collected from
the questionnaire were calculated on SPSS including Descriptive Statistics Test and One-
Sample T-Test to analyze mean and standard deviation on participants’ listening
strategies. The results of the questionnaire were shown in the following Table 4.1.
As can be seen in Table 4.1, most of strategies from meta-cognitive to affective strategies
were applied much and the mean scores are higher than the excepted scale (scale 3).
Among them, social strategies gain the highest with the mean score 4.03 (Msoc=4.03)
accounting for 93.78%. Besides, the second strategies which are used more include meta-
cognitive strategies and cognitive strategies. The mean score for meta-cognitive strategies
is 3.64 (Mmeta=3.64) accounting for 84.69% and cognitive strategies is 3.61 (Mcog=3.61)
accounting for 85.19%. Although affective strategies are not used as much as these above
strategies, the mean score is still high (Maff=3.46) accounting for 81.28%. Figure 4.1 and
Figure 4.2 illustrate more clearly about the mean score and percentage of English listening
strategies used by students.
Continuously, Table 4.2 will analyze the participants’ use of four main kinds of listening
strategies on their listening process.
The results from the Table 4.2 show that the mean scores of the listening strategies are
statistically significant with p=<.005 (meta-cognitive strategies (t=14.642, df=63), cognitive
strategies (t=10.802, df=63), social strategies (t=15.428, df=63), affective strategies (t=6.999,
df=63). The results support the conclusion that participants employed all of these
strategies in their listening comprehension.
As can be seen in Table 4.3, most of all students prepare their mind to concentrate
before listening (MQ1=4.31) accounting for 100%. Besides, to understand the content of the
text, students usually identify the purposes of language activities before listening
(MQ3=4.09). It accounts for 98.4%. Unlike these two items above, students do not like much
about their progress in learning English (MQ2=2.84) accounting for 59.4%. Gareth Rees
(2003) shows that when pre-listening strategies are well prepared, they can help to create
confidence and facilitate listening comprehension. Chang (2008) also stated that before
listening to the text, previewing questions was helpful to the learner’s comprehension.
From the result, it can be seen that not all strategies are applied well by students. Before
listening, maybe they only think about some elements that help them to understand the
contents of the texts such as keeping their mind to concentrate or identifying the purposes
of the language activities. Thinking about their progressing in learning English is not
important to them.
The Table 4.4 shows that in while listening stage, most of students showed significant
attention about being willing to check what part of content they did not know (MQ7= 3,
56) accounts for 82.8% and double checking again for their answers (MQ8=3.83) accounts
for 90, 6% .Continuously, the results also showed that many students agreed they usually
lose concentration while listening, but it is corrected when doing listening test (MQ9=3.39)
accounts for 81.3%. However, strategy six (MQ6=2.73) accounts for 54.8% was not used
effectively by students. In fact, most of students thought that speakers’ accent was a
source that caused difficulty for them in listening process. Yan’s (2006) study showed that
there were about 66. 25% of learners getting problems with speakers’ accents and he
believed that unfamiliar accents might hinder listeners from understanding the contents.
It is similar with Yan’s study.
As can be seen in Table 4.5, it is clear that all strategies are employed regularly and
effectively by students. In fact, item 27 is strategy used the most with mean score
(MQ27=4.08) accounting for 98.4%. After listening, students evaluate the degree that they
can understand. That is a good way for them to improving listening next time. Similarly,
items 26 and 28 were strategies accepted actively by students although their mean score
is not as high as item 27. Most students find out the problems that they have to face such
as the key words that they do not (MQ26=3.81) accounting for 90.6%. According to Chu
(2004), most of listeners have a limited vocabulary so they will feel confused when they
hear some words they cannot figure out. And in this study, there are more than a half of
participants agreeing with looking up the new vocabulary in the dictionary with mean
score (MQ28=3, 77). It accounts for 90.6%.
The Table 4.6 shows that three kinds of above strategies are used highly in listening
practice. Especially, the mean score of post-listening evaluation strategies is the highest
among three with mean score is 3.89 which accounts for 93.2%. Next, the mean score of
pre-listening planning strategies is 3.75 accounting for 85.9% and the last is 3.38
accounting for 77.4%. Figure 4.3 and Figure 4.4 illustrate Table 4.6 clearly.
The mean score for each question in Table 4.7 is higher than the average scale (M=3.0).
This also means that the participants admitted the benefits that these strategies bring to
them. Actually, most of students think that practicing listening to EL actively in daily life,
such as listening to English news, English songs on TV or radio, talking to foreigners will
increase interest in learning English (MQ31=4.0). It accounts for 95.3 %. Another strategy
accepted much by students while listening is that they like to translate words or sentences
into Vietnamese (MQ10=3.84) accounting for 84.4%. The results from this table also indicate
that students like applying the new vocabulary, phrases or grammar they have learned
to understand the contents (MQ13=3.78). It accounts for 87.5%.
The bottom-up strategies tend to understand the details such as words or phrases of
content. The Table 4.8 shows that most students usually pay attention to words or
sentence stresses to enhance their understanding (MQ17=3.92) accounting for 95.4% and
often repeat words or phrases softly and mentally (MQ14= 3.61) accounting for 86%.
Besides, to grasp the content of the text, students also try to understand each word
(MQ12=3.53) account for 78.2%. Like items 14, items 11 implies that students may like to
put details together to understand what the sentences meant , especially noticing the
information questions with who, whom, which, how, where ….(MQ11=3.33). This study is the
same with Jou’s study (2010). Participants tend to take notes the information questions to
enhance the content. Actually, to be able to apply bottom-up strategies effectively, learner
should widen vocabulary largely enough and have good knowledge of sentence structure.
Traditionally, exercises of cloze listening or the use of multiple-choice questions are
applied to process the bottom-up strategies. Richard (2008, cited by Jou’s study, p110)
stated that “the recognition of key words, transition in a discourse, grammatical relationships
between elements in sentences and use stress, intonation to identify word and sentence functions
where the essential elements in processing bottom-up strategy”. Bottom-up strategies helps
students enhance knowledge of vocabulary and grammar.
Top-down skills are also important strategies in listening comprehension. The results
from Table 4.9 show that most of strategies were employed effectively by most of
students in improving listening comprehension. For example, students agreed that they
listened for main ideas first and then details (MQ15=3.80) accounting for 90.7% and
predicting or making hypotheses on texts by titles with mean score (MQ16=3.77)
accounting for 93.8%. In addition, they also guessed the meaning of words based on the
content and while listening, they formed pictures mentally to help learners comprehend
texts are equal (M18=M20=3.39). In contract, most of students were not familiar with trying
to think in English instead of Vietnamese and the mean score is below the average scale
(MQ19=2.95) accounting for 64%. To sum up, students used successfully top-down
strategies, but they still think in Vietnamese while listening. As a result, it slows down
listening processing. Therefore, they needed more guidance from teacher to develop top-
down skills.
As seen from Table 4.10, most of mean scores of 3 kinds of cognitive strategies are higher
than scale 3. This indicates that all of these strategies are very useful for students such
cognitive formal practicing strategies (M=3.88) accounts for 89% were applied more than
bottom-up strategies (M=3.60) accounts for 86.4% and top-down strategies (M=3.46)
accounts for 81.9%. Figure 4.5 and 4.6 illustrate the results of using 3 kinds of cognitive
strategies.
The results of Table 4.11 indicate that most students think teachers play an important role
in improving listening comprehension such as teaching them more skills (MQ30=4.30)
which accounts for 98.4%. In item 22 and 24, students show their positive attitude in
asking English speaking people to repeat what they do not understand (MQ22=4.14) which
accounts for 92.2% and to slow down when they speak fast high (MQ24=4.17) accounting
for 95.4%. In addition, most students usually asked their classmates or teachers questions
they did not understand after listening with mean score (MQ29=4.09) accounting for 98.4%.
Strategy in item 23 about asking English speakers to correct them when they talk is
applied much (M23=3.47). The degree for applying this strategy is less high than degree
for applying other ones. It accounts for 84.4%. It can be concluded that all of social
strategies were employed effectively by students.
In affective strategies, the results show that most of students relax whenever they feel
afraid of using English (MQ25=3.88). It accounts for 95.3%. They try to keep calm and are
not nervous (MQ21=3.86) accounting for 93.7%. Besides, students also find out some
methods to reduce their anxiety while listening such as encourage themselves through
positive self-talk (MQ4=3.66) accounting for 93.8%. However, item 5 implies that most
students are not confident enough in understanding the whole contents (MQ5=2.44)
accounting for 42.3%.
Table 4.13 shows the correlation of these two strategies is ‘.447’ and p-value is ‘.000’
(p=.000). The result indicates that the correlation between metacognitive and cognitive
strategies is statistically significant. Table 4.14 presents the correlation coefficient
between cognitive and social strategies.
Table 4.14 implies the correlation of these two strategies is ‘.536’ and p-value is ‘.000’
(p=.000). And like Table 13, the result shows that the correlation is statistically significant.
It means that there is a correlation between cognitive and social strategies. Similarly,
between cognitive and affective strategies exist a relationship with their correlation
coefficient is ‘.536’ and p-value is ‘.000’. So, it can be said that the correlation is statistically
significant. The following table demonstrates how the relationship between variables of
cognitive and affective strategies is manifested.
The result between metacognitive and social strategies is summarized in the Table 4.17.
From this table, it indicates that there is a correlation between these two kinds of
strategies (.227). However, this relationship is not statistically with p>.005. Likewise, the
relationship between social and affective strategies is also not statistically significant. The
results are presented in the following table.
4.4 Conclusion
After collecting and analyzing data, the results from this chapter showed that most of
strategies were used by English non-major students at Tay Do University. However, the
degree of using is different. Social strategies were employed most with mean score (Msoc=
4.03). Metacognitive strategies were the ensuing ones used much (Mmeta=3.64). The next
ones were cognitive strategies (Mcog=3.61) and the last ones were affective strategies
(Maff=3.46). When examining the relationship between strategies, it could be found that
they had correlation together with existing significant value ‘p<.005’ such as between
metacognitive and cognitive strategies, between cognitive and social strategies and
between cognitive and affective strategies. However, pairs of strategies such as
metacognitive and social strategies, metacognitive and affective strategies, social and
affective strategies were not statistically significant ‘p>.005’. In general speaking, English
non-majored students at Tay Do University applied listening strategies in listening
comprehension.
This chapter presents Discussions about the results, Limitations of this study, suggestions
for further research, Implication for teaching and learning listening strategies and
Conclusion of the thesis.
including skills such as asking questions for clarification, cooperating with peers, and
developing cultural understanding. These strategies, in general, helped learners work
with others to get input and practice. The findings from chapter 4 demonstrated that
participants in this study applied well this kind of strategy. The results from study were
consistent with Lee’s (1997). His findings also indicated that strategy for asking speakers
for repetition or paraphrasing to clarify comprehension was the most frequently used
strategy (M=3.80). The high use of social strategies may be due to the teaching objectives
and curriculum design of teachers. Teachers often engage their students in learning
listening skill by partnering up the students in pairs or small groups to complete learning
tasks through communicative activities. These results were not consistent with Chao’s
(1999) research while they were used the most in the present study. The results from his
project indicated that social strategies were used the least.
According to O’Malley and Chamot (1989), metacognitive strategies are a kind of
self-regulated learning. It includes the attempt to plan, check, monitor, select, revise and
evaluate. Vandergrift’s (2003) study proved that more skilled listeners had tendency for
applying metacognitive strategies to improve their listening skill. The findings of the
present study showed that metacognitive strategies were applied frequently with high
mean score (Mmeta=3.64). Therefore, it can be implied that participants in this study are
effective listeners. And these findings were consistent with Jou’s (2010) study. The results
from his study indicated that metacognitive strategies were employed with mean score
3.52. However, two strategies in metacognitive strategies are thinking about my progress
in learning English (M=2.84) and I do not understand if I am unfamiliar with speakers’
accent (M=2.73) were two strategies that participants did not pay much attention among
metacognitive strategies.
Cognitive strategies are related to comprehending and storing input in working
memory or long-term memory for later retrieval. They are investigated from the aspects
of bottom-up strategies and top-down strategies (O’Malley & Chamot, 1989). For this
kind of strategy, it was considered as the third frequently strategies used by students
(Mcog=3.61). The findings were not consistent with Jou’s (2010) research. His project
showed that cognitive strategies were the highest used strategies while this one is social
strategies. Although there are differences from degree of using this kind of strategies,
between two studies they also exist similarity. In the present study, bottom-up strategies
(M=3.60) were applied more than top-down strategies (M=3.46). And it is the same in
Jou’s (2010) study with bottom-up strategies (M=3.76) used more than top-down
strategies (M=3.58). This means that most of students are familiar with listening for
details more than they have to concentrate on main ideas. Besides, they often try to listen
for each word and translate contents into Vietnamese. Therefore, they apply bottom-up
strategies more than top-down strategies although both of them were applied. Especially,
thinking in English instead of Vietnamese was the least used strategies (MQ19=2.95). In
contrast, the study is not consistent with the findings from research of Chao (1999) when
in his research the learners tended to use top-down strategies more frequently than
bottom-up strategies during listening. For example, “grasp the overall meaning of the
text” and “relate the text to what I already know about the topic”, got the highest and the
second frequencies (4.08 and 3.96 respectively). In short, students applied bottom-up
strategies more than top-down strategies because they are English non-majored students
and listening is not taught in distinct period.
Affective strategies were considered as the least used strategies among four types
of strategies with mean score 3.46. Affective strategies refer to the strategies that learners
use to control factors such as emotions, attitudes, motivations and values. Hence, it can
be said that participants did not pay attention to this kind of strategy much as the others.
The results also were consistent with the findings of Jou’s (2010) study. Especially,
strategy with confidence in understanding the whole contents was the least used strategy
for both these studies with mean score below average scale. It might be explained that
listening is not a strange skill to students because this skill was mentioned when they
studied in high school. So, they will not feel worried when they are in undergraduate
level. However, they do not feel confident with contents that they will listen because
English is a foreign language. Understanding the contents of lectures require students to
have large vocabulary and to master grammar as well as context of lectures. For above
reasons, the level of their confidence in understanding the contents of lecture is not high.
In short, students used these strategies in the framework of O’Malley and Chamot
(1990) at different degrees. The results showed that students recognized these strategies
and used already them in their language learning. However, degree of affective strategies
is low. It means that students do not apply this kind of strategy effectively in their
listening processing.
5.1.2 The correlation among four types of strategies (metacognitive, cognitive, social
and affective strategies)
To answer research question three “is there any relationship among these strategies?”. A
Pearson correlation coefficient was computed. The result indicated that there was
significant correlation between metacognitive and cognitive strategies, cognitive and
social strategies, cognitive and affective strategies (p<.000). This result was consistent
with Zare-ee’s (2003) investigation. However, the correlation between metacognitive and
social strategies, metacognitive and affective strategies, social and affective strategies was
not statistically significant (p>.000). It may be explained that students were taught
listening skill in high school, so stages such as pre-listening, while-listening and post-
listening were familiar with them. They do not feel worried. For students, listening skill
is important and teachers play an essential role in guiding students to gain listening skill.
Hence, although the relationship between metacognitive and affective strategies as well
as between metacognitive and social strategies is not significant, they still support
together. For social strategies, students are spirited in asking English speakers to repeat
what they said and exchange any questions they do not understand with their friends.
Meanwhile, about affective strategies, students have many ways to reduce stress and
worry for studying listening. Thus, two kinds of these strategies were not interactive.
They themselves recognize the importance of listening skill and they themselves control
their attitude in listening process.
5.2 Limitations
The present study was conducted to investigate about using listening strategies of
English non-majored students and the time for carrying out this research was in period
of 3 months. This was considered as limited time. Moreover, in this study, researcher
collected and analyzed data by using a questionnaire. There were not tests or tasks
designed to estimate the level of strategies employed by students. In addition, the
number of participants was also limited. It just focused on the English non-majored
students but did not examine into any particular majored ones
collaborative work or class discussion activities. For while-listening activities, they relate
directly to engagement with the text and have some of following activities: (1) decide
what is and is not important to understand, (2) use prediction or content to encourage
students to monitor their comprehension when they listen, (3) use question to focus
students’ attention on the crucial elements of the crucial text to comprehend of the whole,
(4) organize activities to guide listeners through the text. Combine activities such as
getting the main ideas, topic, etc. Finally, teachers should write questions beyond the text
on the board and ask students to discuss them in post-listening activities. The teachers
can tell students to compare their notes and discuss what they understood in pairs or
small groups or encourage students to respond to what they heard to create debate.
Debating is a good way to stimulate students in communication and improve listening
skill effectively.
For students, they should be more active in their learning. For example, they
should usually practice English listening through English news or English songs on TV
or internet to be familiar with native speakers’ accent, intonation. The fact is that these
participants did not have good knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. Thus, they are
often afraid of listening. They should practice listening more often not only in class but
also at home. There is a variety of listening texts from TV, radio, songs, news…. They can
choose to be familiar with different accents, pronunciation. Besides, listening is an
effective way to enhance their vocabulary, to revise grammatical structures. It is helpful
for other skills such as speaking, reading and writing. Students should be encouraged to
communicate with native speakers so that they can have two-way communication. It
helps them be flexible and communicate better. Hence, they will not feel confused with
different accents. Moreover, students should work in group or pairs to exchange
information. That is a good way to increase confidence in understanding texts. Besides,
they should apply studied strategies in texts frequently to improve their listening skill.
For textbook of teaching, there is not any lesson for listening skill yet. So, teachers still
use outside documents. For this reason, there should be a lesson plan that has enough
four skills, especially listening skill to help students to be familiar with native speakers’
different accents. Moreover, textbook should include many activities to support students
to increase knowledge of vocabulary and grammar.
5.5 Conclusions
The purpose of this study is to look into listening comprehension strategies employed by
English non-majored students and the relationship among these strategies. By
understanding which listening strategies that students use hopes that the findings of the
study will help them overcome difficulties in learning listening. Generally speaking,
participants in this study employed a variety of listening comprehension strategies
during the listening process and social strategies were considered as the highest used
strategies among listening strategies. Furthermore, it also showed that there is a
relationship and interaction between these strategies helps students to improve their
listening ability effectively. However, there are some kinds of strategies that do not have
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Appendix 1: Questionnaire
(An investigation about English listening strategies applied by English non-majored students at
Tay Do University)
A. Background information:
1. Gender: male: female:
2. Age: ………………………………….
3. Class: …………………………………
Number Items SA A N DA SD
1 Before listening, I prepare my mind to concentrate.
2 Before listening, I think about my progress in learning English.
3 I clearly identify the purpose of the language activities before
listening.
4 I encourage myself through positive self talk.
5 I am confident in understanding the whole contents.
6 While listening, I do not understand if I am unfamiliar with
speakers’ accent.
7 While listening, I while check what part of content I do not
understand
8 While listening, I while double check again for my answer.
9 I am aware of my inattention and correct it while doing
listening test.
10 While listening, I try to translate words or sentences into
Vietnamese.
11 While listening, I will notice the information question with
who, whom, which, how, where…in the content.
12 While listening, I try to understand each word.
13 While listening, I can apply the new vocabulary, phrases, or
grammar I have learned to understand the content.
14 While listening, I usually repeat words or phrases softly or
mentally.
15 I listen for main ideas first and then details.
N of
Statistics for Mean Variance STD Dev Variables
SCALE 114, 4000 114, 4000 10, 6958 31
Reliability Coefficients
N of Cases = 40,0
N of Items = 31
Alpha = 0,7993
Appendix 3
Reliability Analysis – Scale (Alpha)
N of
Statistics for Mean Variance STD Dev Variables
SCALE 113, 7344 107,7855 10,3820 31
Reliability Coefficients
N of Cases = 64, 0
N of Items = 31
Alpha = 0,7985