Tài liệu Designing a tentative esp listening syllabus for the second year students of tourism at cssh, vnuh

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Dai hoc Ha Noi Ì» |ỊỊ|ỊỊIIIIII Н ш ѵ і; - r u:y ъ т 000038790 –ᅩ i? ^ ^ í^ -.â Ị-상;֊ᅳ 礙 没 --Í >Ä3-,-.»SÄ«.--- լ i- -Jr֊=чг^а»;■■■rt^ f.r -w *-.-» *»«•■■나 ： ■ Tor/Tü^âiBîK^vïiisaSsîftïi- д= M INISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI UNIVERSITY LAI THỈ PHUONG THAO DESIGNING A TENTATIVE ESP LISTENING SYLLABUS FOR THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS OF TOURISM AT CSSH，VNUH SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER IN TESO ᄂ S U P E R V ^ R .m 11Л САІѴкТАМ 쎄 ^ TRUNfiTÂM THÚNGЛИTHƯVIỆN FDBTC ձ Հ ք 1 Լ ： Hanoi M a y 2008 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am in large measure indebted to my supervisor, Dr. Ha Cam Tam o f the College o f Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for her scholarship, consistent guidance， detailed comments and generous encouragement at all the stages o f development o f my thesis, without which this study would have never been accomplished. I also wish to acknowledge the valuable support and encouragement o f all the staff members at the Department o f Post-graduate Studies, Hanoi University. M y sincere thanks are also due to Dr. Lam Quang Dong, the Dean o f the Department o f Foreign Languages, the College o f Social Sciences and Humanities (CSSH), Vietnam National university, Hanoi (VNƯ H) foi his assistance and useful guidance. I would albo be grateful to Ms. Nguyen Hong Loan, the leader o f group o f English teachers at the Faculty o f Tourism, my colleagues and students at CSSH, VN U H for their help and cooperation. In addition, my husband has earned my gratitude for his endless love, continuous help and encouragement during my w riting this thesis. Finally, I am grateful to the librarians in the Resource Center at Hanoi University for their assistance in providing materials for my study. ABSTRACT The present study aims to design a tentative ESP listening syllabus for the second-year students o f Tourism at CSSH, VN UH . One main research question raised in the study was Whai is the relevant listening syllabus fo r the second-year students o f Tour is m l To answer the main research question, two specific research questions addressed were (1) What is the students ’ listening proficiency level by the end o f GE coursel and (2) What are the students ’ learning needs and target needs in terms o f listening skill? In order to answer the first specific research question，Sample Papers 1 o f PET and Sample Papers 1 o f KET in Cambridge ESOL Exams were administered on twenty-eight secondyear students o f Tourism at CSSH, VN U H in order to know what the students’ listening proficiency level by the end o f the GE course was. The results o f PET showed that all the students failed to reach the passing grade, which meant that they could not reach level B lo f the CEF implied by GE teachers at FT. In order to find out the real performance in terms o f listening skill, K E T was administered twice. The results o f Pre-and Post-KET were compared by means o f Paired Sample T-tests using SPSS version 11.5 to see i f the results were reliable. The results o f KET showed that the proficiency o f the students was generally in the middle o f level A2 o f the CEF, and that their performance in terms o f listening skill was the worst. Their problems with listening comprehension were discussed in terms o f grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and intonation, functions and notions, and listening strategies. In order to answer the second specific research question, a questionnaire for Tourism students o f year 2, structured interviews w ith six employers o f travel agencies and tourism companies in Hanoi, observation o f real work done by tour guides, tour operators and travel agents mainly in terms o f communication with customers, and document analysis were conducted. The preliminary results showed that an ESP listening course was extremely important to their future jobs. The study also found out the ESP language specifications necessary to the students o f tourism. Based on the major findings, a tentative ESP listening syllabus for improving listening proficiency o f the second-year students o f Tourism was designed. From the findings o f the study, some limitations were made together with suggestions for further studies. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ALTE: The Association o f Language Testers in Europe ВЕС: Business English Certificates CAE: Certificate in Advanced English CEF: The Common European Framework CIÌLS: Certificates in English Ьапциаце Skills CPE: Certificate o f Proficiency in English CSSH: College o f Social Sciences and Humanities DFL: Department o f Foreign Languages ESL: English as a second language ESOL: English for Speakers o f other Languages FCE: First Certificate in English FT: The Faculty o f Tourism GE: General English KET: Key English Test PET: Preliminary English Test SPSS: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences VUNH: Vietnam National University, Hanoi YLE: Cambridge Young Learners English Tests Pre K R & W : Pre-KET Reading and W riting Pre K _L: Pre-KET Listening Pre K _ s ：Pre-KET Speaking Pre K_T: Total Mean score o f Pre-KET Post K R & W : Post-KET Reading and W riting Post K_L: Post-KET Listening Post K_s ：Post-KET Speaking Post К T: Total Mean score o f Post-KET LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1.1: The English teaching program for Students o f Tourism at CSSH, VN U H Table 2.1 : Levels in Cambridge ESOL Exams equivalent to the CEF levels Table 2.2: The aims and objectives o f PET (Level B1 o f the CEF) Table 2.3: The aims and objectives o f KE T (Level A2 o f the CEF) Table 3.1: KET Content: An overview (Source: The KE T handbook, pp.5, www.CambridgeESOL.org/KET) Table 3.2: PET Content: A n overview (Source: The PET handbook, pp.5, www.CambridgeESOL.org/PET) Table 3.3: Second-year students’ profile Table 3.4: Employers’ profile l able 3.5: ümployees, profile Table 4.1 : Paired Samples Statistics Table 4.2: Paired Samples Correlations Table 4.3: Paired Samples Test Figure 2.1: Learning-centered approach to course design Figure 4.1 : Percentage o f the students at each grade (PET) Figure 4.2: The mean score o f PET paper 3-Listening components Figure 4.3: Percentage o f the students at each grade (pre-KET) Figure 4.4: The mean score o f each part o f Paper 1-Reading and W riting (Pre-KET) Figure 4.5: The mean score o f Pre-KET listening parts Figure 4.6: Percentage o f the students at each grade (Post-KET) Figure 4.7: The results o f Post-KET Paper 2-Listening TABLE OF CONTENTS A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S ........................................................................................................i A B S T R A C T ................................................................................................................................. ii L IS T OF A B B R E V IA T IO N S ................................................................................................. iii L IS T OF T A B L E S A N D F IG U R E S .......................................................................................iv C H A P T E R 1: IN T R O D U C T IO N .............................................................................................1 1.1 Background to the s tu d y ..................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Aim s and research questions o f the stu d y....................................................................... 4 1.2.1 Aims o f the study.............................................................................................................. 4 1.2.2 Research questions........................................................................................................... 4 1.3 Scope o f the s tu d y ................................................................................................................ 5 1.4 Significance o f the s tu d y ................................................................................................. ...5 1.5 O rganization o f the thesis....................................................................................................6 C H A P T E R 2: L IT E R A T U R E R E V IE W ................................................................................7 2.1 Listening com prehension.....................................................................................................7 2.1.1 Definition o f listening comprehension............................................................................7 2.1.2 Listening processes: top-down and bottom -up.............................................................8 2 .1.3 Listening sub-skills.............................MM,.,..,,............................................................... 10 2.1.4 Factors affecting listening comprehension.................................................................... 11 2.2 ESP syllabus design.............................................................................................................16 2.2.1 D efinition and classification o f ESP...........................................................................16 2.2.2 Syllabus d e s ig n ..............................................................................................................17 2.2.2.1 D efinition and types o f syllabus........................................................................... 17 2.2.2.2 Approaches to syllabus design............................................................................. 19 2.2.2.3 Components o f a sylla b u s....................................................................................20 2.2.3 Needs an alysis................................................................................................................ 21 2.2.3.1 D efinition o f needs and needs analysis .............................................................. 21 2.2.3.2 Approaches to needs analysis..............................................................................22 2.2.3.3 Conducting needs analysis ..................................................................................24 2.3 S u m m a ry...............................................................................................................................26 C H A P T E R 3: M E T H O D O L O G Y ......................................................................................... 27 3.1 Research questions........................................................... ..................................................27 3.2 Data collection in s tru m e n ts ...............................................................................................27 3.2.1 Document analysis.........................................................................................................28 3.2.2 К Е Т and PET ................................................................................................................ 29 3.2.3 The questionnaire........................................................................................................... 34 3.2.4 Structured in te rv ie w s ..................................................................................................... 35 3.2.5 Observation..................................................................................................................... 36 3.3 The subjects o f the stu d y....................................................................................................36 3.3.1 The students..................................................................................................................... 37 3.3.2 The em ployers.................................................................................................................38 3.3.3 The em ployees................................................................................................................38 3.4 Data collection procedures and data analysis............................................................... 39 C H A P T E R 4: T H E S TU D Y R E S U LTS A N D T H E T E N T A T IV E S Y L L A B U S ........ 40 4.1 The results o f the study and discussion.......................................................................... 40 4.1. ! The results o f PET and KET and discussion............................................................. 40 4.1.1.1 The results o f PET and discussion....................................................................40 4.1.1.2 The results o f K E T and discussion....................................................................43 4.1.1.2.1 The results o f pre-KET and discussion ...............................................43 4.1.1.2.2 The results o f post-KET and discussion..............................................47 4.1.1.2.3 Comparison o f Pre-KET and Post-KET results.................................. 50 4.1.2 The results o f the questionnaire, structured interviews, observation and document analysis........................................................................................................................ 52 4.1.2.1 The results o f the questionnaire and discussion .............................................52 4.1.2.2 The results o f the structured interviews and observation and discussion •• ..54 4.1.2.3 The results o f document analysis and discussion............................................56 4.1.3 Summary o f the major findings .................................................................................57 4.1.3.1 The з Ш с к г ^ listening input level ................................................................... 58 4.1.3.2 The students’ target needs ................................................................................59 4.1.3.3 The students4 learning needs ........................................................................... 60 4.2 The tentative s y lla b u s ........................................................................................................ 62 4.2.1 Rationale......................................................................................................................... 62 4.2.2 The syllabus.................................................................................................................... 62 C H A P T E R 5: C O N C L U S IO N ................................................................................................ 74 5.1 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................74 5.2 Im p lic a tio n s ..........................................................................................................................75 5.3 L im ita tio n s ............................................................................................................................ 70 5.4 Suggestions fo r fu rth e r studies R EFER ENC ES A P P E N D IX 1: The language specifications o f PET and K E T Sample Papers 1 A P P E N D IX 2: The questionnaire A P P E N D IX 3.1: Questions fo r structured interviews A P P E N D IX 3.2: Observation sheets A P P E N D IX 3.3: Sample jo b adverts A P P E N D IX 4: Sum m ary o f results o f PET, P re-K E T and Post-KET A P P E N D IX 5: Sum m ary o f results o f the questionnaire A P P E N D IX 6: Sum m ary o f results o f structured interviews and observation A P P E N D IX ᄀ : The Form at o f a credit-based syllabus by CSSH A P P E N D IX 8: A Sample U n it CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter includes four sections. The first section (1.1) is the background to the study. The second section (1.2) presents the aims and the research questions o f the study. The scope o f the study is in the third section (1.3). Then the significance o f the study is discussed in the fourth section (1.4). The chapter ends by the organization o f the thesis in the last section (1.5). 1.1 Background to the study Along the development o f the society, the English language in Vietnam has been utilized mostly in most o f the fields like Economics, Banking, Commerce, Business and so on. Moreover, Vietnam has been trying to integrate into the W orld’ s tco n o m y，which is exemplified by the event that it has become the 150th member o f World Trade Organization. Teaching and learning the English language w ill definitely become more imperative at schools and universities in response to the increasing tendency o f Vietnam’ s integration into the ạlobal economy. The College o f Social Sciences and Humanities (CSSH)，one o f the constituents o f VN UH , comprises fifteen faculties and two departments. The Department o f Foreign Languages (D FL) is responsible fo r teaching foreign languages to students o f all the faculties. A t all the faculties, two courses o f English, a GE course and an ESP one, are delivered. This is the case for FT, at which the English language learning and teaching is carried out in two stages. In the first stage, they take a three-level GE course at elementary, pre-intermediate, and intermediate levels. The GE course is carried out in 420 forty-five minute class hours in three semesters. The textbooks used for teaching and learning GE are Life lin es by Tom Hutchinson (1997). A ll the four skills are taught equally in term o f time allocation. Actually, the FT as well as the DFL has issued no official document about the level that students w ill be able to reach by the end o f the GE course. However, referring to the CEF and the three-level Lifelines by Tom Hutchinson (1997) being currently taught, the GE teachers make out that the objective o f the GE course is to help students master the lower intermediate level o f English proficiency (Level B1 o f the CEF) at all the four skills so that they w ill be able to get involved in the ESP course w ithin 240 forty-five minute class hours mere favorably. This w ill largely enable the students to find their preferable jobs related to toirism such as those o f a tour guide, a hotel receptionist, a tour operator, a hotel manager, a tra ノel agent, and so forth. The current textbook utilized for teaching and learning ESP is English fo r Tourism, which was designed by a group o f teachers o f English at the DFL. The dis ribution o f English materials for Students o f Tourism at CSSH, V N U H is diagramized as folowed. Years o f studies Modules Time allocation (45 minutes per a class) 1 I 150 Courses English materials (compulsory) Lifelines Elementary (Units 1Lifelines Pre-intermediate (Units 1-7) II 120 General English Lifelines (Units 9-14) Pre-intermediate Lîlelines Intermediate (Units 1- 2 ᄀ III 120 IV 120 V 120 Lifelines Intermediate (Units 6֊ English for Tourism English for Tourism (Tours and Tour Operation) (Units 1-8) English for Tourism (Hotels) (Units 9-16) Table 1.1 : The English teaching program fo r Students o f Tourism at CSSH, VNƯH Since I taught ESP, especially ESP listening at FT, 1 have found out the numerous problems boti teachers and students have encountered. F irstly, in terms o f the students, the number o f the students who fail in listening exams seem much higher than that o f other skills. The teaciers at FT say that they do the best o f their ability to teach students listening in the way that they apply the common techniques at three stages: pre-, while- and post-stage. They also exphin the tasks to the students. However, most o f the students have d ifficu lty with listening sub-skills such as listening for gist, listening for specific information, listening for attitudes, etc., and they fail to understand the spoken texts. They also complain the speed o f speakers is too fast for them to listen, and they often cry out “ Teacher, please, more slow ly.” Moreover, they lack the background knowledge o f the topics and most o f the vocabulary and structures in the texts are challenging to them. Unfortunately, no studies on identifying the tourism students’ listening proficiency level before the start o f an ESP course have been conducted, which，to a large extent, makes teaching ESP listening there very problematic. Secondly, according to Hutchinson & Waters (1987: 83) 'uniform ity is a necessary condition o f any institutionalized activity, such as education. It deemed to be important that standards w ithin a system are as equal as possible. A syllabus is one way in which standardization is achieved.， Disappointedly, there is no real and uniformed ESP listening syllabus for the teachers to follow although the objective set up by the faculty is to help students develop all the four skills. However, what levels the students w ill be able to reach by the end o f each ESP module seem vague and unidentified in the ESP curriculum. Therefore, the teachers have to choose the materials and design listening activities on their own, which has taken them a lot o f time and energy to teach a listening class. Sometimes, the teachers ignore teaching listening, which makes the students think that listening may not be important to their future jobs. Moreover, the teachers do not know exactly their real listening input level, so the materials chosen seem irrelevant to them. Because o f those problems, the students seem to have been unmotivated to take part in listening lessons and their listening comprehension ability has not been improved. T hirdly, CSSH w ill have to apply the Credit-Based Modular Curricula to all the faculties in 2008. The major purpose o f applying this system is to help enhance the quality o f learning and teaching, enabling Vietnam National University Hanoi step by step to standardize the traini ng programs in conformation to those o f the universities in the region and the w o rld 1. It is a must that the new syllabi o f the subjects be designed in conformation to that systematic switch, not excluding designing an ESP listening syllabus for the second-year students at FT. (2006) 'Tài liệu tập huấn và tham khảo về Phương thức đào tạo theo Tín chỉ’ . VNƯH: CSSH. Over the years, there have been numerous articles on how students can improve their listening comprehension. A few recent ones, for example, are Abdulmajid (2005), Anderson & Lynch (1988), Boyle (1993), Burton (1996)，Eastman (1991), Hasan (2000), Hickey (1991), Le Thi Hang (2006)，Murphy (1991), Shelton (2001)，Tran Thi Thu Hang (2007), Ur (1984), Wajnryb (1991), Xiaoqiong (1999), and Yagang (1993). Each o f them touches upon the students，problems w ith listening comprehension and suggests solutions relevant to their students. However, their solutions mostly focus on listening strategies, how to teach listening at three stages, some tips on listening, etc. Moreover, there have been numerous ESP syllabi designed for ESL learners in Vietnam. Most o f them are designed for learners o f English for Banking, Economics, Commerce, and Finance and so on. And the skills that designers have focused on mostly reading. A t CSSH, English for Tourism was introduced about three years ago. However, not many siudics un ESP teaching and learning ai the FT have been done. Recently, there have been three studies on teaching ESP at FT, but their focus is on speaking and writing, not on listening. It can be concluded that the teachers at FT have made great efforts to help students listen better. However, the number o f students who fail in listening exams is still high; and the teachers' efforts seem a drop in the ocean as the students1 listening proficiency level o f GE cannot satisfy the requirements o f an ESP course and there is no real ESP listening syllabus for teachers. To handle those problems, it is o f great importance to identify the real listening ability o f the students by the end o f GE course and the job requirements in terms o f listening skill so that a relevant ESP syllabus can be suggested. 1.2 Aim s and research questions o f the study 1.2.1 Aim s o f the study The aim o f the study is to suggest an ESP listening syllabus for the second-year students o f Tourism at CSSH, VNUH. Based on the problems that have occurred in teaching and learning listening at FT discussed earlier, the current study was carried out w ith two specific purposes as follows. - To define the students’ listening input level. - To find out the students' learning needs and target needs in terms o f listening skill. 1.2.2 Research questions In order to reach the research aims, the follow ing main research question was addressed. Whüî is the relevant listening syllabus fo r the second— year students o f Tourism at CSSH? To answer the main research question, two specific questions were addressed as follows. 1. What is the listening proficiency level by the end o f GE course? 2. What are the learning needs and target needs o f the second-year students in the first ESP module? 1.3 Scope o f the study The author would wish to suggest a listening syllabus for the whole ESP course. However, due to lim ited time and the scope o f a master thesis, the author would like to focus on designing a tentative listening syllabus for the first ESP Module for the students o f Tourism, CSSH, V N U H 1.4 Significance o f the study As mentioned earlier, the students and teachers have encountered numerous difficulties in learning and teaching ESP listening, o f which are the lack o f a listening syllabus and identifying the students’ listening input level Furthermore, according to the decision 31/2001/Q Đ-BG D&ĐT signed 30 July, 20이 by the M inistry o f Training and Education on setting up and carrying out training programs basing on the credit modular; and the Article 61/ĐT signed on 3 May 2006 on establishing the training programs basing on the credit modular curricula system at V N H U 2，all o f the colleges under the U niversity are obliged to transfer the current programs into the credit-based ones and these programs w ill come into effect in 2008. It is an urgent jo b for ESP teachers at FT to design credit-based syllabuses, not excluding an ESP listening syllabus. 2 (2006) *Tài liệu tập huấn và tham khảo về Phương thức đào tạo theo Tín chi’ . VNUH: CSSH It is expected that the study w ill help the teachers o f English as well as the students at FT, CSSH overcome the difficulties in teaching and learning listening in the first ESP Module. The study w ill also help enhance the students’ motivation in learning ESP in general and their listening skills in particular. 1.5 O rganization o f the thesis The thesis consists o f five chapters, the Introduction, the Literature Review, the Methodology, the Data Analysis and Discussion, and the Proposed Syllabus. C hapter 1, the Introduction, states the problems, the aims, the cope and the significance o f the study. C hapter 2 ，the Literature Review, focuses on the literature o f listening skills and ESP syllabus design. C hapter 3, the Methodology, describes the research questions, the data collection instruments，the subjects, and data collection procedures. C hapter 4, the Data Analysis and Discussion, which includes the analysis o f results collected and the discussion o f the results, and the Proposed Syllabus, which proposes a tentative ESP listening syllabus for the second-year students o f Tourism at CSSH, VN U H w ith a basis on the results o f tests and the findings o f the questionnaire. C hapter 5, the Conclusion, includes the conclusion to the whole study. This is followed some implications, the lim itations o f the work and suggestions for further studies. Following this chapter is a bibliography listing all the reference books or materials directly or indirectly cited in the study The final section o f the thesis contains the appendices showing all the documents serving this study such as Language Specifications o f PET and KET, the questionnaire, the questions for structured interviews, obervation sheet, sample job adverts, the results o f PET, Pre-KET and Post-KET ， the results o f questionnaire, structured interviews, and observation, the Format o f a Credit-based Syllabus by CSSH, and a sample unit. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter falls into four sections. The first section (2.1) briefly reviews the issues concerning listening comprehension such as its definition, listening process, listening sub­ skills and factors affecting listening comprehension. The second section (2.2) presents the study-related literature on syllabus design such as definition and kinds o f syllabus, approaches to syllabus design, components o f a syllabus, and needs analysis. The chapter ends by summarizing the literature review in section 2.3. 2.1 Liste nin g comprehension 2.1.1 D e fin itio n o f listening comprehension In the process o f teaching and learning English, o f the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and w riting), listening comprehension is assuming o f greater importance in communication (Anderson & Lynch, 1988; Brewster, 1994; Brown, 1986, 1989; Byrnes, 1984; Dunkel, 1991; Ellis, 1994; Feyten, 1991; Grabielatos, 1995; Long, 1989; Ma, 2005; Mohammed, 2005; Nord, 1978; Nunan, 2003; Phillips, 1993; Rost, 1990; Shorrocks, 1994; Shuie, 2003; Strauss, 2005; Wu-ping, 2006) but it seems to be “ one o f the most d iffic u lt fo r any ESL teacher， , and learner (Beare, 2005). However, there have been a numerous definitions o f listening skill so far. In other words, the definition o f listening comprehension is different to different researchers (Sihai, 2005). Listening is the activity o f paying attention to get meaning from something we hear (Underwood, 1989). Mead at al (1985) states that 'Listening, like reading comprehension, is usually defined as a receptive skill comprising both a physical process and an interpretive, analytical process., Royer (2007) defines that 6listening comprehension is understanding speech - the spoken word. Listening comprehension, as with reading comprehension, can be described in levels. • Lower levels o f listening comprehension would include understanding only the facts explicitly stated in a spoken passage that has very simple syntax and uncomplicated vocabulary. • Advanced levels o f listening comprehension would include implicit understanding and drawing inferences from spoken passages that feature more complicated syntax and more advanced vocabulary.’ Stewart (2004 ֊ 2005) defines listening as follows: Listening is a process that consists o f five elements: hearing, attending, understanding, responding, and remembering. Hearing is the physiological dimension of listening that occurs when sound waves strike the ear at a certain frequency and loudness and is influenced by background noise. Attending is the process of filtering out some messages and focusing on others. Understanding occurs when we make sense of a message. Responding consists of giving observable feedback to the speaker such as eye contact and appropriate facial expressions. Remembering is the • ability to recall information. Listening isrft just a passive activity; we are active participants in a communication transaction. According to Anderson and Lynch (1998), listening, under many circumstances, is a reciprocal skill. They emphasize that reciprocal listening is 'listening where there is at least the opportunity for speaker and listener to exchange roles...’ Listening is a highly complex, interactive process “ by which spoken language is converted to meaning in the m ind” (Lundsteen ， 1979; Craven, 2004). As this definition suggests, listening is more than just hearing, although children and adults often use the two terms, hearing and listening, synonymously. Hearing is only one important component o f listening. Hearing is a passive, generally involuntary process in which the brain receives and interprets sounds from the external environment. In contrast, listening is an active, voluntary process in which the listener deliberately pays attention to, interprets the meaning of, and responds to a message (Hettich, 1992). It is the thinking or converting to meaning what one hears that is the crucial part o f the listening process. In short, the researcher agrees w ith Nunan (1998) that "... listening is the basic skill in language learning. W ithout listening skill, learners w ill never leam to communicate effectively. In fact over 50% o f the time that students spend functioning in a foreign language w ill be devoted to listening....9 Listening comprehension is probably understood as the ability to identify and what others say. This involves both bottom-up processing and topdown processing. In other words, effective listening depends on the use o f both o f them (Nunan ，1997; Richards, 1994). These two processes w ill be discussed in the next sections. 2.1.2 Listening processes: top-dow n and bottom -up In recent years there have been two major approaches to explainimz the listening process ֊ called the top-down and boiiom -up approaches (Anderson & Lynch, 1988; Cook, 1989; Paran, 1997; Richards, 1990; Swift, 2007; Vadenirift, 2002). According to Sw ift (2007) the bottom-up approach sees comprehension as a matter o f listeners first decoding (or understanding) the smallest elements o f what they hear the sounds, р/ is recognized as being /р/ and not /b/, /І:/ as being /]： / and not /І/ or V and so on. These sounds are then combined and the individual words are decoded ֊ the listener recoanizes that s/he has heard /p i:t/ and not /pit/ /bit/ /bi:t/ /bi:d/ or some other word. Swift also describes the top-down approach that: "The top-down approach starts from the opposite end: it sees understanding as starting from the listener's background knowledge of the non-linmiistic context and o f workimi down towards the individual sounds. Listeners will actively interpret what tliev hear in terms of their understanding of the situation and the world in general.՛' Richards (1990) also breaks down the process used in listening comprehension into two distinct types, referring to them as Ն օ է է օ ա -ս բ ՛ and 'top-down' processing. The former is described in Cook’s Discourse (1989) as interpreting the lowest-level units first, then proceeding to an interpretation o f the rank above, and so on upwards.’ The bottom-up is defined as:՝ Interpreting discourse by hypothesizing about the most general units first, then moving downwards through the ranks below.' 丁his means applying our background knowledge to aid in understanding the meaning o f a message. Richards (1990:51) explains that: "This may be previous knowledge about the topic o f discourse, it may be situational or contextual knowledge, or it may be knowledge stored in long-term memory in the form o f 'schemata' and 'scripts' - plans about the overall structure of events and the relationships between them.” Anderson and Lynch (1988:22) argue that research has shown that the assumptions in the 'bottom-up' model are incorrect. They state that: "Listeners would not be able to perceive speech as successfully as they do i f they were in fact engaged in a process o f building up the recognition o f words solely by attempting to identify their constituent phonemes." They instead, argue for an interactive process to explain how we listen. Paran (1997) explains in an article contrasting the two models: 'Recent views see comprehension as drawing upon both types of processing, in what is known as interactive processing (...). Some psychologists claim that when the quality of the stimulus is good, bottom-up processing is preferred, and it is only when stimulus quality deteriorates that top-down processing takes over to compensate.’ In short, the author o f the study agrees on VandergrifTs (1992) explanation o f the two process involved in listeniim comprehension. Top-dow n process - Listeners use prior B ottom -up process knowledge to - understand the meaning o f a message. - Listeners use linmiistic knowledge to understand the meaning o f a message. Prior knowledge can be knowledge o f - They build теапіпц from lower level the topic, the listening context, the tqxt- sounds lypc, tlie culture or other information relationships stored order to arrive at the final messane in 1이іц - к т т memorv as to words to to lexical manimatical meanings in schemata. - listeners use content words and contextual clues to form hypotheses in an exploratory fashion. However, listening comprehension is not either top-down 01. bottom-up processing, bill an interactive, interpretive process where listeners use both prior knowledge and linguistic knowledge in understanding messages. The author o f the study agrees with Vandergrift (2002) that the degree to which listeners use the one process or the other w ill depend on their knowledge oi' the language, fam iliarity with the topic or the purpose for listening. For example, listening for gist involves prim arily top-down processing, whereas listening for specific information, as in a weather broadcast, involves prim arily bottom-up processing to comprehend all the desired details.Therefore, both these two processes should be trained in listening classes. 2.1.3 Liste nin g sub-skills Dang Thi M inh Quyen (2004) believes that in order to understand the message successfully, the students (listeners) need listening skills. Listening skill can be divided into smaller skills, often called sub-skills. The mastery o f these skills enables students to listen with more understanding (W illis, 1981). W ills suggests nine enabling skills o f listening: predicting what people are going to talk about ^ guessing at unknown words or phrase without panicking ^ using one’ s own knowledge o f the subject to help one understand identifying relevant points; rejecting irrelevant information サ retaining relevant points (note-taking, summarizing) recognizing discourse markers, e.g. Ч ѵеіг ，4Oh, another thing is’ ♦ recognizing cohesive devices, e.g. 'such as，， 4w h ic h \ liking words, pronouns, •references, etc. understanding different intonation patterns and use o f stress，etc which give clues to meaning and social setting 후 understanding inferred information, e.g. speaker’ s attitude or intentions. 10 Rixon (1986) points out that in order to understand the message students may need to be able to do the follow ing: V to hear all the words the speaker says; understand the plain sense o f the information; deduce the meaning o f unknown words and phrases by using the context; understand what is implied but not stated in so many words; recognize a speaker’ s mood or attitude; recognize the degree o f formality w ith which speaker is talking. Craven (2004) mentions the follow ing main skills focused on by each activity. They include listening fo r specific information, listening for details, listening for the main idea, listening for opinions, inferring meaning, recognizing context, and predicting. Richards (1983) has compiled taxonomy o f micro-skills involved in different types o f listening. He lists eighteen micro-skills relevant to academic listening. Some o f them are ability to identify relationships among units w ithin discourse (e.g. major ideas, generalizations, hypotheses, supporting ideas, examples), ability to identify role o f discourse markers in signaling structure o f a lecture, ability to recognize key lexical items related to subject/topic ability to deduce meanings o f words from context, ability to recognize markers o f cohesion, ability to detect attitude o f speaker toward subject matter, etc. In short, listening to and understanding what others are saying, then, is not a passive act as it was long considered to be. It is a vigorous, demanding process, which involves，not only understanding different accents, pronunciation and intonation as well as semantic implications (lexical and grammatical), but also engaging in activating background knowledge and making educated assumptions. In this light, we need to ensure a balance o f mediums and task types are used in the classroom. We also need to create and maintain motivation making certain that students have every chance at success w ith whatever approach or medium is being used (Shelton, 2001). 2.1.4 Factors affecting ESL students’ listening comprehension The difficulties encountered by the ESL students in listening comprehension have been pointed out by many researches. Each has touched the problems in a different way. For instance, Yangang (1993) shows that “ the evidence that shows why is listening d iffic u lt՛ comes mainly from four sources: the message to be listened to, the speaker, the listener, and the physical setting.” Anderson & Lynch (1988:46) state that the factors influencing learners' listening comprehension fall into three principal categories, related to: “ (1) the type