SKKN How to teach listening skills for students in grade 8 effectively

1. INTRODUCTION
 Nowadays , the Party,the State, the Department of Education and Training has many resolutions and directives to direct, guide and implement innovation, reform the curriculum and learning methods in many subjects, English is also considered to be the main subject in all grades.
     As identified, English is the main subject , we wonder why? There are probably many reasons. One of the biggest reasons is the strong development of the open time of economy, especially in the current integration phase, when our country has been a member of the World Trade Organization, has made needs to use English in high social interaction increasingly.
1.1.The reasons for choosing topic
 Everyone recognizes that foreign languages, especially English, is the capital needed to live and work everywhere. Therefore, in studying English, teachers have to ensure that students learn and develop all four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing in which listening plays an important role.Hearing is to be able to speak, read or write. Especially, feature of the method is the method in English communication. With this method of teaching,teachers often hold many conversations in class.Those conversations are successful or not depend on the comprehension of the problems that the speaker wants to say. In a conversation, roles of speaker and listener change quickly.Thus, if the ability of hearing is bad, the conversation will end quickly or will lead to misunderstandings. Besides,if students have good listening skill, it will help students read well because students can easily listen and recognize how to pronounce the words.In summary, listening, speaking, reading and writing skills are always mutual support and development in which listening plays a very important role . For high achievement in studying English, we can not overlook the training skills, explore methods to improve learning outcomes in these skills including listening skill. This is one of the most important skills in communication. Therefore, I have chosen and performed the theme: "How to teach listening skills for students in grade 8 effectively?”
 1.2.The aims of study.
 As we all know, the Department of Education and Training has always been the Party and the State, the sectors and all social levels are interested in a particular way because of the training where people have the knowledge, talent to meet the development needs of the country during the international integration. So, the schools have put the efforts in the teaching of English to students in order to equip them with the language to become knowledgeable in the integration of the country.
    Understanding the meaning and importance of this, the Department of Education and Training,Quang Xuong Education and training committee,Quang Long Secondary School has organized many conferences, many thematic trainings on: renewing teaching, improving the quality of teaching and learning in English. This is the primary basis for myself always searching, researching strive to improve skills in order to meet the develop of education.
   Under the direction of the Department of Education , in a foreign language lesson for students, as well as one more test to achieve four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. However, in the fact that students can not hear any information, no matter where neither easy to understand and write. When marking the first survey of the classes in charge of teaching, I found that more than 80% of students do not have listening skills, leading to many low points. Since then disseminating and implementing a number of teachniques to teaching this skill is essential for improving the quality of students’ assignments.
1.3.The subject of study.
-The students at Quang Long Secondary School.
1.4.The methods of study.Studying about the theme “ How to teach listening skills for students in grade 8 effectively”
2. THE CONTENTS OF THE EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE
2.1.The basis of the theory.
 Listening skill is considered difficult by most English learners and students as well.They only hear and understand the words which teachers have to reapeat, even students can not even hear the familiar questions. For example, the requirement of teachers to students is often used in the classroom as: come on, who can? What about? ... Some students have done these requirements thanks to remind your side.
For more complex sentences, the average students from relatively older should at least be heard more than once.Therefore,what is the reason of this problem?
2.2.The real situation of the problems before applying the experience initiative.
    First: Because of the poor facilities at school, The school doesn’t have a listening room and the rooms are not well- equipped for learning process such as : radios, tapes, disks, ear phones ... Therefore, students have few opportunities to learn English with new teaching methods today.
   Second: So far the tests from one period or more new mandatory details have been heard, the students are already familiar with the focus on grammar and vocabulary.
   Third: Most students do not pronounce English words correctly, they only pronounce the main sounds and the more negative end, audio connectors, stress, diphthongs, vowels are not often exact . This leads to distortions to hear.
   Fourth: Before listening ,the teacher do not orient students to the context, the relationship between the speakers. Therefore, students are not highly focused on listening and lead to more effective learning of listening is not high. Thus, students do not feel like learning to listen.
   Finally: Nowadays, there are many types of reference books on the market, including answers of exercises.Therefore, students often abuse these books to get the results of the listening exercise without focusing on the process of listening.
   In summary, there must have some solutions, some proper methods for learning to hear, the English learning in secondary schools will get better results.
 Through years of teaching, I have noticed the students’ effectiveness in leaning listening skill, the low annual survey that recently lowest first academic year 2017-2018 when it hasn’t been required the listening in test. Results of the survey are 
Class
Total
Excellent
 Good
Fair
Poor
Fail
SL
%
 SL
%
SL
%
SL
%
SL
%
8A
23
5
21,7%
 7
30,4 %
 10
43,5%
 1
4,4%
 0
0 %
8B
23
0
 0 %
 6
26,1 %
13
56,5%
 4
17,4%
 0
0 %
 It is clear that the survey result is too low, in order for learning to help students get better results, I would like to provide the theme: "How to teach listening skills for students in grade 8 effectively?”
2.3.The solutions to the problems.
      Now, a lot of innovative approaches are being applied in teaching and learning becuse they are often highly effective if teachers know how to use properly. In teaching and learning in English communication is seen as a very effective method and is used frequently. However, the method of communication can only be expressed in a way that effectively when students have ability to listen well. Therefore, I define myself improving listening skill for students is a key to the improvement of the overall quality English subject. -The forms of the listening exercises:
a. Listening to obtain more detailed information:
       This type of listening is commonly seen at the listening tasks such as: fill in the gaps, comprehension questions, matching ... When listening these exercises, students often have to listen to a passage, a conversation ... carefully to find out the neccesary information .
b. Listening for information:
       With this type of listening after hearing, students have to draw more general overview of all. Example: When listening to a story: "The lost shoe" students have to distinguish:What is the content of that story ? Through story people want what's commandments? Or the story of the moral lesson, students must understand the content, its plot to draw moral lesson is : "Do not be foolish and greedy". But the exercises are often heard as a general is not consolidated grammar and vocabulary for students.
c. The different listening forms:
       In addition to the above listening pupils were sometimes heard in English for the purpose of entertainment such as songs, movies. Learning English through songs is considered as a useful form because it not only satisfies the amusing requirements but also provides th experience for learning the listening skill.
-The common problem when listening to:
     To understand English through native speakers or radio, internet, TV ... seems to be a very difficult thing for the common learning problems later.
a. Sound:
      In any conversation on the radio, tape , in class ... we not only hear the sound of the speaker emit the sound, but also a lot of other inserts. Specifically, the exercises listen to the tape, CD besides speakers also the other sound, the sound can create situations that voice traffic on a busy street, noise of the market. When you have all these sounds, the listening comes alive but also more complex than requiring students to concentrate to get new information exactly.
 b. Music and audio connector attachment:
      These sounds are often found in the dialogues. Music attachment is a syllable in the word which it is a longer attachment, so it is easily mistaken for another word. As the speakers often use expression to represent attitude , emotional and audio connectors are often connected with the sound making speaking more smoothly. Most of the students have not discovered this type of sound. In fact the teachers use to teach less than usual, the words are used in class are often slow sentences so audio connections aren’t used much that students have encountered when listening through the tapes and CD.
c. The desire to understand the words:
      A very common habit in students when they hear, they often try to understand all the words in the listening comprehension because they think that the words in the listening are also important. While only a certain amount of words decide the content of listening and if the students do not have the ability to determine the content they need to hear is what it will take time on the unimportant words but ignore the importance ones .
d. Don’t catch up with the speed of the speakers:
      Most students are familiar with the theacher’s slow speech so they must hear through the tape when they feel very fast and can not keep the pace of the speaker. Therefore, it is neccessary to have a good getting started step for students before listening.
- Orientation before listening.
 This is how we guide students in listening so that they have the necessary and general information about the listening as the purpose of listening , someone says and says in what circumstances. Usually many teachers have ignored this section so that students do not understand the deep listening and take time to listen to it again. Method of orientation before listening which just brings high effective and help students work actively, while also improving the quality scale. So when the orientation for students what do we need to orient the problem?
- Orientation of context:
         Teachers should introduce the listening context for students to understand the context to help students orient relevant vocabulary that can be inferred from the contents to be heard. In some cases due to the direction in which students can anticipate to hear from teachers and the open the record , the students just listen to check and correct the answers.
 Example: Unit 1: Skills 1
  a. Listen and complete the table .
 HANGING OUT WITH YOUR BEST FRIENDS
 What to do 
 Why 
Whatching....................(1) at home, eating popcorn 
comfortable feeling ,better than a .....................(2)
Making ......................(3)
creative ,feeling satisfied
Playing .........................(4)
good for your .....................(5)
Watching..........................(6) downtown 
Fun 
Going to .........................(7)
education yourself
  In this lesson, we should guide students through the introduction: 
 1 “ What is the topic of this week’s programme ?
 2. Which two main ways does the programme suggest you can hang out with your 
friends ? How is The specific information about the trip like? Besides, we should note the students see this is a conversation over the phone so the caller will usually say something and How will the listener reply?
  Through the guiding questions, the student will figure out most of what is needed to fill in?
b. The orientation of the relationship between the speaker:
       The orientation will help students understand how to use the language of the speaker.
     Example: We will hear a conversation between a mother and a child. The language is used here will close and intimate but when the relationship is buyers and sellers that are sure students understand the language used such as: Can I help you? May I have a look at this? ...
      In summary, depending on the type of tasks that teachers have different alignment methods. We can use these techniques: True / false statements prediction, open prediction , Ordering, Pre_questions.
- Listen for specific information:
        When listening to the requirements of all the specific information,the teachers need to guide students to see the specific information that students need to hear any of the information.
      Example: Listen and fill in the time for the schedule of events.( Skills 2 ) Unit 8 English speaking countries .
Arrive at Puzzling word : (1)................................
Leave Puzzling World :(2)....................................
Meet up at Lake Wanaka :(3)..................................
Bus leaves : (4)....................................
  For this lesson , students should be listen again and choose the right answer A,B or C ? Teacher gives students some time to read the events and students can find the answers.
1.The first thing you see in Puzzling World is .......................
 A. Lake Wanaka
 B. the learning tower
 C. the spacious cafe’
2. The illusion Room offers you ....................
 A. the picture of a leanring tower
 B. a collection of puzzles and games 
 C. A collection of 3-D holograms
3......................... is possible the most photographed attraction in New Zealand.
 A. The learning tower 
 B. The illusion Room 
 C. Puzzling World 
4. Lake Wanaka is called.................
 A. a natuaral attraction
 B. a natuaral paradise 
 C. a beauty spot
5. At Lake Wanaka you can ....................
 A. Bike and walk 
 B. drive 
 C. clim a mountain 
So, when listening to, students listen to focus on the information that was driven to find out the result by recording the information heard quickly.
 c. Listening for the main idea
       Often the type of exercise as a conversation and choose best summary, give the general. For this listening exercise, teachers should train for students thinking generalization, when the orientation should guide students on the important words but it is not necessary all of the words in the lesson.
For example:
       Unit11: Science and Teachnology ( Skills 2
        Listen to the conversation and choose the best summary :
1.The benefits that advances in science and technology may bring to people ‘s lives .
2.The benefits and drawbacks that advances in science and technology may bring to people ‘s lives .
3.The drawbacks that advances in science and technology may bring to people ‘s lives .
To do well to hear all these, students need to focus on the important words like: benefits, advances, drawbacks, ... If the students do not distill the important words, teachers can stop at the words, to pay attention of the students. From the above words, students can easily generalize the overall conversation and find the right answer.
- To develop listening skill through other skills:
       The skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing have a close relationship with each other and develope almost simultaneously. So, to want to improve students' listening skill through forms of exercise we can’t ignore the other listening skills:
  a. Speaking skill:
        Speaking and listening skills are the two inseparable skills, we have relationships with each other. We can only say when we hear and versa. Understanding this relationship in my speaking time , I always train students how to speak proper phonetics, intonation, speak with an accent and grammar exactly. We need to train students with speaking English rather than read from English couple. Most students have not spoken English correctly yet, so it often interferes with listening to the radio, tape ... When speaking ability of students to gradually perfect, the sound issue is resolved, the ability to understand listening becomes a lot easier.
b. Reading and writing skills:
         Reading and writing also play a very important role. Students should learn better in these skills, there will be more vocabulary and grammar knowledge to make, read, write correctly and listen exactly, too. So, developing reading and writing skills also mean that we develop listening skill for students.
         Thus, with those listening exercises and with the way to teach normally , the result of listening to student teaching is not as high as given in the state. Therefore, I have manipulated some new techniques effectively as before listening to any kind of exercises, we would have to orient students to the context, the relationship between the speaker and the types of exercises that they hear what kind of exercises are, listening for specific information or listening for the main idea? In addition, I also focus on developing listening skill for students through other skills such as speaking, reading and writing skills *Frequently used listening techniques:
* Technique 1: Grid ?
 Aims: The teachers train students to grasp the words of others to make the right response in the circumstances. The material is used for this exercise as a conversation, so we should choose from three grid. This type of exercise can be used for CD or DVD .
      Procedure:
      There are two ways to design : Who said what? (Unit 10: Communication /Skills 2)
      The first is for a number of questions, students listen and complete the following grid .
Should
 Shouldn’t 
 Why/Why not 
1.Use CAPSLOCK in email,posts and comments.
X
2. Check your emails for mistakes or errors
X
3.use alot of shorthand
 X
4.respect discussion rules and use police language 
 X
 The second is the character's name, student record a few words of his character.
Should
2. Check your emails for mistakes or errors
Shouldn’t
1.Use CAPSLOCK in email,posts and comments.
3.use alot of shorthand
Why/Why not 
4.respect discussion rules and use police language 
* Technique 2: Retell the story
Aims: The teachers train retention of students. This article is a follow-up activitie (follow-up activity) used after students have completed the listening section. You can use CD or DVD for this exercise.
 Procedure:
- Class work. Have students listen to the fairy tale The Princess and the Dragon.
- Class work. After students have mastered the contents of the story, the teachers have students listen again a certain part of the story, not necessarily the end of the story, students must reconstruct the story to the right place then stop.
- Ex:....................................... ..
 Once upon a time, there was a king and a queen who lived in a with their beautiful daughter. One night an ugly ogre captured the princess and put her in his tall, dark tower. The king and the queen were very sad. They promised to  to the knight that rescued the princess. Many knights wanted to rescue her. But they all ran away when they reached the tower and saw t