Solutions to difficulties for secondary school students in listening skill

 PROJECT TITLE ( Name of the initiative experience)
SOLUTIONS TO DIFFICULTIES FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN LISTENING SKILL 
I. INTRODUCTION ( The reasons for the choice of the subject )
Nowadays, English is becoming more and more important, it is known as a bridge that helps people in different countries around the world get closer together. Moreover, thanks to English, people had obtained significant progress in many spheres. Learning English is important and necessary than ever. 
Recognizing the importance of learning English, the Ministry of Education and Training ( MOET) has decided English is one of the key subjects in all levels of education in the education system for many recent years . English is increasingly crowded social strata in interest. The more students are interested in English, the more wishing to study this subject in-depth they do.
In fact, students in general and students in secondary schools in particular face many issues when listening English. Why students find it difficult to obtain the knowledge in a listening lesson? The reason why students find preparing the new listening lesson before learning much more difficult than that of other skills ? Beside that Teachers also face to many difficulties during the time teaching listening lesson . 
Thus, during the years teaching the renewed curriculum textbooks and the new English teaching program, I myself taught a lot of listening lessons in textbooks for grades 8 and 9. Thanks to myself experience , I take a research so as to improve the composing and teaching listening skill in class. This is done throughout many listening periods in grade 8 and 9 with positive results, create more excitement for the students about their listening lessons in class.
Therefore, I boldly put some experience in " SOLUTION TO DIFFICULTIES FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN LISTENING SKILL " as an Initiative experience . 
II- CONTENT ( THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM )
A. RATIONALE 
We know that listening skill is the collecting skill (gathering information skill) - students listen for collecting the main idea or getting paciffic information; they listen to answer the questions or decide True or false, to summarize a passage, ect... that is the first step preparing for understanding language for the purpose of communication.Therefore every teacher of English should be aware of these in order to have the right attitude when carrying out a listening lesson. Once more important solution is to help Ss get some techniques for listening with high efficiency.
 	B. REAL STATE OF THE PROBLEM 
During the years of teaching English in Hoang Ngoc secondary school, I've found that secondary school students enjoyed, especially the selected students as talent ones are very interested in English courses. More particularly, in recent years education and training steering Thanh Hoa has chosen English (one of the three subjects ) in the entrance examination to Grade 10 – The senior high school. In recent years the students in grades 6, 7 almost much more enjoy this course than some students in grades 8.9. Students in grades 6, 7 boldly speak and write English better, boldly stated than demonstrated in class 6.7 graders are innocent, more innocent they should not be afraid of speaking, reading, writing and especially listening. English is a difficult subject for students, so if there is no proper method of learning at the beginning, the teacher is not timely detected with help,which will result in the students’ "root loss" . And that was the cause of some students in grades 8, 9 are afraid of listening, this is also one of the causes of low quality English courses at school. Therefore, I once more try to help them realize that : "Getting mistakes is something very normal and fault is a useful and healthy problem . Thanks to the errors, we can find the right and the accuration and with the exact which leads to the learning process. The more mistakes learners make the more right words they gain. The more something is true, then the more learning takes place. We often learn more from our mistakes than from success ". I always give them the feeling of closeness and comfort, nature while teaching a listening lesson. One method to do this is to explore, to learn from real experience basing on the key words or the brainstorming from the listening topics.One rule for listening is collecting information for understanding a little to a little .
* Some surveys conducted before carrying out the subject: 
Checking listening skill : Unit 4 (English 9) Listen
- I focus on solutions to difficulties in listening 
Class
Number of students involved 
 Number of students are right
9A
16
  9 (62,5%)
9B
12
   6 (50.0%)
C. SOME SOLUTIONS TO DIFFICULTIES FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN LISTENING SKILL 
I realize that we need to take the following steps to carry out teaching to help students listen easily and more effectively in the process of practicing listening skill.
I. Pre – listening : I follow the two following steps: 
1. The 1st Step : 
1.1 . Pre – teach Vocabulary, that relate to the listening text . ( follow the process of teaching vocabulary )
1.2. Check up the understanding of Ss by using the suitable game .
 2. The 2nd step: 
2.1 .	Require Ss arrange the words they will hear in the order they appear in the listening. 
Delivery good learning cards for students who guess the words in the correct order.
ADVANTAGES OF THESE STEPS
+   Ss have more time to remember and understand the words they have just learnt.
+   Help students focus on listening more easily.
+   All Ss: EXCELLENT - GOOD - FARE - POOR can do this. It is easy to create exciting tasks for them.
II . While – listening : I follow the two following steps: 
1.The 1st Step : 
 Teacher ask Ss to listen to the listening text 1-2 times to recheck the order of words in the part above.
2. The 2nd step: 
2.1 . Let Ss guess the right or wrong sentences.
2.2. Ss have done this job before listening the text for the third and fourth time .
 ADVANTAGES OF THESE STEPS
+ Ss have more chance to study the listening text .
+ Raising the level and requirements of the listening, this section requires students’ higher thinking.
+  Inculcate the listening content to conduct the major step While - listening.
Therefore, students can perform the main requirements of the listening more conveniently. For example, the listening texts - English textbook - grade 9.
1. Select the paintings.
2. Decide True or false, then correct the wrong statements.
3. Fill in the missing words.
4. Answer the questions.
Post – listening : 
 	Ask Ss to answer the questions or sum up 
Give some questions and ask Ss to answer them, the questions should be simple (or Yes / No questions) and in the logic system related to the listening text.
Give Ss a short summary with gaps (from 4 to10 gaps), ask Ss to fill the missing words and then read aloud . 
EXAMPLE : Solutions to difficulties in listening skill 
 	Unit 4 (English 9) - Listen 
Objective : 
 By the end of the lesson , Ss will be able to identify the correct information by listening and develop their listening skill . 
B.Teaching aids : Cards , posters 
C. Procedure :
I . Warm up : * INFORMATION TRANSMITTING :
+ Divide the class into 4 teams . Choose 4 volunteers from each team and the volunteers stand in 4 lines .
+ T. shows the first student (in each line) a sentence .
+ He or she whispers the sentence to the next person in his / her line .
+ The second student whispers to the third and so on .
+ The last student go to the BB to write the sentence . If it is the same as the sentence the teacher shows , that team wins the match .
Suggested sentences : 
I want to improve my writing and listening skill .
English is an interesting language and it's very useful .
You should speak English with your friends .
You should learn by heart all the new words and texts .
II. Pre – listening : 
Ordering these words : Poster - Individual - hand out 
Set the scene: We will listen the conversation between Kate and Nga . "Nga is talking to Kate about her studying English" . Before listening the conversation , you can predict these words in the correct order according to the content of the listening . 
Ordering : 
 Improve / listening / language / terrible / job / favorite / can’t understand / bank / university / problem .
Feedback the ordering words : 
T. asks Ss to listen to the tape once or twice and correct their predict .
Answer Key : 
job - bank - university - improve - listening - can’t understand - terrible - problem - language - favorite 
True / False prediction : Poster - groups of 4 - hand out 
T. has Ss read the statements on poster and predict which statements are True and which are False .
True / False statements : * Run through the statements .
Nga's studying English for her work .
She learned English at The Brighton Language Center - UK .
She works for an International bank in Hanoi.
Her listening is excellent .
She needs to improve her speaking .
She hopes she can talk to people from all over the world and understand her favorite English songs .
Feedback 1 : Three groups go to the BB to write their prediction .
III. While – listening : 
Feedback 2 : 
Ask students to listen to the tape twice and check their prediction .
Answer Key : T F T F F T
Correction the false statements : 
T. asks Ss to listen to the tape one more and correct the false statements .
Answer Key : 
b. She learns English at school and university .
d. Her listening is terrible.
e. She wants to improve her writing . 
Answer the questions: * LUCKY SPORTS : 2 teams Poster 
T. let Ss listen to the tape again then practice answer the questions in pairs .
Is Nga studying English in Viet Nam or in England? 
Why is she studying English there ?
Did she learn English at school and university? 
What does she want to improve ? Why ? 
What does Nga think about English ? 
LUCKY SPORTS : poster 
Volleyball 
Bowling
Soccer
Basketball
Baseball
Racing 
Tennis 
Skiing
LS
a
b
c
?
LS
d
e
Answer Key : 
in England . 
for her work .
Yes , she did .
She wants to improve her writing because sometimes she has to write letters in English .
It’s an interesting language and it’s very useful .
Feedback the answers : * Six pairs of students ask and answer the 
 questions again .
IV. Post – listening : * Summary the conversation : Speaking 
T. has Ss sum up the dialolgue with the help of the cues in T / F and the questions .
They can do like this : 
 Nga is studying English for her work in London . She learned English at school and university . She works for an International Bank in HN . She needs to improve her writing because sometimes she has to write letters in English . Her listening is terrible so she can’t understand them . She hopes she can talk to people from all over the world , and understand her favorite English songs . 
V. At home :
Write the summary again in your notebooks .
Tape transcript : 
Host : Kate , can I introduce you to Nga ? She is studying English here in London .
Kate : Hello, pleased to meet you . 
 Nga : Pleased to meet you , too .
Kate : Where are you from ? 
 Nga : I’m from Viet Nam .
Kate : Why are you studying English here ? 
 Nga : I need it for my job .
Kate : Really ? So , What do you do ? 
Nga : I work for a bank , an international bank in Hanoi .
Kate : Oh , I see . Did you learn English at school ? 
Nga : Yes , and at university , too . but I’ve forget – forget .
Kate : Forgotten .
Nga : Yes, of course . I’ve forgotten a lot of it . I want to improve my writing skills . 
 You know – sometimes I have to write letters in English .
Kate : What about listening , Nga ?
Nga It’s terrible . This is my biggest problem . People talk very quickly and I can’t 
 understand them .
Kate : Do you like studying English ? 
Nga : Oh , yes . It’s an interesting language and it’s very useful ; and I can talk to 
 people from all over the word  and I can understand the words of my favorite
 songs , too .
Kate : Well . That’s very good . Good luck to you , Nga .
Surveys after carrying out the subject
The following table is the result of the surveys after carrying out the subject: 
 Class
Number of students involved 
 Numbers of students are right
 9A
15
  13 (86,7%)
 9B
13
  10 (76,9%)
III. CONCLUSIONS AND LEARNED LESSONS.
During my teaching period, I have obtained some precious experience on SOLUTIONS TO DIFFICULTIES FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN LISTENING SKILL below :   
When preparing the Pre-listening ; while - listening and post - listening:
* Teachers should take notes - Ss’ ideas on the board .( brainstorming)
* There are clear instructions which are easy to understand.
* Teachers should have the right positive consistent attitude with the students who are both good at and bad at listening, not too focus on the correction but encourage Ss to guess more, especially avoid the situation of "being worried" while listening .
* Create a joyful atmosphere, and new inspiration for students in learning, help students get comfort if they misunderstand when using the language; invole Ss to the key words related to the listening topic so as to Ss can understand the text as much as possible .
* Help students get accuration through the errors. (Learning English through the errors) so that the English capacity of students becomes better and better.
* The above is just a small experience of SOLUTIONS TO DIFFICULTIES FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN LISTENING SKILL that I myself can draw in the past few years to teach secondary school students in Hoang Ngoc. However, the effect of teaching listening skill will mostly depend on the students’ ability of language.
    I proposed this subject to help the students overcome and limit common difficulties thanks to these small skills mentioned above, so my project can not avoid the limitations. I hope my colleagues will consult, consider and find out more effective solutions to improve the quality and effectiveness of teaching listening skill for junior high students .
IV. REQUESTS:
         I deeply hope that the superiors will be more interested in this subject because of its effects in this age of information explosion today. I look forward to attending more teaching activities so as to have more chance to access to new methods. Every secondary school should compose the test including listening section in order to help students improve their listening skill more and more perfectly. Create conditions with audiovisual equipment for training students, students have more opportunities to hear and learn from the native speakers’ pronunciation .
   I sincerely thank you !
    V. REFERENCES 
- Textbook - English 9 
- Document training for secondary school teachers regularly stage 2015-2020
 - Reference books for teaching listening skill (Publisher education - Ministry of Education and Training ).
- Website GLOBAL EDUCATION.
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Hoằng Ngọc, ngày 10 tháng 5 năm 2016.
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CATALOGUE 	 	 Page
PROJECT TITLE : ( Name of the initiative experience)	 1
I. INTRODUCTION ( The reasons for the choice of the subject )	 1
II- CONTENT ( THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM )	 1
A. RATIONALE 	 1
B. REAL STATE OF THE PROBLEM 	 2
C. SOME SOLUTIONS TO DIFFICULTIES FOR SECONDARY 
SCHOOL STUDENTS IN LISTENING SKILL 	 3
 I. Pre – listening 	 3
II . While – listening	 3
III.Post – listening 	 4
EXAMPLE : Solutions to difficulties in listening skill 
 	Unit 4 (English 9) - Listen	 4
Tape transcript 	 8
Surveys after carrying out the subject	 8	
III. CONCLUSIONS AND LEARNED LESSONS	 9
IV. REQUESTS 	 10
V. REFERENCES 	 10