Using songs to encourage grade 10 schoolers to learn listening skill at Thuong Xuan 3 high school

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
THUONG XUAN 3 HIGH SCHOOL
THE INITIATIVE FROM TEACHING EXPERIENCE
“USING SONGS TO ENCOURAGE GRADE 10 SCHOOLERS TO LEARN LISTENING SKILL AT THUONG XUAN 3 HIGH SCHOOL”
 Teacher’s full name: 	 Cầm Thị Hương
 Position : 	 Teacher
 The initiative of : Teaching English
THANH HOÁ 2017
Table of contents
1. Introduction
1.1. Rationale
 Regarded as an international language, English is spoken in most parts of the world - and is considered the principle means of communication among the trade, diplomatic, and airline communities. English has been a compulsory subject among Vietnamese students for many years. Teaching English in Vietnam will help our students take advantage of globalization, and teachers are always seeking ways to improve their techniques for more effective lesson plans and higher cognitive retention among their students at all levels. As a teacher of English at a high school, the author constantly faces the many problems inherent in helping students absorb and apply a foreign language. Of primary importance is teaching listening skill, which is a topic of much debate among researchers. In English textbooks for Vietnamese upper secondary school students, listening is one of the four skills that students have to learn. Listening is one of the fundamental language skills, and crucial in the development of the second language competence. It is essential for language teachers to help their students become effective listeners. By developing their ability to listen well, we develop our students' ability to become more independent learners, as by hearing accurately they are much more likely to be able to reproduce accurately, refine their understanding of grammar and develop their own vocabulary.
 However, among the listening lessons in textbooks for Vietnamese secondary students that I have taught, lessons are long and complicated, and contain needless repetition that is boring rather than inspiring to students. Therefore, many of the students seem not to be interested in the listening lessons. They have low motivation to study. This problem is the foundation of my thesis, and I address how to teach listening comprehension more attractively and effectively, so that more students will want to learn. In this thesis, the author demonstrated the use of songs, and examined their effectiveness in opening the textbook’s content in such a way as to increase 10th grade students’ motivation to listen and enjoy English. Learners observations and student surveys were collected to determine the effectiveness of using these new techniques. The results of this research will promote a new plan for using English songs to help teachers with teaching listening comprehension (with greater student enjoyment and retention). It is hoped that using English songs will be an effective technique for teaching listening in high schools in Viet Nam and elsewhere.
1.2. Aims of the study
The study aims at:
- Investigating the attitudes of the grade 10 students at Thuong Xuan 3 high school towards listening skill before implementing the use of songs in teaching listening.
- Selecting and using English songs in teaching English listening to the grade 10 students at Thuong Xuan 3 high school.
- Evaluating the effectiveness of applying English songs in encouraging grade 10 schoolers to learn listening skill at Thuong Xuan 3 high school to provide implications for English language teaching.
1.3. The population of the study
 	Applying English songs in the class may bring about many benefits in terms of effective grammar learning, listening, pronunciation, and it can be implemented at different classes. However, in this research, we would like to focus on the use of English songs in teaching listening and the participants are only students of grade 10 at Thuong Xuan 3 high school, Thuong Xuan district.
There are 40 grade 10 schoolers involving in this study. They take part in the listening lesson with the use of songs and do the questionnaire. 
All the teachers of English in Thuong Xuan 3 high school, aged twenty-three to thirty-one years old, also take part in my study. They shared their advantages and disadvantages of teaching Engish listening here and observed my class to find out if the song using have positive effects on the learners’ attitudes towards listening lessons.
1.4. The methodology
 To fulfill the above aims, qualitative and quantitative method was chosen for the study. All comments, remarks, assumptions and conclusion of the study were based on the observation, data and analysis. Data collections for analysis in this study were gained though the following resources:
 	- Survey questionnaires; 
- Interview; 
- observation; 
2. Content	
2.1. theoretical background
2.1.1. Listening skill
 According to Anderson and Lynch (1988), listening is a receptive skill along side with reading skills and the role of listeners is no longer passive but active. 
 Listening skill plays a very importance role in foreign language teaching, which is emphasized by Rost (1994) as the following:
 Firstly, Listening provides input for the learner so it is vital in the language classroom. Without understandable input at the right level, any learning simply cannot begin.
 Secondly, listening is the decisional factor of the success of the interaction. Spoken language provides a means of interaction for the learner. Since the learners must interact to achieve understanding, access to speakers of the language is essential. Moreover, learners’ failure to understand the language they hear is impetus, not an obstacle, to interaction and learning.
 Thirdly, Listening lessons contain authentic language, which presents a challenge for the learner to attempt to understand language as it is actually used by native speakers.
 Finally, Listening exercises provide teachers with a means for drawing learners’ attention to new forms (vocabulary, grammar, interaction patterns) in the language. 
 In real teaching and learning, listening skill seems to be the most difficult skill to be acquired by students of the four language basic English language skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing). According to Underwood (1989), there are seven problems in listening skill that students may encounter: (1) lack of control over the speed at which speakers speak; (2) not being able to get things repeated; (3) the listener’s limited vocabulary; (4) failure to recognize the signals; (5) problems of interpretation; (6) inability to concentrate and (7) established learning habit. 
From the students’ dificultties in mastering listening lessons, the educators organizing the teaching ang learning process should plan their listening lesson to encourage their learners to take part in the listening lessons positively. 
2.1.2. Songs
 According to Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (2000, p.412), song is “a short piece of music with words that you sing”. It may be written for one or several voices and it is generally performed with instrument accompaniment. 
 Songs are part of daily life for most people. The benefits of songs inELT have been well-documented by a myriad researchers. The benificial roles os song using are revealed as the following:
 Firstly, motivation is one of the things that can be gained by using songs in foreign language classroom. Rogers (1999) found that “the use of songs creates an atmosphere of interest in the study of English and can lead from a “teacher centered” to a “student centered” class. Using music can lift the atmosphere in class, or develop a non-threatening classroom atmosphere, bring in a boost of energy and capture the children’s attention. Besides, English songs can motivate them in their quest to learn English.
 Secondly, songs can be catchy and re-usable. Songs are catchy and fun and ESL students will feel happy to hear them many times till they can sing along. If teacher plays the recording of a dialogue the second time, students may get bored with it. However, songs can be reused without making students become fed up with listening.
 Thirdly, songs related to cultural aspects could be chosen to present to students about social situations, historical events, geographical descriptions, and others. The use of songs, according to Jolly (1975), gives students the opportunity to acquire a greater understanding of the culture underlying the target language.
 Besides, songs can help students remember vocabulary, grammatical structures and aid in comprehending the general meaning.
 In short, songs are proved tobe an effective tool for language teacher to enhance their learners to master the foreign language.
2.2. The real situation before emplementing songs in teaching listening skill
2.2.1. Research settings
	Thuong Xuan 3 High School has been founded for several years. Though the school’s Board of Directors have always encouraged and supported the teaching and learning of the English Language at our school, the facilities for learning English, such as computers and projectors are very poor. Therefore, there are many problems which need to be solved: The books and materials for students are limited. Additionally, the students have no opportunities to practice English with native speakers- vital to anyone trying to improve their listening as well as verbal skills.
	Besides, In Thuong Xuan 3 upper secondary school, there are five teachers of English, aged twenty-three to thirty-one years old. As rural teachers, they have few opportunities to upgrade their teaching skills, and the school does not have the resources to provide them with modern teaching aids and materials to help their work. However, despite some disadvantages, they have been successful teachers- not only developing their own language skills, but improving their teaching methods. There is an atmosphere of collegiality and support among the faculty and administrators, and we often share our teaching experiences in the hope that we can learn from each other.
	Most of the students in Thuong Xuan Upper Secondary School are living in the surrounding rural areas. Our students are required to study 13 compulsory subjects, so they spend little time learning English, and their skills are weak. Though they have been studying English for many years, their focus has been on learning syntax and grammar so they can pass regular examinations. Moreover, because their parents are farmers who never use English in their daily lives, the students receive little encouragement at home to develop vital communication skills. As a result, most of the students do not know what they are studying English for- except to pass their exams. Although they know it is important to learn English in the modern life, they become bored with learning it. In each class, there are only a few students really learning English- and it is those few who are interested in learning it. The majority of the students usually forget most the things they have learned as soon as their testing period is over. Once the students lose their motivation for learning, the quality of their classroom experience rapidly declines.
2.2.2. Students’ attitude and their difficulties in listening lessons
	The student’s survey questionnaire “A” was constructed with 3 questions. The data collected is presented- along with answers from each of the 40 students who responded. 
	This data provided a baseline of the student’s attitude towards their English language listening lessons, as well as their perceived difficulties. After the students received their instructions, they put up privacy folders to block field-of-view from other students.
	Question 1: What do you think about the listening lesson in the text book?
	Figure 2.1. Opinions about the reading lessons
	The chart in Figure 2.1 shows that about 25 of the 40 student-responders thought that the listening lesson are difficult, while 16 students said that they are boring. At the same time, only four students agreed that the content of the listening lesson is normal. Only 7.5% of the students expressed the opinion that the listening lesson were interesting. Further, four of the students thought that the listening lesson in the textbook did not relate to their life experiences. 
	Question 2: How interested do you feel in listening lessons?
	Question 2 was designed to discover how interested the students are in the listening lessons. When asked about their interest in listening English in class, only 4% of students said they are very interested, with an additional 9% who indicated that they were somewhat interested. 
	By contrast, 50% of the students revealed that they are not interested at all, with a further 37% indicating that they are only slightly interested. These are dismal results.
	Figure 2.2: Students’ enjoyment to the listening lessons
	In conclusion, students overwhelmingly lack interest in the material or find it too hard. This data reveals that the students’ motivation in listening lesson is very low. If they do not like learning, they will not progress in the skill level and their language education will be lost. This is both the challenge and the opportunity for the teachers to develop interesting methods of instruction to elevate the students’ motivation and interest in learning English. 
	Question 3: What is difficult about the listening lessons?
Options
Number
%
ž the listening lesson is long 
27/40
67.5%
ž there are so many new words
36/40
90%
ž it is difficult to understand the main idea of the listening lesson
35/40
87.5%
ž it is difficult to understand the details of the listening lesson
37/40
92.5%
ž doing listening tasks (answering questions, gap-filling..)
28/40
70%
ž the topic is too difficult for my level of background knowledge
20/40
50%
	Table 2.1: Factors that negatively impact student’s listening
	As we can see from the table, Question 3 focuses on the student’s expressed negative factors that impact their listening lesson - that is, the subjective elements that they think and feel. Results were predicable: When the students responded whether they had any difficulties in English listening lesson, most of them say “yes”. However, they had an opportunity to quantify their responses: Question 3 also includes the reasons why the students find listening lesson difficult. 
	The statistical data shows that 67.5% of the students expressed that the longer listening lesson, the harder time they had understanding the whole text. 90% of the students give the opinion that the factors which make the listening lesson difficult is that there are too many new words. More importantly, 87.5% of the students agree that it is difficult to understand the main idea of the listening lesson, and a further 92.5% find it hard to catch the detail of such a large section of text. 
	About 50% of the students state that the topics chosen by the authors of the listening lesson pick subject with which the students have no prior background knowledge. It would be better if the authors chose familiar subjects (ideally by interviewing students to learn what they know and like). In addition, Almost three-quarters of respondents (70%) have difficulty completing required tasks such as answering the questions.
	In summary, the data reveals that the students have no or very little interest in learning listening lessons. This data will allow teachers to search for (and adopt) tools which will overcome these many problems. English song using will help in this regard. 
2.3. The solution of the problem	 
2.3.1. The seven-step process of the Action Research
My research focused on using songs to to facilitate our students’ listening learning, and we used songs by planning our lessons in the form of an action research with two cycles of a ‘spiral of cycles of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting’ (Kemmis, 1988, p.168), which involves the seven-step process (Sagor, 2000). These seven steps, which become an endless cycle for the inquiring teacher, are the following:
Step 1: Selecting a Focus
This first step is vitally important because the action research process begins with serious reflection directed toward identifying a topic or topics worthy of a busy teacher's time. Selecting a focus begins with the teacher researcher or the team of action researchers asking: What element(s) of our practice or what aspect of student learning do we wish to investigate?
Step 2: Clarifying Theories
The second step involves identifying the values, beliefs, and theoretical perspectives the researchers hold relating to their focus. 
Step 3: Identifying Research Questions
Once a focus area has been selected and the researcher's perspectives and beliefs about that focus have been clarified, the next step is to generate a set of personally meaningful research questions to guide the inquiry.
Step 4: Collecting Data
Professional educators always want their instructional decisions to be based on the best possible data. Action researchers can accomplish this by making sure that the data used to justify their actions are valid (meaning the information represents what the researchers say it does) and reliable (meaning the researchers are confident about the accuracy of their data). Lastly, before data are used to make teaching decisions, teachers must be confident that the lessons drawn from the data align with any unique characteristics of their classroom or school.
Step 5: Analyzing Data
Step 6: Reporting Results
Step 7: Taking Informed Action
When teachers write lesson plans or develop academic programs, they are engaged in the action planning process. What makes action planning particularly satisfying for the teacher researcher is that with each piece of data uncovered (about teaching or student learning) the educator will feel greater confidence in the wisdom of the next steps. 
In this study, after identifying the topic ““Using songs to encourage grade 10 schoolers to learn listening skill at Thuong Xuan 3 high school”, we identified two variables and two research questions. The data would be selected by both qualitative and quantitative methods. Then we selected three English songs which related to the topics of three units in textbook. These songs were taught together with the lessons. The three selected songs were integrated into the lessons as follows:
Lesson
Songs
Unit 12: music	
 “Because I love you” 
Unit 13: Films and cinema
"My heart will go on "
Unit 14: World cup
“The cup of life”
Table 2.1. The integration of songs
2.3.2. Some teachniques in teaching listening skill
There are several techniques that can be done by teachers when teaching listening in the classroom, including :
(1) Filling the Gap: This technique can be done by way of emptying a few words in a paragraph or dialogue. Ask students to listen to text spoken by the teacher or the tape and fill that empty words are.
Example:
Listen and fill one suitable word in each gap below:
If I got (1)on my knees and I pleaded with you
If I crossed a million oceans just to be with you. (2). you ever let me down?
If I climbed the highest (3). just to hold you tight
If I said that I would love you every single night. Would you ever let me down?
Well I'm sorry if it sounds kinda (4), it's just that
Worried, so worried, that you let me down.
Because I love you, love you. Love you, so don't let me down
(2) Picture Guessing: This technique can be done by guessing the image according to an oral text that was read or heard.
Example: What do these pictures relate to?
(3) Finding Mistakes: The technique is done by asking and listening to spoken text underlined words that do not correspond with the spoken text.
(4) Rearranging Sentences / Paragraph: The technique is done by giving the sentence or paragraph hiatus to students. Students are asked to listen to the spoken text and make sentences / paragraphs to be true.
2.4. The findings 
2.4.