مقاله آموزش زبان(استفاده از مواد آموزشی-كلاسهای انگلیسی)

مقاله آموزش زبان(استفاده از مواد آموزشی-كلاسهای انگلیسی) در 165 صفحه ورد قابل ویرایش  

Contents

Acknowledgement                                                                                      X                         

Abstract                                                                                                      XI                        

List of Tables                                                                                              XII   

Chapter 1: Introduction                                         1

1.1                 Overview                                                                                       1

1.2                 Statement of the Problem and Purpose of the Study                5

1.3                 Significance and Justification of the Study                               6

1.4                 Research Questions                                                                      7

1.5                 Research Hypotheses                                                                   8

1.6                 What Is Known About Listening                                                8

1.7                 What Is Known About Authentic Materials                              10

1.8                 Definition of Important Terms                                                    12

1.9                 Delimitations                                                                                13

1.10           Limitations                                                                                    14

1.11           Organization of the Master Thesis                                              14

Chapter 2: Review of Literature                            15

2.1           Introduction                                                                                    15

2.2           Listening Comprehension                                                              15

2.2.1     Definition of Listening                                                     15

2.2.2     Importance of Listening                                                   17    

                      2.2.2.1     Listening and Academic Success                     18

                      2.2.2.2     Discovery Listening                                          18

         2.2.3     Listening as an Academic Process                                    20

                      2.2.3.1     Knowledge Required for Listening                  20

                                      Process

2.2.4      Listening Comprehension versus Reading                    21

Comprehension

2.2.5      Listening Comprehension                                               23

2.2.5.1     Authentic and Listening                                 23

                Comprehension

2.2.5.2             Different Kinds of Comprehension              24

2.2.5.3             Comprehension Preceding Production         25

          2.2.6     Tasks for Listening Comprehension                               25

                       2.2.6.1     Performing to Indicate Understanding           27    

                       2.2.6.2     Teaching rather than Testing                           28

          2.2.7     Inner Speech and Language Learning                             29

                       2.2.7.1     Listening and Speaking                                    29

           2.2.8     Maturation and Language Learning                               30

                        2.2.8.1     Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal                        31

                                         Development

2.2.9              The Role of Background Knowledge in                       32

Learning Language

2.2.9.1     Schema Theory                                              32

2.2.9.2     Background Knowledge/Prior                      33

                 Knowledge

           2.2.10    Cultural Background                                                      35

2.3      Listening and English-as-a-Foreign-Language Learning           36

           2.3.1      The Emergency of Communicative Language             36

                         Teaching

2.3.2                Communicative Approach: Some Principles              38

and Features

2.4      The Use of Aural Authentic Materials                                        40

           2.4.1      Definitions of Authentic Materials                               40

           2.4.2      Authentic Materials and Language Performance         41

           2.4.3      Nature of Authentic Texts                                             43

                         2.4.3.1     Characteristics of Authentic Speech             43

                         2.4.3.2     Authentic Speech and Cultural Aspect         44

   Chapter 3: Methodology                                      46

3.1             Introduction                                                                                   46

3.2             Summary of the Study                                                                  46

3.2.1     Participants                                                                       48

3.2.2     Classroom Observation                                                   49    

3.3     Demographic Data of the Students                                               50

3.4     Classroom Environment                                                               52

          3.4.1     Setting                                                                                52

3.5     Classroom Practices                                                                       52

          3.5.1     Listening Materials Implemented in Class                     52

          3.5.2     Class Procedure                                                                53

3.6     Teacher’s Pedagogy                                                                       54

3.7     Interviews                                                                                       55

          3.7.1     Interviews with Students                                                 56

                       3.7.1.1     First Interview                                                  56

                       3.7.1.2     Second Interview                                              56

3.8     Self-Evaluation Questionnaire                                                     57

3.9     Language Learning Strategy Questionnaire                                 58    

3.10   Data Collection                                                                              59

3.11   Analysis of Data                                                                            60

3.12   Validity and Reliability                                                                63

Chapter 4: Results                                                   64

4.1             Introduction                                                                                   64

4.2             Summary of the Study                                                                  64

4.3             Results of the Study                                                                      65

4.3.1     Results for Fundamental Research Question:                66

             Influences of Aural Authentic Materials

             4.3.1.1     Results from the Interviews with Students    67

             4.3.1.2     Results from the Class Observation               69

             4.3.1.3     Results from the Self-Evaluation                   71

                             Questionnaire

4.3.2     Summary of Findings Related to the Influences           72

             of Aural Authentic Materials

4.3.3     Results for Secondary Research Question#1:               73

             Learning Strategy Use

             4.3.3.1     Results from the Interview with                     73

                             students

4.3.3.2              Results from the Class Observation              75

4.3.3.3              Results from the Learning Strategy               76

Questionnaire

          4.3.4     Summary of Findings Related to the Learning              77

                       Strategy Use

4.3.5     Results for Secondary Research Question#2:                  79

             Attitudes towards Language Learning

 4.3.5.1     Results from the Interviews with                      79

                                    Students

4.3.6        Summary of Findings Related to the Students’               80

            Attitudes towards Language Learning

4.4   Overall Findings of the Study                                                        80

        4.4.1    Students with no Progress in Listening Ability                81

        4.4.2    Students with Progress in Listening Ability                     82

Chapter 5: Conclusion                                           84

5.1           Introduction                                                                                    84

5.2           Summary of the study                                                                    84

5.3           Discussion of Results                                                                     86

5.3.1     Authenticity of the Listening Materials                         86

5.3.2     Influences of Aural Authentic Materials on                  89

             Listening Comprehension

5.3.3     Use of Learning Strategies                                               92

5.3.4     Attitudes towards Language Learning                            94

5.4     Conclusions                                                                                    96

5.5     Recommendations                                                                         102

          5.5.1     Recommendations for Further Research                        102

          5.5.2     Implications for Teaching                                                103

Bibliography                                                                          105

Appendices                                                                             123

Appendix A                                                                                              124

Appendix B                                                                                              125

Appendix C                                                                                              129

Appendix D                                                                                              131

Appendix E                                                                                               137

Appendix F                                                                                               145

Appendix G                                                                                              147

Appendix H                                                                                              148

Appendix I                                                                                                149

Appendix J                                                                                                150

Appendix K                                                                                              151

Appendix L                                                                                               157

Acknowledgements

It is the highest time I seized the opportunity to offer my most genuine and profound words of gratitude to many people to whom I owe the accomplishment of this research. Among many people who have bestowed, most kindly, their invaluable help upon me I should specifically thank my honorable thesis advisor, Dr.Karkia, who patiently went through every line of this thesis and provided me with many insightful comments and invaluable suggestions. I would also like to extend my sincere appreciation and gratitude to Dr. Ghahremani Ghajar, my thesis reader, for her most professional guidelines, meticulous reading of this manuscript, making insightful suggestions and corrections; for her expertise and time. I am also very much grateful to Dr. Rahimi for her critical evaluation, and judgment of this thesis.

Also my thanks and best wishes go to all students who participated in the present study, without whose cooperation this research would not have been conducted.

Last, by no means least, a truly cordial sense of thankfulness to my parents General Ali Ghaderpanahi and Firooze Nobariyan for their support and everlasting encouragement throughout my educational years.

ABSTRACT

          The fundamental purpose of this study was to examine the influences of aural authentic materials on listening ability of thirty female undergraduate psychology majors studying English as a foreign language. The secondary purposes of the study were to identify the learning strategies used by EFL students experiencing authentic listening texts and to determine the influences of authentic materials on EFL students’ attitudes towards learning English.

A quantitative and qualitative analysis was offered in this study. It basically focused on using authentic materials and real-life situations as part of the communicative approach. Sources for designing and implementing effective listening strategy instruction and the transcript of one-hour videotaped session were recorded and analyzed. The results of the listening comprehension posttest were compared to that of the pretest using a 2-tailed t-test (p < .05). A one-way ANOVA on the mean strategy use was applied      (p < .05).The results of the qualitative data analysis were in line with and confirmed that of quantitative. Analysis of the interviews and the questionnaires revealed that the use of authentic materials in the EFL classroom helped increase students’ comfort level and their self-confidence to listen to the foreign language. Results showed a statistically significant improvement in listening ability, as well as the positive effect on EFL students’ motivation to learn the language. Recommendations were offered to ease students’ frustration that resulted from the speed of authentic speech. Pedagogical implications of the results were discussed along with the impact on EFL students’ listening comprehension development.  

List of Tables

Table 1: Source of Data                                                                           48

Table 2: Demographic data of Strategy                                                  51

Table 3: Analysis of Data                                                                        62

Table 4: Interview Results                                                                       68

Table 5: Results from Class Observation                                               70

Table 6: Students’ Responses on Self-Evaluation Questionnaire       71

Table 7: Interviews with Students on Learning Strategy Use              74

Table 18: Class Observation on Learning Strategy Use                       75

Table 9: Responses to Questionnaire on Learning Strategy Use         78

INTRODUCTION

1.1           Overview

Listening is probably the least explicit of the four language skills, making it the most difficult skill to learn. It is evident that children listen and respond to language before they learn to talk. When it is time for children to learn to read, they still have to listen so that they gain knowledge and information to follow directions. In the classroom, students have to listen carefully and attentively to lectures and class discussions in order to understand and to retain the information for later recall.

The assessment of listening comprehension for academic purposes is an area which has not received much attention from researchers (Read, 2005). Rankin (1926/1952) suggests that adults spend more than 40 percent of their communication time listening, in contrast with 31.9 percent speaking, 15 percent reading, and 11 percent writing. Clearly, much of the educational process is based on skills in listening. Students have to spend most of the time listening to what the teacher says, for instance, giving lectures or asking questions. According to Wolvin and Coakley (1979), the amount of time that students are expected to listen in the classroom ranges from 42 to 57.5 percent of their communication time. Taylor (1964), on the other hand, estimates that nearly 90 percent of the class time in high school and university is spent in listening to discussion and lectures. Since listening occupies such a large percentage of the communication time of most people, it is therefore advantageous to possess effective listening skills in order to meet listening demands that occur daily.

Listening is an important skill for learners of English in an academic study context, since so much of what they need to understand and learn is communicated through the oral medium (Read, 2005). Listening can also help students build vocabulary, develop language proficiency, and improve language usage (Barker, 1971). Cayer, Green, and Baker (1971) found that students’ ability to comprehend written material through reading as well as to express themselves through spoken and written communication are directly related to students’ maturity in the listening phase of language development. Dunkel (1986) also asserts that developing proficiency in listening comprehension is the key to achieving proficiency in speaking. Not only are listening skills the basis for the development of all other skills, they are also the main channel through which students make initial contact with the target language and its culture (Curtain & Pesola,1988).

Investigating the EFL listening needs of college students is ignored in Iran. Probing in to the conversational and academic listening abilities required by EFL college students should be very well considered. Iranian EFL students are studying English in their home country where English is not the dominant native language. Students who are from environments where English is not the language of the country have very few opportunities to hear the real language; these students therefore are not accustomed to hearing the language as it is produced by native speakers for native speakers. Consequently, students from the countries in which English is taught as a foreign language frequently have great difficulty understanding English spoken to them when they come in to contact with native speakers of the language.

Selecting appropriate materials and activities for language classroom requires much attention. Materials include text books, video and audio tapes, computer software, and visual aids. They influence the content and the procedures of learning. The choice of deductive versus inductive learning, the role of memorization, the use of creativity and problem solving, production versus reception, and the order in which materials are presented  are all influenced by the materials (Kitao, 2005). Authentic materials refer to oral and written language materials used in daily situations by native speakers of the language (Rogers& Medley, 1988).Some examples of authentic materials are newspapers, magazines, and television programs. It is necessary for students who are going to study in an English-speaking environment in future to learn how to listen to lectures and take notes, to comprehend native speakers in various kinds of speech situations, as well as to understand radio and television broadcasts. (Paulston & Bruder, 1976).This is also true for students who pass English courses in universities.

Videotapes and audiotapes, television, and interactive computer software are becoming increasingly common methods of delivering academic content in the university classroom. One way to prepare EFL students for encounters with real language is to apply real language or authentic speech in the EFL classroom (Bacon, 1989; Rivers, 1980; Rogers & Medley, 1988; Secules, Herron, &Tomasello, 1992). The breath, the timbre, the speed and the intonation of each authentic voice influence the content and meaning of the spoken word (Selfe, 2005). An advantage of introducing authentic materials at an early stage of language learning is to help students become familiar with the target language (Field, 1998). The use of authentic materials in EFL teaching and learning appears to be worthwhile (Porter & Roberts, 1981; Rings, 1986; Rivers, 1987). Teachers should employ authentic listening materials at all levels in instruction whenever possible (Chung, 2005). Implementing authentic speech in classroom listening allows students to have “immediate and direct contact with input data which reflect genuine communication in the target language” (Breen, 1985, p.63). Conversely, however, the use of teacher talk and/or foreigner talk with EFL students can impede students’ ability in listening comprehension because of the unusual rate of speech (Robinett, 1978; Snow & Perkins, 1979).

This exploratory study sought to examine the influences of the use of aural authentic materials on listening ability in students of English as a foreign language. This descriptive study examined how the use of authentic input in an EFL classroom eased and/or impeded students’ learning in English-language listening. In conjunction with the primary objective, the study also identified the learning strategies EFL students used when they experienced authentic listening materials. Finally, the study determined the influences of using authentic materials on EFL students’ attitudes towards learning English.

talked. Faride used dictionary as she read the book. Teacher asked Mehri a question … Effat answered.

13:12   ---   students worked on exercise; Fateme and Maasume looked up meaning of words in dictionary as they worked on exercise; Bayan sometimes nodded head as she listened to the tape. Tahere, Maasume, and Mehri looked at Zahra as they listened to what Zahra talked about.

13:13   ---   teacher checked answers by reading one word at a time and waited for answer from students; all students looked at book as they listened to words teacher read; Najme and Safura answered. Students looked at teacher when teacher said something.

13:14   ---   Samane asked teacher a question; then Samane said something about the tape. All students followed teacher’s instruction. Faride and Zahra talked to each other.

13:15   ---   students sometimes looked at teacher as they listened to what teacher said. Tahere and Bita looked at their books when teacher read the book.

13:16   ---   teacher told students to listen to tape and write down as many things as they could; all students took notes when teacher played tape. Bayan smiled after she listened to what the teacher talked about.

13:17   ---   teacher asked a question; Somaye and Leila looked at teacher. Zahra and Somaye answered.

13:18   ---   teacher wrote on board, Bita nodded head as she listened to teacher. Aazam and Maasume wrote on their books what teacher was writing on board.

Appendix E (continued)

13:19   ---   Other students looked at what teacher was writing on board.

13:20   ---   Tahere looked at board and nodded head as she listened to teacher and saw what teacher wrote.

13:21   ---   teacher told students to look at what she wrote on board, all students looked at board; Aazam talked to Maasume.

13:22   ---   Mehri looked at teacher and nodded head when she heard teacher made an example. All students looked at the teacher when she started to talk about the conversation.

13:23   ---   teacher made an example; Zahra laughed while others smiled as they heard what teacher said. Najme, Maasume, Maryam, and Leila looked at board as teacher was writing something. Mahdiye asked the teacher a question. Zahra nodded head as she listened to what the teacher said. Somaye looked at teacher when teacher said something.

13:24   ---   students looked at Zeinab when she started to say the answer; Somaye looked at Zeinab and nodded head as she listened to Zeinab. Leila, Mehri, and Zahra looked at teacher when teacher asked questions. Effat shook head when she heard word teacher said. Aazam, Safura, and Najme looked at Fateme as they listened to her. Sadaf turned to talk to Leila.

13:25   ---   Somaye looked at Marziye and smiled as she listened to Marziye. Somaye and Bayan talked to each other as teacher talked to class. Mahdiye and Bayan looked at board as teacher pointed something on it. Bita and Leila underlined something as she read. Somaye asked teacher which part she was reading.

Appendix E (continued)

13:26   ---   Marziye smiled and laughed as she talked. Shahrbanu, Faride, and Samane shook head.

13:27   ---   students looked at teacher when teacher said something; Zahra sometimes nodded head as she listened to what teacher explained. Zahra and Mehri repeated word teacher just said.

13:28   ---   Safura used hands when she did not know word to say, Safura then repeated when teacher said a word. All students looked at book when teacher asked for another word or sentence students did not understand.

13:29   ---   Maryam looked at teacher and smiled as she listened, others looked at teacher. Mahbube repeated word teacher said.

13:30   ---   Maasume talked to Maryam; Leila looked up something in dictionary; Mahdiye looked at board as teacher was writing something.

13:31   ---   Zahra and Somaye talked to Sadaf before they looked at board. Zeinab and Somaye nodded head as they listened to what the teacher said.

13:32   ---   Zahra and Fateme looked at teacher when teacher asked the students if they had questions; they did not say anything.

13:33   ---   Effat said something, Shahrbanu, Zeinab, and Zahra looked at Effat as they listened to her. Shahrbanu sometimes looked at her book and sometimes at teacher.

13:34   ---   Faride wrote down something; she nodded head as listening. Marziye asked a question.

Appendix E (continued)

13:35   ---   Samane shook head when Mahbube said wrong answer; when Afsane said the correct answer, all students looked at the teacher as they listened to her.

13:36   ---   teacher told students to think about the tasks in the book, Somaye and Bayan looked at teacher. Teacher asked students if they had anything on their notes, Zeinab answered.

13:37   ---   all students looked at teacher when teacher talked about the dialogue. Bita answered teacher’s question about the dialogue. Mahbube talked about subject of the dialogue. Other students smiled when they heard what teacher just said.

13:38   ---   Safura talked to Fateme while Faride and Zahra talked to each other as teacher talked to class.

13:39   ---   all students looked at book when teacher said what they would do next

13:40   ---   teacher played tape one more time for the students. Maryam used dictionary to check meaning of word. Teacher asked Fateme a question, Fateme answered. All students looked at the teacher when she said something.

13:41   ---   when teacher responded to what Sadaf just said all students except Mahdiye looked at teacher as they listened to teacher; Mahdiye looked at board.