action research project

actionresearchactionresearchact

ionresearchactionresearchaction

researchactionresearchactionres

earchactionresearchactionresea

rchactionresearchactionresearc

hactionresearchactionresearcha

ctionresearchactionresearchacti

onresearchactionresearchaction



rchactionresearchactionresearc

hactionresearchactionresearcha

ctionresearchactionresearchacti

onresearchactionresearchaction



ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT

WORKING PROPERLY WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF LISTENING ACTIVITIES

15/10/2013

Subject: Professional Teaching Practice III Professor: Vela, Emilce Author: Garcia Eluen 3rd Year

ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT WORKING PROPERLY WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF LISTENING ACTIVITIES

Garcia, Eluen A. Page 1

Action Research Project: WORKING PROPERLY WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF

LISTENING ACTIVITIES INDEX

Content INITIAL REFLECTION ........................................................................................................................ 4

QUESTIONS ...................................................................................................................................... 5

PROBLEM ......................................................................................................................................... 6

TOOLS TO COLLECT DATA: Diary, Questionnaires. .......................................................................... 7

DIARIES OBSERVATIONS .............................................................................................................. 7

QUESTIONNAIRES ........................................................................................................................ 7

TEACHER’S QUESTIONNAIRE ....................................................................................................... 8

ANALYSIS OF THE DATA COLLECTED ............................................................................................... 9

ROOT OF THE PROBLEM: ............................................................................................................. 12

PLANNING ..................................................................................................................................... 13

AIMS .............................................................................................................................................. 14

STRATEGY/METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................... 15

ACTION REASEARCH LESSON PLAN ............................................................................................... 22

TOOLS FOR GATHERING DATA (INCLUDE SAMPLES OF TOOLS) .................................................... 23

Questionnaire ............................................................................................................................ 23

Questionnaire ............................................................................................................................ 23

ACTION .......................................................................................................................................... 26

OBSERVATION AND ANALYSIS OF THE DATA COLLECTED ............................................................. 27

SAMPLES OF DATA COLLECTED ..................................................................................................... 31

FINAL REFLECTION ......................................................................................................................... 32

FINAL CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................... 37



INTRODUCTION

In this part of the term, I had the chance to observe, practice and look for a problem in the

3rd grade of Del Carmen School. The class consisted of 24 students of ages ranking from

eight to nine; they were situated on the first floor of the oldest building of the school. I

found this class very special due to the fact that the qualities of all the students were very

positive:

The environment of the class was always very positive, especially because of the

students’ eagerness for knowledge.

In most classes students participated a lot.

In most classes students made an extra effort to understand and follow the activities

provided by the teacher.

The students were very respectful.

The students were incredible helpful.

The students were very sympathetic to each other.

However, they frustrated easily due to the fact that they wanted to learn and understand

everything very fast and very quickly. The input provided was not enough to cover

students’ needs, since the teacher did not talk in English long enough even though

students asked for it. Sometimes, especially when they lost motivation, they started to

talk and do things which were not part of the lesson.

As regards the general classroom atmosphere, even though the class was a bit messy and

some students had trouble when copying from the board because of the sunbeams

reflected on the board, the rest of the atmosphere was pretty good:

The ventilation was very good.

The temperature was appropriate.



The space between the desks was enough for them to be able to move and walk when

necessary.

As regards my observation schedule, I went to observe the class three days a

week, on Tuesdays, a two hour class, on Thursdays a one hour class and on

Fridays, a one hour class. In total, I had to observe four hours a week during

two months.



WORKING PROPERLY WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF LISTENING ACTIVITIES

INITIAL REFLECTION

As my observations in 3rd grade begun I noticed that the learners had difficulties when

doing listening activities. At the end of several lessons, which had had listening activities

involved, students finish the class frustrated and demotivated. The affective filter at the

end of these lessons was relatively high and this made me realized that this was a

recurrent problem.



QUESTIONS

This initial problem which I encountered was the difficulties that learners had

when doing listening activities and I started making myself some questions such

as:

Why learners, which were always participating, did not feel at ease when

the teacher asked them to participate in answering questions regarding

the listening activities?

Why was it that learners never did the listening activities in the correct

way and had serious mistakes in them as well?

Why were learners always against listening exercises?

Why did learners felt so demotivated and frustrated when they finish with


Why were learners underdeveloped in this particular skill and not in the

others?

Why the teacher presented the listening activity without any pre or post

listening activity?

How can I improve this situation?



PROBLEM

As my problem, which was difficulties in listening activities, was still too broad, I decided to

narrow it by collecting some data from the students by using closed questionnaires at the

end of a listening lesson, by observing and writing in my diary what I observed in these

classes in particular, and by asking to the teacher some questions about learners’ problem

when doing listening activities.



TOOLS TO COLLECT DATA: Diary, Questionnaires, observations

DIARIES OBSERVATIONS

On the 27th of August I observed a listening lesson in which learners were given no pre

listening activities, the teacher first handed in the photocopies to the learners and then

she explained what they had to do. However, she only read what they had to do from the

photocopy, which was to fill in the blank and then played the cd. The teacher played the

cd three times and then, in order to correct the answers, she played the cd one more

time, stopping it every time she had to check for the correct answer. Most of the students

did not participate, since most of them did not understand what they had to do in the first

place.

QUESTIONNAIRES

1. ¿Cuantas respuestas correctas tuviste?

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

2. La actividad te resulto…

DIFÍCIL “MAS O MENOS” FÁCIL

3. Si la actividad te resulto DIFÍCIL o “MAS O MENOS” fue porque…

No entendí la consigna

No entendí las palabras que escuche

No pude escuchar bien

Otro

I decided to write the questionnaire in Spanish to make students feel comfortable when

doing it, since after having such activity which was terribly frustrating for them, the least I

wanted to do was making everything worse.



TEACHER’S QUESTIONNAIRE

Question: Do you think students have problems when doing listening activities?

Answer: Yes, I do think students are having difficulties when doing listening activities, for

them, listening activities are more difficult than the rest of activities which involve other

skills.

Question: Why do you think learners have difficulties when doing listening activities?

Answer: I think it is only a matter of practice

Question: How do you think this problem should be solved?

Answer: By doing more listening activities.



ANALYSIS OF THE DATA COLLECTED

As I finished collecting data, I realized that:

Diary analysis:

The teacher had not prepared any pre-listening activity, which gave the students no

context and therefore, bringing neither background knowledge nor linguistic knowledge

to bear on the information contained in the aural text. The teacher only read the

instructions as they were presented in the photocopies and proceeded to play the cd. The

students did not have time to read the content of the activity, just in case there was a

word, phrase or sentence which they had not understood. After that, students listened

three times the cd one after the other and checked the words they had written on the

spaces in blank. The correction was in group and the teacher wrote the correct answers

on the board. This type of correction did not help the teacher to see how many students

had done the activity correctly, which were a few. As I was observing, I went around the

class and most students had most of the spaces in blank and wrote the answer when the

teacher wrote it on the board. There was neither closure nor post listening activities and

students left the class completely demotivated.

Learners’ questionnaires

After collecting the questionnaires I found out that:

To the first question, ¿Cuantas respuestas correctas tuviste?,

two students had had four correct answers,

three students had had three correct answers,

seven students had had two correct answers,

eight students had had one correct answer

and two students had had NO correct answer.

To the second question, La actividad te resulto… DIFÍCIL “MAS O MENOS” FÁCIL,



eighteen students had answered DIFICIIL

five students had answered “MAS O MENOS”

one student had answered FACIL

To the third question, Si la actividad te resulto DIFÍCIL o “MAS O MENOS” fue porque… No

entendí la consigna, No entendí las palabras que escuche, No pude escuchar bien, Otro.

Thirteen students answered No entendí la consigna

Seven students answered No entendí las palabras que escuche

Three students answered No pude escuchar bien

The final results of this questionnaire were:

OUT OF TWENTY FOUR STUDENTS, 50% HAD ONE CORRECT ANSWER, 22% HAD THREE CORRECT

ANSWERS, 14% HAD NONE CORRECT ANSWER, 14% HAD FOUR CORRECT ANSWERS AND 0% HAD ALL

FIVE CORRECT ANSWERS.

14%

50%

22%

14%

0%

ANSWER 1

No correct answer

One Correct answer

Three Correct answers

Four Correct answers

Five Correct answers



OUT OF TWENTY FOUR STUDENTS, 75% FOUND THE TASK DIFFICULT, 21% FOUND THE TASK SO SO AND

4% FOUND THE TASK EASY.

OUT OF TWENTY FOUR STUDENTS, 62% DID NOT UNDERSTAND THE ACTIVITY, 21% DID NOT

UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY HEARD, 13% DID NOT LISTEN PROPERLY, 4% OTHER REASONS.

75%

21%

4%

ANSWER 2

dificil

mas o menos

facil

62% 13%

21%

4%

ANSWER 3

No entendi la consigna

No pude escuchar bien

No entendi lo que escuche

Otro



ROOT OF THE PROBLEM: LACK OF CORRECT DEVELOPMENT OF LISTENING

ACTIVITIES AS WELL AS LACK OF STRATEGIES TO ENCOURAGE THE

DEVELOPMENT OF THIS SKILL.

As regards the teacher answers I could analyze that the teacher and I had the same feeling

regarding the fact that the students had difficulties when doing listening activities.

However, after analyzing the rest of the data collected I found out that the reasons why

students had difficulties regarding this skill was not lack of practice but lack of correct

development of listening activities as well as lack of strategies to encourage the

development of this skill. I came up with this conclusion because of the following reasons:

During several listening lessons which I observed there were neither pre nor post listening

activities.

There was no background knowledge involved before beginning with the listening activity.

The teacher did not work with the new vocabulary before the listening activity.

62% did not understand the activity and 21% did not understand what they heard.

After analyzing the data collected and arriving at this conclusion I began my project.



PLANNING



AIMS

The main aim of my action research project is to improve the development of

listening activities so that students are able to improve their listening skill.

OBJECTIVES (attitude/content goals)

Terminal:

Students will improve the listening skill due to an improvement of the development of the

listening activities

Enabling:

Students will be able to start recognizing the vocabulary presented in isolation (the prompt-

cards on the board)

Students will be able to recognize the new vocabulary when they hear it

Students will be able to acquire appropriate pronunciation

Students will start to comprehend the text and related as well as being able to apply what they

have learnt

At the end of this stage the students will be able to improve the listening skill



STRATEGY/METHODOLOGY

After an extensive reading I came up with several conclusions regarding the issue of concern: (relevant information is in black and bigger in size)

TEACHING LISTENING1

Listening is the language modality that is used most frequently. It has been estimated that adults spend

almost half their communication time listening, and students may receive as much as 90% of their in-school information through listening to instructors and to one another. Often, however, language learners do not recognize the level of effort that goes into developing listening ability.

Far from passively receiving and recording aural input, listeners actively involve themselves in the interpretation of what they hear, bringing their own background knowledge and linguistic knowledge to bear on the information contained in the aural text. Language learning requires

intentional listening that employs strategies for identifying sounds and making meaning from them.

Listening involves a sender (a person, radio, television), a message, and a receiver (the listener). Listeners often must process messages as they come, even if they are still processing what they have just heard, without backtracking or looking ahead. In addition, listeners must cope with the sender's choice of

vocabulary, structure, and rate of delivery. The complexity of the listening process is magnified in second language contexts, where the receiver also has incomplete control of the language.

Given the importance of listening in language learning and teaching, it is essential for language teachers to help their students become effective listeners. In the communicative approach to language teaching, this means modeling listening strategies and providing listening practice in authentic situations: those that learners are likely to encounter when they use the language outside the classroom.

GOALS AND TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHING LISTENING

Instructors want to produce students who, even if they do not have complete control of the grammar or an extensive lexicon, can fend for themselves in communication situations. In the case of listening, this means

producing students who can use listening strategies to maximize their comprehension of aural input, identify relevant and non-relevant information, and tolerate less than word-by-word comprehension.

FOCUS: THE LISTENING PROCESS

To accomplish this goal, instructors focus on the PROCESS of listening rather than on its product.

They develop students' awareness of the listening process and listening strategies by asking students to think and talk about how they listen in their native language.

They allow students to practice the full repertoire of listening strategies by using authentic listening tasks.

1 http://www.nclrc.org

http://www.nclrc.org/



They behave as authentic listeners by responding to student communication as a listener rather than as a teacher.

When working with listening tasks in class, they show students the strategies that will work best for the listening purpose and the type of text. They explain how and why students should use the strategies.

They have students practice listening strategies in class and ask them to practice outside of class in their listening assignments. They encourage students to be conscious of what they're doing while they complete listening tape assignments.

They encourage students to evaluate their comprehension and their strategy use immediately after

completing an assignment. They build comprehension checks into in-class and out-of-class listening assignments, and periodically review how and when to use particular strategies.

They encourage the development of listening skills and the use of listening strategies by using the target language to conduct classroom business: making announcements, assigning homework, describing the content and format of tests.

They do not assume that students will transfer strategy use from one task to another. They explicitly mention how a particular strategy can be used in a different type of listening task or with another skill.

By raising students' awareness of listening as a skill that requires active engagement, and by explicitly teaching listening strategies, instructors help their students develop both the ability and the confidence to handle communication situations they may encounter beyond the classroom. In this way they give their students the foundation for communicative competence in the new

language.

INTEGRATING METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES

Before listening: Plan for the listening task

Set a purpose or decide in advance what to listen for

Decide if more linguistic or background knowledge is needed

Determine whether to enter the text from the top down (attend to the overall meaning) or from the bottom up (focus on the words and phrases)

DURING AND AFTER LISTENING: MONITOR COMPREHENSION

Verify predictions and check for inaccurate guesses

Decide what is and is not important to understand

Listen/view again to check comprehension

Ask for help



After listening: Evaluate comprehension and strategy use

Evaluate comprehension in a particular task or area

Evaluate overall progress in listening and in particular types of listening tasks

Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose and for the task

Modify strategies if necessary

USEAUTHENTIC MATERIALS AND SITUATIONS

STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILLS

Language learning depends on listening. Listening provides the aural input that serves as the basis for language acquisition and enables learners to interact in spoken communication.

Effective language instructors show students how they can adjust their listening behavior to deal with a variety of situations, types of input, and listening purposes. They help students develop a set of listening

strategies and match appropriate strategies to each listening situation.

LISTENING STRATEGIES

Top-down strategies are listener based; the listener taps into background knowledge of the topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language. This background knowledge activates a set of expectations that help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate what will come next. Top-down strategies include

listening for the main idea

predicting

drawing inferences

summarizing

Bottom-up strategies are text based; the listener relies on the language in the message, that is, the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates meaning. Bottom-up strategies include listening for specific details, recognizing cognates, recognizing word-order patterns.

Strategic listeners also use metacognitive strategies to plan, monitor, and evaluate their listening.

They plan by deciding which listening strategies will serve best in a particular situation.

They monitor their comprehension and the effectiveness of the selected strategies.

They evaluate by determining whether they have achieved their listening comprehension goals and whether the combination of listening strategies selected was an effective one.

LISTENING FOR MEANING



To extract meaning from a listening text, students need to follow four basic steps:

Figure out the purpose for listening. Activate background knowledge of the topic in order to predict or anticipate content and identify appropriate listening strategies.

Attend to the parts of the listening input that are relevant to the identified purpose and ignore the rest. This selectivity enables students to focus on specific items in the input and reduces

the amount of information they have to hold in short-term memory in order to recognize it.

Select top-down and bottom-up strategies that are appropriate to the listening task and use them flexibly and interactively. Students' comprehension improves and their confidence increases when they use top-down and bottom-up strategies simultaneously to construct meaning.

Check comprehension while listening and when the listening task is over. Monitoring

comprehension helps students detect inconsistencies and comprehension failures, directing them to use alternate strategies.

DEVELOPING LISTENING ACTIVITIES

As you design listening tasks, keep in mind that complete recall of all the information in an aural text is an unrealistic expectation to which even native speakers are not usually held. Listening exercises that are meant to train should be success-oriented and build up students' confidence in their listening ability.

Construct the listening activity around a contextualized task.

Contextualized listening activities approximate real-life tasks and give the listener an idea of the type of information to expect and what to do with it in advance of the actual listening. A beginning level task would be locating places on a map (one way) or exchanging name and address information (two way).

Define the activity's instructional goal and type of response.

Each activity should have as its goal the improvement of one or more specific listening skills. A listening activity may have more than one goal or outcome, but be careful not to overburden the attention of beginning or intermediate listeners.

Recognizing the goal(s) of listening comprehension in each listening situation will help students select appropriate listening strategies.

Identification: Recognizing or discriminating specific aspects of the message, such as sounds, categories of words, morphological distinctions

Orientation: Determining the major facts about a message, such as topic, text type, setting

Main idea comprehension: Identifying the higher-order ideas

Detail comprehension: Identifying supporting details



Replication: Reproducing the message orally or in writing

Check the level of difficulty of the listening text.

How is the information organized? Does the story line, narrative, or instruction conform to familiar expectations? Texts in which the events are presented in natural chronological order, which have an informative title, and which present the information following an obvious organization (main

ideas first, details and examples second) are easier to follow.

How familiar are the students with the topic?

Does the text contain redundancy?

Does the text involve multiple individuals and objects? Are they clearly differentiated? It is easier to understand a text with a doctor and a patient than one with two doctors, and it is even easier if they are of the opposite sex. In other words, THE MORE MARKED THE DIFFERENCES, THE EASIER THE COMPREHENSION.

Does the text offer visual support to aid in the interpretation of what the listeners hear? Visual

aids such as maps, diagrams, pictures, or the images in a video help contextualize the listening input and provide clues to meaning.

USE PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES TO PREPARE STUDENTS FOR WHAT THEY ARE GOING TO HEAR OR VIEW.

The activities chosen during pre-listening may serve as preparation for listening in several ways.

During pre-listening the teacher may

assess students' background knowledge of the topic and linguistic content of the text

provide students with the background knowledge necessary for their comprehension of the listening passage or activate the existing knowledge that the students possess

clarify any cultural information which may be necessary to comprehend the passage

make students aware of the type of text they will be listening to, the role they will play, and the purpose(s) for which they will be listening

provide opportunities for group or collaborative work and for background reading or class discussion activities

Sample pre-listening activities: looking at pictures, maps, diagrams, or graphs; reviewing vocabulary or grammatical structures; reading something relevant; constructing semantic webs (a graphic arrangement of concepts or words showing how they are related); predicting the content of the listening text; going over the directions or instructions for the activity; doing guided practice

MATCH WHILE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES TO THE INSTRUCTIONAL GOAL, THE LISTENING PURPOSE, AND STUDENTS' PROFICIENCY LEVEL.



While-listening activities relate directly to the text, and students do them do during or immediately after the time they are listening. Keep these points in mind when planning while-listening activities:

If students are to complete a written task during or immediately after listening, allow them to read through it before listening. Students need to devote all their attention to the listening task. Be sure they understand the instructions for the written task before listening begins so that they are not distracted by the need to figure out what to do.

Keep writing to a minimum during listening. Remember that the primary goal is comprehension, not

production. Having to write while listening may distract students from this primary goal. If a written response is to be given after listening, the task can be more demanding.

Organize activities so that they guide listeners through the text. Combine global activities such as

getting the main idea, topic, and setting with selective listening activities that focus on details of content and form.

Use questions to focus students' attention on the elements of the text crucial to comprehension of the whole. Before the listening activity begins, have students review questions they will answer orally or

in writing after listening. Listening for the answers will help students recognize the crucial parts of the message.

Use predicting to encourage students to monitor their comprehension as they listen. Do a

predicting activity before listening, and remind students to review what they are hearing to see if it makes sense in the context of their prior knowledge and what they already know of the topic or events of the passage.

Give immediate feedback whenever possible. Encourage students to examine how or why their responses were incorrect.

Sample while-listening activities

listening with visuals, filling in graphs and charts, following a route on a map, checking off items in a list, listening for the gist, searching for specific clues to meaning, completing cloze (fill-in) exercises, distinguishing between formal and informal registers.

Teaching Listening

Using Textbook Listening Activities

The greatest challenges with textbook tape programs are integrating the listening experiences into classroom instruction and keeping up student interest and motivation. These challenges arise from the fact that most textbook listening programs emphasize product (right or wrong answer) over process (how to get meaning from the selection) and from the fact that the listening activities are usually carried out as an add-on, away from the classroom.

1. Plan for listening/viewing: Review the vocabulary list, if you have one; Review the worksheet, if you have one; Review any information you have about the content of the tape/video

2. Preview the tape/video: (tape) Use fast forward to play segments of the tape; (video) view the video without sound; Identify the kind of program (news, documentary, interview, drama); Make a list of



predictions about the content; Decide how to divide the tape/video into sections for intensive listening/viewing.

3. Listen/view intensively section by section. For each section: Jot down key words you understand; Answer the worksheet questions pertaining to the section; If you don't have a worksheet, write a short summary of the section

4. Monitor your comprehension: Does it fit with the predictions you made?; Does your summary for each section make sense in relation to the other sections?

5. Evaluate your listening comprehension progress

ASSESSING LISTENING PROFICIENCY

You can use post-listening activities to check comprehension, evaluate listening skills and use of listening strategies, and extend the knowledge gained to other contexts. A post-listening activity

may relate to a pre-listening activity, such as predicting; may expand on the topic or the language of the listening text; or may transfer what has been learned to reading, speaking, or writing activities.

In order to provide authentic assessment of students' listening proficiency, a post-listening activity must reflect the real-life uses to which students might put information they have gained through listening.

It must have a purpose other than assessment

It must require students to demonstrate their level of listening comprehension by completing some task.



ACTION REASEARCH

LESSON PLAN



Tools for gathering data (include samples of tools) Questionnaire for students (I decided to use the same structure because students were already familiar with it)

Questionnaire for teacher

How did the lesson go in general?

Very good good regular

Did the students understand what they had to do?

Yes no more or less

Were the instructions clear?

Yes no more or less

Were the students engaged?

Yes no more or less

Did the students participate during the lesson?

Yes no more or less

Questionnaire 1. ¿Cuantas respuestas correctas tuviste?

/18 2. La actividad te resulto…

DIFÍCIL “ MAS O MENOS” FÁCIL 3. Si la actividad te resulto DIFÍCIL fue porque…

No entendí la consigna No entendí las palabras que escuche No pude escuchar bien Otro

Questionnaire 1. ¿Cuantas respuestas correctas tuviste?

/18

2. La actividad te resulto… DIFÍCIL “MAS O MENOS” FÁCIL 3. Si la actividad te resulto DIFÍCIL fue porque…

No entendí la consigna No entendí las palabras que escuche No pude escuchar bien Otro



LISTENING STRATEGIES Yes No

Did the teacher observer develop the class taking into consideration students’ background knowledge?

Did the teacher observer use strategies for the correct development of the listening lesson, taking into consideration pre- listening activities, while-listening activities, post-listening activities?

Did the teacher observer provide opportunities for group or collaborative work and for background reading or class discussion activities?

Did the teacher observer make students aware of the type of text they will be listening to, the role they will play, and the purpose(s) for which they will be listening?

Did the teacher observer assess students' background knowledge of the topic and linguistic content of the text?

Was the volume of the CD player appropriate?

Does the text involve multiple individuals and objects? Are they clearly differentiated?

Did the teacher observer match while-listening activities to the instructional goal, the listening purpose, and students' proficiency level?

Were listening exercises success-oriented and build up students' confidence in their listening ability?

Did the teacher observer give immediate feedback whenever possible?

Did the teacher observer organize activities so that they guide listeners through the text?

Did the teacher observer use questions to focus students' attention on the elements of the text crucial to comprehension of the whole?

Did the teacher observer use predicting to encourage students to monitor their comprehension as they listen?

Did the teacher observer keep writing to a minimum during listening?

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

Did the teacher observer create a friendly and co-operative atmosphere?

Did the teacher observer explain what, why and how I was going to teach?

Did the teacher observer organize the work clearly and efficiently?

Did the teacher observer adapt the lesson flexibly as it went on?

Did the teacher observer use different media and aids?

CONTENT

Where the items taught relevant to learner’s needs?

Did the items naturally link previous learning with following items?

Did the learners understand the use of the items?



Self-questionnaire

LISTENING STRATEGIES Yes No

Did I develop the class taking into consideration students’ background knowledge? X

Did I use strategies for the correct development of the listening lesson, taking into consideration pre- listening activities, while-listening activities, post-listening activities?

X

Did I provide opportunities for group or collaborative work and for background reading or class discussion activities?

X

Did I make students aware of the type of text they will be listening to, the role they will play, and the purpose(s) for which they will be listening?

X

Did I assess students' background knowledge of the topic and linguistic content of the text?

X

Was the volume of the CD player appropriate? X

Does the text involve multiple individuals and objects? Are they clearly differentiated? X

Did I match while-listening activities to the instructional goal, the listening purpose, and students' proficiency level?

X

Were listening exercises success-oriented and build up students' confidence in their listening ability?

X

Did I give immediate feedback whenever possible? X

Did I organize activities so that they guide listeners through the text? X

Did I use questions to focus students' attention on the elements of the text crucial to comprehension of the whole?

X

Did I use predicting to encourage students to monitor their comprehension as they listen?

X

Did I keep writing to a minimum during listening? X

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

Did I create a friendly and co-operative atmosphere? X

Did I explain what, why and how I was going to teach? X

Did I organize the work clearly and efficiently? X

Did I adapt the lesson flexibly as it went on? X

Did I use different media and aids? X

CONTENT

Where the items taught relevant to learner’s needs? X

Did the items naturally link previous learning with following items? X

Did the learners understand the use of the items? X



ACTION



Observation and Analysis of the data collected STUDENTS’ QUESTIONNAIRES

After collecting the questionnaires I found out that:

To the first question, ¿Cuantas respuestas correctas tuviste?,

ten students had had fourteen correct answers,

two students had had thirteen correct answers,

four students had had ten correct answers,

one student had had nine correct answer

two students had had eight correct answers,

one student had had seven correct answers,

two students had had five correct answers,

one students had had three correct answers,

and one students had had NO correct answer.

To the second question, La actividad te resulto… DIFÍCIL “MAS O MENOS” FÁCIL,

three students had answered DIFICIIL

fifteen students had answered “MAS O MENOS”

six student had answered FACIL

To the third question, Si la actividad te resulto DIFÍCIL o “MAS O MENOS” fue porque… No

entendí la consigna, No entendí las palabras que escuche, No pude escuchar bien, Otro.

one student answered No entendí la consigna

four students answered No entendí las palabras que escuche

four students answered No pude escuchar bien



nine students answered other (which meant that the listening was a bit fast)

OUT OF TWENTY FOUR STUDENTS, 40% HAD FOURTEEN CORRECT ANSWERS; 16% HAD TEN CORRECT

ANSWERS,4% HAD FIVE CORRECT ANSWERS; 4% HAD THREE CORRECT ANSWERS; 4% HAD NO CORRECT

ANSWER; 8% HAD THIRTEEN CORRECT ANSWERS; 4% HAD NINE CORRECT ANSWER, 4% HAD SEVEN CORRECT

ANSWERS; 12% HAD EIGHT CORRECT ANSWERS.

40%

8% 16% 4%

12%

4% 8%

4%

4%

Answer 1

fourteen correct answers

thirteen correct answers

ten correct answers

nine correct answers

eight correct answers

seven correct answers

five correct answers

three correct answers

no correct answer

12%

63%

25%

Answer 2

Dificil

Mas o menos

Facil



OUT OF TWENTY FOUR STUDENTS, 12% FOUND THE TASK DIFFICULT, 63% FOUND THE TASK SO SO AND

25% FOUND THE TASK EASY.

OUT OF EIGHTEEN STUDENTS, 6% DID NOT UNDERSTAND THE ACTIVITY, 22% DID NOT UNDERSTAND

WHAT THEY HEARD, 22% DID NOT LISTEN PROPERLY, 50% OTHER REASONS (SPEED OF THE LISTENING)

FINAL CONCLUSION OF STUDENTS’ QUESTIONNAIRE

THE FIRST ANSWER TO THE QUESTION, ¿CUANTAS RESPUESTAS CORRECTAS TUVISTE?, SHOWED THAT

MORE THAN 65% OF STUDENTS HAD MORE THAN HALF OF THE ANSWERS CORRECT, THIS DEMONSTRATE

THAT STUDENTS HAD UNDERSTOOD WHAT THEY HAD LISTENED AND READ. IN COMPARISON WITH

OTHER LISTENING ACTIVITIES DONE IN THE PAST FEW WEEKS IN WHICH ONLY 36% OF STUDENTS HAD

HAD HALF OF THE ANSWERS CORRECT.

TO THE SECOND QUESTION, LA ACTIVIDAD TE RESULTO… DIFÍCIL “MAS O MENOS” FÁCIL,

63% OF STUDENTS FOUND THE TASK MORE OR LESS DIFFICULT, IN COMPARISON WITH THE PREVIOUS

LISTENING ACTIVITY IN WHICH 75% OF STUDENTS FOUND THE TASK VERY DIFFICULT. THIS SHOWS AN

IMPROVEMENT IN THEIR LISTENING SKILLS, PROBABLY HELPED BY THE FACT THAT INSTRUCTIONS WERE

CLEAR AND THE USE OF DIFFERENT STAGES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LISTENING ACTIVITY.

6%

22%

22%

50%

Answer 3

No entendi la consigna

No entendi las palabras queescuche

No Pude escuchar bien

Otro



TO THE THIRD QUESTION, SI LA ACTIVIDAD TE RESULTO DIFÍCIL O “MAS O MENOS” FUE PORQUE…

NO ENTENDÍ LA CONSIGNA, NO ENTENDÍ LAS PALABRAS QUE ESCUCHE, NO PUDE ESCUCHAR BIEN,

OTRO. 50% OF STUDENTS HAD DIFFICULTIES BECAUSE OF THE SPEED OF THE LISTENING. THIS IS

PROBABLY DUE TO THE FACT THAT STUDENTS NEED MORE PRACTICE, BUT THE SPEED OF THE LISTENING

WAS VERY SLOW AND IN FACT, MOST OF STUDENTS DID WELL AND UNDERSTOOD THE TEXT.

TEACHER’S QUESTIONNAIRE

AS REGARDS THE TEACHER’S QUESTIONNAIRE, THE RESULT WAS QUITE SUCCESSFUL, SINCE ALL THE

ANSWERS WERE POSITIVE.

SELF-QUESTIONNAIRE

AS REGARDS MY SELF-QUESTIONNAIRE, THERE WERE SOME POINTS TO IMPROVE BUT I THINK MOST OF

THE CLASS WAS OK.

OBSERVATION AS A TRAINEE TEACHER

FROM MY POINT OF VIEW, THE CLASS WAS VERY GOOD, ALL STUDENTS (EVEN THE LAZY ONES)

PARTICIPATED IN THE CLASS AND COMPLETED THE ACTIVITY. THEY WORKED HAPPY AND THE CLASS

FINISHED WITH THE AFFECTIVE FILTER VERY LOW, DUE TO THE FACT THAT STUDENTS WERE VERY HAPPY

WITH THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS DURING THE LESSON. THEY WORKED WITH DIFFERENT SKILLS INCLUDING

LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND WRITING. THEY ALSO WORKED WITH PRONUNCIATION.



SAMPLES OF DATA

COLLECTED



FINAL REFLECTION



After analyzing all the data (diaries, questionnaires, observations) I came up

with the following conclusion:

Instructions need to be crystal clear for students to be able to carry out an

activity, if there is any doubt they will feel demotivated and will stop

paying attention to the teacher.

Using appropriately the different stages for the development of a listening

activity is VITAL for students. The different stages do not only help

students to understand the instructions, but also to place themselves in

the context and engage them cognitively right from the beginning. Using

strategies construct a secure path for them to follow through the listening

activity.

Pre- listening activities are highly important to make students engage

right from the beginning. This stage will define the rest of the lesson’s

development.

Post-listening activities are also very important to make students feel

secure about what they have understood and if they have understood the

material correctly.

Apart from that, students feel secure and confortable with the correct

development of the different stages in a listening activity. This creates a

perfect atmosphere for them to learn and keeps the affective filter to the

minimum.

Answering to the questions of the initial reflection:



Why learners, which were always participating, did not feel at ease when

the teacher asked them to participate in answering questions regarding


After analyzing all the data, I can confirm that students did not feel

comfortable when answering questions regarding the listening activities

because they did not feel secure about what they had understood.

Why was it that learners never did the listening activities in the correct

way and had serious mistakes in them as well?

After collecting and processing all the data, I know that students almost never

did the listening activities in the correct way because instructions were not

clear enough.

Why were learners always against listening exercises?

Learners have “built a wall” between listening activities and them, this is due

to the fact that, as they usually did not understand the listening activities,

therefore they never did the activities in the correct way, they rejected them

because they were frustrating for them.

Why did learners felt so demotivated and frustrated when they finish with


Learners felt demotivated and frustrated because they did not understand the

listening activities and therefore, they failed.



Why were learners underdeveloped in this particular skill and not in the

others?

Learners had difficulties in this particular skill because:

There was not enough input, teacher usually talked in Spanish.

The development of the stages of the listening lesson was not develop in the

correct way.

They do not have enough listening practice

Why the teacher presented the listening activity without any pre or post

listening activity?

How can I improve this situation? (Suggestions for further action)

This situation can be improved by:

Developing the class taking into consideration students’ background

knowledge.

Using strategies for the correct development of the listening lesson,

taking into consideration pre- listening activities, while-listening

activities, post-listening activities.

Providing opportunities for group or collaborative work and for

background reading or class discussion activities.

Making students aware of the type of text they will be listening to, the

role they will play, and the purpose(s) for which they will be listening.



Assessing students' background knowledge of the topic and linguistic

content of the text.

Using the CD player with an appropriate volume.

If the text involves multiple individuals and objects, making differences

in objects and individuals crystal clear.

Matching while-listening activities to the instructional goal, the listening

purpose, and students' proficiency level.

Making listening exercises success-oriented and build up students'

confidence in their listening ability.

Giving immediate feedback whenever possible.

Organizing activities so that they guide listeners through the text.

Using questions to focus students' attention on the elements of the text

crucial to comprehension of the whole.

Using predictions to encourage students to monitor their comprehension

as they listen.

Keeping writing to a minimum during listening.



FINAL CONCLUSION



Final Conclusion

After this fruitful experience, I can now realize how important the different

stages of a listening lesson are. They are absolutely vital for students to fully

understand and improve the listening skill.

This experience helped me to improve in many aspects of my teaching and

also not to make those kinds of mistakes, which can be harmful for a

student’s education and development in a 2L acquisition.

This experience has also helped me to show that I am capable of teaching and

improving, since my confidence in my teaching was really low until now.

Another aspect to consider is the fact that the theory that we have learned in

these past few years has been absolutely vital for the discovery and

improvement of many aspects of the teacher, classroom, and students,

among others.

action research project

Documents