Vinh university The Foreign Languages Department === === Improve note-taking skill for the third-year English students at Vinh University (Cải thiện kỹ năng ghi chép khi nghe cho sinh viên Anh ngữ năm thứ ba trờng Đại học Vinh) Graduation Thesis Field: Methodology Supervisor: Ms Nguyễn Thị Lan Phơng, M.A Student: Bùi Thị Mỹ Hảo, 43A2 Vinh, May 2006 = = Table of contents Page Acknowledgement Part i: introduction 1 1. The rationale .1 2. The aims of the study 1 3. The scope of the study .2 4. The methods of the study 2 5. The design of the study 2 Part ii: development 3 Chapter 1: Theoretical background .3 1.1. Listening comprehension .3 1.1.1. Definition of listening skill 3 1.1.2. Real-life listening situations 4 1.1.3. Types of listening activities in classroom 4 1.1.3.1. No overt response 5 1.1.3.2. Short responses 5 1.1.3.3. Longer responses 5 1.1.3.4. Extended responses .5 1.2. Note-taking skill .6 1.2.1. Definition of note taking 6 1.2.2. The importance of note taking .7 1.2.3. Four phases of note taking .8 1.2.3.1. Get yourself ready to take notes .8 1.2.3.2. Before class .9 1.2.3.3. During class 9 1.2.3.4. After class .9 1.2.4. Some methods of note taking .10 1.2.4.1. The Cornell Method 10 1.2.4.2. The Outlining Method 11 1.2.4.3. The Charting Method 12 1.2.4.4. The Sentence Method 13 1.2.5. Some problems affecting note-taking process .13 1.2.5.1. Coping with speech .14 1.2.5.2. Coping with the lack of vocabulary 15 2 1.2.5.3. Coping with fast, natural speech .15 1.2.5.4. Coping with redundancy and background noise .15 1.2.5.5. Listeners 16 3 1.2.6. Basic framework for teaching note taking .17 1.2.6.1. Pre-listening 18 1.2.6.2. While-listening 19 1.2.6.3. Post-listening .19 1.2.7. Symbols and abbreviations used in note taking .20 1.2.7.1. Why to use symbols and abbreviations? 20 1.2.7.2. How to use symbols and abbreviations .20 1.2.7.3. Some suggested symbols and abbreviations .21 Chapter 2: The survey 24 2.1. Overview of the survey 24 2.1.1. Objectives of the survey .24 2.1.2. Informants and their background 24 2.2. Description of the survey questionnaire 24 2.2.1. The focus of the survey questionnaire 24 2.2.2. The survey questionnaire and the results 25 2.2.3. Findings 27 Chapter 3: Some activities for improving note-taking skill .31 3.1. Some pre-listening activities for note-taking in class 31 3.1.1. “Wh” Game 31 3.1.2. Summarizing .32 3.1.3. Vocabulary Game .33 3.1.4. Replacing symbols and abbreviations 34 3.1.5. Story- making 35 3.1.6. . Realizing the situation 35 3.2. Some common note-taking activities based on listening situations 36 3.2.1. Listening to a conversation .36 3.2.2. Listening to news 40 3.2.3. Listening to advertisements 41 3.2.4. Listening to a story .42 3.2.5. Listening to descriptions or introductions 43 3.2.6. Listening to a lecture 44 3.3. Some activities for students to practise note taking outside class .45 3.3.1. Activities for general understanding 45 3.3.2. Activities for understanding the details 46 3.3.3. Activities for listening and taking notes during lectures 47 3.3.4. Other suggestions .48 part iii: conclusion 49 references 5 Acknowledgements To finish this graduation thesis, beside our efforts, we are indebted to many people for their great help. First of all, I would like to express my special thanks to my supervisor, Ms NguyÔn ThÞ Lan Ph¬ng, M.A, who has helped me enthusiastically with her advice, directions, comments, criticism and encouragement for the accomplishment of the study. I would also like to thank The Foreign Languages Department for offering me a chance to carry out the study and thank all my teachers whose valuable lectures on English, especially listening and methodology, took an important part in this graduation thesis. I am also grateful to the students from course 44, The Foreign Languages Department, Vinh University who took part in my small survey as well as my friends for their constructive opinions, useful and up-to-date materials concerning our study. Finally, I deeply thank my family and my close friends for their spiritual support and encouragement. Vinh, May 2006 Bïi ThÞ Mü H¶o Part i: introduction 1. The rationale Once learners have adjusted the idea that school requires a certain amount of work- no matter how good or bad the instructors are, no matter how interesting or boring the classes are, no matter how difficult the subjects are– they are ready to listen. But only listening is not enough. An important thing they have to do is taking notes while listening. Although students have to take notes at university, not many students take time to take effective notes. In fact, note taking is very important but difficult. For foreign language students, note taking is more difficult. However, relatively few foreign language teachers teach this skill. At Vinh University, this skill is officially taught for the third-year students in listening subject but we find that the results of listening tests are far behind the expectation. Beside the reason that students’ listening skill is not good, another reason is that they do not know the best way to take notes well while listening. It is undeniable that note taking is good for both students' studying process and their life later on. So learning how to take notes well is really important. As a forth-year student of the The Foreign Languages Department, the author wishes that she could do something to help students in lower courses, especially third-year students in improving their note-taking skill in listening. That is the reason for choosing the topic “Improve note-taking skill for the third-year English students at Vinh University”. 2. The aims of the study As the title suggests, this graduation thesis is done to improve note-taking skill in listening for the third-year students. Therefore, when doing this thesis, we aimed at: - Giving the theoretical backgrounds of listening and note-taking skill. 7 - Making teachers and students more aware of the importance of note- taking skill, some methods of note taking and other guidelines for taking notes. - Investigating the current status of learning note-taking skill of the third- year English students through the survey questionnaire. - Introducing some activities and suggestions for teaching and learning note-taking skill. 3. The scope of the study This thesis focuses on the theoretical background of listening and note taking and the activities that help to improve note-taking skill for the third- year English students at Vinh University 4. The methods of the study In this graduation thesis, we have used different methods but the main ones are as follow: - Examining the relevant literature from which we build up the theoretical background of listening and note-taking skill. - Investigating the current status of learning note-taking skill of the third- year English students at Vinh University through a survey questionnaire including ten questions. - Basing on the results of the survey to search for suitable activities for improving note-taking skill. 5. The design of the study This thesis consists of three parts: Part I is the introduction of the thesis containing the rationale, the aims, the scope, the methods, and the design of the study. Part II is the development with three chapters: Chapter 1: Theoretical background Chapter 2: The survey Chapter 3: Some activities for improving note-taking skill. Part III is the conclusion of the thesis The thesis also contains acknowledgements, the table of contents and the references. 8 Part ii: development Chapter 1: theoretical background This chapter examines a theoretical background of listening skill in general and note-taking skill in particular. Firstly, we provide a brief overview of listening comprehension. Secondly, we focus on the theories of note-taking skill including the definition of note-taking skill, four phases of note-taking, some methods of note-taking, problems affecting note-taking process, basic framework for teaching note taking in listening, and symbols and abbreviations used in note-taking. 1.1. Listening comprehension 1.1.1. Definition of listening skill It is obvious that students spend majority of their time at school listening to their professors’ lectures. So much of what they acquire during their studying process is through listening. According to Ron Forseth and others in their “Methodology Handbook for English teachers in Vietnam” (1994: 112), “Listening is a language skill which involves a wide range of sub-skills. It is much more than hearing; it is decoding sounds and understanding the meanings behind the sounds”. Listening is paying attention to what people are saying in order to make sense of what they want to communicate. It is not simply hearing and passively copying what others say but it is an active process. In order to reconstruct the message that the speaker intends, the hearers must actively contribute knowledge from both linguistic and non-linguistic sources. As Garvie claimed in his “Story as Vehicle” (England: Multilingual Matters Limited, 1990), “Listening is an active not a passive operation”. 1.1.2. Real-life listening situations In principle, the objective of listening comprehension practice in the classroom is that students should learn to function successfully in real-life. 9 Obviously classroom listening is not real-life listening. However, in order to provide students with training in comprehension that will prepare them for effective functioning outside classroom, the teacher should provide real-life listening situations. It is also worth noting that listening activities based on stimulated real-life listening situations are likely more motivating and interesting to do than contrived textbook comprehension exercises. Clearly, learners need to know what real-life listening situations are. They are the listening experiences that occur in our life. In these situations, people may be doing other things beside listening– speaking usually - but the essential point is that they need to be able to understand what is said to function satisfactorily. The following list is about a fairly representative selection of real-life listening situations showed in “Teaching Listening Comprehension” (Penny Ur, Cambridge University Press, 1992: 24): . Radio news/ TV news . Loudspeaker announcements . Advertisements . Descriptions and introductions . Instructions . Committee meeting . Shopping . Theatre show . Loudspeaker announcements . Story-telling . Conversation, gossip . Lesson, lecture, speech 1.1.3. Types of listening activities in classroom There are various ways of classifying such taxonomy: by listening skill, by level of difficulty, and so on. But here we refer to types of listening activities by the amount and complexity of response demanded of the learners. 1.1.3.1. No overt response 10