Effects of adapted language materials in teaching listening on improving students’ English listening skill

Abstract

So far the students of Le Hong Phong Junior High School, Phan Rang - Thap Cham City, Ninh Thuan province have been taught listening comprehension with textbook-based language materials which are too obsolete. Therefore, the students are often fed up with listening lessons; thus, their listening skill fails to improve after studying listening with textbooks for many years. Stimulated by this reality, the current study was carried out to investigate the effects of the adaptation of language materials in teaching listening on students' achievement of listening skill development. To obtain the above target, a conceptual framework of teaching listening with adapted language materials was developed. This framework was based on the theories of teaching listening and the implementation of language materials adaptation in listening skill instruction. Following the shaped conceptual framework, a training program with six listening lessons within the prescribed curriculum of ``Tiếng Anh 8'' by the MoET was conducted. The treatment lasted nearly four months from the middle of August 2018 to the end of November 2018 at Le Hong Phong Junior High School, Phan Rang - Thap Cham City, Ninh Thuan province. The results of the current study have shown that after the treatment of listening instruction with adapted language materials, students' achievement was proved to be significant in improving their listening skill. Also, teaching listening with adapted language materials got positive attitudes from the students. That is to say, adapted language materials were effective in improving students' listening skill development. Also, all the adapted listening texts and follow-up tasks highly met students' satisfaction. Accordingly, two major conclusions could be withdrawn from the findings that language materials adaptation was effective in (1) improving the students' listening skill, and (2) enhancing their interest in the listening lessons.