Khóa luận A study on techniques to improve note taking skill in listening class for second year student of English major at hai phong private university

Nội dung text: Khóa luận A study on techniques to improve note taking skill in listening class for second year student of English major at hai phong private university

1. BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DÂN LẬP HẢI PHÒNG ISO 9001 : 2008 KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP NGÀNH: NGOẠI NGỮ HẢI PHÒNG – 2012
2. HAIPHONG PRIVATE UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT GRADUATION PAPER A STUDY ON TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE NOTE TAKING SKILL IN LISTENING CLASS FOR SECOND YEAR STUDENT OF ENGLISH MAJOR AT HAI PHONG PRIVATE UNIVERSITY By: LE QUOC HAN Class: NA1201 Supervisor: NGUYEN THI QUYNH HOA, M.A HAI PHONG – 2012
3. BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DÂN LẬP HẢI PHÒNG Nhiệm vụ đề tài tốt nghiệp Sinh viên: Mã số: Lớp: .Ngành: Tên đề tài:
4. Nhiệm vụ đề tài 1. Nội dung và các yêu cầu cần giải quyết trong nhiệm vụ đề tài tốt nghiệp ( về lý luận, thực tiễn, các số liệu cần tính toán và các bản vẽ). 2. Các số liệu cần thiết để thiết kế, tính toán. . . 3. Địa điểm thực tập. .
5. CÁN BỘ HƯỚNG DẪN ĐỀ TÀI Người hướng dẫn thứ nhất: Họ và tên: Học hàm, học vị: Cơ quan công tác: Nội dung hướng dẫn: Người hướng dẫn thứ hai: Họ và tên: Học hàm, học vị: Cơ quan công tác: Nội dung hướng dẫn: Đề tài tốt nghiệp được giao ngày tháng năm 20 Yêu cầu phải hoàn thành xong trước ngày tháng năm 20 . Đã nhận nhiệm vụ ĐTTN Đã giao nhiệm vụ ĐTTN Sinh viên Người hướng dẫn Hải Phòng, ngày . Tháng năm 20 . HIỆU TRƯỞNG GS.TS.NGƯT Trần Hữu Nghị
6. PHẦN NHẬN XÉT TÓM TẮT CỦA CÁN BỘ HƯỚNG DẪN 1. Tinh thần thái độ của sinh viên trong quá trình làm đề tài tốt nghiệp: 2. Đánh giá chất lượng của khóa luận (so với nội dung yêu cầu đã đề ra trong nhiệm vụ Đ.T. T.N trên các mặt lý luận, thực tiễn, tính toán giá trị sử dụng, chất lượng các bản vẽ) 3. Cho điểm của cán bộ hướng dẫn : (ghi bằng cả số và chữ) Hải Phòng, ngày tháng năm 20 Cán bộ hướng dẫn (họ tên và chữ ký)
7. NHẬN XÉT ĐÁNH GIÁ CỦA NGƯỜI CHẤM PHẢN BIỆN ĐỀ TÀI TỐT NGHIỆP 1. Đánh giá chất lượng đề tài tốt nghiệp về các mặt thu thập và phân tích tài liệu, số liệu ban đầu, giá trị lí luận và thực tiễn của đề tài. 2. Cho điểm của người chấm phản biện : (Điểm ghi bằng số và chữ) Ngày tháng năm 20 Người chấm phản biện
8. TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: INTRODUCTION 8 1. RATIONALE 12 2. AIMS OF THE STUDY 12 3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS 12 4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY 12 5. METHODS OF THE STUDY 12 6. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 13 7. DESIGN OF THE STUDY 13 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 14 1. Listening 14 1.1. Definition of Listening 14 1.2. Classification of listening 15 2. The Role of Note Taking Skill in Listening 18 3. What to Note 19 3.1. Main Ideas 19 3.2. The Links 20 3.3. Non contextualized Information 20 3.4. Verb Tenses 20 3.5. How to Note 21 3.5.1. Abbreviations and Symbols 21
9. 3.5.1.1. Abbreviations 21 3.5.1.2 Symbols 25 3.6. Note Arrangement 27 3.6.1. Diagonal Layout 27 3.6.2. Left-hand Margin 28 3.7. Which Language Used In Notes 29 3.8. When to Note 30 CHAPTER II: METHODS AND PROCEDURES 32 1. INTRODUCTION 32 2. THE OBJECTIVE OF THE SURVEY 32 3. SUBJECTS 32 4. METHODOLOGY AND METHOD OF THE SURVEY 32 4.1. Methodology 32 4.2. Method 33 5. PROCEDURES 33 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS 33 1. ANALYZING FROM THE STUDENTS’ SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE 33 1.1. Years of studying English 33 1.2. Students’ Attitude toward Listening Skill 34 1.3. Students’ attitude toward how listening important to them 34 1.4. Students’ Time Allocation for Self-Study 35
10. 1.5. Students using abbreviation and symbols instead of writing all in words 35 1.6. Students Using Diagrams in Their Notes 36 1.7. Students’ Opinion about Rewrite Their Notes. 37 1.8. Student’s Opinions on the Materials Supplied By the Teachers 38 2. ANALYZING FROM THE TEACHERS’ SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE 38 2.1. Teachers’ Opinions on Students’ Competence during Their First Two Years in the University. 39 2.2. Teachers’ Opinions on Students’ Common Difficulties in note taking skill in listening class. 39 2.3. Teachers’ Opinions on the Materials Supplying To the Students 41 2.4. Teachers’ opinions on the ways to help students improve their note taking skill in listening class. 41 2.5. Teachers’ suggestions to the students to enhance their listening competence. 41 PART III: CONCLUSION 43 1. CONCLUSION 43 2. SOME SUGGESTED TECHNIQUES 44 2.1. USE SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS 44 2.2. USE CONCEPT MAPS AND DIAGRAMS 45 2.3. TAKING NOTES IN CLASS: A BRIEF SUMMARY 48 2.3.1. Before the Lecture Begins 50
11. 2.3.2. During the Lecture 50 2.3.3. After the Lecture 51 2.4. OTHER SUGGESTED TECHNIQUES ON TAKING NOTES 51 2.4.1. The 2-6 52 2.4.2. Split Page Method 52 2.4.3. Using Group Notes 52 2.4.4. Secrets to Taking Better Notes 52 2.4.5. Noteworthy Notes 53 2.4.6. Attend Class 53 2.4.7. Prepare for the lecture 54 2.4.8. Use Colors 54 3. Suggestions for Further Study 56 REFERENCES 57 APPENDIX 57 STUDENTS’SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE 58 APPENDIX 61 TEACHERS’ SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE 61
12. PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Listening, like playing chess, is a game of problem solving, evaluation, critical thinking, intuition and forecasting. Every game is different and each game is a challenge requiring listeners to unceasingly develop knowledge and experience. It is a disciplined study and the repeated practice of many techniques and skills that bring victory to the listener. Apart from basic requirements of language mastery and culture sensitivity, quite a few skills need acquiring for successful listening. One of them is note-taking skill. Like learners elsewhere in the world, Vietnamese learners encounter many difficulties in improving listening skill. During my English learning in the university especially in the field of learning listening skill in 2nd year, I myself found out that if Vietnamese can master listening skills, the English listening problems will be overcame. All the above reasons have inspired the writer to choose the subject ―A study on techniques to improve note taking skill in listening class for 2nd English major student at Hai Phong Private University‖ to do research. 2. Aims of the Study The study has purposes as follows: - To find out the difficulties encountered by 2nd year English majors in improving note taking skill in listening class. - To suggest some techniques to improve 2nd year English majors’ note taking skill. 3. Research Questions The study is conducted to answer the following questions: * What difficulties do HPU 2nd year English majors face in note taking in listening? * What methods should be used to help HPU English major students overcome their difficulties? 4. Scope of the Study English listening is a big theme; however, because of the limited time and my knowledge, in this paper, the writer only focuses on note taking skill problems in listening faced by Vietnamese and some techniques for teaching English to solve these problems. The study limits itself at finding out the difficulties in learning listening skill of second year English majors. Moreover, the researcher concentrates on improving note taking skill in listening class accessed in the view of both students and lecturers. 5. Methods of the Study The following methods are employed to collect data for the study: Quantities method (The survey questionnaires were designed with the participants of English teachers and major students at Hai Phong Private University. Direct observation and conversation
13. The major source of data for the study was students’ survey questionnaire respondents while direct observation and conversation applied with an aim to get more information for any confirmation of the findings. 6. Significance of the Study Although note taking has been one of the most common skills in listening, there are few studies on listening problems and factors affecting listening ability. This study is designed to investigate the 2nd year English major students’ difficulties and causes of those difficulties especially it is done by a HPU student of English so it can be more subjective and appropriate to the ELT situations in HPU. 7. Design of the Study The study is divided into three parts: Part I: Introduction presents the rationales, aims, research questions, scope, method and design of the study. Part II: Development consists of three chapters Chapter 1: REVIEW OF LITERATURE - deals with the concepts including listening and note taking skill in listening class, types of listening, and the roles of note taking skill in listening class. Chapter 2: METHODS AND PROCEDURES - gives the situation analysis, subjects, and data collection instruments. Chapter 3: DATA ANALYSIS – shows the results of the survey and a comprehensive analysis on the data collected. Part III: Conclusion presenting an overview of the study, suggestions for further research and limitations of the study.
14. PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1. Listening 1.1. Definition of Listening Listening is considered as one of the most important parts of the oral communication. The term is used in order to make oral communication effective. There was an idea that ―Students spend 20 percent of all school related hours just listening. If television watching and one-half of conversations are included, students spend approximately 50 percent of their waking hours just listening. For those hours spent in the classroom, the amount of listening time can be almost 100 percent.‖ Obviously, it is believed that listening is a significant and essential area of development in a native language and in a second language; therefore, there have been numerous definitions of listening and listening skill. According to Howatt and Dakin (1974), listening is ability to identify and understand what others are saying. This process involves understanding a speaker’s accent and pronunciation, the speaker’s grammar and vocabulary and comprehension of meaning. An able listener is capable of doing these four things simultaneously. In addition, Lesley Barker (2001) states that: ―Listening, however, is more than just being able to hear and understand what someone else says, listening skills involve etiquette, asking for clarification, showing empathy and providing an appropriate response.‖ According to Bulletin (1952), listening is one of the fundamental language skills. It's a medium through which children, young people and adults gain a large portion of their education-their information, their understanding of the world and of human affairs, their ideals, sense of values, and their appreciation. Rubin (1995) conceived listening as an active process in which a listener selects and interprets information, which comes from auditory and visual clues in order to define what is going on and what the speakers are trying to express. Purdy (1991) defined listening as ―the active and dynamic process of attending, perceiving, listening, remembering and responding to the expressed verbal and non-verbal needs, concerns and information offered by the human beings‖. Carol (1993) described listening as a set of activities that involve ―the individual’s capacity to apprehend, recognize, discriminate or even ignore‖. Wolvin and Coakley (1985) points out that listening is ―the process of receiving, attending to and assigning meaning to aural stimuli‖. This definition suggests that listening is a complex, problem-solving skill. The task of listening is more than perception of sound. This view of listening is in accordance with second-language theory which considers listening to spoken language as an active and complex process in which listeners focus on selected aspects of aural input, construct meaning, and relate what they
15. hear to existing knowledge (O’Malley & Chamot, 1989; Byrnes, 1984; Richards, 1985; Holand, 1983).Recently, Imhof (1998) stated that listening is ―the active process of selecting and integrating relevant information from acoustic input and this process is controlled by personal intentions which are critical to listening‖. Rost (2002) confirmed, ―Listening is experiencing contextual effects‖ which can be translated as ―listening as a neurological event (experiencing) overlaying a cognitive event creating a change in a representation‖, etc 1.2. Classification of listening Almost the learners of English will sooner or later, find themselves in a variety of situation where they need or want to listen to English being used in the real-life for arrange of purposes. However, they have to face many difficulties because there is the big difference between the listening activities in the classroom and actual situations. In the class, the learners listened to the very grammatical standard dialogues, conversations or presentations. The speakers often speak at perfectly controlled speed, with perfect voice tone, accent and correct grammar. The learners even had the preparation already and knew clearly about the topic that they are going to listen to. That is the reason why the learners can listen very well. Whereas, in the real-life conversations, learners encounter various people speak with different accent, speed and voice tone without paying attention to grammar. The speakers also can use the difficult words, idioms, proverbs, or even the slang words, etc. As a result, the learners cannot listen to perfectly. In the real-life, different situations call for different types of listening, and as your listening skills evolve, so will your ability to hear what someone is really saying. There are many types of listening. However, in general and according to Adians (1995), there are two ways, which people often listen in the real- life. They are ―casual‖ listening and ―focused‖ listening. ―Casual‖ listening (in another word, we call it ―Appreciative Listening‖). This is one of the most enjoyable types of listening, and it comes naturally for many people. There are not a lot of responses necessary in appreciative listening, though groups of listeners might often talk among themselves to process the experience. Appreciative listening is most often used when people listen to music, plays, concerts or other performances. The typical feature is that we do not listen carefully and intentionally, therefore we may not remember much of what we hear or even there is nothing in our mind. ―Focused‖ listening (or Informational listening. This is simple, straightforward listening. The speaker intends to get a message across, and the listener's goal should be to understand that message as completely as possible. The listener might need to ask questions or request clarification to get the full message. In this case, we often listen with much attention for a particular purpose but we do not listen to everything we hear with equal concentration. For instance, we want to know the answer to a question, we will ask and expect
16. to hear the relevant response. This leads to our ―listening out‖ for certain key phrases or words. Even when listening to entertainment such as plays, jokes or songs we have a definite purpose (enjoyment), we want to know what is coming next, and we expect it to cohere with what went before. There is an association between listener expectation and purpose and hi comprehension. If the listener expects and needs are intentional, his listening is likely accurately perceived and understood than that which is unexpected, irrelevant or helpful. According to Rixon (1986) and Hublard, R and others (1984), there are two main kinds of listening in classroom, they are intensive listening and extensive listening. Intensive listening (Comprehensive/ Informative Listening). That means students listen carefully for the detailed information, full comprehension or the content of the message. Anytime students listen to instructions or to a lecture from an instructor, listening to the announcement or weather forecast, they are using informative listening. The important aspect of this type of listening is whether the listener understands the message being relayed by the speaker. If the listener misunderstands or does not pay close attention, informative listening is affected. This kind of listening helps learners develop their listening skill or knowledge of the language in their effort to do exercises or other activities. The passage should be short so that learners have chances to get to grip with the content. They also feel it easy, interesting and encouraging when they listen to a short passage. In contradiction, Extensive listening (Appreciative listening) is free and general listening to natural language for general ideas, not for particular details. It is the art of listening for pleasure and interest. When people enjoy a concert, speech, short jokes or poems, etc, they are experiencing appreciative listening. They are not asked to do any language work and they can do their listening freely without any pressure. Moreover, the topics are various and entertaining, therefore they are motivated to develop their listening skill. Wolvin and Coakly (1988, 1993) have introduced another categorization of listening. They identified five types of listening: o Discrimination listening o Listening for comprehension o Therapeutic (empathic) listening o Critical listening o Appreciative listening Discriminative listening is the most basic type of listening, whereby the difference between different sounds is identified. If listener cannot hear
17. differences, they cannot make sense of the meaning that is expressed by such differences. As a result, a person from one country finds it difficult to speak another language perfectly. Likewise, a person who cannot hear the subtleties of emotional variation in another person's voice will be less likely to be able to discern the emotions the other person is experiencing. The next step beyond discriminating between different sound and sights is to make sense of them. To comprehend the meaning requires having a lexicon of words, rules of grammar and syntax by which we can understand what others are saying. The visual components of communication and an understanding of body language also help us understand what the other person is really meaning. Comprehension listening is also known as content listening, informative listening and full listening. In therapeutic listening, the listener has a purpose of not only empathizing with the speaker but also to use this deep connection in order to help the speaker understand, change or develop in some way. Moreover, this kind of listening happens wherever and whenever in life. Critical listening is listening in order to evaluate and judge, forming opinion about what is being said. Judgment includes assessing strengths and weaknesses, agreement and approval. This form of listening requires significant real-time cognitive effort as the listener analyzes what is being said, relating it to existing knowledge and rules. In appreciative listening, we seek certain information which will appreciate, for example that which helps meet our needs and goals. We use appreciative listening when we are listening to good music, poetry or maybe even the stirring words of a great leader. Beside the above well-known classifications, Rost’s theory (1990) introduced four types of listening suggested by Garvin (1985) with small modification: o Transactional listening o Interactional listening o Critical listening o Recreational listening Transactional listening typically occurs in formal listening settings such as a lecture. In these situations, the listener has limited opportunities to interfere or to collaborate with a speaker for negotiating message meaning. Whereas, interactional listening, according to Rost is relevant to recognizing the personal component of a message. The listener is explicitly engaged in the cooperation with a speaker for communicative purposes and focuses on building a personal relationship with the speaker. Regarding critical listening , he addressed that critical listening similar to the one suggested by Wolvin and Coakly (1988, 1993), indicating the act of evaluating reasoning and evidence, while recreational listening requires a listener to be involved in appreciating random or integrating aspects of an event. He further stated that
18. listening requests a cognitive and social skill as well as a linguistic skill, and that the purpose of listening guides a listener as he/ she listens. Differently, Ur (1984) is another L2 researcher who classified listening by its function. To her point of view, there are two types of listening: listening for perception and listening for comprehension. To the former, it is the act of listening to perceive ―the different sounds, sound-combinations and stress and intonation patterns of foreign language‖. While listening for comprehension is relevant to content understanding and it is divided into two sub-categories, passive listening for comprehension implying the act of making the basic for other language skills with imaginative or logical thought and active listening for comprehension. Rather, she insisted that listening for comprehension should be considered as a continuum from passive listening on the left side to active listening on the right side of continuum. 2. The Role of Note Taking Skill in Listening Note taking is a mode of memory. It takes a great important role in language listening. The analyses of the examples of note taking show us that there are many things, which are worth considering remaining on the parts of consciousness and skills of students. Thus, we should pay a special attention to the cultivation of the consciousness of note taking and the systematic training of the methods and skills for the purpose of further improving students' listening ability. Note taking is an effective information-processing tool that is commonly used both in daily life and in many professions (Hartley, 2002). As such, it contributes to the carrying out of a range of intellectual processes, such as making judgments, resolving issues, and making decisions. The taking of notes can aid time-consuming, real-time thought processes, such as the resolution of mathematical problems. In this respect, notes are similar to a rough draft in that they allow information to be coded, thereby relieving mnemonic processes and consequently helping with the development of the solution (Cary & Calson, 1999). There are some other important roles of note taking skill: o Notes help memory. o Writing it helps you remember the material. o Summarizing things in your own words helps you learn. o Writing notes in a pattern can help visual learners. o Notes keep a record. o Taking notes keeps record of the source of information. o Class notes are a record of the important points discussed in class. o Notes help your writing.
19. o Reviewing your notes allows you to revisit your thoughts and prepare to start writing. o Your notes’ organization can inspire organization in your writing o You can see what information you should plan to write about in your paper. o Looking at your notes may get your ideas flowing. o Notes help your understanding. o Thinking about what needs to be written helps you to understand the significance of the material you learn. o Through organization, you see how information fits and works together. o Notes help you study for exams. o Taking notes helps you commit some of the information to your memory. o Organized material can help you learn more easily when preparing for an exam. 3. What to Note Notes taken by students have shown that they tend to stick to words. They hesitate to free themselves to concentrate on meaning by throwing away the lexical form like words and structures etc. They try to retain each word of the source utterance; consequently, their short- term memory will be quickly overloaded with individual lexical items, which may not even form a meaningful sentence. Moreover, their attention will be wasted on finding. Equivalent lexical items in the target language rather than the meaning of incoming message. Clearly, these students may not have recognized that things need noting is logically related to ―the mental analysis of the speech‖. Notes are not expected to be complete or organized exactly the same way as in the original speech. On the other hand, they are expected to provide the cues necessary to remember the information in the speech. Notes can be compared to the skeleton outline of the speech shaped with main ideas and the links between them. 3.1. Main Ideas The first thing to be noted should be main ideas. For the fact that the writing speed is always slower than speaking speed, it is impossible for the listener to write down everything spoken by the speaker. The listener is required to have the ability to identify, select and retain important ideas but omit anything, which is not relevant to the understanding of the original speech. Furthermore, by recording the main ideas in notes, the
20. listener easily traces back the structure of the speech; hardly misses out important ideas; and always keeps fidelity to the original content. 3.2. The Links The second thing the listener should consider to take notes is the links between ideas. The connections between individual ideas determine the overall meaning of the speech. Thus, it is necessary for the listener to realize and render the links. The ways in which ideas may be linked together are (I) the logical consequence which is expressed clearly with words such as consequently, as a result, accordingly or therefore; (II) the logical cause which can be recognized with the words because, due to, as, or since; and (III) opposition which often goes with but, yet, however or nevertheless (Jones, 2002,p.28-29). Hardly does the listener get confused, if he or she notes links systematically. It is just liken to the act of marking road for each turn. Thanks to logical connections, the listener can follow every movement and direction change made by the speaker without any difficulty. 3.3. Non contextualized Information Numbers, proper names, lists of things and terminologies are some in the group of the elements that cannot be recalled on the basis of analytical and logical thinking in a given context. If the listener wants to remember these elements, he or she has no choice but keeps repeating them over and over again. Clearly this is not a preferable manner because if the Listener’s mind is too preoccupied with rehearsing such ―non contextualized information‖, in all likelihood, the listener will be distracted from listening comprehension and target language production. In addition, unlike ―main ideas‖ which have strongly impressed themselves on the listener’s mind in the form of either specific images or general concepts and tightly linked with each other, most of these elements are not tagged with any kind of mental images and they independently stand on their own. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that numbers, proper names, lists of things and terminologies most deserve to be the priority of the listener’s note-taking. 3.4. Verb Tenses According to Jones, it is also important to note down tenses of verbs. That means ―when noting verbs, listeners should thus take care to note the tense correctly, and if appropriate the mode, in particular conditional‖ (p.42). The modes and tenses of verbs have decisive influence on the meaning of a sentence. To sum up, in the notes of listener, at least main ideas and the links between them must appear in order to help the listener visualize the structure of the speech. Besides, to relieve the memory, the listener should also note down ―non contextualized elements‖ including numbers, proper names, lists of things and terminologies, etc. Other things like tenses of verbs and
21. points of view of the speaker may be or may not be noted down, depending on the decision made by each individual listener under certain circumstances. Some listeners prefer the notes with very little detail while others prefer taking advantage of the notes with as much detail as possible. Both attitudes are justifiable provided that notes are not allowed to be counterproductive, harming the listener’s listening comprehension and target language production. 3.5. How to Note In order to take notes effectively, the most important thing the listener must do is to decide what to note. However, according to experienced listeners, how to note is also very important. Conspicuously, notes that are clearly separated and logically organized help the listener avoid all confusion when reading back notes. And notes using abbreviations and symbols are very helpful in activating the most information with the 3.5.1. Abbreviations and Symbols First and foremost, notes should be as economical as possible in order to save the listener’s effort on writing. In this case, abbreviations and symbols appear to be efficient tools. So far, several attempts have been made to create complete system of abbreviations and symbols used in notes for listening. The first of these is Becker system. Becker was a conference listener and listener trainer and he created special cues for note-taking. His Notizenschift and Symbolschrift offer many tips for inventing symbols and abbreviations. The other note-taking system was created by Matyssek who devised the similar system with sophisticated rules so that complex symbols could be derived from basic one in his Sprachunabhangige Notation. However both note-taking systems can never be as effective as the one intended to supplement the memory of consecutive listener for the reason that they are used to encode all information in systematic way for wider use not just for listeners only. The use of symbols and abbreviations should be automatic because any new one created in the process of listening may require so much attention. It is not advisable for the listener to be distracted from his work by whatever causes. Only by developing his own system of abbreviations and symbols beforehand, can the listener make them come to his pen automatically. 3.5.1.1. Abbreviations Abbreviations help the listener take notes quickly, saving time spent on other activities in the process of listening. The abbreviations used in the notes for listening are not wholly identical to those used in the student’ notes or secretary’s reminders. These abbreviations must be unequivocal and unambiguous enough for the listener to understand immediately when
22. reading back notes because under time pressure the listener has no chance to reconsider the meaning of abbreviations. An abbreviation may be meaningless to others, but must be meaningful to the listener using it. There are many principles and rules for the use of abbreviations. However the most important one is that abbreviations must be consistent, if a listener has chosen ―pop‖ standing for ―popular‖ then he should find another abbreviation for ―population‖, for example, ―pop on‖. The following suggestions about creating abbreviations are based on the truth that the fewer strokes are written; the more time can be saved. - Write what is heard: The listener can write a word by recording its sound only. For example: high- hi; know- no; free- fre; fee- fe; night- nite; etc. - Drop medial vowels: For example: build- bld; legal- lgl; bulletin- bltn; save- sv;budget- bjt; etc. - Write initial and final vowels: For example: office- ofs; easy- ez; follow- flo; value- vlu; open- opn; etc. The rules of abbreviations set up by Rozan are classified into three categories: (i) abbreviation of words; (ii) abbreviation to indicate verb tenses and (iii) abbreviating the register. According to the first rule, ―unless a word is short (4-5 letters), the listener should note it in an abbreviated form‖ and ―write some of the first and last letters rather than trying to write as many letters as possible from the start onwards‖ (Rozan, n.d). For example, Prod. could be read as ―production‖, ―producer‖, ―product‖ or ―productivity‖ while Pron, Prer, Prct, Prvity are unambiguous. - The second rule reads that ―to indicate tense we add for the future and for the past‖ - The third one is applied to abbreviate expressions which are too long, for example, ―In order to arrive at some conclusion‖ can be noted ―to end‖; or ―Taking into account the situation at the present time‖ can be noted ―as siton now‖; ―with the intention of/ with the purpose of‖ can be noted ―to‖. The rule here is ―wherever possible we must abbreviate by using a word which conveys the same meaning but is much shorter‖ (Rozan, n.d.)
23. The presentation of the table below is not aimed at systematically displaying an ambitious collection of abbreviations. In the table, there are only some abbreviations which have been amassed through both personal experience and practical observation. Table1: List of Abbreviations in Common Use WORDS ABBREVIATION WORDS ABBREVIATION kilometer Km labor Lbr kilowatt Kw people Pp kilowatt-hour kwh society Soc. centimeter cm economy Eco millimeter mm monetary Mon number N0 politics Pol figure fig popular Pop maximum max export Exp minimum mini import Imp hundred h professional Pro thousand thou department Dep mathematic math bureau Bu. literature lit agriculture Agr physics phys corporation Corp. hour hr company Com Tuesday Tue commerce Com week wk information Info Abbreviation of common international organization should be remembered by the listener. The working environment of the listener is varied, and he or she mostly often finds himself or herself at conferences on a wide range of topics with many representatives coming from different international and or local organizations, agencies and corporations, etc. It is possible to say that the listener must have some background knowledge about those groups. It is the duty of the listener to remember their names in abbreviation as part of the required knowledge. The following table contains some common names in abbreviation. Table 2: Lists of Names of International Organizations and Agencies in Abbreviation NAMES OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS ABBREVIATION AND AGENCIES World Bank WB European Union EU
24. Asian Development Bank ADB World Trade Organization WTO World Health Organization WHO International Monetary Fund IMF United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO Food and Agriculture Organization FAO Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation APEC International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA Association of Southeast Asia Nations ASEAN United Nations Development Program UNDP International Criminal Police Organization INTERPOL United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR Table 3: List of Names of Vietnamese Agencies in Abbreviation
25. NAMES OF VIETNAMESE AGENCIES ABBREVIATION Ministry of Trade MOTD Ministry of Justice MOJ Ministry of Finance MOF Ministry of Industry MOI Ministry of Fisheries MOF Ministry of Construction MOC Ministry of Home Affairs MOHA Ministry of Public Health MOPH Ministry of Transportation MOT Ministry of Foreign Affairs MOFA Ministry of National Defense MOND Ministry of National Security MONS Ministry of Information and Culture MOIC Ministry of Education and Training MOET Ministry of Science and Technology MOST Ministry of Investment and Planning MOIP Ministry of Post and Telecommunication MOPT Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs MOLISA Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development MOARD Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment MONRE 3.5.1.2 Symbols Although the abbreviation is commonly used in notes, its most prominent drawback is that it tends to entice the listener to stick to the word level instead of meaning level. In other words, it easily leads the listener to think in terms of words rather than ideas, which could harm the listening. Therefore symbols are more preferable for their capacity of representing ideas and eliminating source language interference.
26. A "symbol" is anything, a mark, sign or letter used to represent a thing or a concept. Symbols are quicker and easier to write than words. Similar to abbreviations, firstly symbols need to be prepared in advance. Any symbol improvised in the middle of listening could drive the listener into a difficult and intense situation. One basic rule for the listener: only use the symbols which are already stuck in the mind. Secondly, symbols must be consistent. That means symbols are instantly associated for the listener himself with the meaning he gives them. Attending to this point, the listener can avoid mistakenly ―deciphering‖ the meaning of the symbols he or she uses. Followings are some symbol examples retrieved from electronic source at Note taking Training Resource. Table 4: Symbol SYMBOL MEANING EXAMPLE + plus, in addition, and, also He rides a bike + he skates. - minus He was - a brain. = equal to, is Women are = to men. ¹ not equal, is not Diet ice cream is ¹to real! ~ about, approximately He's ~ 17 yrs old. ft foot, feet He's 6 ft tall. X times 5X the diameter of the earth. > greater than 6 > 2 < less than My salary is < yours. $ money, cost, price He left his $ at home. % percent 12% of the employees came. Some could say that symbols clearly help the listener take notes more quickly and effectively, and then it is wise to use as many symbols as possible. However, it would not seem rational to set up a rigidly unchanged rule for a degree of symbolization, each listener through practice would find their own balance. For some, symbolizing as much information as possible is good. For others, it is not necessary to do so. To sum up,
27. abbreviations and symbols are, like other elements in notes, ―a means to an end, not an end in themselves‖ (Jones, 2002, p. 39). What is the use of abbreviations and symbols, if they do not help the listener to do his work better? For the listener to fully get benefits from note-taking, a system of abbreviations and symbols that is logical, connected and unequivocal should be developed on his or her own. 3.6. Note Arrangement 3.6.1. Diagonal Layout It would seem that whenever the question of how to take notes arises, a technique named ―diagonal presentation‖ would come up. Diagonal presentation was introduced by Rozan in 1956. Also regarded as vertical arrangement, diagonal has been widely used by professional listeners. The creation of diagonal layout is based on the fact that subject, verb and object are the most important elements of a sentence which contain nearly all information or meaning of the sentence, and then they should be clearly represented in notes. Applying this technique, the subject, verb and object are arranged diagonally, from left to right and from top to bottom of a page. However it does not mean that the listener only notes the subject, verb and object elements. Based on the structure, the listener can add other details in the notes if he or she wants. Diagonal layout is highly recommended because of its clear presentation of notes. Notes in diagonal arrangement are concise and succinct; focusing on ideas rather than words, unlike notes in horizontal form which often tempt the listener to write as many words as possible. Diagonal layout is described by Jones (2002, p. 44) as: Subject Verb Object Let’s take an example; “Prime Minister Pham Van Khai's 2005 visit to Washington reflected the significant improvement in bilateral relations”. Based on the diagonal layout, this could be noted: 05 PM PVK’s vizit -> WA >> in VN-US rels Diagonal layout is also called- ―décalage‖ which is translated into English as ―shifting‖, figuratively referring to ―gap‖ or ―discrepancy‖. According to Rozan, ―shift means writing notes in the place on a lower line where they would have appeared had the text on the line above been repeated‖. How shift works is well explained by Rozan through many examples in his book entitled La prise de notes en listéning. The following example is one of them. ―Over the course of 1954, prices rose, although not to the same extent as income, thus the population’s net income increased‖ is noted as follows.
28. (1) 54, prices (2) but ───── no = income (3) so ────Pop on Word for word on the first line: Over the course of 1954, prices rose. Word for word on the second line: although not to the same extent as. Word for word on the third line: thus the population’s net income increased. With diagonal presentation or shift, notes are arranged vertically, running from the left to the right of a paper in a slanting way, which come along with the natural movement of human eyes from left to right and from top to bottom (Jones, 2002, p. 45). Moreover, information is also organized logically and clearly in diagonal form. The listener seems to be able to immediately see the connections between the ideas. All those things together show that diagonal layout can accelerate the listener’s review of notes. 3.6.2. Left-hand Margin The way in which ideas are connected to each other is as important as the ideas themselves. In terms of meaning, idea is a single unit. It is only when they are linked together that a complete message is formed. Thus, the crucial role of the links between ideas is never denied. As mentioned above, one of the major elements that must be reflected in notes is the link. In other words, the listener when taking notes cannot afford to ignore ―link words‖, for instance; therefore, consequently, nevertheless, as a result, on the other hand, however, but, or, and, yet etc. There is already diagonal layout for ideas to be put in logical order, and then there should be some spaces ―dedicated to‖ the links only. It is best to leave a left-hand margin of one or two centimeters for links to make sure that they are not confused with the other parts in notes. Obviously left-hand margin will make links stand out and easy to identify. That is the reason why a left-hand margin is frequently found in the notes of professional listeners. Furthermore, a left-hand column is ideal for marking missing ideas or denoting any change in the flow of speech. The following example extracted from Conference Listening Explained written by Jones (2002, p.47) shows how successfully left-hand margin works. “Hungary has complained that its steel exports to the European Union are not able to develop because of excessively restrictive tariff quotas. But the Union representative pointed out that quotas are still underused by Hungary by a large margin, so the tariff quotas themselves didn’t appear to be creating the difficulties” could be noted:
29. HU steel export cannot develop to EU because tariff quotas too restrictive but EU: HU underused a lot quotas so quotas not problem The example is purely given to show the function of left-hand margin; hence it has not been abbreviated and symbolized. However, as a matter of fact, because of frequent appearance of link words in notes, it is prudent to have a system of symbols for them. The following table shows some symbols for link words. Table 5: Symbols for Link Words LINK WORDS SYMBOLS 1. because/ the main reason for/ on account of/ due to/ thanks to/ coz owing to/ since/as 2. therefore/ consequently/ as a result/ that’s why/ for that reason/ so hence/ thus 3. so as to/ in order to/ with the aim of/ with the intention of/ with To the purpose 4. however/ nevertheless/ on the other hand/ although/ but/ despite/conversely 5. in addition/ furthermore/ moreover/ besides/ also/ too/ and +/& 3.7. Which Language Used In Notes The question of consecutive listeners’ choice of language for their notes is still open for debate. A large volume of literature and research papers have been written on the issue. There are diverse opinions about which language should be used in notes by the listener: the source language or the target language. The source language means the language in which a speech is made in the original, and from which an listening is to be made. The target language is the language into which a speech
30. spoken in another language is to be listened. An ideal ―language- independent system‖ for note-taking was proposed by Matyssek. However, up to now, this suggestion has not come into reality for the reason that such ―complicated system of ciphers‖ would definitely place a big burden on the listener’s memory. Except for Matyssek, most writers about note-taking in consecutive listening tend to adopt one of two contrasting positions: some advocate the use of the target language, e.g. Herbert 1952; Rozan 1956; Seleskovitch 1957; Déjean Le Féal 1981; Laplace 1990 while others like Ilg 1988; Alexieva 1993; Gile 1995 argue that the source language may be a better choice (as cited in Dam, n.d, p.4). Those who recommend using the target language basically have two reasons: first, the target language logically forces the listener to put aside the surface form of the incoming speech, instead, to concentrate on the meaning layer, that means the listener can avoid ―intellectual laziness‖, following the speaker and noting their words passively; second, taking notes in the target language is thought to effectively facilitate the re-expression phase. For others who doubt the benefits of using the target language for taking notes defend their point of view that writing notes in the target language, the listener has more activities to deal with during listening, understanding and analyzing phase. The activity of language transformation from the source into the target makes the listener’s concentration divided. Moreover, taking notes in the target language, the listener cannot have ―a full set of notes at the end of a speech‖ as he takes notes in the source language (Jones, 2002, p.60). However, some recent findings from a research paper conducted by Hellen V. Dam (n.d) have showed that ―the choice of language in note-taking is governed by mainly the status of the language in the listeners’ language combination, i.e. whether it is an A-language or B-language (A-language is also called mother tongue and B-language is the language of which the listener has perfect mastery), and much less than by its status in the listening task, i.e. whether it functions as the source language or the target language‖. This would seem to be true because in an attempt to save processing capacity for other requirements throughout the whole process of note-taking, the listener is likely to take notes in whichever language is easier. Obviously, writing in the first language (A- language) is always faster and easier than writing in another language (B-language) which is not mother tongue. 3.8. When to Note In the process of note-taking, the listener is burden with making decisions all the time. When to take notes is a very important and also tough decision that requires the listener to arrive at properly and wisely. Listeners should start the notes as soon as possible without having to wait for a complete ―unit of meaning‖. If he or she waits too long, there is danger of not being able to jot down sufficiently what has
31. come earlier. Therefore, when the listener can sense the meaning of a sentence which might has not been completed, he or she should note it down. Here the listener has the ability to ―forecast‖ or ―feel‖ upcoming things. Besides the listener is not required to take everything exactly the same way as the speaker, his or her notes are not presented in exact order as they were said by the speaker, so there is no need for the listener to wait until the speaker finishes an utterance to take note. It is also worth mentioning that as soon as speakers finish their utterance(s), the listener should stop taking notes instantly and start reproducing ideas. If the listener is too preoccupied with notes, he or she will delay the listening, which is not wanted. The listener cannot afford to take longer than the speaker. He or she is expected to react immediately after the speaker has finished. In conclusion, through the review of literature in this chapter, firstly it can be seen that listeners’ notes are different from the notes taken by students for study, secretaries for drafting memoranda and minutes or by shorthand typists who record everything almost word for word, without critically analyzing the meaning. For listeners, they need notes that can help them reproduce the full message content with the speaker’ intention or point of view as faithfully as possible. Listeners’ notes are for short-term use only, unlike students’ notes for later review or long-term use. A good note should give the main ideas of a speech, the links between those ideas, and tenses of verbs figures, and numbers, lists of things, proper names, if mentioned, so as to relieve listeners’ memory. A good note should also be as economical as possible with abbreviations and graphic symbols; then should be unequivocal and logical with diagonal layout, separating lines between ideas, and an useful left-hand margin. Which language used in notes and when to note are also important issues that should be taken into consideration by listeners.
32. CHAPTER II: METHODS AND PROCEDURES 1. Introduction The chapter in the previous section of the thesis provides an overview of note-taking in listening class, drawing on pertinent theories, examples and illustrations from linguistics research literature, which have been conjoined with personal analyses, assessments, suggestions and deductions. In the forthcoming section, an empirical report is presented based on the findings from a survey. The section starts with a brief description of the survey purpose, subjects, method and procedures. 2. The Objective of the Survey The purpose of the quantitative survey is to explore how listening students think about the skill of note-taking skill in listening class. From their own points of view and through their practical experience, how important note-taking skill might be, what may be the basic requirements for a good note and also what they would do in some specific situations during the process of taking notes, etc. The survey is not an ambitious plan to examine the students’ acquisition of note-taking skill or to study how they actually take notes in reality. 3. Subjects In fact, English Department of Hai Phong Private University mainly offers listening courses to the second –year students, the survey is conducted with one group of 20 second-year students of the year 2009-2013 and another group of 20 third-year students of the year 2010-2014. The subjects are chosen for the following reasons: (i) they have finished terms of studying and practicing note taking skill in listening class; (ii) many of them have practical experience in listening. Therefore, to some extent, they are already aware of the role of note-taking in listening. However, the second-year students are not professional listeners, so obviously they do not have a wide knowledge about note-taking skill. Their responses are mainly based on the experiences that they have accumulated through the past terms of studying listening at the school. 4. Methodology and Method of the Survey 4.1. Methodology White (2002,p. 24) Notes that: ―Quantitative research is scientific and objective approach‖ As mentioned above, the main aim of the study is to impartially record the findings about listening students’ personal opinions on note-taking. It is obvious that the methodology of quantitative best suits the aim. With this type of research, the results are given numerical values and evaluated through some mathematical treatment and then put in form of a report of quantitative data analyze.
33. 4.2. Method A survey is designed with the types of ―Group Administered Questionnaire‖ that allows getting the survey results in one space of time and also ensures a very high responses rate. The fact is that 50 copies of the survey were handed out and the number of returns is 45. There are 9 questions which are made in form of scaled items where the subjects choose only one point on a scale that best represents his or her view. 5. Procedures At the end of the first lesson on in-depth review of consecutive listening, about 50 students were asked to complete the survey. They were given 30 minutes to consider and answer 9 questions. On each copy of the survey, there is a clear introduction to the purpose and a simple instruction about how to respond to questions, therefore, no other verbal explanation was given out. The sample questionnaire is available in the appendix at the end of the thesis. CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS In this chapter, with data collected from the survey questionnaires, a comprehensive analysis will be presented. It is the reorganization of the students’ common difficulties when studying listening skill through the data from the questionnaire by the means of pie charts and columns, laid our corresponding to the sequence of the questions and draws out immediately conclusions at each figure. 1. Analyzing from the students’ survey questionnaire 1.1. Years of studying English Figure 1: Years of Studying English As can be seen from the pie chart 100% of the students who took part in the study spent more than 7 years studying English. In addition, they got used to English as a second language for a long time. Moreover, all of them have
34. from nine to thirty English periods a week. In comparison with other universities, students of Haiphong Private University had more time exploring English. 1.2. Students’ Attitude toward Listening Skill Figure 2: Students’ attitude toward listening skill The pie chart shows most students (87%) considered listening as the most difficult skill among reading, speaking and writing to them. There is only 13% of them do not have any ideas about this question. No one thinks that this skill is easy to master. 1.3. Students’ attitude toward how listening important to them Figure 3: Students’ attitude toward how listening important to them The above chart illustrates the role of listening approaching from the students’ viewpoint, 100% of the students admitted that listening is very important to them. As a result, it can provide much motivation as well as affect rightly to the students in studying listening comprehension.
35. 1.4. Students’ Time Allocation for Self-Study Figure 4: Students’ time allocation for self-study. As can be seen from the chart, up to 90% of the students sometimes or rarely practicing note taking skill at home and only 10% of them do it every day as their habits. Students’ time allocation for self-study at home is also a problem and it affects the learners very much in mastering the note taking skill. ―Practice makes perfect‖. However, it seems to be a disadvantage of HPU 2nd year English majors. 1.5. Students using abbreviation and symbols instead of writing all in words
36. Figure 5: Students using abbreviation and symbol instead of writing all in words When be asking about using abbreviation and symbols in note taking skill, there are only 24% students always use abbreviation and symbols in listening to take note and 36% of them are sometimes use abbreviation and symbols in their note. On the other hand, 40% of the listeners are never use abbreviation in their note. It means that they write everything in words which they can listen in their taking note. When you take notes, you will save time and energy by using abbreviations. Using symbols and abbreviations will accelerate your note-taking, while maintaining its clarity. To sum up, many students currently are not take advantage of using abbreviation and symbols in their taking note. They must waste a lot of time for writing everything in words and cannot note the information as much as they use abbreviation and symbols in note. It is one the reason why students cannot note all the main content in each lecture. 1.6. Students Using Diagrams in Their Notes Figure 6: Students using Diagrams to taking note 28% of interviewees responded that they often use diagrams in their notes, but it seemed that students only drew diagrams in listening class when copying them from the teacher or flip chart. 42% of interviewees replied that they only used diagrams very occasionally and 30% did not draw diagrams. The term 'diagram' is being used here to include graphs, flow charts and tables. It is said that Students are not get along with diagrams which can help them save a lot of time in their notes. Moreover, diagrams are useful because they allow you to think about the main idea that the book is exploring and then how the ideas are seen to be present in many parts of the book. The last but not least, a diagram of the information show how the main ideas are related and reflect the organization of the information. Students can use flow
37. charts, tree diagrams, diagrams, mind maps (Buzan, 1974) etc. You can also include circles, arrows, lines, boxes, etc. 1.7. Students’ Opinion about Rewrite Their Notes. Figure 7: Students rewrite their notes In answer to this question 79% of interviewees replied that they did rewrite their notes occasionally. The reasons given for doing this included when writing up minutes when their notes were particularly untidy and had to be passed round to other people and lastly when they had to write a report or article using their notes 21% of people said that they never rewrote their notes. Although many people are marked that they did rewrite their notes it was not ascertained exactly what percentage of their notes they rewrote. The notes which were rewritten were those which in some form or another bad to be given to other people. Notes which were just for private use were not generally rewritten. I think, Students rewrite notes under the assumption that repetition is good for memorization. Repetition is valuable as a first step, but it’s not that effective all alone. And Students should rewrite your notes in the shrinking outline method, but follow up with self-testing methods.
38. 1.8. Student’s Opinions on the Materials Supplied By the Teachers 0 40% Strongly agree and agree 53% Neutral Disagree and strongly disagree 7% Figure 8: Students opinions on the materials supplied by the teachers. The above chart shows that many students (53%) find the materials supplied by their lecturers are useful, interesting and suitable. Accordingly, these materials bring positive effects on learners’ listening. However, not small amounts of students (40%) still find the materials unsatisfied and unsuitable for them to improve their note taking skill in listening class. It is easy to understand because the ability of each student is not stimulus. Therefore, it could be better if the listening teachers can supply them more extra authentic listening materials.
39. 2. Analyzing From the Teachers’ Survey Questionnaire 2.1. Teachers’ Opinions on Students’ Competence during Their First Two Years in the University. 9% 36% 18% Excellent Good Average Under average 47% Figure 9: Teachers’ opinion on students’ listening competence As it can be seen from the chart, nearly half of the teaching staffs in the Faculty of Foreign Languages think that their students’ listening competence during their first two years is at average level. Moreover, a large percentage of students (36%) are under average. Only 9% of them agree that the listening ability of the students is excellent. It can be concluded that in the beginning school-years students’ biggest challenge is note taking skill. 2.2. Teachers’ Opinions on Students’ Common Difficulties in note taking skill in listening class. Strongly Strongly Factors affecting listening Agree Neutral Disagree agree disagree Your students’ vocabulary is efficient 18% 28% 36% 18% 0% enough to comprehend the spoken texts. Grammar helps them much in 18% 55% 18% 9% 0% listening comprehension They have problems with various and 36% 36% 18% 9% 0% unfamiliar accents
40. Stress and intonation make them feel 9% 46% 36% 9% 0% hard to understand the message intended It’s difficult for them to understand 46% 36% 18% 0% 0% when native speakers produce spontaneous connected speech The speed rate of native speakers is 0% 82% 9% 9% 0% too fast to your students They feel stressful and nervous while 9% 45% 46% 0% 0% listening They have hearing problems 9% 36% 18% 36% 0% Environmental factors prevent them 9% 36% 46% 9% 0% from listening They are lack of taking note 37% 27% 20% 16% 0% techniques Table 2: Teachers’ opinions on students’ common difficulties in listening lessons As can be seen from the table almost of the teachers (46%) think that their students’ vocabulary is efficient enough to comprehend the spoken texts. This recommendation is nearly correspondent with the figure found in the student’s survey questionnaire. Almost teachers and students consider the students’ vocabulary is good and efficient enough. In the contradiction with the students, most of teachers (73%) think that grammar helps the students much in listening comprehension while only 26% of their students agree with this statement. Besides, a large number of lecturers (72%) think that their students face the difficulty with various accents. Therefore, varying accents become one of the difficulties that English majors encounter in listening comprehension. Next, stress and intonation is a big challenge as well. 54% of the teaching staffs admitted that they feel stress and intonation because student’s obstacles to understand the message intended. One more phonological factor affects to students’ listening competence is the connected speech, according to the teachers. We can figure out the same percentage in viewpoints of teachers and students in this question. While the majority of students (80%) feel it is difficult for them to understand when the native speakers produce spontaneous connected speech, 82% teachers support this point of view as well. Differently to the students, 82% teachers confirm that the speed rate of native speakers is too fast to their students. The majority of teachers (54%) also think that the learners get stressful and nervous when they are listening to English. In addition, majority of the lecturers (64%) think note taking skill is not good enough to note well. These factors together with hearing problems seem are not the major challenges to the students when only 9% of the teachers complain for hearing problems.
41. 2.3. Teachers’ Opinions on the Materials Supplying To the Students Figure 10: Teachers’ opinions on materials applying to the 2nd year English majors As it can be seen from the pie chart, 45% of the teachers think that the materials using for 2nd year English majors currently are interesting and appropriate. 55% of them do not have any ideas. Not like 40% of the students, all the teachers consider the textbooks for teaching note taking skill are suitable and interesting to the learners’ proficiency level. 2.4. Teachers’ opinions on the ways to help students improve their note taking skill in listening class. To this question, many methods have been introduced with the hope of helping students overcoming their difficulties in listening acquisition. There are some of the most outstanding ones: giving students more authentic listening materials; listening more to various accents and from different sources; listening to English through some songs; providing extra listening materials; teaching pronunciation and culture to help students listen better; spending much time for speaking and listening; using games and activities motivating students to listen; practicing makes perfect. Especially, students should enrich the techniques and tips as much as they can to improve note taking skill. 2.5. Teachers’ suggestions to the students to enhance their listening competence. Here are some tips that the lecturers have been given out to help students enhance their listening ability by themselves: having English environment everywhere; more practicing because of ―practice makes perfect‖; self-study with sources and materials from authentic websites on the Internet. Overall, the third chapter has presented the data, which obtained from the survey questionnaire. The analysis of the data is carefully done. In the next
42. chapter, findings will be discussed in details and recommendations will be given.
43. PART III: CONCLUSION 1. Conclusion In the note taking process, most of the 2nd year English majors have been facing to great deal of prominent difficulties that refer to many aspects of taking notes skill in listening. There are some obstacles which students at HPU have been facing. Firstly, Most of the students have been slow note takers. It means that they are cannot catch up with the information which speakers say. It is a big problem. If Students are not fast enough to note which the speakers say they will miss the information and note nothing at all. Besides, most of the students have difficulties in taking note because of limited vocabulary. In this case; Students are failed in note taking process. Secondly, their notes are not legibility, and sometimes he or she used shorthand or abbreviation to take notes but their notes are not clear, so they understand nothing about what the speakers say. Thirdly, they don’t know what to note. As far as we have known ―what to note‖ is really important thing in the note taking process. It requires the listener to go through numerous ―cognitive processing activities‖ before taking notes. Although the issue is very much of personal affair, i.e. each listener has his or her own decision on what to note, some general principles be observed. Fourthly, they don’t know how to note and how to organize their notes. A vast majority of the students are aware of the fact that as the listener is the only person who needs to read and understand the meaning of abbreviations and symbols in his notes, he must be the creator of his own system, which then has a logical meaning. They may also understand that the listener should not compel himself to learn by heart an artificial complicated system of abbreviations and symbols built by others in the same way as one may learn mathematical formula or dramatic poems because such abbreviations and symbols require too much space in the memory. Unavoidably, this would make it harder for the listener to focus on listening, understanding and analyzing the original. Fifthly, students have poor knowledge of stress and intonation while stress and intonation play important roles in perception. According to Anderson and Tony Lynch (1988:37), stress and intonation are great sources of listening problems of EFL learners. Lastly, ―when to note‖ is their problem as well. As the matter of fact, Students only can get the main idea when they note right words or key words of the lecture. As far as the issue of when to note is concerned, the listener seems to be faced with a dilemma. On the one hand, in order to keep pace with the speaker, the listener wants to start noting as quickly as possible. On the other hand, it is impractical for the listener to note what he or she has not understood yet, hence logically, the listener should wait until he or she has grasped a complete idea before noting it down. However, taking notes as quickly as possible does not
44. mean that the listener should note every notion as soon as it is said. In this case, being hasty could easily put the listener on the wrong track. If the listener tried to note down words not ideas, he or she would always ―stay far behind‖ the speaker because writing speed is much slower than speaking one. Grasping the idea, then jotting it down is one of the basic principles for note-taking. 2. Some suggested techniques Note taking skill in listening class is always frustrating to beginners. Many problems will be encountered. According to the feedback, one of the most common problems will be the listener’s tendency to take down every single detail as best as he can. However, it is a mission impossible due to the constraint. For most of the tie, the begging listeners are so concentrated on writing down the words that they had heard that they could hardly catch meaning of the information or understand the information, resulting in the loss and misunderstanding of information. Besides, poor note structure ranks high among the problems that consequently affected the quality of notes because all the notes are written in a mess without clear divisions, so that many listeners are completely lost when they are trying to recall what they have listened. In the following, this thesis aims to provide beginning listeners with helpful techniques to facilitate a smoother and successful listening. 2.1. Use Symbols and Abbreviations A system of note-taking abbreviations, acronym and symbols has to be gradually formed. Using acknowledged symbols or creating own symbols to stand for longer information saves the time and makes it much easier to grasp information and do better listening. The following are some examples for abbreviations and symbols for note- taking: Abbreviation: Compared with writing down the whole words, abbreviation save a lot of time in note taking process. For examples: ds= disease spt=symptom y = year aeap = as early as possible gov= government ad= education Acronym: Acronym is combining the first capitalized letters of a multi-word term to represent the original long term. It is not only used in listening note-taking but also in other regular article writings. Write the full name at the beginning, and then use the acronyms in the rest of the note. PM=Prime Minister SARS= Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome OPHA= Older People’s Health Association APEC= Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Group)
45. WHO= World Health Organization Symbols: Symbols are another device which is very useful to take notes. The ease of drawing them to represent a meaning can save a lot of time. Many forms of using symbols are involved in the note taking system. Using letters or numbers and their combinations to represent words with similar pronunciation. For example: b4= before 2= to Drawing symbols is also a convenient method to take notes to save time, and represent meanings visually. As shown below: & and @ at / per É increasing, increased, increases, rises Ê decreasing, decreased, decreases, falls = equal to, is ¹ not equal to, is not Notes are just the assistance to recall memory and there is no need and impossible to write down every single detail of the information. So just write some keys words, numbers and information that contribute to the recall of the information flow. Last but not least, a well-structured note greatly helps to get a clear idea about the information flows and the relationships among them. Instead of writing everything in only one paragraph, dividing notes into chunks and marking the relatively independent information out will ease much pressure of delivery task. In a word, Practices make perfect. Only through numbers of practices should the listeners finally sum up and conclude a set of note- taking methods that greatly improve the quality of the delivery task. 2.2. Use Concept Maps and Diagrams Introduction to Concept Mapping Used as learning and teaching technique, concept mapping visually illustrates the relationships between concepts and ideas. Often represented in circles or boxes, concepts are linked by words and phrases that explain the connection between the ideas, helping students organize and structure their thoughts to further understand information and discover new relationships. Most concept maps represent a hierarchical structure, with the overall, broad concept first with connected sub-topics, more specific concepts, following.
46. Figure 11: Concept Map Example Definition of a Concept Map A concept map is a type of graphic organizer used to help students organize and represent knowledge of a subject. Concept maps begin with a main idea (or concept) and then branch out to show how that main idea can be broken down into specific topics. Benefits of Concept Mapping o Concept mapping serves several purposes for learners: o Helping students brainstorm and generate new ideas o Encouraging students to discover new concepts and the propositions that connect them o Allowing students to more clearly communicate ideas, thoughts and information o Helping students integrate new concepts with older concepts o Enabling students to gain enhanced knowledge of any topic and evaluate the information How to Build a Concept Map Concept maps are typically hierarchical, with the subordinate concepts stemming from the main concept or idea. This type of graphic organizer however, always allows change and new concepts to be added. The Rubber
47. Sheet Analogy states that concept positions on a map can continuously change, while always maintaining the same relationship with the other ideas on the map. Start with a main idea, topic, or issue to focus on. A helpful way to determine the context of your concept map is to choose a focus question—something that needs to be solved or a conclusion that needs to be reached. Once a topic or question is decided on, that will help with the hierarchical structure of the concept map. Then determine the key concepts Find the key concepts that connect and relate to your main idea and rank them; most general, inclusive concepts come first, then link to smaller, more specific concepts. Finish by connecting concepts creating linking phrases and words Once the basic links between the concepts are created, add cross-links, which connect concepts in different areas of the map, to further illustrate the relationships and strengthen student’s understanding and knowledge on the topic. Diagrams: Useful for listeners who like to see the way different ideas link with each other, Mind Maps or spider diagrams are diagrams with the main theme in the centre, with key ideas linked as branches around the theme. The lines show the links between ideas. An example of a Mind Map is shown here: Figure 12: Concept Diagram Example Whichever form of note-taking you use, your notes should not be a verbatim transcript of a speech or a word-for-word copy of text. If you have
48. copied directly from the text, make sure that you use quote marks to show exactly what you have copied (with a note of the information source used) to avoid accusations of plagiarism. You can make your notes even more effective by ensuring your handwriting is legible and numbering your pages. It is a good idea to leave plenty of space around the notes so you can add in your own ideas and questions later. Using highlighter pens, underlining, using capital letters or asterisks will help to make the key ideas stand out from the rest of the notes. 2.3. Taking Notes in Class: A Brief Summary Effective note taking takes practice, and even the very best students may lose track in a discussion or become confused about the objectives in a lesson. Don’t become discouraged. Remember that the more you think about the lecture i.e., listen actively and take good notes the more you will understand. It is what you actually do with the ideas presented in class or those generated in your thoughts through listening, reading and thinking that are critical to your understanding and retaining the material. Note-taking is an art that takes time to develop. Becoming a good note- taker takes active involvement and practice. Note-taking is important because it gets you involved in the lecture. It actually forces you to pay attention. Organizing and rephrasing your notes aides in understanding the material. Lecture notes also give you something to review before a test. Most people forget about 80% of what they've learned within two weeks; therefore, it is important that you learn how to take good lecture notes. Here are some suggestions that may help you become a better note-taker. This lesson has presented some ways for you to approach note taking. There are almost as many ways to take notes as there are students taking them. You should use the methods that work best for you. Work on perfecting your own technique. You will find that effective note taking is a skill that is of utmost importance in college, but it is also an ability that will be valuable in your professional life. The purposes of good note taking are to: o Encourage you to listen carefully and critically to what is being communicated o Increase comprehension and retention o Help you create a concise and complete outline of important topics, subtopics, and supporting ideas. o Clarify ideas and embellish the material presented One aspect of preparation is setting up a notebook:
49. Keep a separate notebook or a separate section of a notebook for each course. This will help you stay organized and avoid misplacing your notes. If the course requires different types of notes (i.e. lecture notes, notes on outside readings, lab notes, computation notes) arrange them on opposite pages for cross-reference purposes. Notes for each lecture should begin on a new page, with the date and page number. Tips for structuring and maintaining good, accurate notes: o Make your notes brief: use a key phrase for a sentence or a word to represent a phrase. o Abbr.(abbreviate!) whenever possible. o Put notes into your own words. o Formulas, definitions and specific facts demand exact wording. o Number or indent items to distinguish between major and minor points. o Highlight unfamiliar vocabulary and unclear areas. Take notes as completely as you can and check your text(s) for clarification. o Develop questions for your friends or instructor to help clarify information or concepts. o If you miss something completely, leave a blank space and locate the information later. o Develop a coding system or scheme to mark your notes. For example: a ? would stand for ―not understood; an * would mark important points. o A good place to locate your coding scheme is in the margin of the notebook. Steps to take prior to the lecture: Use active reading skills. Preview your text or reading assignments prior to the lecture. This will allow you to identify main ideas and concepts that will most likely be presented during the lecture. Try to determine what is and is not important. List unfamiliar terms and concepts prior to the lecture. Compose simple definitions of unfamiliar terms prior to the lecture. This will give you a general understanding of the material to be presented in class. If you don't understand a term or concept, compose a precise and concise question you can ask about it. You might request clarification from
50. fellow students prior to lecture. If you are still unsure of the meaning, ask for clarification during the lecture. If a term or concept has not been clarified during the lecture, ask the instructor before the class period ends. Remember, if you are confused, other students probably are, too. As you did with terms and definitions, note portions of the text or reading assignment that you do not understand. Listen for explanations during class. Prepare a question to ask during class if you are still confused. Remember, this is your education. To get the most out of it, you will want to ask questions. Prepare a list of questions prior to class, especially on concepts you did not fully understand. Also, note concepts during the lecture that you do not understand and about which you want to ask questions. If you continue to feel that you don’t understand, ask a classmate, make an appointment with your instructor, or visit the learning support center on your campus. 2.3.1. Before the Lecture Begins Be Prepared Before class, look over your notes from the previous lecture. Make sure that you have completed the reading assignments; the more familiar you are with the subject, the easier it is to understand. Ensure that you have all of the materials that you need for class, such as a pen and paper. Read the material that’s been assigned. Doing so will help you better understand the material discussed in class. You’ll already be familiar with the concepts and vocabulary that are used. 2.3.2. During the Lecture Avoid distractions. If you often find yourself daydreaming out of windows, for instance, don’t sit next to one Date your notes. It will then be easier to find notes for any particular class when you review later. Take spacious notes. Use one side of the page only. This allows you more freedom for including additional notes, for inserting textbook references and for reorganizing information later. Leave blank spaces for material you miss or are uncertain about; you can ask a classmate or the professor to help fill in later. Use your own words. Research shows that we remember information better if it’s phrased in our own language. Therefore, translate concepts presented in class into your own words, as if you were explaining them to someone else. Of course, you’ll sometimes be forced to use technical language in order to make definitions and concepts clear. Be sensitive to the lecturer’s verbal and visual cues. Phrase such as ― chief outcome‖ and ― in conclusion‖ signal summary topics of primary importance. Tone and pauses can also alert you to important information. Mark examples in your notebook. Examples, pictures, graphs, problems, etc. presented in lecture are selected for specific reasons, usually
51. because the help illustrate important concepts. Often, examples or problem similar to those given in class later appear on exams, so it’s always a good idea to note when these come up in lecture and review them later. Use abbreviations and symbols. Doing so can greatly speed your note taking and thereby increase the number of notes you can take during class. If a concept or idea is difficult to explain in words, try symbolizing it using an alternative form, such as a chart or diagram. Of course, be sure that you remember what the abbreviations and symbols mean or they can’t help you later Recognize a lecturer’s pattern and follow it. A lecturer’s style-how he or she presents material and ideas-usually becomes apparent early on and won’t change much throughout semester. Knowing your instructor’s lecture techniques will help alert you to the times you should be paying extra attention. Avoid recording lectures. Unless you have a specific need to use a tape recorder in class, it may be better not to use one. Tape recorders encourage passivity and hence aren’t a great alternative to active note taking. Your schedule is probably already too congested-to you really have the time to listen to your lectures twice? Even if you have a disability that requires the use of a tape recorder, always try to take notes, too. Pay attention to others’ questions. Take notes during class discussions or when questions are raised; important concepts are often clarified at these times. 2.3.3. After the Lecture Review lecture notes periodically. Research shows that you can forget up to 80% of what you learned in the first 24 hours after a lecture if you don’t review. Reviewing periodically keeps information fresh in your long term memory and helps you integrate new information with old. Re-organize your notes. Don’t just rewrite them – categorize and reclassify the information, cluster similar concepts together, look for the overriding concepts behind sample problems, compare and contrast theories, etc. Synthesize. Look for relationships among material presented in lecture, in discussion sessions, in homework and labs, and in the text. Try to develop a general picture of the material underpinning the course instead of simply memorizing facts and equations. If you truly comprehend the course material instead of merely proceeding by rot, you’ll be better able to anticipate test questions and to ask informed questions that will help fill gaps in your knowledge. The course will serve as far better preparation for the more advanced classes you’ll take; it will form a more study building block in the foundation of your education. 2.4. OTHER SUGGESTED TECHNIQUES ON TAKING NOTES The most comprehensive note taking systems require attention on your part. You must be alert enough in class to take legible, meaningful notes.
52. You can't rely on "writing everything down" because a lot of information in a given lecture won't help you actually learn the material. If you have problems determining the specific relevant points in a particular class, you can always ask the professor to clarify them for you. 2.4.1. The 2-6 The 2-6 refers to the way you divide the space on your notepaper. Make two columns, using the red line on the left of the page as your border. Then, when you take notes in class, use the 6 column for the notes and the smaller 2 columns on the left as a highlighting system. Write main headings and important points on the left, including material you think you will be tested on. When you're finished, you should have a comprehensive page of information that you can quickly scan for important points. Studying is 99% perspiration; if you give it a real, concentrated effort over the course of a semester you will see an improvement. Your academic success is entirely up to you. 2.4.2. Split Page Method Class lectures and your textbook they're the primary sources of course content and you need to learn both. So combine them with the split page method of taking notes. Just divide your notebook page in half lengthwise. Draw a line down the middle of the page. Take class notes on one side of the page and outline the text on the other side. When you study you'll have both. Class notes and text together, integrated. Some students find it helpful to add a third column for questions they need to ask the professor. 2.4.3. Using Group Notes Are you tired of struggling to keep up with a lecture while copying page after page of notes in class? My advice? Don't take the notes at least not every day. Instead, form a group with some of your classmates and take turns taking good class notes. When it's not your day to be the note-taker, really concentrate on what is being said in class. You might want to jot down a few particularly important points, but mostly try to participate in class. Ask questions when you can't understand the point your teacher is trying to get across, and score points by answering questions your teacher asks. After class you can either photocopy the notes from your classmate, or better yet, copy them over by hand while reviewing in your mind what happened in class. 2.4.4. Secrets to Taking Better Notes As a writer for Edinburg University and its Alumni News magazine, I spend a lot of time interviewing people. A key interviewing skill is taking good notes a skill that is just as valuable in the classroom. There is no magic to taking good notes, just common sense. It's simply a matter of being thorough and accurate. Now, not many people can write fast enough to
53. capture everything their professor says in class, so it is a good idea to also use a tape recorder. That way you won't miss something while you write, and you can double-check the tape for accuracy. Whether you use a recorder or not, it's important to transcribe your notes as soon as possible while the subject is still fresh in your mind. By re-writing or re-typing your notes, you become more familiar with the material. You mentally reinforce what was said in class. And you get practice writing the information, making it easier to write the material a second time whether it be for a test or a term paper. 2.4.5. Noteworthy Notes Are your grades as good as you want them to be? Are your notes worth reviewing? Notes are phrases and abbreviations that we hurriedly jot down while trying to follow a lecture. Later, when we go back to review our notes, there are times when we can't seem to understand or remember what those key words and phrases meant; sometimes we can't even read our own handwriting. Here is a note-taking study tip that has proven to be effective. After you have finished class, immediately rush to the nearest computer lab and retype your notes. You need to rewrite those phrases as complete thoughts and sentences; dot your I's, cross your T's and use "cut and paste" to put your notes into some type of a logical sequence. While retyping your notes you are using several modalities: you review as you read your notes aloud, you use your hand to type, and you reread again as you proof read what you have typed. Research indicates that 80% of new material can be recalled if you review notes within the first 24 hours of presentation. Also, clean typed notes are easier to read and highlight as you study. If you retype your notes daily, you will keep the task from becoming overwhelming, you will learn good study habits that aid in memory retention and, at the same time, improve your grades. 2.4.6. Attend Class The most important advice I can give to you is to make sure you attend your classes. Attendance in class enhances the chance you'll get a passing grade in a course. In addition to attending class, it is important to brush up on your note-taking skills to really achieve optimum success. Some general recommendations for improving note-taking skills are to: Read all textbook material relevant to the topic being covered prior to attending class. Make sure you take notes in class. If you fail to take notes, much of what you learn from the lecture will be forgotten in a few days. If you have something written down on paper, you can always refer to the material later. Ask professors who lecture too fast if you can tape record their lecture. You'll generally find that many professors are willing to assist you in your efforts to gain as much from their lecture as possible. By attending class and utilizing the note-taking techniques just described, your chances for success in college will increase significantly.
54. 2.4.7. Prepare for the lecture The greatest advantage is that you are familiar with the subject you know what to ask. You are not going to waste time by writing down stuff that is already there in your study material. Rather, you know what to write, where to pick links and to clear your concepts. By the time the lecture is over, you are in a much clearer state of mind. This way, taking down notes becomes more meaningful and worth the time you spent doing it. 2.4.8. Use Colors This may take a little bit longer but it will work. Just give it a chance. When you are taking notes change the color of your pen! Don't write in blue or black ink. Writing in color will help you retain 50% - 80% more of the information without reading it a second time (also highlight in purple). I am a teacher of adult education and this is the rule for my class room. Recommendation for the students o Enriching your shorthand and techniques Firstly, you must prepare the basic outline as handout and Model outlining on your notes taking book. Moreover, you should use overhead transparencies during the lesion. o Show how illegibility can affect value of notes o Model "shorthand" and abbreviations o Provide a variety of paper and pens o Organize the notes logically o Write key points on board or overhead as you lecture o Enlarge notes as handouts o Gain a note-taking format o Learn a particular note-taking strategy that suits yours o Learn how to review, correct, and elaborate on notes o Model how to use notes for studying o Schedule time for reviewing notes during class o Students should differentiate and code their notes through a variety of techniques. These include adding sub-headings of one's own, using different colors to highlight countries, dates or individuals, giving special signs for important events and sources. Lists should be made where possible,
55. especially where there are different viewpoints or causes or results of an event. o Enrich your abbreviation and symbol. Recommendation for the teachers o Tips for taking notes Teachers should ask students for developing shorthand. If you find there's a term you are writing over and over in your notes, make shorthand. There are standard abbreviations, like "w/o" for "without" and "iff" for "if and only if." You can also come up with your own. For instance, "EG" for "economic growth" or "org" for "organism." Teachers should Provide basic outline as handout to student and organize the lesson logically which can help much to students in note taking skill. o Materials should be authentic Authentic material allows the students to hear a much more real act of communication with all the interactional features which are normally not found in scripted materials. It gives them a true representation of real spontaneous speech with its hesitations, false starts and ―mistakes‖, which will make them more able to cope with ―real life‖ speech when they meet outside the learning situation. If the students have the opportunity to listen to arrange of authentic texts, they will sample many different voices with varying accents, both social and regional. They will hear people expressing things in a variety of ways; for example, they may hear anger being expressed by shouting or by choice of words or by many interruptions. Students need to experience as wide a selection of listening texts as possible. Teachers should not wait until their students become advanced learners to begin using authentic materials, although at first texts will have to be selected carefully and tasks kept simple, so that students are not demotivated by being confronted with texts and activities, which they cannot handle. Use of authentic materials, such as work place training videos, audio tapes of actual workplace exchanges, and TV and radio broadcasts, increases transferability to listening outside of the ESL classroom context- to work and to community. o Materials should be combined with techniques of taking notes Listening materials should be combined from different sources to ensure that they are interesting and appropriate enough for all levels of the students. Not only in the topics but also techniques such as abbreviation, symbols, diagrams, and the others those learners can get the basic foundation of taking notes. They should be learnt tips for notes taking skill in listening.
56. According to these thing students will be the better improvement in their note taking skill in listening class. 3. Suggestions for Further Study With the aim of overcoming such limitations, there should be a qualitative research for further study. The qualitative could provide stronger evidence by drawing on the notes produced by listening students. The techniques and activities suggested through prove to be useful and effective; they are likely to be subjective and incomplete. There should be some more techniques and activities to help second English majors of HPU in particular and English major students in general make good advance in listening skill. The research might be conducted under following procedure. In the context of an ordinary classroom, two listening tasks will be assigned to a number of students. And good time to conduct the experiment may be scheduled right before or after listening exam when students tend to perform best. Besides the whole process should be supervised by professional listeners who have the ability to give specialized evaluations and recommendations. It is obvious that the results of the qualitative survey can contribute to the growing body of research studies in the field of listening in general and note-taking skill in particular.
57. REFERENCES 1. Alvarez, P. Jr. (1994). Effective Note-Taking. The CalREN Project, University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved March 18, 2004. 2. California Polytechnic State University. (n.d.). Notetaking System: 5 methods. Student Academic Services - Study Skills Library. 3. Career Development & Placement Center, CDPC (2006). A System for Effective Lstening and Notetaking . Career Development & Placement Center, University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved 2006. 4. College of Saint Benedict | Saint John's University. (2004). Lecture Note Taking. CSB|SJU Academic Advising. 5. Manktelow, J. (1995). Mind Tools: Improving Note Taking with Concept Maps. Retrieved March 19, 2004. 6. Pauk, W. (1989). The Cornell Notetaking Technique. The Counseling and Career Center, The Brigham Young University. Retrieved April 12, 2004, from 7. Procter, M. (2003). Writing at the University of Toronto. Retrieved April 12, 2004. 8. Sweet Briar College. (n.d.). Note-Taking Skills. Study Skills. Retrieved April 12, 2004. 9. University of Minnesota Duluth. (2002). Taking Notes from Lectures. Student: Handbook. Retrieved April 12, 2004. 10. The University of Texas At Austin. (2002). A System for Effective Listening and Note-Taking. The University of Texas Learning Center. Retrieved April 12, 2004. 11. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. (n.d.). Note- Taking and In-Class Skills. Study Skills Self-help Information. Retrieved April 12, 2004. 12. * York University. (1995). Note-taking at University. Counselling and Development Centre. Retrieved April 12, 2004
58. APPENDIX STUDENTS’SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE This questionnaire is designed for the study on some obstacles facing HPU 2nd year English majors in listening comprehension. Your assistance in completing the survey is highly appreciated. All the provided information is solely for the aims of the study, not for any other purposes. Please write down the answer or tick in the box! Thank you very much for your cooperation! 1. How long have you learnt English? 1-3 years 3-5 years 5-7 years More than 7 years 2. Among four skills: reading, speaking, writing and listening, Listening skill is the most difficult one for you? Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree 3. How is listening skill important for you? Very important Important Neutral Not very important Not important at all 4. How often do you practice listening at home? A. Every day, whenever I am free, it is my habit. B. Sometimes when I remember and like to listen. C. Rarely, only when I need to finish my homework.
59. D. Never. I hate listening to English. It makes me have a headache. E. Other ideas: 5. Do you often use abbreviation and symbol in your notes? Always Sometimes Never 6. Do you often use diagram in your notes? Often Occasionally Never 7. Do you often rewrite your notes? Often Occasionally Never 8. Do you think that listening materials applying to the 2nd year English majors is interesting and appropriate? Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree 9. The listening materials supplied by the teachers are interesting and appropriate to you. Strongly agree Agree Neutral
60. Disagree Strongly disagree 10. In your opinion, what your teachers should do to help you improve your listening acquisition? Alternatively, do you have any useful tips to share the learners? -The end- Thank you once again!
61. APPENDIX TEACHERS’ SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE This questionnaire is designed for the study on techniques to improve note taking skill in listening class for HPU 2nd year English major. Your assistance in completing the survey is highly appreciated. Your answers play a very important and useful part to the study. All the provided information is solely for the aims of studying, not for any other purposes. Please write down the answer or tick in the box! Thank you very much for your cooperation! 1. What do you rate your students’ listening competence during their first 2 years in the university? Excellent Good Average Under average 2. Please give your own ideas for these recommendations Strongly Strongly Disagre Factors affecting listening Agree Neutral agree e disagree Your students’ vocabulary is efficient enough to comprehend the spoken texts Grammar helps them much in listening comprehension They have problems with various and unfamiliar accents Stress and intonation make them feel hard to understand the message intended