HANOI UNIVERSITY

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

GRADUATION THESIS

THE USE OF DICTATION TO IMPROVE LISTENING

COMPREHENSION OF FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT
HANOI UNIVERSITY

Supervisor: NGUYEN THI KIEU TRINH, M.A.

Student: NGUYEN NHAT LE

Class: 10A14

Student code: 1407010107

Hanoi, May 19th 2018

 HANOI UNIVERSITY
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

GRADUATION THESIS

THE USE OF DICTATION TO IMPROVE LISTENING

COMPREHENSION OF FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT
HANOI UNIVERSITY

Supervisor: NGUYEN THI KIEU TRINH, M.A.

Student: NGUYEN NHAT LE

Class: 10A14

Student code: 1407010107

I declare that this graduation thesis is original and has not been submitted
for assessment elsewhere.

Student’s signature Supervisor’s signature

Hanoi, May 19th 2018.

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This graduation thesis could not have been completed without the help and
support from a number of people who deserves my sincerest gratefulness and
appreciation.

First and foremost, I would like to take this opportunity to pay my deepest
regards to English Department, Hanoi University for granting me the honor of
writing a graduation thesis.

Second, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Ms.

Nguyen Thi Kieu Trinh (M.A.), for her timely feedbacks at every point during my
research, her patient guidance and helpful advices for my work which contributed a
significant part to the accomplishment of my end goal as well.

Furthermore, I am greatly indebted to 80 freshmen at English Department for

their wholehearted support with the questionnaire, namely four classes: 2A17,
11A17, 12A17 and 15A17. Without their enthusiastic co-operation, it would have
been impossible to complete this thesis.

Last but not least, I want to extend my special thanks to my family and
friends for their continual encouragement during the stressful time I conducted this
study.

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 ABSTRACT

It is a common knowledge that high level of proficiency in listening play a

fundamental role in students’ academic performance. Yet, as a matter of fact, a
considerable number of English majors encounter difficulties in listening
comprehension. For this reason, the research was conducted to discover the benefits
of dictation, an outmoded technique which is employed by English Department as a
part of listening classes, on aural comprehension of first-year English majors. The
data was collected from 80 freshmen at English Department, Hanoi University.
Most of the respondents struggled with problems in aural comprehension and the
majority of freshmen used dictation for self-practice at home with the aim to
enhance their English listening competence. This technique was assessed as a
greatly effective method to improve listening performance on several aspects of
aural comprehension. However, some noticeable drawbacks of this method and
respective suggestions are proposed to advance listening comprehension of English
Department’s first-year students by dictation practice.

Keywords: dictation, listening, listening comprehension, aural

comprehension.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.......................................................................................i
ABSTRACT.............................................................................................................ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS.......................................................................................iii
LIST OF FIGURES.................................................................................................v
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION...........................................................................1
1.1. Rationale to the study................................................................................1
1.2. Aims of the study........................................................................................2
1.3. Research questions.....................................................................................3
1.4. Hypothesis...................................................................................................3
1.5. Scope of the study.......................................................................................3
1.6. Structure of the study................................................................................4
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW.............................................................5
2.1. Listening comprehension...........................................................................5
2.1.1. Definition of listening and listening comprehension.........................5
2.1.2. Factors which obstruct listening comprehension..............................6
2.2. Dictation as a method to improve listening comprehension....................9
2.2.1. Definition and reasons why it is utilized in the classroom................9
2.2.2. Advantages of dictation.....................................................................10
2.2.3. Disadvantages of dictation................................................................13
2.2.4. Recommendations.............................................................................14
2.3. Literature gap...........................................................................................15
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY.....................................................................16
3.1. Subjects of the research...........................................................................16
3.2. Research instrument................................................................................16
3.3. Procedures................................................................................................17
CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION................................................19
4.1. Findings.....................................................................................................19
4.1.1. Current situation of listening comprehension among English-
majored freshmen...........................................................................................19
4.1.2. The application of frequent dictation to enhance listening
comprehension among first-year students at English Department.............21

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 4.1.3. Potential problems and solutions to promote dictation..................24
4.2. Discussions................................................................................................26
4.2.1. What are the obstructions to listening comprehension of freshmen
at English Department?..................................................................................26
4.2.2. Are there any correlations between the utilization of dictation and
listening comprehension of first-year English majors?................................28
4.2.3. What are the problems and solutions to improve this technique?.29
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION............................................................................31
5.1. Conclusion................................................................................................31
5.2. Limitations of the study...........................................................................32
5.3. Recommendations....................................................................................33
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................i
APPENDIX..............................................................................................................v

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 LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Factors preventing listening comprehension……………………...……20

Figure 2: The rate of respondents who practice dictation outside the listening

classes……………………………………………………………………………....21

Figure 3: Effectiveness assessment of dictation on listening comprehension...…22

Figure 4: Influences of dictation on enhancing aural comprehension…………....23

Figure 5: Disadvantages of dictation………………………………………………24

Figure 6: Recommendations for dictation practice………………………………..25

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 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

This chapter illustrates rationale to the study, objectives of the study,

research questions, hypothesis, scope of the study and main outline of the study.

1.1. Rationale to the study

Throughout thousands of years, language still reserves its pivotal role in

everyday life as a means of communication. In point of fact, English language
certainly lives up to its reputation when maintaining its position as a global
language and widely used in almost all aspect of life. So as to attain high levels of
linguistic proficiency, it is vital for learners to acquire the four foundation skills of
language learning namely listening, reading, writing and speaking. Among these
mentioned skills, listening is of the most critical importance as it is utilized most
frequently, which is up to 45% of the total time spent on communication, whereas
speaking, reading and writing only occupy 30%, 16% and 9% respectively (Ahmed,
2015). Although this fundamental skill is the key to the success of language
acquisition), little research effort has been devoted to facilitate listening skill. Also,
in their study, to find out the strategies to improve English listening comprehension,
Gilakjani and Ahmadi (2011) stated a fact that strategies to develop listening skill
has not attracted attention of linguistics and researchers as it is extremely difficult
for to teach and for learners to self-improve. Furthermore, it requires a wide range
of background knowledge and involves other skills. However, a language learner
who master listening skill will soon acquire other skills and achieve great success in
any sectors (Ahmed, 2015).

Listening contains five main steps: “receiving, understanding, evaluating,

remembering, and responding”, in which the stage of apprehending is considered as
the most crucial step since it decodes the message in listeners’ point of view
(Lumen Learning, n.d., p.3). In recent years, due to a stress on students’
communicative competence which mostly roots from poor performance in listening
comprehension, a considerable attention has been paid to improve current situation.
A number of researchers attempt to conduct studies to discover new methods which
are applicable both in language classes and self-study. On the other hand, others
invest their time and effort to renovate an old-fashioned method – dictation – which
1
has been a part of language classrooms for quite a long time. Senior researchers like
Davis and Rinvolucri (2002) pointed out in their findings that a long list of benefits
on all major language skills can be gained by frequent dictation practice. For multi-
level and large-scale classes, dictation is proved to be advantageous and a good
means of enhancing listening in general and listening comprehension particularly.

Because of numerous advantages on language acquisition, dictation has been

advocated as a mandatory part of teaching listening skill as well as a means of
testing listening competence for freshmen, which accounts for 30% of total grade.
Ultimately, students at English Department is trained to become translators and
interpreters in the future, acquiring effective listening skill is likely to build a strong
foundation for higher grades, especially for studying consecutive interpretation.

As English teaching curriculum from primary to high school in Vietnam

follow grammar – based learning style, most students before entering into Hanoi
University have no capability to perform macro-skills, one of which is listening
competence. It can be referred from my personal experience, dictation practice has
positive influence on my listening skill. I was introduced to this method when I was
a first-year students as a part of a listening lesson to advance this vital skill and only
after a few months of frequent practice I realize that I had made great progress in all
stages of listening, especially listening comprehension.

As for the reasons previously stated, I believe dictation technique should be

encouraged to be used as a routine to enhance this fundamental skill among
academic students like myself. This research is carried out with the primary aim of
help first-year majors at English Department to develop their English competence,
provide them an insight of the use of dictation technique, in company with making
the most of this learning tool to improve listening comprehension.

1.2. Aims of the study

This graduation thesis is carried out in an attempt to identify the problems in

listening comprehension and find out if dictation is an effective strategy to improve
listening comprehension for first-year students at English Department, Hanoi
University. The present paper investigates these isuues, with specific attention to
three chief aims:
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 To examine the elements leading to listening comprehension challenges for
first-year English majors.
 To evaluate the effectiveness of dictation practice in improving listening
comprehension.
 To investigate potential problems of dictation to the subjects and solutions to
handle the weakness of this technique.

1.3. Research questions

So as to attain the stated objectives, this paper is guided by the research

questions below:

 What makes listening comprehension difficult for freshmen at English

Department?
 Is dictation practice beneficial for freshmen at English Department to enhance
their listening comprehension?
 What are the drawbacks and recommendations to better this teaching device?

1.4. Hypothesis

(i) : Dictation practice has significant impact on listening comprehension of first-

year English majors at Hanoi University.
(ii) : Dictation practice has little impact on listening comprehension of first-year
English majors at Hanoi University.
(iii) : Dictation practice has no impact on listening comprehension of first-year
English majors at Hanoi University.

1.5. Scope of the study

As for content, scope of the study focuses on three main issues: the factors
which negatively influence listening comprehension of first-year English majors,
the use of dictation to deal with listening comprehension problems, the advantages
as well as disadvantages of this method, and the suggestions to promote dictation.

As for target group, to achieve the target goals, this study chose to carry out
on English majors at Hanoi University, to be more specific, 80 first-year students,
which accounts for approximately one-fifth of the total number of students in
English Department. The reason lies in the fact that they have to go through the
3
process of adjustment to be familiar with tertiary education which may affect their
English skills in general and listening skills in particular. Moreover, there is no
doubt that there is not any other ideal subjects since English Department apply
dictation in listening classes specifically for first-year students in both means of
testing and practicing.

As for area, scope of the study was narrowed to English Department, Hanoi
University.

As for the time spent on conducting the study, it took place from March to
May, 2018.

1.6. Structure of the study

This graduation thesis consists of five main parts, namely Introduction,

Literature review, Methodology, Findings and Discussion, and Conclusion.
Chapter I – Introduction – covers smaller sections which are an overview of
the research topic, objectives of the research, research questions, hypothesis, criteria
that will be cover throughout the study and the framework of this paper.
Chapter II – Literature Review – provides background knowledge related to
the definition of listening and listening comprehension, elements which hinder
listening comprehension, definition and reasons for using dictation in English
classes, potential problems and suggested solution to improve dictation techniques.
Chapter III – Methodology – shows the method applied and procedures to
interpret and solve the data which have been collected.
Chapter IV – Findings and Discussion – analyzes collected results and
discuss the importance of the main findings to assert and investigate the correlation
between this research and the previous ones.
Chapter V – Conclusion – summarizes the research results, indicates
limitations of the study and put forward several suggestions for future studies.

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 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

In spite of less attention paid toward the significance of listening, it is

undeniable that this language skill plays a crucial role in communication compared
to the other three components – writing, speaking, reading (Miller, 2003). In her
study with the main purpose of sharpening listening skills with the use of authentic
sources, she stated that almost a half of daily communication time is spent on
listening with the primary purpose is to comprehend. As for language learners,
cultivating listening comprehension competence is necessary in order to assist them
to perceive knowledge and enhance their communicative ability (Chen, 2011).
Among numerous learning methods, dictation is regarded as a useful tool which is
largely applied to improve listening skill in general and listening comprehension in
particular. This literature review will firstly define the concepts of listening and
listening comprehension as well as elements that can potentially act as a barrier to
listen comprehension. Furthermore, the background of dictation such as its origin,
merits and drawbacks will be presented. Lastly, some suggestions from previous
scholars will also be provided so as to better this technique.

2.1. Listening comprehension

2.1.1. Definition of listening and listening comprehension

Although the definition of “listening” is diversifying throughout the world,

there is no fixed term that define this vital component of communication. Since the
term was never properly defined, it is not specifically limited to one definition, so
many scholars characterized listening from different perspectives. One of the most
general terms is defined as a series of actions in which listeners perceive, process
and react promptly to the information (Nordquist, 2018). Steinberg (2007) states:
"Listening is more complex than merely hearing. It is a process that consists of four
stages: sensing and attending, understanding and interpreting, remembering, and
responding.” (quoted in Nordquist, p.2). Another concept of listening is
characterized by Yonezaki (2014) as a procedure of three stages: “Perception”,
“Recognition” and “Comprehension” (p.22).

The concept of “listening comprehension” has been explained by several

researchers. According to Yonezaki (2014) and Nadig (2013), listening
5
comprehension belongs to the last stage in the process of listening, in which the
connotation of the sounds are identified and comprehended. Meanwhile, the
definition of listening comprehension is addressed differently in the study of Delu et
al. (2005). Listening comprehension is made up of two main parts: “listening”, in
which learners take the delivery of sounds and remember, and “comprehension”, in
which they interpret what they have heard. In short, it is understandable that
listening comprehension is indeed an active intellectual procedure which demands
several skills. Nadig (2013) indicated that the process of listening comprehension
contains: “knowing speech sounds”, “comprehending the meaning of individual
words”, “understanding the syntax of sentences” (p.8).

2.1.2. Factors which obstruct listening comprehension

Many English learners encounter enormous problems with listening and

understanding. Therefore, in order to discover the effective strategies to develop
listening comprehension, the following parts of the literature will present barriers to
this issue ranging from: phonetic complexity, vocabulary repertoire, rate of
delivery, concentration, background knowledge and short-term memory.

2.1.2.1. Connected speech phenomena

In spoken form, words are different from their pronunciation when standing
alone. They are intended to be connected in order to help native speakers’
conversation more fluent and natural. Connected speech is depicted by Underhill
(1994) as "a flow of sounds which are modified by a system of simplifications
through which phonemes are connected, grouped and modified" (cited in
UKEssays, 2015, p.1). However, such changes may result in hindrance to listening
comprehension of not only low-level English learners but also people having high
level of proficiency in English (Maxwell, n.d.).

A number of studies have found that features of connected speech, for

example, assimilation, elision, linking and weakening, is one of the most popular
elements interfering listening comprehension (Maxwell, n.d.; Zakaria, 2014;
Khaghaninezhad & Jafarzadeh, 2013; Nowrouzi, Tam, Zareian and Nimehchisalem,
2015). Zakaria (2014) indicates these features can actually be an enormous obstacle
to students who study in small class size because native teachers in the class tend to
6
speak slowly for the students to catch up with, which is far different from a real life
conversation between two native speakers. Meanwhile, Maxwell (n.d.),
Khaghaninezhad and Jafarzadeh (2013) also emphasized the importance of raising
awareness of language learners’ about connected speech phenomena. Both studies
came to a conclusion that more effort should be put in the teaching of curriculum
and activities which allow students to be familiar with sound changes as it is proved
in the two studies that the post-test results on listening comprehension of
participants has went up considerably after attaching special importance to
connected speech training.

2.1.2.2. Accents

According to the Oxford English Dictionary (1989), Accent is denoted as “a

distinctive way of pronouncing a language, especially one associated with a
particular country, area, or social class”. In the classroom, most learners are mainly
exposed to British English, thus listening to another distinctive way of
pronunciation possibly hinders listening comprehension. The findings of Juan and
Abidin (2013) show a large number of respondents indicate they have problems
with different accents such as Indian and Malaysian which lead to difficulty in
grasping ideas. It is completely understandable why the dialects are demanding to
listeners as the speech delivers are not always native speakers in certain
circumstances. This view point is also supported by Buck (2001) who writes the
English learners only accessing to American English when approaching an
uncommon accent like Indian English for the first time will probably face
considerable difficulty in comprehension.

2.1.2.3. Lexical knowledge

Apparently, vocabulary repertoire is another key element to success of

listening comprehension for any language learners. Due to limited vocabulary,
people who study English as a second or foreign language are often restricted to a
high level of comprehension (Nowrouzi et al., 2015). According to Juan and Abidin
(2013), most participants of their study consider the lack of lexicon as the major
difficulty. Despite approaching English from the first grade, most Chinese students
find their vocabulary insufficient for listening comprehension. It is pointed out in
7
Paran’s research (1996) that to attain comparative comprehension, learners need to
have capacity of identifying, understanding, and utilize instinctively at least a half
of words in the given topic (as cited in Nowrouzi et al., 2015). In addition, the
importance of deficient lexical repertoire is also acknowledged in Nation’s study
(2006). He stated that to achieve high level of comprehension, it is vital for a
language learner to acquire six thousand to seven thousand words. Several
suggestions to broaden range of vocabulary such as frequently practice listening to
authentic materials from English learning sources, watch English movies and TV
shows with subtitles and communicating with native speakers are provided by Juan
and Abidin (2013), Gilakjani and Sabouri (2016).

2.1.2.4. Speed of delivery

Among the factors which cause listening comprehension difficult, the rate of
delivery is believed to have certain impact on listening comprehension. It is a
common knowledge that in aural communication, the rate of speaking tend to be
much faster which positively result in the inability of listening comprehension
(Underwood, 1989). It can be referred that the listeners are likely to face failure in
following the entire speech as a consequence of not being able to control the pace of
the talk and may miss numerous details (Gilakjani & Ahmadi, 2011). Moreover, the
task of the listeners can be more challenging in case the speakers talk a lot slower
than average or pause too many times (Hwaider, 2017; Zakaria, 2014).

2.1.2.5. Concentration

The ability to concentrate is an essential skill that everyone should acquire to

work on all tasks in life effectively. Yet, not many people possess the ability to
focus and it is proved to be one of the language barriers which has profound effect
on listening comprehension. Analysis of possible elements influencing listening
comprehension carried out by Gilakjani and Ahmadi (2011) proves that for EFL
(English as a Foreign Language) students, paying full attention to the conversation
in another language is quite a challenge. An absent mind can be extremely harmful
to listening comprehension. Juan and Abidin (2013) also found that due to physical
condition and distraction in the study environment, the ability of comprehension of
students who study oversea are heavily affected. Having the same point of view,
8
Hwaider (2017) lists several unwanted factors impairing listening comprehension
such as tiredness, discouragement and background noise which cause listeners
unable to stay focus.

2.1.2.6. Contextual knowledge

Another problem that is illustrated as a main cause of misunderstanding by

the majority of the respondents is the lack of background knowledge (Nowrouzi et
al., 2015). Zakaria (2014) demonstrates that it is overloaded for English learners
who mostly interact with written language to apprehend conversational language.
For instance, idioms, proverbs and slang are mostly used in daily communication
with their figurative senses. In many cases, the listeners may grasp the literal
meaning of every word, yet, they fail to understand the whole meaning of the
conversation. In fact, the gaps between the first language they acquire and the
foreign language with regard to cultures, societies, religions and so on always exist
(Juan & Abidin, 2013). According to Gilakjani and Ahmadi (2011), only by
cultivating contextual knowledge about the target language do students shorten the
gaps between two cultures and improve their listening comprehension.

2.1.2.7. Short-term memory

Short-term memory is defined as impermanent memory which has restricted

storage (Xu, 2008). A considerable amount of literature has been conducted on
short-term memory. These studies (Nowrouzi et al., 2015; Takeno & Takatsuka,
2007) support the positive correlation between short-term memory and listening
comprehension. As the information is only held temporarily in short-term memory,
many participants admit they soon forget the ideas and details in previous parts
(Nowrouzi et al., 2015). Moreover, in his study on short-term memory and EFL
listening comprehension, Xu (2008) emphasizes the uttermost effect of memory on
reproduce comprehension process of a listener. If learners lose the main ideas of the
talk, they have already failed to apprehend.

2.2. Dictation as a method to improve listening comprehension

2.2.1. Definition and reasons why it is utilized in the classroom

9
 Using dictation to assist language learning has been popular for several
centuries. In general, dictation can be denoted as an activity in which learners have
to convert the sounds into written language (Davis & Rinvolucri, 2002). According
to British Council (2005), dictation indicates the term “dictation” in the scale of a
classroom. The pupils copy what the instructors have said, then comparing to the
original and editing their works. This method is mostly and specifically used in the
language classroom for some reasons. Dictation is favored by the teachers because:
First, it is suitable for “any level” language learners and “multi-level” class (British
Council, 2005, p.2); Second, it minimizes preparations for teaches and saves time
for other activities. In addition, it is a practical tool to value students’ language
proficiency (Savignon, 1982). As for students, dictation is an effective tool to
improve all four language skills comprehensively (British Council, 2005).
Especially, a large body of literature has approved its profound influence on
enhancing listening comprehension in language classes (Kiany & Shiramiry, 2002;
Yonezaki, 2014; Kavaliauskiene & Darginaviciene, 2009; Kondo, 2012; Kazazoglu,
2013). In fact, it has been trusted and put into practice by more than a half of the
teachers in European countries (Davis & Rinvolucri, 2002).

2.2.2. Advantages of dictation

Although there was a time that dictation used to be neglected, recently it is

likely to retrieve its position as a beneficial teaching method. In the research which
studies the effectiveness of dictation in the ESP class on all skills, people choose
this teaching device because it is believed that “all language skills, that is, grammar,
oral communication, pronunciation and listening comprehension” can be improved
by dictation (Kavaliauskiene & Darginaviciene, 2009, p.1). Even though it has a
wide range of merits, this literature review will only focus on the positive influences
of dictation on listening comprehension.

2.2.2.1. Improving short-term memory

It is proved in Xu’s study (2008) that short-term memory is the leading

problems to listeners as it directly interfere the process of listening comprehension.
Fortunately, increasing the ability to capture information in a short amount of time
is one of the most noticeable benefits of dictation (Cohen, 2015; Davis &
10
Rinvolucri, 2002; Zakaria, 2014). In order to reproduce the input sounds into the
written form, it requires listeners to be fully concentrated and stimulate brain to
retrieve memory. According to Nowrouzi et al. (2015), active memory is the key to
listening success. The more the listeners are good at storing information, the better
results they obtain in understanding the given message (Xu, 2008). Hence, it can be
referred from the intimate link between short-term memory and listening
comprehension performance, dictation seems to have positive influence on
apprehending the message in a foreign language.

2.2.2.2. Enriching language vocabulary

Enlarging vocabulary is essential to become proficient in English or any

other foreign languages and it has always been a top concern to search for effective
learning strategies. Lexicon is believed to be the foundation of a language, the root
of all linguistic skills which is fundamental to spoken, written and aural
communication as well. In his study of the correlation between dictation and
vocabulary on college students at Guilin University of Technology, Tang (2012)
concluded that dictation useful for learning vocabulary as while people dictate,
word form, pronunciation and connotation must be drawn attention to. Therefore, it
demands a great deal of effort, a wide range of skills so as to recode the word on
papers. Many experts agree that handwriting apparently can help people memorize
what they note down (Blatchford, 2016).Several studies in the same field have
revealed that by writing down, dictation appears to help listeners expand their word-
stock (Davis & Rinvolucri, 2002; Zakaria, 2014; Tang, 2012).

2.2.2.3. Developing active listening

Active listening is described as “a structured form of listening and

responding that focuses the attention on the speaker. The listener must take care to
attend to the speaker fully, and then repeats, in the listeners own words, what he or
she thinks the speaker has said.” (the Online Training Program on Intractable
Conflict, 2005, p.1). Because the aim of active listening is that the listeners have to
reproduce the speaker’s words into their own words, they need to be fully engaged
with the conversation. As mentioned above, there is no doubt that people are easily
lost in thought, thus it is reasonable that paying attention to what is said in a foreign
11
language causes more difficulty (Gilakjani & Ahmadi, 2011). A considerable
number of linguistic reports have found that since decoding the foreign speech is a
part of dictation process, this method will make listeners listen attentively to
understand the delivered message (Kiany & Shiramiry, 2002; Zakaria, 2014;
Nation, 2006; Davis & Rinvolucri, 2002). Davis and Rinvolucri (2002) suggested
that dictation should be conducted as a group activity to help students make the
most of this method to improve active listening.

2.2.2.4. Improving listening for details

Listening for specific information like names, numbers, objects, time and so
on is often regarded as a secondary skill and belittled. Sometimes, it is hard to
convey the message if listeners constantly miss out the details. Moreover, in some
cases, small pieces of information may carry the implications of the speaker. To
determine problems of teaching as well as studying English in Vietnam, Kazantseva
and Nguyen (2015) in their study reported that Vietnamese undergraduates find it
difficult to catch up with details while listening and come up with the action of
dictating words down to solve this matter. Since dictation exercises stand in need of
language learners to memorize and copy exactly each saying word by word,
sentence by sentence. Consequently, they are required to have powers of
concentration to make sure all specific information is accurate with respect to
semantic, lexical and grammatical aspects. In previous research findings of David
and Rinvolucri (2002) leap to a conclusion that with constant practice, dictation
seems to progressively strengthen listening comprehension in general and the skill
of paying attention to details in particular.

2.2.2.5. Noticing the different aspects of pronunciation

As mentioned in the previous parts of the literature review, many students

encounter problem with sounds during listening process. It can be seen that without
apprehending sounds, listeners are likely to fail to comprehend from the beginning.
To be more specific, most of them are likely to have trouble with different aspects
of connected speech (Zakaria, 2014; Kiany & Shiramiry, 2002; Khaghaninezhad &
Jafarzadeh, 2013; Nowrouzi et al., 2015) or the unfamiliar regional dialects (Juan &
Abidin, 2013; Buck, 2001). In order to overcome such language barriers in listening
12
comprehension, dictation practice is recommend as an effective method in a
considerable number of research (Kavaliauskiene & Darginavicience, 2009; Kiany
& Shiramiry, 2002; Zakaria, 2014; Nation, 2006; British Council, 2005).

Particularly, the main cause of this problem roots from lack of knowledge or
experience of the listeners. However, dictation is believed to help students become
more familiar with regional accents of English because of a wide range of listening
materials in different fields which are conveyed by speakers from every corners of
the world (Kiany & Shiramiry, 2002). Moreover, thanks to writing down the input
sounds, listeners have the opportunity to identify how speech is connected.
According to Chen (2011), for college students, dictation practice, specifically,
post-dictation exercise is proved to be advantageous in enhancing awareness about
phonetic complexity.

2.2.3. Disadvantages of dictation

Though the merits of dictation on language acquisition are numerous, there

are certain stages of time which a number of teachers make light of dictation. They
consider “dictation” is equivalent to “old-fashioned”, “boring” and “teacher-
centered” (British Council, 2005, p.1). Also, there are very few references which
analyze learners’ attitude toward the positive and negative aspects of dictation
activities. However, this teaching device seems to receive approval from the class
instructors rather than the students.

In their article about applying dictation activities, British Council (2005)

revealed their survey result in which tediousness is one of the leading drawbacks of
dictation. If teachers conduct dictation in its traditional format, which is once
completed, students compare their work with the original text and correct their
mistakes on their owns, they may feel discouraged and may not take full advantage
of this learning method. Moreover, a large amount of time is likely to be spent,
especially for post-dictation exercise like correcting words by words, which results
in student disengagement in the class (Agullo, 2004).

Another disadvantage of this “uncommunicative” method (Agullo, 2004) is

its impractical features. For example, this traditional teaching strategy requires a
person reading the whole text at a low rate of speed. Reduced speed may help
13
students have time to reproduce the text on paper and have more time to understand.
Conversely, slow speed is totally unnatural in daily communication. Also, when the
speech is delivered with reduced speech, such features of connected speech do not
exist.

Though Agullo (2004) believes it is still debatable and more investigations

should be required, he still lists lack of actual comprehension as a drawback. As
dictation activities can be conducted quite mechanically, the effective on
comprehension is rather questionable. In his research of the relationship between
listening comprehension of sophomores at a private university in Japan and constant
dictation practice, Cohen (2015) indicates that he could not investigate the influence
of dictation on certain aspects of comprehension.

2.2.4. Recommendations

Except for several hindrances, dictation is a useful method to developing

comprehensively four main language skills and listening comprehension
specifically if it is utilized creatively (British Council, 2005). There is almost no
existing research working on the solutions to improve this teaching device. First of
all, more effort should be made to help this become more learner-driven. British
Council (2005) gave the suggestions that teachers should shift the focus to the
learners to create a friendly learning environment in which students work in groups
or pairs or provide them the chance to become the “dictators” (p.4). The teachers
now monitor and support students by making comments and suggest tips frequently
to enhance student performances.

Furthermore, wise choice of listening materials with suitable difficulty is of

critical importance (Chen, 2011). It may lead to a loss of confidence and enthusiasm
for low-level English learners if they approach over challenging listening exercises.
Meanwhile, without any difficulty to comprehend is likely to give rise to their
sentiment of boredom and decrease the desire for knowledge. Chen (2011) also
recommends the topics should be trending or closely related to listeners’ life,
interest. For instance, as for first-year students, instead of being provided scientific
topics, listening materials ought to be general topics which stimulate their interest in
learning.
14
2.3. Literature gap

Even though there has been a vast amount of research conducted on dictation
in English language acquisition, most of them are about utilizing dictation as an
indicator of overall language proficiency or a language learning tool in general.
Only a small number of studies have investigated the effect of dictation practice on
listening comprehension. Moreover, the results still remains ambiguous and
paradoxical.

As there is no research that has been carried out to study the correlation
between dictation practice and listening comprehension in Vietnam, this study only
uses research information from international sources.

While the subjects from previous research vary from non-English majors to
English majors in different age groups, my research is for English Department’s
freshmen in Hanoi University who have been practicing dictation in listening
classes for several months. In addition, it will focus on finding the impact of
dictation practice on listening comprehension, potentials problems and infer several
effective strategies to better this teaching device from the finding of the research.

15
 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

This chapter states all the methods taken to investigate research problems
and specific procedures to answer the research questions mentioned in Chapter I:
“What makes listening comprehension difficult for freshmen at English
Department?”, “Is dictation practice beneficial for freshmen at English Department
to enhance their listening comprehension?” ,and “What are the drawbacks and
recommendations to better this teaching device?”. Linked back to theories in
Literature review, all aspects of methodology involving target group of the study,
research instrument, and work progress to final findings will be introduced and
justified in Chapter III.

3.1. Subjects of the research

The subject of the study is freshmen at English Department, Hanoi

University who are currently at the end of term 2. They are selected for several
reasons. Firstly, they have acquired considerable listening knowledge as well as
language skills after two terms of English listening training and practice.
Furthermore, first- year students have approached dictation technique for several
months not only in the listening class but also at home as recommendations of
listening teachers. Lastly, it is easy to approach them since first-year English majors
are available in language classes four days a week.

The respondents of this study are 80 students who are randomly chosen from
about 350 first-year English majors. It is up to the participants to participate in the
study and the questionnaires do not require their personal information.

3.2. Research instrument

There are several research methods that can be used to gather information
investigating the link between frequent dictation and improvement in listening
comprehension among freshmen majoring in English. However, questionnaire was
the best method to choose as it met the requirements of collecting both quantitative
and qualitative data. Moreover, it is easily delivered to the participants and brings
results for the researcher to analyze immediately after the paper is completed.

16
 The questionnaire contains 7 questions in forms of multiple-choice, ranking,
close-ended and open-ended questions whose answers are anticipated to resolve the
three research questions mentioned above.

Question 1 identifies whether first-year students majoring in English face

problems in listening comprehension or not.

Question 2 investigates factors which prevent the participants from listening

comprehension.

Question 3 aims at finding if students use dictation as a method to improve

listening comprehension besides doing dictation in the language classes or not.

Question 4 and question 5 examines the effectiveness of dictation in

enhancing listening comprehension.

Question 6 explores the shortcomings of this learning tool.

Question 7 is created to discover recommendations to promote dictation

technique more an appealing method in order to develop listening comprehension of
English major freshmen.

3.3. Procedures

At first, not until the pilot questionnaires that were conducted online using
Google forms among 8 freshmen did the official version of the survey was
launched. Fortunately, I realized that the survey had some problems with the
question instructions and wording after I collected the questionnaire and comments
from those students. Hence, I made several changes to correct minor mistakes,
provide some explanations for a few terminologies and guarantee it is
understandable for respondents.

Then, the researcher went to random classes to deliver the paper form of the
questionnaire. There was no limitation in the time for the participants to complete
all the questions, yet, it took them approximately three to four minutes to answer.
The sample of the questionnaire is included in the Appendix at the end of the thesis.
Any query for clarification was responded immediately to avoid misunderstanding
but most students had no difficulty in completing the questionnaire. All students
were thanked for their participations and cooperation after they finished. 63 out of
17
80 given handouts were usable and all the information in their papers was kept
confidential. After collecting all 80 copies of the questionnaire, set to work on data
analysis. The results of the survey were presented in bar and pie charts with
explanation and comparison with the theories mentioned in Chapter II.

18
 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter will demonstrate all collected data from the questionnaires
based on responses to answer to the three research questions stated in Chapter I. In
addition, the findings of the research which are relevant to hypothesis posed in the
literature review will be exhaustively discussed in order that new understandings or
insights about the investigated research problem will also be brought to light.

4.1. Findings
4.1.1. Current situation of listening comprehension among English-
majored freshmen

There is no doubt that the skill to listen is crucial to language learning.

According to Gilakjani and Sabouri (2016), it seems that more attention is paid to
improve written communication skills at schools and universities rather than
listening, thus the majority of English learners are likely to face critical challenges
while apprehending the input sounds. Question 1 is designed to find out the number
of first-year students at English Department having difficulties with listening
comprehension. Surprisingly, all the participants responded that they encountered
problems in listening comprehension. The figure inferred from the survey is
assessed to be higher than that of previous studies. The findings about listening
comprehension problems conducted among Kurdish EFL learners by Robertson and
Bigdeli (2016) indicated that about 85% of the students studying in the faculty of
Language experienced enormous difficulties in understanding the listening text.
Meanwhile, in another study carried out among Yemeni EFL learners by Hwaider
(2017), the results revealed that a considerable number, which occupies 76% of
their respondents, believed that listening comprehension is one of the most
influential factors creating difficulties in acquiring a foreign language.

4.1.1.1. Obstacles in listening comprehension

With the intention of revealing problems in listening comprehension of the

subjects, question 2 is designed in order to detect what obstructs listening
comprehension of English Department’s first-year students. The data is depicted in
Figure 1.

19
 87%
Limited short-term
57%
memory
39%
Regional accents 60%
53%
Connected speech 24%
53%
None of the above
0%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Figure 1: Factors that prevent listening comprehension

The bar chart describes elements obstructing comprehension during listening

of freshmen studying faculty of English at Hanoi University. As seen from the
chart, most respondents think their English is inadequate for listening
comprehension because of limited word-stock, whereas sound changes is unlikely to
cause troubles to many first-year students during listening comprehension. The
proportion of freshmen lacking vocabulary is 87%, while the figure for first-year
English majors facing troubles with connected speech is significantly lower, at 24%.
This is contradictory to the findings of Nowrouzi et al. (2015), in which he found
out that connected speech is the second major problem causing difficulties in
listening comprehension for Iranian EFL students. In addition, the result in
Hwaider’s paper (2017) revealed that 76% of his respondents regarded changes in
sound system as the most difficult aspect of listening comprehension, while lack of
vocabulary only came on the third place.

Other factors that lead to considerable problems in listening comprehension

are restricted short-term memory, speaker’s dialect, inattentiveness and lack of
background knowledge, which are all voted by over a half of the participants. These
four issues also resulted in difficulties in English listening comprehension self-

20
learning process in the study of Juan and Abidin (2013) among China’s student
learning English in Malaysia. Nearly 40% of the freshmen at English Department
considers inconsistent rate of delivery as one of the hindrances. However, in
relevant research of Nowrouzi et al. (2015), it was reported as the greatest problems
to their subjects and high speed of talking fueled fears the most to all listeners
during English listening comprehension.

4.1.2. The application of frequent dictation to enhance listening

comprehension among first-year students at English Department
4.1.2.1. The number of first-year English majors using dictation as
a self-study method to practice listening comprehension

29%

Yes No
71%

Figure 2: The proportion of respondents practicing dictation outside

classroom

The pie chart indicates the rate of freshmen studying at the faculty of English
who utilize dictation technique to practice at home besides dictating in listening
classes. It can be referred from the chart that the majority of first-year students
practicing dictation both in listening class and at home accounts for 71% of the total
number, equally 45 out of 63 participants. There is an explanation for this amazing

21
figure is that after experiencing dictation at school, they recognized the enormous
advantages of dictation on their listening ability. On the other hand, approximately
one-third of the subjects practiced this learning method only in the classroom
because it was a compulsory part in listening lessons. There is not any available
studies which can provide the exact reasons why dictation has never been favored
for self-practice at home by English majors. Fortunately, from this finding, it will
create an opportunity to discuss this issue thoroughly in the following part.

4.1.2.2. The effectiveness of dictation practice in developing

listening comprehension

Although dictation has been extensively utilized by over 70% of the

participants, there is no evidence that it is always useful in improving listening
comprehension. Moreover, to examine whether it is efficient for comprehension
process of language listeners or not, it is necessary to find out on which aspects
dictation pose influence on.

35 33

30

25
Number of respondents

20
15
15
9
10

5 3 3

0
Not at all A bit Comparatively Greatly Extremely

Degree of effectitiveness

Figure 3: Effectiveness assessment of dictation on listening

comprehension

22
 The bar chart indicates how the subjects evaluate the effectiveness of
dictation in listening comprehension improvement. The majority of respondents,
which accounts for nearly a half of 63 surveyed freshmen, highly appreciated the
positive influence of dictation on listening comprehension. Followed after, the
number of freshmen who valued that the utilization of this technique made a fairly
progressive impact on their aural comprehension is significantly lower, at 15.
Among all respondents, 9 people, who acquired dictation to self-study at home,
claimed that frequent dictation practice had the capability of strengthening their
listening performance. Meanwhile, the number of students, who made light of the
effectiveness of this learning tool, occupies about 9.5% of the total number. These
people refused to have additional dictation practice at home because they believed
that dictation had no or little influence on advancing their listening competence.

Particular aspects of listening comprehension that dictation brings benefits to

will be presented in Figure 4.

Increase short-term capacity

Boarden vocabulary on particular topics

Force listeners to listen mor attentively and actively

Aware of the features of connected speech and different accents

Strengthen listening for details

None of the above

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Figure 4: Influences of dictation in enhancing aural comprehension

The bar chart describes several benefits that dictation practice provides to
their users in improving their listening performance. As can be seen from the graph,
the most enormous advantage of this old-fashioned teaching device believed by

23
almost 70% of English-majored freshmen is that it helps them notice features of
connected speech which obstructs aural comprehension such as assimilation,
elision, and linking. In addition, speech familiarity is likely to be efficiently
improved as the more they listen to different authentic materials during their
practice, the more dialects they are exposed to. Ranking on the second place,
vocabulary expansion benefits a great number of respondents, which is a little bit
more than 65%. Improving short-term memory is another remarkable benefit of
frequent dictation, which is slightly lower than the previous element, at 62%. On the
other hand, two less striking impacts of dictation in handling listening problems,
which make up 49.2% and 36.5%, are strengthening listening for details and
cultivating active listening respectively. Surprisingly, two of the participants, which
accounts for 3.2% of the sampling population, found no benefits from dictation. The
reasons behind this will be discussed in the next section and a part of limitation of
this thesis.

4.1.3. Potential problems and solutions to promote dictation

In spite of its numerous benefits, dictation currently lose favor in the eyes of
many language users since it is considered as “old-fashioned” and “teacher-
centered” (Kavaliauskiene & Darginaviciene, 2009, p.2). Therefore, it is vital to
find out the drawbacks and solutions to exploit this method as much as possible.

Boredom

Lack of interaction

Lack of actual comprehension

Bring benefits to only beginners

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Figure 5: Disadvantages of dictation

24
 Figure 5 shows the collected data which reveals major limitations of
dictation technique. The chief problem indicated by three-fourths of total number of
participants is tediousness. This finding is also advocated by British Council (2005),
and Kavaliauskiene and Darginaviciene (2009). The state of feeling bored is the
leading drawback that dictation brings about to most of their practitioners. Another
disadvantage that comes in the second place is lack of interaction. It was received
approval from more than 50% of the total respondents. Meanwhile, the rate of
language learners who view dictation negatively as a result of lack of efficiency in
comprehension is slightly lower, at 46%. Lastly, one first-year student, which
accounts for almost 2%, believed that dictation was only useful for basic users who
needed to improve all language skills comprehensively.

In order to make the most of this powerful technique, question 7 is created to

collect all recommendations from students participating in the survey. The gathered
information is presented in Figure6.

Creative activities should be added

The topic should be interesting/trending

Text difficulty should be chosen appropriately

Ways of doing, tips and listening materials should be suggested frequently

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Figure 7: Recommendations for dictation practice

The bar chart illustrates suggestions voted by first-year English majors at

Hanoi University with the aim of promote this valuable technique. The majority of
the respondents, which is approximately 70%, agreed that the wise choice of topics
for listening materials was of great importance because it could prevent boredom
arousing and catch the attention of dictation users. Furthermore, the same number of
25
the respondents (59%) believed that suitable text complexity and frequent
recommendations on tips and listening material were effective in restraining
discouragement. In addition, teachers should attach more dictation-related activities
in listening classes to stimulate interest in doing dictation. Almost 45% of the
participants believed that creative activities were likely to make dictation more
learner-centered and create more interaction in the classroom.

4.2. Discussions
4.2.1. What are the obstructions to listening comprehension of freshmen
at English Department?

One of the primary objectives of this study is to identify existing problems

that prevent aural comprehension of English Department’s freshmen. As can be
seen from the result of the first question of the research questionnaire, first-year
students have apparently been faced with many problems related to comprehension
during listening. Fortunately, they were all aware of their current states which is
fundamental to discover a remedy to this issue.

From the data collected in question 2, a wide range of listening

comprehension problems which many first-year students studying at faculty of
English encounter the most were explored. Among those, most of the surveyed
freshmen was conscious of the greatest hindrance they faced was vocabulary
deficiency. Other following difficulties were regional accents of the speakers,
restricted short-term memory, lack of concentration, lack of background knowledge,
inappropriate speech rate and changes in sound throughout the speech.

First and foremost, a considerable number of students, which is up to 87%,

struggled with comprehensive ability while listening due to poor vocabulary. It is a
common knowledge that vocabulary is the foundation of any languages. It is
certainly the most significant aspect of language and the building materials of
communication skills such as reading, listening, writing and speaking. In his
research, Tang (2012) indicated English major students should acquire averagely
5,500 words and 1200 phrases. However, non-English users can only memorize a
certain number of words. Therefore, it is totally understandable when freshmen at
English Department, Hanoi University encounter the same problem. Moreover,
26
different approaches should be made to improve students’ English vocabulary
capacity.

Second, regional accents of the speakers is another troublesome part which

caused considerable difficulty to a large number of respondents. Because English is
an international language, it is utilized in different countries by both native and non-
native speakers. According to Juan and Abidin (2013), after a long period of time
approaching to listening materials of native speakers like British or American, it is
hard for non-English majors students to apprehend the pronunciation of non-native
speakers such as Indian and Malaysia. The same situation happens to surveyed
students at English Department. They tended to feel lost and unable to handle the
speech if the speakers are not from English speaking countries.

Third, limited span of memory is another enormous issue to a group of

participants. Over a half of the sampling population admitted that they had trouble
with comprehension owing to their restricted short-term memory. It was proved in
Xu’s research (2008) that not only EFL students faced difficulty in memorizing but
also normal people. Moreover, the process of information maintenance in EFL
students’ mind has the tendency to perform less effectively when they have to
memorize in another language.

Furthermore, over 50% of the respondents faced problem with their

concentration during listening, which is one of the factors preventing
comprehension. Most of the subjects, on the one hand, they acknowledged how
their listening performance could be badly affected if their minds wandered. On the
other hand, they admitted that they had no ability to keep focusing on a lengthy talk
because of their physical state and distractions from the study environment.

Besides lack of concentration, lack of necessary background knowledge is

indicated by 53% of the students as another facet of problem. It is understandable
for first-year students at English Department having trouble with apprehension
owing to the gap of culture and society between the East and the West. Without
cultivating practical understanding about different countries, even if the listeners
know every word in the talk, they are unlikely to apprehend the meaning of the
context.
27
 Sixth, comprehension can be restricted by the speed of delivery. Nearly 40%
of the total surveyed students found it difficult to follow if the speech rate was
above their average speaking speed. Additionally, in the classroom, the teachers
tend to speak more slowly for the students to catch up with, thus when listening to
the speech of native speakers, listeners possibly lose track due to the pace of the
talk.

Finally, another obstacle to listening comprehension of almost one-fourth of

the subjects is connected speech. When the sounds are linked and modified, they are
somehow different from what is seen in the dictionary. Moreover, first-year students
at English Department have not studied phonetic and phonology, so it may lead to
difficulty in listening comprehension when they do not have enough theoretical
knowledge to put in to practice.

4.2.2. Are there any correlations between the utilization of dictation and
listening comprehension of first-year English majors?

The key target of this thesis is to demonstrate the link between dictation
practice and its influences on improving aural comprehension of first-year English
majors. Question 3 is conducted to discover whether the subjects take advantage of
this traditional method to self-practice at home or not, while question 4 performs the
rate of the effectiveness of dictation on aural comprehension from the perspective of
respondents. In addition, question 5 investigates on what aspects of listening
comprehension that dictation can enhance.

Besides practicing dictation as a part of listening classes, 71% of the total

number of participants made use of this technique to self-study so as to develop
their listening comprehension. The respondents who chose to use dictation more
frequently all rate this method to have “comparative”, “great” and “extreme”
effectiveness in improving their aural comprehension. The percentage of people
considering dictation practice as a greatly effective method is the highest, which is
more than a half of respondents. Meanwhile, a small number of participants, which
accounts for almost 10%, believed that this technique had no or little impact on their
listening performance. Those people were the subjects who chose other methods to
advance their listening skill.
28
 The largest number of participants, which is approximately 70%, claimed
that what they had gain most benefits from dictation activities was their awareness
of features of connected speech such as assimilation, elision, linking and
weakening. In their study, Khaghaninezhad and Jafarzadeh (2013) pointed out that
awareness of phonetic complexity of their respondents was greatly beneficial thanks
to post-dictation activities because dictation users could listen as well as check for
the connected speech in their listening text at the same time. Moreover, the biggest
challenge in listening comprehension identified by English Department’s freshmen
can be handle by frequent dictation. Over 65% of the total respondents regarded
their word-stock had been enlarged after a period of time practicing dictation. Tang
(2012) considered dictation as one of the most advantageous method to improve the
size of vocabulary of language users. As the listening materials are various, the
dictators have chance to access to a wide range of topics. Moreover, by writing the
words down, students can memorize new words more easily thanks to the given
context. Increasing short-term memory, cultivating active listening and strengthen
listening for details are other enormous advantages that the respondents can attain
after a while practicing dictation. According to Kiany and Shiramiry (2002), longer
span of short-term memory could be improved by listening and writing it down on
papers. Meanwhile, in Kazazoglu’s paper (2012), more than a half of his
participants gained better performance in listening comprehension thanks to
dictation practice. They were likely to strengthen their ability to concentrate and list
down the details more efficiently.

However, 3.2% of the respondents made the different choice from others,
which is “none of the above” benefits. Maybe, these students gain no benefits from
dictation practice. On the other hand, they could not find the benefit they attain
from this technique among the provided ones. This choice actually indicates a
suggestion for further research to find out other potential advantages of this method.

4.2.3. What are the problems and solutions to improve this technique?

Question 6 is created to reveal the drawbacks of this technique while question 7

is to find out the suggestions from the respondents with the aim to improve this
technique. All surveyed students agreed that dictation has several problems.

29
However, the most noticing disadvantage, which was voted by three-fourths of the
total number of participants, is tediousness. This problem was also noted in the
findings of British Council (2005), and Kavaliauskiene and Darginaviciene (2009)
as the most influential reason why it used to be neglected by many language users.
To overcome this issue, suggested solutions like “the topic should be more
interesting and trending”, “creative activities should be added” is provided by the
respondents. The solution for more additional activities is also believed to be the
key to solve the issue, which is lack of interaction.

In the meanwhile, the minority of respondents believed that dictation practice

only brought benefits to learners with low level of language proficiency, which is
contradictory to findings of other linguistics. It was claimed in the studies of British
Council (2005) as well as Davis and Rinvolucri (2002) that this technique could be
applied effectively to a multi-level class in which teachers could adjust the text
difficulty to accord with their students’ level of English proficiency. Hence, this
abnormality should be investigated in further research to testify to the truth.

Additionally, the role of the teachers in the class is also important when
many participants agreed that the teachers should choose the suitable text difficulty.
If the text difficulty is appropriate, it will not only prevent the boredom but also can
help students to broaden their knowledge. Methods to apply dictation more
effectively and listening materials should be recommended frequently by the
teachers to make sure students are on the right track.

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION

30
 In chapter 5, a synthesis of main points, limitations of the study,
suggestions for further research will be included in order to develop dictation
practice with an aim to dealt with listening comprehension problems stated above.

5.1. Conclusion

Listening skill is utilized at the highest frequency in daily communication

with the chief aim of comprehension. As being conscious of the significant role of
listening in communication, a large amount of attention has been drawn to
investigate effective methods to advance listening and listening comprehension, one
of which is dictation. Although this technique is considered as outmoded, it is
reintroduced to language learners as a mean to enhance aural comprehension by a
large number of linguistics and researchers because of its numerous advantages.
This thesis is carried out with the intention of detecting obstacles in listening
comprehension of freshmen at English Department, Hanoi University and the
relationship between practicing dictation and making progress in listening. To serve
the purpose of this study, 80 participants from English Department were randomly
selected from more than 350 current freshmen.

Thanks to the findings of the research, some following conclusions could be

demonstrated. First, with regard to the attitudes of students towards the importance
of listening in general and listening comprehension in particular, most of freshmen
in English Department at Hanoi University are fully aware that sharpening listening
comprehension is the key to their success in academic performance and language
acquisition. Second, the majority of students encounters considerable difficulties in
listening comprehension. A long list of factors obstructing listening comprehension
of the subjects are: lack of vocabulary, lack of background knowledge, inability to
concentrate, limited short-term memory, features of connected speech, different
accents and high speech rate. As a result, a large numbers of freshmen needs
massive support to master this skill. Third, all first-year students at English
Department, Hanoi University have approached to dictation in the classroom for a
certain period of time. Most of them realizes numerous benefits of dictation and
applies this technique to self-study at home. Furthermore, there is a positive
correlation between dictation practice and aural comprehension of first-year English

31
majors. Moreover, it is concluded that dictation can improve students’ vocabulary,
ability to concentrate, awareness of phonetic complexity, short-term memory
capacity and ability of listening for specific information. Last but not least, despite
of its benefits, dictation has several problems which make language users have an
aversion for frequent practice. Accordingly, it is necessary for the teachers to guide
and make some changes to better this method.

5.2. Limitations of the study

It can be inferred from this study several limitations owing to time limit and
insufficient experience of the researcher.

First, the study was limited to a small number of first-year students in Hanoi
University, which accounts for only one-fifth of the total number of students.
Besides, this research only focuses on the attitude of first-year English majors at
Hanoi University towards the importance of listening comprehension and dictation
activities. If this paper was conducted in a larger scale, the reliability and accuracy
could be correspondingly enhanced.

Another unfavorable condition of this research is the side effect of the

research method. Even though questionnaire is a convenient mean to collect data,
dishonesty and unconscientious responses can be formidable obstacles in the path of
the authenticity of the research outcomes. Moreover, no matter what form of
delivery is utilized, lacking accessibility pose another threat, which may lead to
question skipping and affect completion rates.

Third, this research focuses on the students’ attitude toward the research
problems while it is necessary to discover teachers’ perspective on dictation practice
in the research setting. Accordingly, this is actually a drawback when this thesis is
unlikely to provide a more comprehensive view on the research problems.

The inability to reveal gender-based differences in the problems in listening

comprehension and the effect of dictation in improving listening comprehension
because the number of female respondents outweighs the male ones. In addition, a
small number of participants gain benefits from dictation practice which is not
included in the provided choices. The limitations of this study indicate some aspects

32
for further research to investigate gender differences in problems they face during
listening, the effectiveness of dictation on listening comprehension and other
advantages of frequent dictation can be brought to light as well.

5.3. Recommendations

First of all, the lack of practice surely results in poor performance in all
aspects in life. Therefore, in order to be proficient in listening, students should
invest at least several hours a day self-studying and try to find out their own method
to enhance their aural comprehension. Meanwhile, since dictation is proved to be
efficient to listening comprehension, first-year students should employ this method
to practice at home, carefully follow the instructions from the teachers and make
suitable adaptation for themselves.

Secondly, it is recommended for listening instructors that they should make

the most of this beneficial technique in the classroom by guiding students to employ
most from dictation practice. The teachers are advised to select listening materials
which is suitable with their students’ listening proficiency and different in types of
listening, not only academic speech but also daily talk or news. Moreover, the
length of listening text should be shorten so as to attract students’ attention on this
teaching device. Besides, other listening sub-skills to improve listening competence
and the way the subjects can advance these sub-skills thanks to frequent dictation
should be clarified frequently. Lastly, to prevent boredom arising, it is suggested
that the teacher should combine additional activities which makes dictation no
longer wearisome and old-fashioned.

Thirdly, because listening comprehension is a serious problem to academic

performance and language acquisition of freshmen at English Department, it is
necessary to have official guidance about this issue from educational environments
at the very beginning of university orientation sessions. With the aim to extend the
use of dictation to first-year students, English Department should organize
competition, games and events for students that are relevant to dictation to attract
their attention and interest in this activity.

Finally, for further studies which share the same interest in studying dictation
and aural comprehension, several suggestions are made based on the finding and
33
limitations of the paper. Further studies are recommended to investigate gender-
based differences in the problems in listening comprehension and the effect of
dictation in improving listening comprehension because the number of female
respondents at English Department outweighs the male ones. Furthermore, it can be
inferred from the finding that a small number of participants gain benefits from
dictation practice which is not included in the provided choices. These limitations of
this study indicate some aspects for further research to investigate gender
differences in problems they face during listening, the effectiveness of dictation on
listening comprehension and other advantages of frequent dictation can be brought
to light as well.

34
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 APPENDIX

QUESTIONNAIRE

Dear respondents,

My name is Nguyen Nhat Le from class 10A14, English Department, Hanoi

University. This questionnaire is being conducted as a part of my graduation thesis
titled “The use of dictation to improve listening comprehension of first-year
students at English Department, Hanoi University”. It is designed to obtain data to
investigate factors preventing listening comprehension as well as students’ attitudes
of the impact of dictation practice on listening comprehension. I highly appreciate
your opinions which are essential to the completion as well as the quality of my
paper. Put a tick or circle the answer which is most suitable for you. It only takes
you a few minutes to cover the questions and all the information will be kept
confidential.

If you have any problems, feel free to ask me for help or explanations at any time or
contact me via email: nhatlenguyenn47@gmail.com

Thank you for your enthusiastic cooperation!

1. Do you encounter any difficulties in listening comprehension?

 Yes
 No (You can stop here and thanks for your cooperation!)
2. What are the factors that obstruct you from listening comprehension? (You
can choose more than one answer)
 Lack of vocabulary
 Limited short-term memory
 Inappropriate speed of delivery
 Regional accents
 Inability to concentrate
 Connected speech
 Lack of contextual knowledge
 None of the above
3. Do you practice dictation with the aim of improving listening comprehension
outside the classroom?

v
  Yes

No
4. How effective is dictation in developing listening comprehension?

1 2 3 4 5
Not at all A bit Comparatively Greatly Extremely

5. What are the benefits of dictation in enhancing your listening

comprehension? (You can choose more than one answer)
 Increase short-term memory capacity
 Expand vocabulary on particular topics
 Make listeners listen more attentively and actively
 Raise awareness of the features of connected speech (For example:
assimilation, elision, linking, weakening) and get familiar with
different accents
 Strengthen listening for details

None of the above
6. What are the drawbacks of this method? (You can choose more than one
answer)
 Boredom
 Lack of interaction
 Lack of actual comprehension
Others (please specify): ................................................................................
7. What are the suggestions to make dictation more an appealing teaching
device to improve listening comprehension? (You can choose more than one
answer)
 More creative activities should be added to make dictation more
interesting.
 The topic should be interesting/ trending.
 The text difficulty should be chosen appropriately to match with the
level of students.
 Ways of doing, tips and listening material for dictation practice should
be frequently recommended.
 Others (please specify): ................................................................................

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~~~~The end~~~~

Thank you!

vii