An_Najah National University

Faculty of Graduate Studies

Methods of teaching Department

"The Effect of Utilizing Some Active Learning Strategies on Developing

Tenth Graders' Listening Comprehension Skills in Tulkarm"

Submitted by:
Bissan Khalilia

Supervised by:
Dr. ......................

2022-2023
 ‫بسم هللا الرحمن الرحيم‬

ِّ ‫) و قُل ّر‬.
( ‫ب ِز ْدنِي ِع ْل ًما‬
(114 :‫)طه‬

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow

Learn as if you were to live forever".
Mahatma Gandhi

Abstract
Title: "The Effect of Utilizing Some Active Learning Strategies on Developing

Tenth Graders' Listening Comprehension Skills in Gaza"

 The study aimed to identify the effect of some active learning strategies on

developing tenth graders' listening comprehension skills. The researcher used the quasi

experimental design to investigate the effect of utilizing two active learning strategies

based scaffolding approach; reciprocal teaching strategy and checking out strategy.

To achieve the objectives of the study, the researcher utilized three tools: an

Interview with teachers to collect and pinpoint the required listening skills, a checklist for

identifying listening skills of tenth graders and pre-posttest to pinpoint the effect of these

instructional strategies on developing listening skills. The sample of the study consisted of

(80) students distributed into two groups; an experimental group that consisted of (40)

students and a control group that included (40) students of tenth graders at Jamal Abdul

Nasser school at Tulkarm. The current study used many statistical tools to analyze data

such as means, frequencies, percentages and t-test. Moreover, the researcher used Pearson

correlation to confirm the validity and reliability.

The results of the study indicated that there were statistically significant differences

between the mean scores of the experimental group and the control group in favour of the

experimental group. The differences were attributed to using of reciprocal and checking

out strategies based on scaffolding approach.

Based on the findings, the researcher recommended English language teachers to

adopt scaffolding approach in teaching English in general and in teaching listening in

particular. Also, he recommended coordinators, supervisors and specialists to hold training

courses to train English language teachers on using the scaffolding approach and the

related active learning strategies.

 Chapter One: “Introduction”

Introduction:

English language is a global language and wide spread all over the world. That’s

why it should be given a considerable interest both in teaching and learning it. Teaching

English is considered as the main title for acquiring English language effectively. As

known, English skills are the weight for success of acquiring English especially listening
and reading. Listening and reading skills are regarded as receptive skills and they are

strongly needed for all learners who want to be professional in English. Thus, listening

skills are very important since they are the base for communicating with speakers of

English around the globe.

Listening comprehension is the first skill that pupils acquire. It is the skill of

listening, understanding and responding to speech in foreign language in an appropriate

way. Thus, unless the learner hears accurately and understand correctly, he or she will not

be able to respond adequately (Ali, 2011, p.18).

Similarly, Rost, (2002) defined listening, in its broadest sense, as the process of

receiving what the speaker actually says (receptive orientation), constructing meaning

(constructive orientation), negotiating meaning with the speaker and responding

(collaborative orientation) and creating meaning through involvement, imagination

(transformative orientation).

That's why, listening is important for many reasons. Obviously listening influences

other skills. It plays an important role in our life because it is the best way to obtain

knowledge, collect information and get social relationships. It is also one of the

fundamental language skills as it is the 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. The current study tries to develop listening comprehension

skills through using scaffolding approach and some of teaching strategies that depended on

it. Thus, it is very important to clarify the definition and importance of scaffolding and its

related two active learning strategies.

Scaffolding is an instructional technique where the teacher models learning

strategies or tasks and then gradually shifts responsibility to the students. This type of

instruction is consistent with Vygotsky’s (1978) belief that learning is a social process and
not an individual one which occurs when students interact with their teacher and with each

other in the classroom.

The term scaffolding was not directly used in the work of Vygotsky (1978),

although it does have a theoretical basis in his description of the Zone of Proximal

Development (ZPD). The ZPD is defined as the distance between the actual development

level of the learner, as determined by independent problem solving, and the level of

potential development, as determined through problem solving under teacher guidance and

collaboration with more capable student peers (Doolittle, 1997).

The term scaffolding was first used, in instructional context, by Wood, Bruner, and

Ross (1976) in their study, “The Role of Tutoring in Problem Solving”. Scaffolding is also

defined in its educational sense as “a process that enables a child or novice to solve a

problem, carry out a task, or achieve a goal which would be beyond his or her unassisted

efforts" (Graves & David, 2003, p.31).

Reiser (2004) assured that in scaffolding, learners receive support and assistance to

perform certain tasks successfully and move to more complex ones. Without such

assistance, these tasks would be too difficult to achieve; therefore, building on the acquired

experience and skills, students develop their knowledge and improve their performance.

Pilot study:

The researcher in this study interviewed formally and informally (15) EFL teachers

and (5) supervisors at secondary stage. He asked them about the state of teaching and

learning listening comprehension skills from EFL secondary teachers. All of them affirmed

that they neglect teaching listening skills because listening skills are completely omitted

from the whole exams. Thus, they also added that they don’t have enough strategies to

teach listening skills well for EFL tent graders. That’s why, when the researcher suggested

some active learning strategies that may help them to effectively teach listening
comprehension easily, they encourage him to implement this study which could assist

secondary EFL teachers to develop listening skills.

Statement of Problem:

The researcher observed that most students at tenth graders encounter many

problems and difficulties to answer listening exercises. Thus, the researcher strongly

believes that developing listening skills of secondary students are necessary.

That’s why the researcher interviewed some teachers at tenth grade informally and

they affirm that students are needed to develop their listening skills. The researcher thinks

that there are many active learning strategies could contribute in developing their listening

skills.

Research of Questions:

Accordingly, the present study proposes the following major question:

What is the effect of some active learning strategies on developing tenth

graders listening skills?

Based on the above mentioned question, the following sub-questions are

derived:

1. What are the required listening comprehension skills that tenth graders need to

develop?

2. What are the features of strategies that can help tenth graders to develop their

listening skills?

3. To what extent do two active learning strategies effect on developing tenth

graders' listening comprehension skills?

Research hypotheses:

1. There are no statistically significant differences at (α ≤ 0.05) between the mean

scores of the experimental and control group in the post test of listening
 comprehension skills.

2. There are no statistically significant differences at (α ≤ 0.05) between the mean

scores of the experimental group in the pre-posttest of listening comprehension

skills in reciprocal teaching and checking out based on scaffolding strategy.

Significance of the study:

1. This study provides teachers with effective strategies that aim to develop the

listening skills of their students and helps teachers to identify the listening skills

of their students.

2. This study is useful for tenth graders because it may help them to develop their

listening skills

3. This study assists EFL supervisors to develop the teachers' ability in teaching

listening comprehension skills for secondary stage..

4. The study guides curriculum designers to include these strategies that help

students to develop their listening skills

Purpose of the study:

1. Suggesting two important and effective active learning strategies that can help

tenth graders to develop their listening skills.

2. Identifying the necessary listening skills for tenth graders.

3. Pinpointing the effect of these active learning strategies on developing

listening skills.

Delimitations of Study:

1. The current study is delimited during the second semester 2022-2023.

2. The current study is restricted for Tulkarm schools.

3. The sample of the current study consist of tenth graders at Jamal Abdul Nasser
 secondary school.

4. The current study is delimited for using two active learning strategies which are

reciprocal teaching and checking out based on scaffolding strategy.

Definition of Terms:

The following terms are operationally defined particularly for the purpose of this

study:

1. Listening skill: is more complex than merely hearing. It is a process that consists of

four stages: sensing and attending, understanding and interpreting, remembering, and

responding .The stages occur in sequence but we are generally unaware of them (Sheila,

2007).

The researcher defines Listening skills as a set of skills that the researcher tries to

develop through the use of some active learning strategies for the tenth grade students.

2. Scaffolding: Scaffolding is defined in its educational sense as “a process that enables a

child or novice to solve a problem, carry out a task, or achieve a goal which would be

beyond his [or her] unassisted efforts" (Graves and David, 2003, p.31). Scaffolding

is also defined as "a process of setting up the situation to make the child entry easy and

successful and then gradually pulling back and handing the role to the child as he

becomes skilled enough to manage it" (Bruner, 1985, p.60).

Thus, the current study defines Scaffolding as the away in which the teacher

helps his learners to achieve his goals solve problem and perform tasks which beyond

the learners abilities.

3. Reciprocal teaching strategy: The reciprocal teaching strategy (Palinscar and Brown,

1984; Brown and Palinscar, 1985) depends mainly on Vygotskian perspectives,

scaffolding theories and teaching methods which believe that assessment and instruction

aim to achieve levels of competence within supportive learning environment and not
 individually (Brown and Campione, 1986, P.1065). Reciprocal teaching is a powerful

technique that implements four main strategies which are (predicting, questioning,

clarifying and summarizing). These strategies are used to develop comprehension and

help providing information concerning how well comprehension is achieved (Baker,

2002).

The researcher defines Reciprocal Teaching: it is an instructional strategy based

on scaffolding in which the teacher helps his student in the tenth grade to understand

the listening text through many graded steps: 1- predicting, 2- questioning, 3-

clarifying and 4- summarizing.

4. Checking out the Framework: According to Greece Central District (2011), checking

out the framework is a strategy that helps students to preview texts of different genres to

read strategically with an aim in mind. The main targets of this strategy are to help

students preview texts to assess content and to use text features to achieve full

comprehension. These goals can be achieved through checking certain items before

listening, such as, title, author and art work.

The following list adds new ideas to create an extensive reference for teachers to

use, cross- over or mix many of the items according to the level of their students.

Moreover, the researcher defines Checking out the framework strategy: it is an

instructional strategy based on scaffolding in realizing the listening text through

discussing the title or the information presented above related to the author.
 Chapter Two: “Literature Review”

Introduction

This chapter is divided into two main sections. The first section consists of two parts: Part

one deals with a review of literature related to the variables of the study such as listening
comprehension with its types, strategies, approaches, and problems that influence listening

comprehension skills and assessment. Part two sheds light on the nature of scaffolding

illustrating its theoretical background, techniques, instruction, strategies, benefits and

challenges. The second section deals with some of the previous studies.

Listening

Listening is the process in which someone receives sound through his ears. Those sounds

are automatically passed to the brain, mentally recognized and categorized into parts of

speech and analyzed to get the gist of the message. Thus it is not a matter of matching

sounds and words to meaning. .A listener should utilize several cues such as utilizing

previous knowledge, relating the message to the situation, being cognizant of the pragmatic

and functional use of the language." Poelmans (2003, pp.10-14).

Listening definitions

There are various definitions of "listening". One of these definitions is Oxford dictionary

(1993:206) which defines listening as "Listening is a complex problem solving skill and it

is more than just perception of the sounds. listening includes comprehension of meaning of

words, phrases, sentences, hidden meaning and clues. Listening comprehension is regarded

theoretically as an active process in which individuals concentrate on selected aspects of

aural input, form meaning from passages, and associate what they hear with existing

knowledge.

Moreover, Purdy (1997:8) showed that listening, "the active and dynamic process of

attending, perceiving, interpreting, remembering, and responding to the Expressed (verbal

and nonverbal), needs, concerns, and information offered by other human beings".
Abd-Elatif (2002:9) also demonstrated that listening is "an active process through which

the listeners concentrate on some chosen aspects of audio approach and to connecting

meanings with what they have".

Based on the above mentioned definitions, the researcher defined listening skill as a

receptive and decoding skill that requires to discriminate between sounds and words and

comprehend them.

Listening process:

Rost (2005, p.20) demonstrates the process below:

1. Hearing: The auditory reception of an acoustic signal (perception), as is also

performed on non-speech sounds.

2. Categorization of sounds: Categorizing incoming sounds in terms of the sound

categories of the language

3. Word recognition: word recognition: which refers to categorizing sounds and

matching them to the mental lexicon to recognize them as meaningful parts of speech.

However, due to the fact that there are no reliable clues indicating where a word starts and

ends in the sound stream. The word recognition is the most problematic process and a

major source of confusion in language comprehension, particularly for foreign-language

learners

4. Comprehension: Integrating the meanings of the words in their sequence into an

interpretation of the entire utterance, i.e., a reconstruction of the speaker's communicative

intention (= message).

Factors influencing listening comprehension process

A. Linguistic competence
The level of language competence influences the comprehension either positively or

negatively. It is only when language users are cognizant of words and grammatical

structures of a language that they can recognize them. (Lubbad, 2013).

B. Pragmatics

Pragmatic use of language is concerned with intention. To illustrate, Deictic elements are

elements that indirectly refer to objects in the real world. They are often used by a speaker,

and interpreted by the listener; e.g. pronouns which refer to previously mentioned proper

noun, moments in time (e.g., yesterday, now), locations in space (e.g., here, there). A

speaker determines the choice of words, the grammatical structures and stress to express

his intention. It is the listener's role to utilize his own ability to understand reference of the

deictic elements and to deduce speaker's intention.

C. Knowledge of the world

Knowledge of the world plays a role in achieving comprehension of speech. It is important

because it enables listeners to base the newly received knowledge on the background of

world knowledge. The world knowledge throws light on the new text and clarifies its

components which enhances, speeds and facilitates achieving comprehension.

Knowledge of the world helps listener to categorize and classify information which makes

it possible to interpret and remember this information. World knowledge speeds up

comprehension of text by offering a foundation for making inferences. (Recht and Leslie

1988:16-20).

D. Memory

Listening is an aural skill, which does not depend on printed word. Memory is the only

vessel in which listener can save information. It is in continuous work as long as a listener
is receiving information. Memory works with propositions, not with sentences. While

listening, listeners can:

1- Categorize the received speech into meaningful sections.

2- Identify redundant material, keep hold of chunks of the sentences.

3- Think ahead and use language data to anticipate what a speaker may be going to say.

4- Accumulate information in the memory by organizing it.

5- Avoid too much immediate detail.

So, without having the ability to keep the important parts of utterances in memory, a

listener can't achieve full comprehension. Richards (1985:191)

Types of listening

There are different types of listening. Knowing these types is so important for any teacher

in teaching listening and developing it. Thus, teaching listening also helps teachers to

design different listening tasks and use appropriate techniques which assist pupils develop

their listening skills.

According to Wolvin and Coakley (1988) proposed five different kinds of listening:

A. Discriminative listening which helps listeners draw a distinction between facts and

opinions.

B. Comprehensive listening: it facilitates understanding oral input.

C. Critical listening: it allows listeners to analyze the incoming message before

accepting and rejecting it.

D. Therapeutic listening: it serves as a sounding board and lack any critiques, e.g.,

advising.
E. Appreciative listening: it contributes listeners to enjoy and receives emotional

impressions.

Similarly, Tate (2001) briefly described the following four types of listening:

A. Comprehensive listening: it is when one listens for an understanding of the

message.

B. Critical listening: it occurs when one wants to make an intelligent response to a

persuasive message.

C. Therapeutic listening: it is a non-judgmental way of listening with the interests of

the speaker in mind.

D. Appreciative listening: it is a relaxing method in which the message is enjoyed for

its own sake.

According to Doff (1995, p.199) claimed that in real life there are two ways of listening;

casual and focused listening:

A. Firstly, casual listening: it takes place when listening with no particular purpose in

mind and without concentration, for example, listening to the radio while doing

housework; As a result, one may not remember what s/he hears.

B. Secondly, Focused listening: it is when someone listens on a purpose. For example,

listening to the news, s/he can remember whatever s/he has listened to.

The researcher noticed that listening comprehension is a skill aiming to recognize sounds,

words and rearrange them in meaningful units. There is an urgent need that a listener

should be aware of the target language structure, segmental and super-segmental features

to integrate the best form of listening comprehension.

This study depends on focused listening which is considered as a very important and

necessary one and which needs to be improved and developed. Moreover, focused listening

has many skills. Some of them easy, but others are hard and difficult. Thus, the current

study sheds light on some skills that teacher and students at secondary schools need them

to improve and develop in light of using new effective strategies.

Listening strategies

Clearly ,listening teaching strategies are considered prominent tools that contribute in developing
and improving listening skill.

From time to time ,educator design and formulate new teaching strategies not only for listening
but also for all English skills.

According to Nunan (1999) clarified that teaching strategies not only lead to better listening, but
also they contribute in developing effective language learners . He added that there are a lot of
teaching strategies for listening Here is a description of three important strategies and/or models
of the listening process:

A. The bottom-up strategy:

This strategy is text-based; the listener relies on the language in the message, that is the
combination of sounds, words and grammatical relationships and meaning.

White (1998) and Brown (2001) explained that the bottom-up process is related to being able to
recognize the small patterns of the spoken text such as words and sounds whereas Peterson
(2001) stated that bottom- up strategy the listener is supposed to pay attention to every detail of
the spoken text.

In short, this process goes from bottom to top to finally get the message. Buck (2001) stated that
according to his experience, he has noticed that people think that language processing follows a
unique sequence. That process is called bottom-up in which people interpret language starting
from the lowest level to the highest level, assuming that speakers decode firstly the phonemes,
then they decode individual words going to a higher level syntax to finally arrive at the meaning of
the message. Also, Jack and Willy (2002, p.239) continued to define the bottom-up strategy saying
that listening is a process of decoding the sounds that one hears in a linear fashion, from the
smallest meaningful units (phonemes) to complete texts.

Similarly, Nunan (2002) added that bottom-up processing refers to acquiring the meaning of the
message based on the incoming language data from sounds, to words, to grammatical
relationships, and ultimately to the meaning.

In light of the above mentioned opinions, the current study states that bottom- up strategy is a
strategy where the listener focuses on the language being listened to help to decode the meaning
of the information being presented. This strategy is essential when the listener is completely
unfamiliar with the subject matter being listened. Moreover, Bottom-up listening skills are
commonly used by people when studying foreign languages.
Consequently, Bottom up strategies include:

listening for specific details, recognizing cognates, recognizing word order patterns, distinguishing
minimal pairs and guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words and expressions from context.

The top-down strategy

This study demonstrates that listener-based strategy emphasizes the use of the listener's previous
knowledge in processing a text rather than relying on individual sounds and words. In other
words, top-down processing refers to the use of background knowledge in understanding the
meaning of a message.

According to Schwartz, (1998:6) Top-down strategy as mentioned, it is text- based one . In light of
this strategy the listener taps into background knowledge of the topic, the situation or context,
the type of the text, and the language. This background knowledge activates a set of expectations
that help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate what will come next.

On the other hand, Jack and Willy(2002:239) stated that the top down view suggests that the
listener actively constructs the original meaning of the speaker using incoming sounds as clues. In
this reconstruction process, the listener uses previous knowledge of the context and situation
within which the listening takes place to make sense of what he or she hears. Context and
situation includes such things as knowledge of the topic at hand, the speaker or speakers and the
relationship to the situation, as well as to each other and prior events.”

According to giving a similar definition, Nunan (2002) added that top-down processing refers to
utilizing schemata which was known as a learner’s background knowledge and global
understanding to deduce the meaning from and interpret the message.

In the same context, Lynch and Mendelsohn (2002:197) stated that top down processing is
holistic, “going from whole to part, and focused on interpretation of meaning rather than
recognition of sounds, words and sentences.

Moreover, listeners actively formulate hypotheses as to speaker's meaning, and confirm or

modify them where necessary. In the top-down strategy, the listener will depend on the
knowledge he/she already possesses to help him/her understand new information as it is
presented.

Thus, this study states that the top-down strategies include:

• listening for the main idea.

• Predicting.

• Drawing inferences.

• Summarizing.

• Identifying relevant points and rejecting irrelevant information.

Top-down strategy needs the capability of the listener to bring previous information that is used
to comprehend the topic the speaker is talking about In top down, the listener is able to create
expectations about what is going to be mentioned the speaker. It means that the listener can
anticipate the final message.
According to Richards (2008), top-down processing, refers to the use of background knowledge in
understanding the meaning of a message. Whereas bottom- up processing goes from language to
meaning, top-down processing goes from meaning to language.

The interactive strategy

The interactive strategy is called (text-listener based strategy). It involves both the bottom-up and
top-down processing. There is an ongoing discussion in L2 research on the interaction between
top-down processes and bottom-up processes.

A number of studies illustrated the complexities of the listening process.

According Rubin (1994:41) stated that at some levels there is a delicate interaction between top
down processing and bottom-up processing especially when there is a communication
breakdown.

According to Nunan (2002) claimed that listening comprehension is neither top- down nor
bottom-up processing. It is an interactive, interpretive process where listeners employ both prior
knowledge and linguistic knowledge to make sense of the incoming message.

According to Flower dew, and Miller (2005:27) at the level of the group beginners are likely to
spent more time on developing basic bottom-up skills of the decoding. For more advance
learners, however, who have mastered basic phonology and syntax, the emphasis on the
development of top-down skills of applying schematic knowledge which may be more
appropriate, although even advanced learners need to work on bottom-up features of fast
speech.

As Seif-Eddin (2010) indicated that some psychologists claim that when the quality of the stimulus
is good, bottom-up processing is preferred, and it is only when stimulus quality deteriorates top-
down processing takes over as a compensatory device.

Consequently, in the real-world, listening, both bottom-up and top-down processing generally
occur together. The extent to which one or the other dominates depends on the listener’s
familiarity with the topic and content of a text, the density of information in a text, the text type,
and the listener’s purpose in listening.

In the current study, the researcher tried to clarify that the interactive strategy is mixture of the
top-down strategy and the bottom-up one using the text types appropriate to the secondary
stage pupils. This strategy is very important to be improved as it contributes in developing
listening skills in general.

Problems of listening Comprehension

Listening problems that result in miscommunication have several sources; the problem can

be purely physical; for example a damage of the inner ear, or it can be linguistic, for

example a problem with the recognition of speech sounds, or it can be of a more abstract

cognitive level, for example misinterpretation of the message.

Underwood (1989) see that listening problems are related to learners' different

backgrounds, such as:

A. Their culture and education.

B. The speed of delivery is beyond the control of listeners. Many language learners

believe that the greatest difficulty with listening comprehension is that listener cannot

control how quickly a speaker speaks.

C. The numbers of times repeating listening passage are low.

In the classroom, it is the teacher who decides whether or not a recording or a section of

recording needs to be replayed. Underwood added that "It is hard for the teacher to judge

whether or not the students have understood any particular section of what they have

heard.”

D. Small size of learner's vocabulary.

The speaker does not always use words the listener knows. Sometimes when listeners

encounter a new word, they stop to figure out the meaning of that word, and they therefore,

miss the next part of the speech.

E. Not recognizing discourse markers and signals such as gestures, increased

loudness, or a clear change of pitch are very ambiguous, especially to L2 learners.

F. Students feel that listening is very challenging even when they are interested in the

topic because it requires a lot of effort to figure out the meaning intended by the speaker.

G. Learners have a desire to understand the meaning of every word.

H. Finally, students lack contextual knowledge.

The researcher believed that there are other problems that encounter who listening

comprehension.

These problems are summarized by the current study as follows:

1. Lack of phonemic awareness. It is believed that native speakers identify speech

sounds because they have in mind their own perceptual prototypical phonemes. Thus, as

long as the input sounds they receive lie within this range, the sound can be categorized

correctly.

However in l2 learners lack of knowledge of the L2 prototypes causes wrong

categorization. Moreover, listeners fail to comprehend the text or the words from the native

speaker.

2. There are several reasons which cause difficulties in listening are represented in

stress, rhythm and intonation, rate of delivery, reduced forms, lack of concentration,

pronunciation and accent of the speaker, rate of delivery ,the effect of tape recorder, lack of

vocabulary, lack of proficiency, lack of practice and lack of linguistic competence.

Active learning strategies:

Active learning has received considerable attention over the past several years. Often

presented or perceived as a radical change from traditional instruction, the topic frequently

polarizes teaching. Active learning model was developed on the principles of constructivist

theory that sets techniques and to apply constructivist theory in the classroom. That’s why,

active learning is a student - centered learning and it assigns the responsibility of learning

to the student (Mustafa et al., 2012:45). In order to ensure active learning in classrooms,

students should be self regulated and have an active role in decision making process while

engaged in cognitively challenging academic tasks. Similarly enhances the quality of

students’ learning as students learn by creating meaning rather than memorizing

information transmitted by the teacher. (Haack, 2008:396).

Principles of active learning strategies

The principles of active learning based are presented by (Ghazy,2004; Maabad, 2006;

Bedair, 2008) can be stated like the following:

A. It encourages contacts between students and the teacher.

B. Active learning develops reciprocity and cooperation among students.

C. It uses active learning techniques.

D. Active learning gives immediate feedback.

E. Active learning emphasizes time on task.

F. It respects diverse talents and ways of learning.

According to Abdelwahab (2005:137) adds the following principles:

A. More information doesn't necessarily mean more learning. Learners seek to create

meaningful uses of knowledge regardless of the quantity and quality of the information

presented.

B. Past experience matters, Personal beliefs and impressions from prior learning color

the learners' world views and their approach to learning. Learners link new knowledge to

existing information in ways that make sense to them.

C. Learners want to learn. Individuals are naturally curious and enjoy learning, but

personal insecurity and fear of failure often get in the way.

D. Learners like challenges and are most creative when learning is challenging and

meets their individual needs.

However, the researcher adds the following principles:

A. Learners are individuals. Not all learners are at the same level of physical,

intellectual, emotional, and social development. Learners also differ in their cultural

backgrounds.

B. The learning environment is important. Learners learn best in a friendly, socially

interactive and diverse environment.

C. Learners like positive reinforcement and learning environments that support the

self-esteem and respect of the individual learner who tend to be more successful.

Benefits of Active Learning strategies

The assumptions offered when using the active learning approach and the techniques used

will increase the student’s learning of a given topic, or in the case of learning English as a

foreign language, will permit the learner to more easily acquire language skills necessary

for communication.

Among a lot of researchers who addressed or mentioned the benefits of active learning

such as (Wilke, 2003:208) and (Saada et al., 2006:33l) stated the following benefits:

A. Students who work together on active learning tasks learn to work with other

people of different backgrounds and attitudes.

B. Students are more likely to find personally meaningful problem solutions or

interpretations.

C. Students receive more frequent and more immediate feedback.

D. The need to produce forces learners to retrieve information from memory rather

than simply recognizing a correct statement.

E. Students increase their self-confidence and self-reliance by giving them

opportunities to participate actively in the process of their learning.

F. For most learners, it is more motivating to be active than passive.

G. A task that learners have done yourself or as part of a group is more highly valued.

H. Students learn strategies for learning itself by observing others.

According to Karge et al., (2011, p.367) 1T and Braxton et al., (2008, p.72) affirm that

active involvement in the learning process is vitally important in two areas: (a) for the

mastery of skills, such as critical thinking and problem-solving and

(b) for contributing to the student’s likelihood of persisting to program completion .

Challenges facing active learning strategies

Despite the Various benefits of active learning stratiges , it has many barriers and

challenges to be implemented. (Wilke, 2003, p.208) stated many challenges facing learners

to get engaged in active learning:

A. For teachers, trying something new creates feelings of uneasiness and lack of

confidence, not to mention the fact that teachers usually have few incentives to change

their teaching styles.

B. Students and teachers also share similar expectations about one another’s role in the

classroom. Teachers prefer lecturing and view it as an effective means of transmitting

information, whereas students come to expect teachers to be good lecturers.

C. Students are also resistant to change in the classroom.

D. With active learning, teachers cannot cover as much content in the time available,

that it takes increased course preparation time, or that they simply lack educational

training.

E. Teachers also state that large classes prohibit active learning and that materials are

lacking to support it.

The researcher thinks that challenges of active learning has several factors such

A. Non-resistance to the traditional teaching method by teachers in the educational

process due to lack of self-confidence.

B. Lack of workshops for teachers by the responsible authorities to urge them to use

active learning strategies within the classroom.

C. Not all students participate in educational activities within the classroom, making

them receptive to information only.

D. Lack of appropriate tools and means by the responsible authorities.

Scaffolding strategy

The term "scaffolding" is related to the works of Vygotsky who established this kind of

teaching. Scaffolding is considered to be one of the most powerful and versatile

instructional techniques of socio- constructivist teaching (Clark and Graves, 2005). Many

efforts have been exerted to define this technique, its concepts, features and types.

2.4.3 Nature of Scaffolding

Scaffolding is regarded as one of the most important teaching strategy in learning and teaching
English.

Scaffolding in its literal sense is defined as a temporary structure that is often used in the process
of constructing building to allow workers support the building. As the building is finished, the
scaffolding can be taken out. Although scaffolding is a temporary support, it is essential for the
process of building construction (Gibbson, 2002).
The term scaffolding was first used in its educational sense by Wood, Burner and Ross (1976).
They defined it as an " adult controlling those elements of the task that are essentially beyond the
learner's capacity. Thus permitting him to concentrate upon and complete only those elements
that are within his range of competence".

Thus scaffolding, is as temporary help that motivates and assists students to achieve a higher level
of competence in carrying out certain tasks. It is simply the role of teacher (scaffolder) when
helping learners, achieve goals, solve problems and achieve tasks.

According to Rogoff (1990), scaffolding is described as a supported situation in which children can
develop their existing skills and achieve higher level of competence. It is also defined as the
teacher's efforts exerted to help students complete difficult tasks they could not do in their own
(Pearson and Fielding, 1991, p. 842).

Scaffolding technique is widely used to develop different skills. Many recent definitions
highlighted the role of scaffolding in improving skills such as argumentation (Belland, et al., 2008;
Jonassen and Kim, 2010) and understanding of the text and other content (Azevedo, 2005; Lin,
2000). The role of scaffolding in developing listening comprehension skills will be mentioned in
details during this chapter.

Scaffolding Instruction

According to Larkin (2002), the points below provide a simple structure of scaffolding instruction.

First, the instructor does it.

This means that, the instructor should firstly model how a difficult or a specific task can be
accomplished. For example, if wants to present graphic organizers, a teacher can hand out
partially completed graphic organizer and then ask the students to think aloud and describe how
the graphic organizer explains the relationship between the information included.

Second, the class does it.

Then, the teacher works with the students to accomplish the task. They may, for example, add
some information to the graphic organizer, teacher writes on the white board and they fill in their
own copies.

Third, the group does it.

After that, students may work in pairs or in small groups to complete the graphic organizer.

Fourth, the individual does it.

This is the final step of independence where students can demonstrate their task individually (e.g
complete the graphic organizer successfully).

In the same context, the points below are considered to be guidelines for teachers when using
instructional scaffolding, Hogan and Pressley (1997).

A. Choose a task that cope with curriculum goals, learning objectives and students' needs.

B. Help students to create instructional goals.

C. Students' backgrounds and previous knowledge should be considered.

D. Use different types of supports and aids while students doing the task (e.g questions,
hints, diagrams, models and so on.

E. Encourage students and ask them questions to help them focus on the goal.

Scaffolding Strategies

According to Mc Kenzie (2000) scaffolding strategies provide students with:

A. Clear guidelines to decrease confusion.

B. Help them reach expectations.

C. Explain a lesson or a task.

D. and provide them with helpful resources.

The researcher thinks that scaffolding strategies are very important . That’s why , the researcher
used two scaffolding strategies (Reciprocal Teaching and Checking out to help students develop
their listening comprehension skills). Moreover, these strategies will be indicators for the
improvement of listening skill. The researcher powerfully believe that R.T.S is regarded the most
important that could contribute in developing listening skills. Thus , the researcher starts
explaining it first:

Scaffolding Techniques

The way of utilising scaffolding in learning environments can vary according to students' level and
difficult of the task.

According to Hannafin (2001) scaffolding techniques can differ according to mechanisms and
functions. Mechanisms are related to the method of scaffolding while functions emphasize the
purposes targeted. Teacher can use various techniques of scaffolds such as: conceptual,
metacognitive, procedural and strategic (Al-Yami, 2008):

A. Conceptual Scaffolding: is used when the task is clear and well- defined. It can be done
through several mechanisms such as cuing/hinting, providing a model and providing feedback
(Caglitay, 2006).

B. Metacognitive Scaffolding helps students to think and relate the given information to
their background knowledge.

C. Procedural Scaffolding clarifies, models and aids the learners while performing the task
until achieving it.

D. Strategic Scaffolding takes the form of response- sensitive guidance at key decision points.

Other different instructional scaffolding techniques have been mentioned by Hogan and Pressley
(1997) such as: Modeling, offering explanations, participation encouragement. These techniques
can be used individually or integrated with each other according to the material being taught.

Benefits and Challenges of Scaffolding:

It becomes clear that scaffolding is a flexible model that can help students with any level of
understanding. In the process of scaffolding, students are engaged, they are not only passive
listeners, but rather they build on their prior knowledge and form a new one (Bassiri, 2002).
A. Scaffolding also provides positive feedback for students with learning disabilities and low
self-efficacy and motivates them to become better learners.

B. It decreases students' frustration

C. It provides opportunities for peer- teaching and learning and also provides learners with
a safe, welcoming and caring learning environment. (Al-Yami, 2008). However, some challenges
may face teachers while applying scaffolding model:

A. using instructional scaffolding and trying to meet the needs of every individual will be
time consuming and demanding.

B. It needs properly trained teachers to apply instructional scaffolding appropriately and see
its full effect (Van Der and Rachel, 2002).

C. It also requires less control over the classroom and allows students to make mistakes
which may be difficult for teachers to do.

D. It is difficult to use the appropriate scaffolds which meet students' needs and lesson
content (Elkomy, 2016).

The researcher thinks that reciprocal teaching and checking out based on scaffolding approach
has several features:

A. They increase listening interest and fluency.

B. Helping students maximize listening comprehension and retention.

C. Helping students work cooperatively in groups, support each other and share their
information.

D. Mading them responsible for their own learning by pushing them to search for
information they need to know.

E. It is a flexible model that can help students with any level of understanding.

F. In the process of scaffolding, students are involved, they are not only passive listener, but
rather they build on their prior knowledge and form a new one.

G. It provides positive feedback for students with learning disabilities and low self-efficacy
and motivates them to become better learners.

H. Helps students break the fear barrier by providing part of the information to help the
student when he needs help to answer a specific question.

I. Increasing social relation between the students and the teacher.

J. It makes every student that engaged in the learning process in the classroom.

As a conclusion , the researcher strong believe that reciprocal teaching and checking out based on
scaffolding approach are considered as an integral part in the achievement of any instructional
goal.
Studies related

1. Orak (2018). This study aims to analyse the views of elementary school students on active
learning integrated with art branches in core courses (Turkish, mathematics, science and social
studies). To achieve this aim ,the researcher adopted a descriptive design. The study sample
consisted of 22 students, including 15 male and 7 female students. In this study , the researcher
used an observation and interview as tool of the study. The research data obtained through
observation and by means of an interview form were analysed and interpreted by descriptive
analysis method. Moreover, the results revealed that active learning approaches that students
learnt better and in a more enjoyable way, their self-esteem also increased. Thus, the elementary
school students had positive views on active learning integrated with art branches in core courses.

2. Virtanen (2017) . The study identifies the relationships between active learning, student
teachers’ self-regulated learning and professional competences. Furthermore, the aim is to
investigate how active learning promotes professional competences of student teachers with
different self-regulation profiles. To achieve this aim ,the researcher adopted the survey design. In
this study, the sample was

(422) student teachers . In this study the researcher used electronic Questionnaire as a tool of
study. To analyze collected data, the researcher used a one-way multivariate analysis of variance
(MANOVA) ,descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation coefficients . The results revealed that
the use of active learning methods, such as goal-oriented and intentional learning as well as
autonomous and responsible group work, are strongly and positively related to the achievement
of professional competences.

1. KIRBAS (2017) In this study, the effect of the learning together technique, which is one of
the cooperative learning methods, on the development of the listening comprehension and
listening skills of the secondary school eighth grade students were investigated. The researcher
adopted the quasi-experimental approach. .The sample of the research, experimental and control
groups consisting of 75 students from, as Secondary School. The instrument in this study was
'Listening- Comprehension Achievement Test' that was applied to measure the listening skills of
the experimental and control groups. The selected experimental groups were taught by learning
together technique of cooperative learning method for seven weeks and the control group was
taught in the traditional way. The data of the study were analyzed, using(SPSS) program , T-
test ,means ,standard deviation ,T value and Eta square which measured the effect size . The
findings of the research was that the students in the experimental group were more successful
than the students in the control group in terms of post - test achievement scores. Moreover,
When the results of the study was that the learning together technique, which is one of the
cooperative learning methods, is more effective than the traditional learning method in improving
listening comprehension and listening skills of the eighth grade students in Turkish class.

2. Tabail (2016) The study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of a multimedia based
program in developing eighth graders' listening comprehension skills and attitudes towards
listening. To achieve the aims of this study, the researcher adopted quasi experimental method .
The researcher selected (60) eighth graders from Jabalia prep "B" Boys school. The participants
were divided into two equivalent groups: each group had (30) students. The researcher used
three tools in this study1) a questionnaire for teachers to determine the most important listening
comprehension skills for eighth graders, 2) an achievement test (Pre & Post), 3) an attitude scale
(pre & post) to determine the students' attitudes towards listening. The data of the study were
analyzed, using(SPSS) program , one way anova ,percentages, means ,standard deviation ,T value
and Eta square to measure the effect size . The results of the study indicated that the multimedia
program was effective in developing the listening comprehension skills for eighth graders. In
addition, the study findings revealed that there were statistically significant differences between
both groups in the results of achievement test, in favor of the experimental one due to the
program used. In the light of these results, the researcher recommends the necessity of
implementing multimedia program in teaching English listening comprehension skills. Moreover,
teachers of English should adopt technology in teaching English.

Chapter Three: “Methodology”

Introduction

The purpose of the current study is to investigate the effect of using some active learning
strategies on developing tenth graders listening comprehension skills. This chapter introduces the
procedures followed throughout the study. It introduces a complete description of the research
design, the population, the sample, the variables, the tools, the research design and the statistical
methods of the study.

Research Design

The present study adopted the quasi-experimental design using two groups to investigate the
effect of some active learning strategies on developing listening comprehension skills of tenth
grade pupils. Both groups were pre-post tested, and then the experimental group was taught
listening comprehension skills through reciprocal and checking out based on instructional
scaffolding strategy , while the control group was taught listening comprehension skills by the
traditional method.

The quasi-experimental design of the study can be illustrated as follows:

Applying the proposed

Experimental
Scaffolding strategies
Pre-test
Post- test

Control The regular teaching method

Figure (3.1): The Quasi- Experimental Design of the Study (Abu

Allam. 2011)

Population of the study:

The population of the study includes all tenth (male) graders at Rafah secondary schools in the
scholastic year (2017 – 2018).