Background of the problem:
Listening is essential in the EFL classrooms for certain reasons. First, without listening comprehension no oral comprehension will take place. Therefore, listening is vital in language classroom. Second, it provides input for learners. Learning could not happen without clear understanding of the input (Nunan, 1998). Listening is the foundation of both formal education and language acquisition (Feyten, 1991). Lee& Hateshol (2003) agreed and added that more than 45% of total communication is listening, speaking takes 30%, reading takes 16%, and writing, 9%.
Teaching listening skills is one of the most important objectives on which teaching language is based. However, based on interviews with supervisors, teachers and students, the researcher found out the following:
1- Listening is not a part of promotional or regional exams, so it is not given the importance it deserves. Teachers focus on teaching students how to read and write while listening finds no attention because it is not used in final exams.
2- Most teachers seem to take listening for granted without exerting efforts to help students develop strategies or techniques to improve it.
3- Listening comprehension exercises do not receive adequate time or effort from both teachers and students. Teachers do not usually teach listening exercises properly.
4- Most of the listening material (like tapes that accompany the ministry books) are either not used at all or not used properly in the classes, and even when teachers play the tapes for their students, they replay them over and over because of the students’ low level of listening, which make the listening comprehension activity meaningless.
5- A great number of students find it more difficult to listen to a taped message than to read the same message on a piece of paper, since the listening passage comes into the ear in the twinkling of an eye, whereas reading material can be read as long as the reader likes.
6- Foreign language learners usually devote more time to reading than to listening, and so lack exposure to different kinds of listening materials.
These findings stimulated the researcher to conduct a pilot study on students of prep stage.
The Pilot Study:
In order to investigate students’ present level in listening comprehension the researcher developed a listening test based on tasks provided in English book assigned for second year preparatory stage. The test aimed at:
1- Measuring students’ ability to identify specific information.
2- Measuring students’ ability to make correct inferences.
3- Measuring students’ ability to guess the meaning of new words.
The test was applied to a random sample of 67 female students from Shagaret Al-Dor Prep School in Mansoura at the beginning of the academic year in November 2009 see appendix (A). The analyses of data are shown in the following table.
Table (1): Means, percentages, and standard deviation of students’ scores in the pilot study.
Standard Deviation Percentage Mean Total Score Questions
1.8 46.25% 3.7 8 Identifying specific information.
1.4 38.75% 3.1 8 Making correct inferences.
1.2 21.66% 1.3 6 Guessing the meaning of new words.
3.5 36.8% 8.1 22 Total
The results in table (1) indicate that:
1-The sample mean score in identifying specific information, making correct inferences, and guessing the meaning of new words is below the acceptable level.
2-The sample total mean score is below the acceptable level.
This analysis indicates students’ general low level in listening. These results suggest the following:
1-The need for reviewing the English courses of students to fulfill the development of listening skills.
2-The need for improving prep stage students’ listening skills.
3-The need for using some techniques to encourage students to use the target language to enhance their listening skills.
Statement of the Problem:
Based on the literature, the researcher's observation and the results of the pilot study, the problem of the present study was stated as follows:
"Most of second year preparatory stage pupils in Mansoura Dakahlia Governorate, lack the adequate training required for effective listening".
Therefore, the need is urgent to operate new techniques concerned with developing listening comprehension skills. The need is urgent also for teachers to be aware of the appropriate listening skills for EFL preparatory stage students.
Thus, the present study investigated the effectiveness of using training programme based on dramatic activities in developing the EFL listening comprehension skills of the preparatory stage students.
Research Questions:
Through answering the following questions the problem of the study was explored :
1-What are the listening skills suitable for students of preparatory stage?
2-What is the actual performance of the students in the identified listening skills?
3-What are the most appropriate dramatic activities for the proposed programme?
4-What is the effectiveness of using the dramatic activities on the development of listening skills of second year preparatory stage students?
Significance of the Study:
1-Providing teachers and curriculum designers with a list of the listening comprehension skills of EFL second preparatory stage students.
2-Directing the attention of EFL teachers towards the importance of listening as an aid for enhancing communication skills.
3-Evaluating students’ levels, recognizing their performance and showing to what extent they need to be trained in listening comprehension skills.
4-Directing the attention of EFL teachers to the importance of using dramatic activities in enhancing listening skills.
5-Paving the way for more studies that aim at setting up concepts which are based scientific bases in order to develop various listening comprehension skills.
Hypotheses of the Study:
1-There are statistically significant differences between the post-test mean scores of the experimental and control groups on listening comprehension skills in favour of the experimental group.
2-There are statistically significant differences between the pre-test mean scores and the post-test mean scores of the experimental group on listening comprehension skills in favour of the post-test.
Limitations of the Study:
1- A selected sample of second year preparatory stage pupils from "Shagaret El-Dor Prep School for Girls" in Mansoura Dakahlia Governorate.
2- Listening comprehension skills determined by the jury members for second year preparatory stage pupils.
3- The second semester in the academic year 2010/2011.
4- Five dramatic activities (e.g., storytelling, story-acting, role playing, readers theater and choral reading).
Definitions of Terms:
Listening Skill:
O'Malley, Chamot, and Kupper (1989: p.434) offered an extensive definition for listening comprehension as follows:
“Listening comprehension is an active and conscious process in which the listener constructs meaning by using cues from contextual information and from existing knowledge, while relying upon multiple strategic resources to fulfill the task requirements”.
Rubin (1990: p.309) defined listening as “processing information which the listener gets from visual and auditory clues in order to define what is going on and what the speakers are trying to express”. Following the same line of thought, Oxford (1993: p.20) provided a definition of listening as being “the process of receiving, attending to, and assigning meaning to aural stimuli”. She extended this definition by adding that all the aspects of listening involve a transformation of the ‘input’ into ‘intake’, i.e. the message received is meaningful for the listener.
To McDonough (2003) listening is discriminating between sounds, understanding vocabulary and structures, interpreting stress and intonation, and interpreting the utterance within its immediate as well as the cultural context.
For the purpose of the current study, the definition of Rubin (1990) is adopted. It provides a clear view of listening as an active process in which the listener understands from visual and auditory clues what is going on.
Dramatic Activities:
According to their theoretical perspective, writers refer to dramatic activities with a lot of terms (e.g., dramatics, drama, creative drama, dramatic techniques…etc.).
Good (1981: p.195) defined dramatic activities as “a dramatic presentation usually based upon a familiar story cooperatively planned by children, with spontaneous dialogues rather than written lines memorized by the actors”.
Bruce & Mckerrow (1988: p.16) referred to dramatic activities with dramatic techniques and defined them as “a teaching method which is not the same thing as teaching theater-is informal-and focuses on the process of dramatic enactment for the sake of the learner, not an audience”.
Combs (1988: p.9) referred to dramatic activities with classroom drama and defined them as “a learning medium rather than an art form, and is governed and validated through criteria other than aesthetics”.
Bailey (1993) referred to dramatic activities with dramatic play and defined them as a play in which children create an authentic world. In this kind of play, they may imitate adults, play out real-life roles and try to solve real-life problems. Dramatic play is a way for children to express their most pressing needs and may be played repeatedly for the joy of doing it.
McCaslin (1996: p.7) referred to dramatic activities with creative drama and defined them as “an improvisational, nonexhibitional, process-centered form of drama in which participants are guided by a leader to imagine, enact, and reflect upon human experiences. It is always an improvised performance: lines are not written and not memorized. Each member of the group gets an opportunity to play various parts. Participants are guided by a teacher and not by a director. No decorations, costumes, or special equipment is needed, just time, space, and an enthusiastic leader”.
Hence, for the present study, dramatic activities are defined as purposeful classroom activities based upon a story cooperatively planned by teacher and students for developing listening skills through students enactment and participation. These activities include storytelling, story-acting, role play, readers theater and choral reading.
Listening is essential in the EFL classrooms for certain reasons. First, without listening comprehension no oral comprehension will take place. Therefore, listening is vital in language classroom. Second, it provides input for learners. Learning could not happen without clear understanding of the input (Nunan, 1998). Listening is the foundation of both formal education and language acquisition (Feyten, 1991). Lee& Hateshol (2003) agreed and added that more than 45% of total communication is listening, speaking takes 30%, reading takes 16%, and writing, 9%.
Teaching listening skills is one of the most important objectives on which teaching language is based. However, based on interviews with supervisors, teachers and students, the researcher found out the following:
1- Listening is not a part of promotional or regional exams, so it is not given the importance it deserves. Teachers focus on teaching students how to read and write while listening finds no attention because it is not used in final exams.
2- Most teachers seem to take listening for granted without exerting efforts to help students develop strategies or techniques to improve it.
3- Listening comprehension exercises do not receive adequate time or effort from both teachers and students. Teachers do not usually teach listening exercises properly.
4- Most of the listening material (like tapes that accompany the ministry books) are either not used at all or not used properly in the classes, and even when teachers play the tapes for their students, they replay them over and over because of the students’ low level of listening, which make the listening comprehension activity meaningless.
5- A great number of students find it more difficult to listen to a taped message than to read the same message on a piece of paper, since the listening passage comes into the ear in the twinkling of an eye, whereas reading material can be read as long as the reader likes.
6- Foreign language learners usually devote more time to reading than to listening, and so lack exposure to different kinds of listening materials.
These findings stimulated the researcher to conduct a pilot study on students of prep stage.
The Pilot Study:
In order to investigate students’ present level in listening comprehension the researcher developed a listening test based on tasks provided in English book assigned for second year preparatory stage. The test aimed at:
1- Measuring students’ ability to identify specific information.
2- Measuring students’ ability to make correct inferences.
3- Measuring students’ ability to guess the meaning of new words.
The test was applied to a random sample of 67 female students from Shagaret Al-Dor Prep School in Mansoura at the beginning of the academic year in November 2009 see appendix (A). The analyses of data are shown in the following table.
Table (1): Means, percentages, and standard deviation of students’ scores in the pilot study.
Standard Deviation Percentage Mean Total Score Questions
1.8 46.25% 3.7 8 Identifying specific information.
1.4 38.75% 3.1 8 Making correct inferences.
1.2 21.66% 1.3 6 Guessing the meaning of new words.
3.5 36.8% 8.1 22 Total
The results in table (1) indicate that:
1-The sample mean score in identifying specific information, making correct inferences, and guessing the meaning of new words is below the acceptable level.
2-The sample total mean score is below the acceptable level.
This analysis indicates students’ general low level in listening. These results suggest the following:
1-The need for reviewing the English courses of students to fulfill the development of listening skills.
2-The need for improving prep stage students’ listening skills.
3-The need for using some techniques to encourage students to use the target language to enhance their listening skills.
Statement of the Problem:
Based on the literature, the researcher's observation and the results of the pilot study, the problem of the present study was stated as follows:
"Most of second year preparatory stage pupils in Mansoura Dakahlia Governorate, lack the adequate training required for effective listening".
Therefore, the need is urgent to operate new techniques concerned with developing listening comprehension skills. The need is urgent also for teachers to be aware of the appropriate listening skills for EFL preparatory stage students.
Thus, the present study investigated the effectiveness of using training programme based on dramatic activities in developing the EFL listening comprehension skills of the preparatory stage students.
Research Questions:
Through answering the following questions the problem of the study was explored :
1-What are the listening skills suitable for students of preparatory stage?
2-What is the actual performance of the students in the identified listening skills?
3-What are the most appropriate dramatic activities for the proposed programme?
4-What is the effectiveness of using the dramatic activities on the development of listening skills of second year preparatory stage students?
Significance of the Study:
1-Providing teachers and curriculum designers with a list of the listening comprehension skills of EFL second preparatory stage students.
2-Directing the attention of EFL teachers towards the importance of listening as an aid for enhancing communication skills.
3-Evaluating students’ levels, recognizing their performance and showing to what extent they need to be trained in listening comprehension skills.
4-Directing the attention of EFL teachers to the importance of using dramatic activities in enhancing listening skills.
5-Paving the way for more studies that aim at setting up concepts which are based scientific bases in order to develop various listening comprehension skills.
Hypotheses of the Study:
1-There are statistically significant differences between the post-test mean scores of the experimental and control groups on listening comprehension skills in favour of the experimental group.
2-There are statistically significant differences between the pre-test mean scores and the post-test mean scores of the experimental group on listening comprehension skills in favour of the post-test.
Limitations of the Study:
1- A selected sample of second year preparatory stage pupils from "Shagaret El-Dor Prep School for Girls" in Mansoura Dakahlia Governorate.
2- Listening comprehension skills determined by the jury members for second year preparatory stage pupils.
3- The second semester in the academic year 2010/2011.
4- Five dramatic activities (e.g., storytelling, story-acting, role playing, readers theater and choral reading).
Definitions of Terms:
Listening Skill:
O'Malley, Chamot, and Kupper (1989: p.434) offered an extensive definition for listening comprehension as follows:
“Listening comprehension is an active and conscious process in which the listener constructs meaning by using cues from contextual information and from existing knowledge, while relying upon multiple strategic resources to fulfill the task requirements”.
Rubin (1990: p.309) defined listening as “processing information which the listener gets from visual and auditory clues in order to define what is going on and what the speakers are trying to express”. Following the same line of thought, Oxford (1993: p.20) provided a definition of listening as being “the process of receiving, attending to, and assigning meaning to aural stimuli”. She extended this definition by adding that all the aspects of listening involve a transformation of the ‘input’ into ‘intake’, i.e. the message received is meaningful for the listener.
To McDonough (2003) listening is discriminating between sounds, understanding vocabulary and structures, interpreting stress and intonation, and interpreting the utterance within its immediate as well as the cultural context.
For the purpose of the current study, the definition of Rubin (1990) is adopted. It provides a clear view of listening as an active process in which the listener understands from visual and auditory clues what is going on.
Dramatic Activities:
According to their theoretical perspective, writers refer to dramatic activities with a lot of terms (e.g., dramatics, drama, creative drama, dramatic techniques…etc.).
Good (1981: p.195) defined dramatic activities as “a dramatic presentation usually based upon a familiar story cooperatively planned by children, with spontaneous dialogues rather than written lines memorized by the actors”.
Bruce & Mckerrow (1988: p.16) referred to dramatic activities with dramatic techniques and defined them as “a teaching method which is not the same thing as teaching theater-is informal-and focuses on the process of dramatic enactment for the sake of the learner, not an audience”.
Combs (1988: p.9) referred to dramatic activities with classroom drama and defined them as “a learning medium rather than an art form, and is governed and validated through criteria other than aesthetics”.
Bailey (1993) referred to dramatic activities with dramatic play and defined them as a play in which children create an authentic world. In this kind of play, they may imitate adults, play out real-life roles and try to solve real-life problems. Dramatic play is a way for children to express their most pressing needs and may be played repeatedly for the joy of doing it.
McCaslin (1996: p.7) referred to dramatic activities with creative drama and defined them as “an improvisational, nonexhibitional, process-centered form of drama in which participants are guided by a leader to imagine, enact, and reflect upon human experiences. It is always an improvised performance: lines are not written and not memorized. Each member of the group gets an opportunity to play various parts. Participants are guided by a teacher and not by a director. No decorations, costumes, or special equipment is needed, just time, space, and an enthusiastic leader”.
Hence, for the present study, dramatic activities are defined as purposeful classroom activities based upon a story cooperatively planned by teacher and students for developing listening skills through students enactment and participation. These activities include storytelling, story-acting, role play, readers theater and choral reading.
