An investigation into efl teachers' perceptions and practices of pre-Listening activities in English classes at Quoc Hoc Hue high school

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AN INVESTIGATION INTO EFL TEACHERS' 
PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES OF PRE-LISTENING 
ACTIVITIES IN ENGLISH CLASSES AT QUOC HOC 
HUE HIGH SCHOOL 
Ly Thi Minh Duc* 
Quoc Hoc Hue high school 
Received: 05/10/2018; Revised: 25/10/2018; Accepted: 20/12/2018 
Abstract: This paper examined EFL teachers’ perceptions and reality of an implementation 
of pre-listening activities in English classes at Quoc Hoc Hue high school. The study involved 
10 teachers of English department of Quoc Hoc high school. A mixed-methods approach was 
employed and data were collected from an online survey and semi-structured interviews. The 
result showed that most of EFL teachers were aware of the importance of pre-listening 
activities in English listening comprehension. The finding also indicated that different pre-
listening activities served different functions and exerted different effects on the improvement 
of students’ listening comprehension skill. Furthermore, the study revealed the differences in 
teachers’ implementation of pre-listening activities between English-major classes and non-
English major classes and presented two major factors - the teachers and students - directly 
determining the success of pre-listening activities in English classes at Quoc Hoc Hue high 
school. 
Key words: Pre-listening activities, perception, English-major students, non-English major 
students 
1. Introduction 
So far listening has been considered as one of the key components in the English 
textbooks for Vietnamese high school students; however, this skill is sometimes neglected by 
some EFL teachers because they assume that listening is not assessed in the national exams. The 
most popular way used by some teachers in English listening lessons is to play the cassette, 
have students listen to the recordings and ask them complete listening tasks by themselves. In 
fact, listening is more than just perceiving the sound. It is a complex problem-solving skill in 
which the meaning of words, phrases, clauses, sentences and the discourse must be 
comprehended. The traditional way of teaching listening in which listeners are simply given a 
series of pre-recorded listening texts on a tape, and then are tested how much they have 
understood by answering a lot of comprehension exercises is not quite responding. Listening is 
virtually a difficult skill to acquire even in one’s own language (Oxford, 1993) because it 
requires attention, thought, interpretation, and imagination of both students and teachers 
(Austin, 1970). Normally, in some EFL classrooms, the role of teachers is also very important in 
improving students' listening skill. Specifically, the language teachers can supply students with 
a variety of pre-listening activities in order to help students gain essential knowledge or related 
information before they begin listening. As claimed by Underwood (1989), in listening the 
content schema must be activated in order for students to access their prior knowledge. Thus, 
before listening some pre-listening activities are expected to be given to students to help them 
activate existing knowledge, build prior knowledge and define a purpose for the listening. 
* Email: duclm.quochochue@gmail.com 
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Thanks to the pre-listening stage, the students can complete listening tasks in while-listening 
stage with ease and have a chance to improve their listening skill to meet B1 level requirements 
set by Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) for high school graduation. 
In order to help EFL teachers better understand the significance of pre-listening stage and 
effectively apply it to listening classes in high school context, this study aims to investigate EFL 
teachers' perception of effects of pre-listening activities on students' listening comprehension 
skill, and discover the practices of teachers’ implementation of these activities to stimulate 
students’ background knowledge in English classes at Quoc Hoc Hue high school. 
2. Literature review 
2.1. Definition of key terms 
Two key terms in this research, “perception” and “pre-listening”, are clearly defined as 
follows. Firstly, “perception” refers to one’s belief, or understanding of something. However, in 
the sense of the present study, “perception” is understood as one’s belief, opinion, and thought 
which are shaped by one’s background knowledge and life experiences (Iris Center, 2012). 
Secondly, concerning the term “pre-listening”, as stated by Rajaei (2015), “pre-listening is the 
preparation stage for while-listening” (p. 36) and is also considered as stage to prepare students to 
listen, establish the purpose of the listening activity and activate their schemata (Chastain, 1988). 
2.2. The purposes of pre-listening stage 
As asserted by Chastain (1988), the pre-listening activities are probably the most 
important aspect of any listening sequence because the success of all the other activities depends 
on the extent to which the teacher manages to give the students the necessary background, 
guidance, and direction to achieve (Chastain, 1988). Some dominant goals of pre-listening 
stage suggested by well-known linguistics include (1) to help students identify the purpose of 
listening beforehand (Rixon, 1986; Schwartz, 1998 & Underwood, 1990), (2) to contextualize 
the text, provide any information needed to help learners appreciate the text, the setting and the 
role relationship between participants, (3) to generate interests from students, activate students’ 
current knowledge and vocabulary, predict the content, check their understanding about the 
listening tasks (Rost, 1990), (4) to give students more confidence that is necessary for successful 
listening (White, 1995 as cited in Rajaei, 2015). 
2.3. Pre-listening activities 
To satisfy the goals above, Almutairi (2012) claims that pre-listening activities could 
consist of three types: (a) brainstorming, (b) the use of advance organizers (e.g. vocabulary pre-
teaching, pre-questioning, etc.) and (c) graphic organizers (e.g. pictures, Venn diagram, flow 
charts, T charts, KWL chart) and some other pre-listening activities such as discussing, 
anticipating and spoken language feature previewing. These activities might be applied 
separately or in a combination “depending on the nature of the listening task, learners’ linguistic 
proficiency level and the time available for the pre-listening phase” (Almutairi, 2012, p.6). 
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2.4. Factors affecting the choice of pre-listening activities 
Teaching and learning listening comprehension skill becomes a big challenge to many 
teachers and students. Therefore, according to Martinez (2015) in order to minimize difficulties 
in teaching listening comprehension skill, it is necessary for teachers to bear in mind the 
following factors so as to choose the most appropriate and helpful pre-listening activities for 
their listening classes. 
The first factor is the time-consuming of pre-listening activities. Normally, pre-listening 
is a very short phase so it is inexpedient for teachers to invest too much time in this stage. Since 
if pre-listening activities take up too much time, it might curtail the time allocated for while- 
and post-listening, and decrease students’ motivation and concentration on the listening tasks. 
Next, it is materials. It will be better if teachers use authentic listening materials and know how 
to adapt these materials suitable for different genres of students. Thirdly, the ability of the class 
is also an important factor that teachers should take into consideration. When designing pre-
listening activities for multilevel classes, teachers need to pay more attention to different 
proficiency levels of students in the same class and to be cognizant of each student’s strength 
and weaknesses so that all the students have equal opportunities to take part in these activities. 
Moreover, students’ interest is another element determining the effectiveness of the pre-
listening stage. If teachers choose listening tasks which best match with students’ interests, the 
quality of the listening process will be improved considerably. Last but not least, the nature and 
content of listening text also directly affect the choice of pre-listening activities 
3. Related studies 
 So far in the world there have been several studies which were done to investigate into 
the impacts of different forms of pre-listening activities. Specifically, Linang (2005) conducted 
a study about teachers’ report on the use of pre-listening activities in activating students’ prior 
knowledge in a Malaysian ESL classroom in Kuching. The study is based on the qualitative 
research design and the research instrument employed was the semi-structured interview. 
Fifteen lower secondary school English language teachers having five years and above 
experience from five secondary schools in and around Kuching Division were selected as 
samples for the purpose of this study. The findings revealed that 60% of the English Language 
teachers employed the bottom-up model. Most pre-listening activities employed by the English 
language teachers were oral questioning, introducing related vocabulary and distributing pre-
text questions. The findings also showed that most of the English language teachers took into 
consideration the students’ level, suitability and practicality, the related topic, and the context 
when selecting and designing their pre-listening activities. In the same vein, Allen (2011) with 
his work proved the effectiveness of two types of pre-listening activities, including top-down 
and bottom-up, for students’ listening comprehension skill of Chinese Mandarin. There were 
volunteers from intermediate level courses at Brigham Young University participating in two 
treatment groups and a control group. Results showed both treatment groups significantly 
outperformed the control group for both the top-down and bottom-up activities. It was 
determined that both the vocabulary activity and the advance organizer helped to increase the 
listening comprehension of intermediate level students of Mandarin Chinese. 
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In Vietnamese education context, Nguyễn Thị Tâm (2012) conducted a study named “An 
investigation into the reality of using pre-listening activities in English third-year classes at Phu 
Xuan University” to examine the truth of carrying out pre-listening activities at Phu Xuan 
University in Hue, Vietnam. The participants consisted of 4 teachers and 60 third-year students at 
Phu Xuan University. To collect reliable data, classroom observation, questionnaires, and 
interviews were delivered to the teachers and students. The findings of the study showed that most 
of teachers and students were aware of the significance of pre-listening activities in teaching and 
learning listening comprehension skill. Hence, they often made a great effort to organize different 
kinds of pre-listening activities to boost an effectiveness of their listening lessons. 
All in all, there have been a number of studies conducted with an aim of emphasizing 
effects of varying pre-listening activities on learners’ listening comprehension skill. However, 
most studies done by researchers of the English language teachers were conducted mainly on 
tertiary level and lower secondary English language teachers with students and curriculum 
greatly different in many ways from those of high school level. A more important point is that 
no single study has been found to investigate teachers’ perception of the same matter at high 
school level with regard to the listening tasks included in the text book of the new version. 
Therefore, the current study is expected to fill in a brand new gap in the research field. 
4. Research methodology 
4.1. Research context and participants 
The study was conducted at Quoc Hoc Hue high school, a school for the gifted in Hue 
city, in a period of two months of the second semester, academic year 2017-2018. There were 
two groups of participants in the research. The first group consists of 10 teachers from English 
Department who have taught English to either non-English-major and/or English-major students 
at Quoc Hoc high school. At the same time, to validate the responses of the first group of 
participants, the second surveyed group including 6 students from 6 different classes of 3 grades 
of Quoc Hoc high school in the academic year 2017-2018 was invited to join oral interviews in 
Vietnamese. These 6 students were divided into two groups, embracing English-major and non-
English major students. It is noticed that the personal identity information of all research 
participants was coded by using the English pseudo names for the group of Vietnamese teachers 
and using Alphabet letters for the group of students at Quoc Hoc high school. 
Table 1. Back ground information of the surveyed teacher group 
Group of surveyed teachers 
No Pseudo name 
Year(s) of 
experience 
In charge of teaching 
Timeline for the 
data gathering English-major 
Students 
Non-English major 
Students 
1 Ms. Anna 30 √ √ March 5, 2018 
2 Ms. Tranny 24 √ March 5, 2018 
3 Ms. Joe 23 √ March 5, 2018 
4 Ms. Hannah 21 √ March 8, 2018 
5 Mr. Phillip 19 √ March 8, 2018 
6 Ms. LyLy 11 √ March 11, 2018 
7 Ms. Nancy 10 √ March 11, 2018 
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8 Ms. Thuna 9 √ March 11, 2018 
9 Ms. Hollen 2 √ √ March 12, 2018 
10 Ms. Amy 2 √ March 12, 2018 
Table 2. Back ground information of the interviewed student group 
Group of surveyed students 
No Name Grade Major Timeline for the data gathering 
1 Student A1 10 English-major student April 1, 2018 
2 Student A 10 Non-English-major student April 1, 2018 
3 Student B1 11 English-major student April 3, 2018 
4 Student B 11 Non-English-major student April 3, 2018 
5 Student C1 12 English-major student April 4, 2018 
6 Student C 12 Non-English-major student April 5, 2018 
4.2. Data collection and analysis 
The study collected data through an online survey, and semi-structured interview. For the 
first phase, online surveys, a questionnaire was designed to investigate the EFL teachers’ 
awareness and the practices of the use of pre-listening activities in English classes at Quoc Hoc 
Hue High School. The survey was structured with both closed and open ended questions to give 
the answers for two research questions. After the questionnaire was piloted to ensure the validity 
and reliability of the questions, 10 electronic copies in Vietnamese version were delivered to 10 
EFL teachers of English Department at Quoc Hoc high school through their professional emails. 
After that, the data were categorized and analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2010. 
Phase Two was reserved for collecting qualitative data to reaffirm the result collected in 
Phase One. In this research, the interviews were conducted after the questionnaires distribution. 
A total of 10 teachers of English Department of Quoc Hoc high school, who already took the 
online survey, were invited to join interviews in Vietnamese, at a room on the school campus. 
After all the data collected from teachers’ questionnaires was generated and analyzed, the 
second group of research participants, English and non-English major students, was invited to 
participate in the interviews. The information gathered from the students’ responses would be 
used for comparing with the data from teachers’ surveys and doubly checking on the reliability 
of teachers’ answers. Finally, the collected data were transcribed and then translated from 
Vietnamese into English by the researcher. Finally, in order to gain the final version which 
would be easily comprehensible to average readers, an American proof-reader was employed to 
check the accuracy of the translation. The teachers’ ideas were always quoted with pseudonyms 
in this paper to preserve anonymity for the participants. 
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5. Findings 
5.1. The importance of pre-listening activities in the English lessons at Quoc Hoc Hue high 
school 
Figure 5.1. Importance of pre-listening activities in English classes at Quoc Hoc Hue high school 
Figure 5.1 displays the disparity in choices related to the role which pre-listening 
activities play in English lessons at the high school for the gifted - Quoc Hoc Hue. Two options 
including “Very important” and “Important” received high agreement percentage from teachers. 
Six of ten participants chose the option “Very important” and at the same time, three other 
teachers in the surveyed group picked the option “Important” when being asked about the role 
of pre-listening activities in English lessons. Next, only one teacher chose option “Fairly 
important”, accounting for 10% of the total percentage. Noticeably, the teachers made no choice 
for the rest, embracing “Not important” and “Slightly important”. 
The figures shown above released that a large proportion of the teachers was aware of 
the significance of pre-listening activities in teaching English listening skill and considered 
the activities as “an indispensable part of English lessons at Quoc Hoc high school” (from 
teacher Phillip). His viewpoint was in line with the findings of Chastain (1988) who said that 
these activities were probably the most important aspect of any listening sequence because the 
success of the activities in listening lessons depended on the extent to which the teachers 
managed to give the students in pre-listening stage. Another essential point highlighted by 
Ms. Thuna and Ms. Tranny is that if pre-listening activities were not carried out in English 
lessons, students would have to confront some challenges during listening process such as 
lack of vocabulary, ideas, and background knowledge, etc. Besides, with the support of pre-
listening activities, students’ stress, nervousness or pressure would be released before the 
listening section. 
However, among ten teachers participating in the survey, there was one teacher who 
assumed that pre-listening activities were fairly important because “their levels of importance 
depend on the nature of listening texts, the English proficiency levels of students, the content 
and topic of different listening lessons” (from teacher Lyly). The opinion of Ms. Lyly was 
accompanied with the findings of Rees (2003) and Martinez (2015) about the factors affecting 
the choices of pre-listening activities. 
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In brief, even though there were different opinions about the role of pre-listening activities 
in English classes the activities in pre-listening stage are still believed to be the most important 
aspect of any listening sequences in English teaching context at Quoc Hoc high school. 
5.2. Effectiveness of different pre-listening activities in English class in Quoc Hoc Hue high 
school 
Figure 5.2. Effectiveness of different pre-listening activities in English classes in Quoc Hoc Hue high school 
Figure 5.2 compares the differences in the effectiveness of pre-listening activities when 
these activities are applied in listening classes. As can be observed from the figure above, seven of 
ten teachers, accounting for 70% of the total proportion, admitted that “brainstorming” was a 
“very effective” pre-listening activity. This finding was proved by