Journal assessment all of contents review

1. Title journal :

" Effect of Using Video Materials in The Teaching of Listening Skills For University Students ".

2. Abstract :

The purposes of this study were 1) to develop the listening skills of university students
studying English with the use of video materials and 2) to evaluate students’ attitudes towards
the use of video materials in teaching listening skills.

3. Introduction :

The teaching of English language to Thai students has been of limited success over many
years. This is despite numerous attempts by the Ministry of Thai Education to develop
curricula to help students improve English skills. Listening is a skill that is rarely taught. In school, students are taught speaking, reading, and
writing skills, but, in general ,there are a few courses devoted to the subject of listening,
Moreover, most people are so engrossed in talking or thinking about what they are about to
say next that they miss out on many wonderful opportunities to learn about new concepts,
ideas and culture.
There are three main reasons to support the importance of listening in foreign language
learning. First, a new language learner should learn listening at the initial stage of language
learning in the same manner as a child learns a mother language (Buck, 2001). This is
because listening is a skill developed in the very beginning of a child's learning of language.
Listening is a natural process in acquiring a new language. Second, listening can enhance speaking skill. Spoken language provides a means of
interaction for the leaners. Finally, listening exercises help to draw a learner's attention to new forms in the language i.e.
vocabulary, grammar and interaction patterns. Video materials can be used an alternative instructional tool for teaching listening since they
are a rich source of conversation and dialogue by English speakers.

4. Review of literature

In listening comprehension, bottom-up and top-down processing are used
together to interpret intended meaning. In order to comprehend the message conveyed,
listeners must comprehend the phonetic input, vocabulary, and syntax (bottom-up
processing), and employ the context of situations, general knowledge, and past experiences (top-down processing).

5. Methodology

3.1 Population and Sample
The population of this study was 118 first-year English major students in the second semester
of academic year 2012 at Thaksin University. The sample in the study was 41 of these
students, selected by simple random sampling from one of three classes.
3.2 Duration of the Study
The study was conducted during the second semester of academic year 2012. It involved 20
periods of an hour each. Two periods were used for the pre-test and post-test and the other 22
periods were used for the experiment.
3.3 Variables
Independent variable: The use of video materials in teaching listening skills.
Dependent variables: The students’ learning achievement on listening skills and attitudes
towards learning through using video materials.
3.4 Research Instruments
1. 10 units of lesson plans for the instruction.
2. 10 short English language documentaries about culture, environment and adventure
activities. Each video was 3-5 minutes in length.
3. The test which was used as a pre-test and post-test to study the progress of students’
learning achievement before and after they studied listening with videos.
4. The questionnaire to study students’ attitudes towards learning listening with videos,
constructed by using the Likert method.

1) Pretest and Posttest of Listening Comprehension
1. 3 language specialists were consulted to check the content and validity of this
test.
2. The revised test was tried out with 35 second-year students to check the level of
difficulty of test items (p) and the discrimination index (D).
3. The test items with value of level of difficulty between 0.20 to 0.80 and the
discrimination index higher than 0.20 were selected.
4. The test scores were calculated to check for reliability using the Kuder-Richardson
Formula 20 (KR20). The value of this reliability test was 0.78.
2) Questionnaire
1. 3 language specialists were consulted to check the congruence between the
questionnaire items. The value of Index of Congruence (IOC) was between 0.6-1.0. The
students were required to rate the statements on a five-point scale from “very low” to “very
high”.
2. The initial questionnaire was tested and improved to make it more comprehensive,
reliable and valid for collecting data.
3. The questionnaire was then administered with a new group of students to study
their attitudes towards learning listening skills through using videos. The Cronbach’s Alpha
value () of this questionnaire was 0.82.
3.6 Data Collection
The data were collected from the students’ scores of the pre-test and post-test of listening
comprehension, and from exercises undertaken after each learning material was presented.
The procedure followed in the teaching plan used in the study encompassed the following
three stages:
Pre-listening
At the beginning of the class, the researcher outlined the objectives of the lesson and the
topic of the presentation material, then asked the students about their background knowledge
and related vocabulary. A series of leading questions was put to the students to help them
before studying with the material.
While-listening
First, the students were presented with the entire learning material and instructed to take
notes or write down key words. Second, the material was presented again accompanied by an
exercise to be completed by the students.
Post-listening
The students completed a questionnaire and checked the answers carefully for a minute before exchanging it with their partners in order to check if the answers are correct, then
handed in the exercise to the researcher. They were then given the opportunity to discuss the
material presented and to express their ideas or opinions about it.

6. Findings

Evaluation of listening competency tests between pre-test and post-test scores of students
Table 2 below showed the comparative result of English listening pre-test and post-test scores
of students. The average mean scores of the pre-test and the post-test are 7.80 and 11.80
respectively. The standard deviation of the pre-test and post-test of the experimental group
was 2.14 and 1.93 respectively. According to the result of the t-test which was -20.248, it can
be concluded that the learning achievement of students’ post-test is higher than the pre-test at a significance level of 0.05. The students’ English listening comprehension ability increased
significantly after learning with the videos. The result of this study is shown in Table 2.

7. Discussion :

This study also found that the class was more attentive and the students were more interested
in following the lesson carefully. This might also be because the atmosphere was more
relaxed and therefore more conducive to learning. The students were more encouraged and
motivated to learn from video than to follow activities in a textbook. Authentic video material needs to be carefully chosen to ensure the level of difficulty is
appropriate and the content is of interest to students. Videos containing difficult vocabulary
or ungrammatical or incomplete structures should not be used. This includes videos in which
the spoken language might contain many difficult or unneeded English idioms and
expressions, or the rhythm, tone and phonological systems have different features from the
students' first language which could contribute to misunderstanding or be difficult for
non-native listeners to understand the content.

8. Conclusion

Analysis of the students’ responses from the questionnaire revealed that they were more
interested in learning English if the teacher used English videos as teaching materials.  The findings of this study revealed that the use of video materials to develop listening
comprehension of first-year English major students seemed to be effective, as indicated by
the post-test score which was significantly higher than the pre-test score.

9. Teaching Implications and Recommendation :

Video-based instruction can be used to develop students’ listening and speaking skills.
Activities associated with video-based instruction such as gap-filling, group discussion, and
oral presentation, can also develop students’ listening and speaking skills. Thus, other aspects
such as how videos help to improve speaking production should be the subject of further
research.

Internasional Journal of Linguistics
ISSN 1948-5425
2014, Vol. 6, No. 4