VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
************************

TRỊNH THỊ HOÀNG MAI

USING YOUTUBE VIDEOS IN THE LESSON TO ENHANCE
STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION
SỬ DỤNG YOUTUBE VIDEOS TRONG BÀI HỌC ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN
KỸ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CỦA HỌC SINH

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Major: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 8140231.01

HANOI – 2021
`


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
************************

TRỊNH THỊ HOÀNG MAI

USING YOUTUBE VIDEOS IN THE LESSON TO ENHANCE
STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION
SỬ DỤNG YOUTUBE VIDEOS TRONG BÀI HỌC ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN

KỸ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CỦA HỌC SINH

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 8140231.01

HANOI – 2021
`


DECLARATION
I, Trinh Thi Hoang Mai, hereby certify that this master thesis has been written
on my own and it depicts my own research work. All sources of information are
clearly cited in the references and bibliography sections. I also further declare that
this thesis has not been submitted in any universities to get a degree.

Ha Noi, 2021
Trịnh Thị Hoàng Mai

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I want to express my genuine thanks and gratitude to my
supervisor for detailed guidance, valuable suggestions and encouragement during the
completion of this minor thesis.
In addition, I want to send my sincere thanks to all qualified and experienced
lecturers from the Post Graduate Studies Faculty for their informative lectures, which
lays a fundamental foundation for my thesis.

I am also thankful to all of my students who have taken part in the research,
without them, it would be impossible to accomplish this thesis.
I am greatly indebted to my parents and siblings, who always stand by me and
motivate me.
Last but not least, I would like to thank my baby, thank you for your kicks in
my belly, which are my biggest motivation to complete this thesis.
A special word of thanks is also sent to my husband because of his incredible
patience, whole-hearted support and motivational words.

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ABSTRACT
The research investigates the problems that students encounter at one English
center in Ha Noi and the application of YouTube videos in tackling these issues. The
main purpose of the research is to explore the effectiveness of integrating YouTube
videos in enhancing students’ listening comprehension and interests in listening. Data
from the study was collected through pre-test, post-test, questionnaire and teaching
diary, and the results were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The final results
indicate that most of the students made a significant progress in listening skill after
the implementation of YouTube videos. They also participated in the lessons more
actively and felt more interested in listening through watching videos. Moreover, the
findings of the research also suggests some good ways the teacher can use to teach
listening skills from YouTube videos more effectively. For example, teachers can
make use of some possible YouTube channels as supplementary materials, designing
useful tasks or letting students work in pairs or groups.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION ........................................................................................................i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .........................................................................................iv
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................ vii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS................................................................................ vii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................1
1.1. Rationale ...........................................................................................................1
1.2. Aim and Objectives ..........................................................................................2
1.3. Research question .............................................................................................2
1.4. Scope of the study ............................................................................................3
1.5. Significance of the study ..................................................................................3
1.6. Organization of the thesis .................................................................................3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK..4
2.1. Listening comprehension ..................................................................................4
2.1.1. Definition of listening .................................................................................4
2.1.2. Definition of listening comprehension .......................................................5
2.1.3. Listening comprehension process ..............................................................6
2.2. Listening strategies ...........................................................................................8
2.2.1. Definitions of listening strategies ...............................................................8
2.2.2. Classifications of listening strategies .........................................................8
2.3. YouTube videos ..............................................................................................10
2.3.1. Overview of YouTube videos ....................................................................10
2.3.2. Types of YouTube videos ..........................................................................10
2.3.3. YouTube videos as a good source of listening comprehension ................11
2.4. Previous studies ..............................................................................................13
2.5. Summary .........................................................................................................14


iv


CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .........................................................................15
3.1. Context of the study ........................................................................................15
3.1.1. Setting of the study ...................................................................................15
3.2. Research design ..............................................................................................16
3.2.1. Action research.........................................................................................16
3.2.2. Participants ..............................................................................................17
3.2.3. Research procedure ..................................................................................17
3.2.4. Materials ..................................................................................................20
3.3. Data collection instruments ............................................................................22
3.3.1. Preliminary Questionnaire .......................................................................22
3.3.2. Pre-Test and Post-Test .............................................................................22
3.3.3. Survey Questionnaire ...............................................................................23
3.3.4. Teaching Diary .........................................................................................24
3.4. Data analysis methods ....................................................................................26
3.5. Summary .........................................................................................................26
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS ...........................................27
4.1 Influence of YouTube videos on students’ listening comprehension .............27
4.1.1. Analysis of test results: Pre-test and Post-test .........................................27
4.1.2. Analysis of Survey Questionnaires ..........................................................29
4.1.3. Analysis of the “Effectiveness” section in the Teaching Diaries .............33
4.2 Students’ attitudes towards the teacher’s use of YouTube videos in the
classroom ...............................................................................................................34
4.2.1. Analysis of Survey Questionnaire ............................................................34
4.2.2. Analysis of “The Attitudes” section in Teaching Diaries ........................37
4.3. Findings and Discussions ...............................................................................38
4.3.1. To what extent does the use of videos from Youtube influence students’
listening comprehension? ...................................................................................38

4.3.2. What are the attitudes of students towards practicing listening via Youtube
videos? ................................................................................................................38
4.4. Summary .........................................................................................................39

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CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................40
5.1. Recapitulation .................................................................................................40
5.2. Concluding remarks ........................................................................................40
5.3. Limitations of the current research .................................................................41
5.4. Recommendations for further research ...........................................................42
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................45
APPENDICES ........................................................................................................... I

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1.1.1: The comparison between the results of the pre-test and post-test .....28
Table 4.1.1.2: The scores of students in both tests ...................................................28
Table 4.1.2.1: Students’ opinions about the effectiveness of YouTube videos towards
their listening comprehension. ..................................................................................29
Table 4.1.2.2: Students’ awareness of listening strategies after YouTube videos are
applied. ......................................................................................................................31
Table 4.2.1.1 : Students’ attitudes

towards applying YouTube videos in the


classroom and audios in textbooks. ...........................................................................35
Table 4.2.1.2 : Students’ attitudes after the YouTube application in the listening
classroom...................................................................................................................36

vii


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

IELTS: The International Language Testing System
VNU: Vietnam National University

viii


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
With the globalization trend these days, English has become a more and more
powerful language. Among four skills in English, according to Mendelsohn (1994),
listening plays a vital part in communicating and this skill accounts for 40-50% of
the whole time spent on communication. Despite the fact that teaching listening
comprehension has been “somewhat neglected and poorly taught aspect of English in
many English as a foreign language (ELF) programs”(Mendelsohn,1994, p9),
listening skill is the most essential prerequisite that second language students should
acquire and it is crucial in second language acquisition. This is true for students who
have participated in the research because the purpose of listening lessons is not only
to help them enhance the skill but it also equips them with language input for other
skills such as speaking, reading, writing. In addition, listening skill not only allows
students to expand their knowledge but it also assists them with higher education and
provides them with many good job opportunities in the future. However, for EFL

students, they find listening comprehension challenging to be good at. As stated by
(Ur, 1997: 11-14), they often face obstacles in listening to the sounds, understanding
intonation, stress and guessing new words.
The growth of English language has shifted the focus from the teacher to the
students, from boosting the quality of teaching to expressing great concerns about
how students study a second language and how they could study more effectively
(Marco, 2011). The technological development and its applications into education
has broken down many learning barriers and changed our education system for the
better. The emergence of digital technology such as the Internet and computer has led
to a new generation of learners who are technically literate. One of the most useful
media tools that is applied into teaching language is videos. Canning (2000:2)
indicates that students like learning via videos. Another advantage presented by King
( 2002) is that video is a rich and important source that exposes learners to a variety
of voices, slangs, reduced speeches, stress, accents and dialects of native people. In

1


addition, Canning Wilson (2000, p.5) indicates that video is a powerful teaching tool
which not only draws attention from English learners but it also provides them with
opportunities to enhance their capabilities of understanding listening input.
As being an English teacher, the researcher is aware of the importance of
listening skill and problems that her students encounter in listening. To the teacher’s
observation, most students find it difficult in understanding the messages in listening
and grasping the meanings of some key words and phrases. Furthermore, most of
them are reluctant to listen to a long text, especially those with fast speed. As students
are constantly forced to listen to textbook audios and do listening tasks on the
handouts throughout the lesson, they seem to feel tired and bored. As a result, this
leads the researcher to the study “Using YouTube videos in the lesson to enhance
students’ listening comprehension”, which integrates fascinating videos from

YouTube to teach students and aid them to improve their listening comprehension as
well as develop their keen interest in listening skill.

1.2. Aim and Objectives
Aim:
The research is aimed at improving students’ listening comprehension skill through
the use of videos from Youtube in listening lessons at one English center in Ha Noi.

Objectives:
The research was carried out to investigate the effectiveness of using videos
from Youtube in enhancing students’ listening comprehension skills. It also explored
student attitudes towards developing listening comprehension via Youtube videos.
1.3. Research question
To achieve the aim and objectives of the research indicated above, the
following research questions have to be addressed:
1. To what extent does the use of videos from YouTube improve students’
listening comprehension?
2. What are the attitudes of students towards practicing listening via YouTube
videos?

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1.4. Scope of the study
The researcher conducted this research to find out the effectiveness of
applying videos from YouTube website in enhancing academic listening
comprehension skills and interests for the target participants of this study, who aimed
to reach intermediate level after the course. Therefore, the application of other
teaching methods or any levels of students beyond these levels would be beyond the
scope. Students who study listening skills for communication purpose are also not

included in this study.

1.5. Significance of the study
Within this study, the research examined the effective way of boosting
students’ listening comprehension skill and motivating students to learn, whereas
regarding practice, the findings of this study could be used as reference for any
teachers who want to help students to develop their abilities to understand the
meaning of listening input.

1.6. Organization of the thesis
Chapter 1 is the Introduction, including the rationale, aims, objectives,
research questions, scope and the significance of the research.
Chapter 2 is the Literature Review, reviewing theoretical issues associated
with listening comprehension, listening strategies and its classification, the use of
videos in teaching listening, its importance, relevant activities as well as previous
studies on the integration of Youtube videos on teaching listening.
Chapter 3 is Methodology, presenting the methodology of the study, which
consists of information about the context where the research was executed, the subjects,
the instrumental tools used to collect the data and the procedure of collecting the data.
Chapter 4 is Data analysis and Findings, providing a thorough description of
data analysis. In addition, it shows the summary of the findings, followed by a
discussion of the findings.
Chapter 5 is Conclusions, which summarizes main issues and remarks of the
research. The limitations and suggestions for further research are also presented in this
3


part.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL

FRAMEWORK
Introduction: Chapter 2 provides a discussion of main theoretical issues
to the study, which are associated with listening skill and the application of
Youtube videos to improve students’ listening comprehension. This chapter
also reviews previous studies related to the current study.
2.1. Listening comprehension
2.1.1. Definition of listening
When it comes to listening skill, there is no consensus on an exact definition
of this skill (Witkin, 1990). According to Byrnes (1984) despite the fact that over the
past decades, attempts have been made to listening literature so that all listening
components would be unified in all associated studies and a listening definition base
would be formed, more research is still needed to formulate the universal listening
conceptualization since listening is considered “high complex problem solving
activity”(p.318), which can be broken down into a set of distinct subskills. Therefore,
different researchers define listening skills in different ways.
As stated by Morley (1972), listening includes audio discrimination, aural
grammar, choosing relevant information, remembering and associating it to the
procedure between sound and meaning form, whereas Goss (1982) considered
listening as a process of understanding the content and arranging it into lexical
elements to which meanings can be found.
Listening is regarded as an “active process”, according to Purdy (1991), which
includes “the active and dynamic process of attending, perceiving, interpreting,
remembering to the expressed (verbal and nonverbal) needs, concerns and offers by
other humans being” (p.11). Moreover, Rubin (1995) also supported the definition of
listening as “an active process” and in this process, information from audio and
pictures is chosen and demonstrated by listeners to find out what they are hearing and
the message that the speakers want to deliver. Imhof (1998) shared the similar
4



viewpoint about listening, “an active process”, in which related information is picked
up and integrated into audio input. This procedure is under control by each
individual’s intention, which plays a crucial part in listening.
With a different viewpoint, Vandergrift (1999) held a belief that listening is
considered as an integrative process because it requires prerequisite skills that
students need to develop so that they can acquire vocabulary and grammar structures.
To summarize, despite varying definitions of listening skill show researchers, it is
generally understood that listening is a dynamic process, which listeners receive and
decode the information to understand what the listening messages delivered to them.

2.1.2. Definition of listening comprehension
Listening comprehension is an important term regarding teaching listening. It
is necessary for teachers to gain an insight into listening comprehension so that they
can know clearly what to teach and how to teach effectively in the English classroom.
The term has been defined differently by various language methodologists.
From the definition of Richard (1992), listening comprehension is described as “the
process of understanding speech in second or foreign language” (p.216). According
to Brown (1994), “listening comprehension” is considered as an interactive process
where listeners have to complete lots of activities to understand and react with the
speakers (p.236). Rost (2002) and Hamouda (2013) shared the same viewpoint since
listening comprehension is characterized as an interactive process in which learners
engage themselves in meaning construction. Listeners understand the audio input
through distinguishing sounds, activating earlier knowledge, grammar structures,
stress and intonation and other linguistic hints. This view is followed by the research
in which YouTube videos are applied. In this research, students also understand the
content of YouTube videos via sounds, visuals or prior knowledge
In addition, according to Chamot (1995), listening is also considered as a
cognitive process when the auditory and visual receptors of listeners get the
information from its sounds form, then the information is filtered by their short term
memory, working memory or long term-memory. Vandegrift (2006) shared the same

opinion that listening comprehension is the process in which the information is picked
5


up and demonstrated by listeners so that it could be understood. Similarly, Nadig
(2013) indicated that listening comprehension is about gaining understanding and
finding out the meanings of language, which includes acknowledging sounds in
speech, figuring out individual word’s meaning, and comprehending sentences.
In summary, although there are different definitions about listening
comprehension, listening comprehension generally can be understood as a process in
which listeners perceive auditory information and try to comprehend the meaning of
the listening content.

2.1.3. Listening comprehension process
There are two teaching approaches to listening comprehension mentioned by
Nunan (1998), which are bottom-up and top-down. The former refers to a teaching
listening approach, in which the speech stream is taught by dividing it into different
constituent sounds, connecting and organizing them all together to make clauses or
sentences. It has an assumption that listening is a process in which the sounds from
the smallest and meaningful units are deciphered to form utterances and then
utterances are joined together to form meaningful texts. The latter associates with
teaching listening in which listeners are activated previous knowledge about the
situations and contexts to understand what they listen to.
According to David Nunan (1999, p6), the bottom-up approach focuses on the
process based on the text, which means listeners try to find out the meaning by paying
their attention to four main parts: the vocabulary, the grammar or functional phrases
and sounds, whereas in top-down process, listeners use their previous situational or
contextual knowledge to make sense of listening contents (Vandergrift, 2002).
As suggested by Peterson (1991), it is crucial for both poor and good listeners
to make an effective use of two listening approaches. Students have to use both what

they have already known before and their linguistic knowledge to comprehend the
listening texts.
In general, bottom-up and top-down approaches are equally important in the
listening comprehension process.

6


7


2.2. Listening strategies
2.2.1. Definitions of listening strategies
When defining listening strategies, Rubin (1987) perceived them similar to all
learning strategies with the same characteristics; therefore, he said that listening
strategies are similar to techniques or activities, making direct contributions to help
language learners comprehend and recollect listening input.
Regarding the role of learning strategies, they are so important for language
learners, because they are assisting tools that allow learners to self-direct them and
actively engage in listening. According to O'Malley, Chamot and Kupper (1989) and
Vandergrift (1997), listening strategies include steps that language learners take to
assist them in acquiring, storing, retaining, and using information.

2.2.2. Classifications of listening strategies
With regard to the classification of listening strategies, according to O’Malley
and Chamot (1990, p.44), language learning strategies are classified into three types
namely cognitive strategies, meta-cognitive strategies and social/ affective strategies.
Firstly, according to Rubin (1981), cognitive strategies are the steps language learners
use in tackling problems, which their learning materials need to be analyzed, directly
transformed, and synthesized. As indicated by O’Malley & Chamot (1990, p.44),

cognitive strategies “operate directly on incoming information, manipulating it in
ways that enhance learning”. They entail imagining, rehearsing, elaborating,
inferencing, summarizing, translating, transferring, deducting/inducting, replacing,
grouping, and note-taking.
Secondly, unlike cognitive strategies, which are limited in applying to
particular types of tasks, metacognitive strategies are applicable to a diverse range of
language learning tasks. Metacognitive strategies consist of mental activities that
guide language learners to their process of learning. According to O’Malley and
Chamot (1990), language learners who acquire metacognitive strategies make their
efforts in focusing on learning activities and ignore distractions around them.
Metacognitive strategies involve paying attention, planning, monitoring, and
assessing.
8


Thirdly, social and affective strategies are associated with how language
learners communicate with others and how they control their emotions and attitudes.
Social and affective strategies involve asking to clarify, cooperating, selfencouraging, relieving anxiety and controlling emotions. Some typical instances of
those who use this kind of listening strategy are that they collaborate with each other,
question themselves to solve listening tasks, and feel at ease when being afraid of not
understanding other people.
As mentioned earlier by Rubin (1987), listening strategies are similar to
language learning strategies. Therefore, models for learning strategies can be used for
listening.
Therefore, the researcher finds the most comprehensive and specific model is
the one proposed by Oxford (1990). In this model, learning language strategies are
classified into two kinds: direct and indirect, which are subdivided into sixsubgroups, which consist of memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive,
affective and social strategies. The first type, Direct strategies, is like the Performer,
who handles and works with a new language in various particular tasks and situations.
The initial type includes memory strategies, memory strategies, and compensation

strategies. First of all, memory strategies are used to memorize and fetch new
information, whereas the purposes of cognitive strategies are to grasp and produce
the language and compensation strategies are to use the language in spite of having
gaps in knowledge. In contrast, the second type, Indirect strategies, is similar to the
Director. Indirect strategies are related to generally managed learning, which are
composed of meta-cognitive strategies (coordinate the process of learning), affective
strategies (control emotions), social strategies (cooperate with other individuals in
learning). Both direct and indirect strategies serve its functions to make language
learners responsible for learning. The Director (indirect strategies) take in charge of
a variety of functions, such as concentrating, instructing, organizing, reviewing,
correcting, training, motivating, and uplifting the language learners and making sure
that the Performer collaborates well with others.

9


2.3. YouTube videos
2.3.1. Overview of YouTube videos
Technology plays an integral part in teaching language and it offers learners a
variety of materials and websites to learn online. The integration of technology
encourages people to learn and keep them paying attention for a long time. The
research results by Maness (2004) proposed that by applying authentic videos into
language classrooms, students will learn more effectively.
YouTube is a popular website in the globe and it includes a vast amount of
important online materials in teaching and learning language. It was first launched in
2005 by three founders whose names are Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim
and now it has been one of the most commonly accessed websites in the world, with
100 million videos being streamed per day (Educause, 2006) and the company itself
has been a multi-million dollar company. In addition, Youtube is also the most
popular video website which is free of charge and this is one of the reasons that

contributes to the further soaring growth of this website. In 2008, a report released by
Comscore indicated that the 99.5 million Americans watched 5.3 billion online videos
on YouTube during October. It costs no money to register on YouTube and even
unregistered users feel free to watch any videos that they want. For famous YouTube
channels who receive thousand or million viewers, YouTube provides people many
opportunities to earn money and the channel itself in turn makes huge profits from
advertising and other services.
In other words, to conclude, YouTube website is not only a vast source of
videos but it is also a user-friendly and convenient website for all users who can
access it easily with the Internet, computers or any digital devices.

2.3.2. Types of YouTube videos
There are diverse types of videos on YouTube in different kinds of languages,
which make it one of valuable sources for language learners.
Regarding the educational value of YouTube videos, million videos are
uploaded on Youtube from students, lecturers, teachers and researchers. Many
schools, colleges, and universities possess their own channels and there is no doubt
10


that YouTube is a great platform for them to provide and share knowledge with each
other. The benefit that YouTube provides learners is an enjoyable experience of
watching videos and involving in the content (Educause, 2016). According to
Chhabra (2012), learners can utilize videos on YouTube to enhance their lexical
resource, intonation, pronunciation, listening, reading, speaking and writing skills.
Also, YouTube is a great tool to support self- study of the language because students
can find million videos of teaching language, which are totally free on YouTube. In
addition, YouTube videos also make students more open-minded through watching
various videos in different fields.


2.3.3. YouTube videos as a good source of listening comprehension
One of the innovative teaching methods in listening is exploiting YouTube
videos. There are diverse ways of YouTube applications, from listening to videos,
doing listening tasks to supporting teachers in demonstrating the lessons. There are
various benefits of YouTube videos, which includes enhancing students’ listening
skill and their lexical resources, developing their listening strategies, boosting their
motivation in learning.
The first positive impact of YouTube videos is that they are audio-visual
videos and they facilitate the process of acquiring vocabularies. Obviously, students
can memorize words faster for a longer period through illustrations and sounds in
YouTube videos.
The second advantageous effect is that these audio-visual videos from
YouTube are also useful in helping students develop compensation listening
strategies. Language learners can be exposed to a variety of linguistic clues in the
videos such as the speakers’ intonation, behaviors, emotions, illustrations in the
context and rely on these clues to comprehend the listening input better.
In addition, YouTube videos allow students to develop their cognitive and
metacognitive listening strategies. With the facilitation of audios and visuals, students
can find it easier to recognize the structures or patterns of the listening task or get the
meanings of what the speakers say more quickly (cognitive strategies) and these
audio-visual videos attract more their attention to the information that they need to
11


find in listening tasks (metacognitive listening strategies).
Another benefit of YouTube videos is that they boost learners’ social listening
strategies as it allows them to communicate and discuss with their friends to clarify
and understand more about the content (Alastuey, 2001). Brown (2014) also showed
that YouTube-based classes provide students with many chances to talk freely, raise
their voice, and give comments with their teachers and classmates. Additionally,

YouTube is also a meaningful teaching method that widens students’ knowledge and
understanding about cultures around the world. As stated by Wagner (2007), the use
of videos in the classroom gives language learners authentic listening information
about cultures. Hence, they develop a sense of sympathy toward cultural differences
and acknowledge others’ emotions.
Furthermore, according to Barr (2012), YouTube-based videos could solve
issues existing in the language classroom, for instance, they can relieve students’
boredom and routine in learning. Moreover, as stated by Brook (2011), applying
YouTube videos in the listening classroom can motivate students to involve in the
lesson and increase their self-confidence. YouTube-based videos make them feel less
anxious and nervous in the listening lessons, which also contributes to the
improvement of their effective listening strategies. All of these opinions are followed
in this research which applied YouTube videos in the classroom.
Last but not least, as indicated by (Snelson and Perkins, 2009) YouTube videos
increase students’ motivation in learning as students can listen to audio input and
enjoy watching stunning visuals in the video simultaneously. In fact, there are many
high quality and free videos on YouTube and they suit students at different listening
proficiency levels, thus students can download videos from the website and listen
outside the classroom.
From the teachers' side, they can access a vast number of learning materials
on YouTube and easily search for videos that make the lessons more engaging and
motivating for students to learn. YouTube is extremely convenient because it allows
teachers to download and save videos.

12


2.4. Previous studies
There have been many studies regarding the use of videos from YouTube to
increase students’ listening comprehension skill in listening but few of them took

place in Viet Nam.
Research entitled “Enhancing Listening Skills through Movie Clips on
YouTube, was conducted in Thailand, by Damronglaohapan and Sevenson (2012).
The research focused on discovering students’ attitudes towards using YouTube
videos in listening classrooms. There were 78 participants from the Business
Administration Faculty taking part in the study. And the final results showed that the
students found YouTube videos more useful in practicing listening skill, and in
learning and understanding vocabulary, compared to the listening tasks in their
textbook.
Another study’s title was “Social Media Tool as Learning Resources”,
conducted by Liu (2010) in order to discover student preferences on using two
different social media to learn. The study revealed that the proportion of students
using YouTube was 70%, while the proportion of students using podcasts was only
30%. The result also showed that students preferred using YouTube because it was
accessible and it comprised a huge amount of authentic listening materials. It also
allowed them to improve analytical skills and other language skills.
Similarly, the research conducted by More (2015) also found out students’
attitudes toward integrating YouTube videos in listening lessons. His findings
showed that using videos not only enhanced their motivation but also motivated them
to participate actively in the classroom.
In addition, a research was carried out on 48 undergraduates who enrolled in
an Advertising English Course, at a Technical University, from Southern Taiwan.
The results finally indicated that by applying YouTube videos in language
classrooms, students’ comprehension skills and lexical resources were greatly
improved. YouTube videos also made them aware of listening strategies and enabled
them to access useful listening materials.

13



In Vietnamese setting, the study “The effectiveness of using YouTube videos
as supplementary materials on enhancing students’ listening skills” by Vi Dieu
Thuan- the researcher, was conducted on two groups of fifty first-year students from
a VNU- University of Engineering and Technology, VNU- University of Economics
and Business, VNU- University of Social and Humanities. After six weeks of using
YouTube videos in the classroom, students in the experimental group got higher
scores in the post-test and showed more interests in listening to YouTube videos than
their counterparts in the control group.
From all the research above, it is clearly seen that YouTube is a popular topic
for many researchers and it is a powerful teaching and learning tool for both teachers
and students. In fact, so far, in Vietnamese educational settings, there has been few
research on YouTube videos’ effectiveness in enhancing Vietnamese students’
listening skill, especially on academic listening; therefore, the researcher has decided
to do action research to find out more about efficient ways to apply YouTube videos
in her lesson.

2.5. Summary
This chapter has so far presented all important points in the literature review
regarding the integration of Youtube videos in the listening classroom, which
contributes to the formation of the theoretical and conceptual framework. It initially
involves the definitions of listening skill and listening comprehension, then the
following part includes the exploration of Youtube videos and reviews its importance
and some previous research on applying Youtube videos to enhance students’
listening comprehension. All of these lay the foundation for the action research,
which will be clearly presented in the next Chapter.

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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY


Introduction: Chapter 3 Methodology depicts specific steps by which
the research was conducted and the data was collected. The setting of the
research, research participants, instruments, materials and methods are also
presented thoroughly in this chapter.
3.1. Context of the study
3.1.1. Setting of the study
The research was carried out at an English center in Ha Noi, which has been
established since 2015. Since then, it has had a total of 2 branches, which have
provided over 500 English classes with about six thousand students. The center offers
five main types of courses ranging from elementary to advanced levels, which are
suitable for different levels of students. The objectives of the courses are to equip
students with grammar and vocabulary and to help them enhance their English skills
including listening, speaking, reading and writing.
The teaching staff comprises 18 Vietnamese teachers, who have from 2 to 5
years of teaching and all of them graduated from English Faculty in leading
universities in Ha Noi or in the UK (United Kingdom) such as Foreign Trade
University, University of Languages and International Studies or

the United

Kingdom Brighton University. The researcher herself spent 4 years pursuing a
bachelor degree at University of Languages and International Studies and now she
has continued learning a Master degree there. There are also three native teachers,
all of them have acquired degrees in TESOL and have been teaching for over 10
years. In addition, there are about 20 teaching assistants, who assist teachers
enthusiastically in preparing the handouts and teaching equipment during the period
of teaching.
In this center, Vietnamese teachers usually take on classes whose students are
from elementary to upper-intermediate, and for advanced classes, native teachers are

accountable for teaching speaking and writing. At this English center, 4 skills in

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