STUDENTS’ RESPONSE TO READING WHILE LISTENING GRADED STORIES ACTIVITIES

Abstract

Recent research on listening while reading activities mostly focus on its effectiveness or comparison with other activities or adopt quantitative measures. The purpose of this qualitative action research is to investigate how and why first year students at Nam Dinh University of Nursing respond to reading while listening graded stories in English class. In this study, in order to triangulate the data, three data collection methods were used; namely, individual interview, group interview, and observation. The participants were 15 first year students with varied English proficiency levels from elementary to pre-intermediate. Data were thematically analyzed. After 14 weeks of implementing the activities, participants positively reported on their engagement in the class and benefits of the activities on language development; however, there were also problems with stories selection and follow up activities.