A SURVEY OF STUDENTS OPINION ON WATCHING ENGLISH

SOUNDTRACK MOVIES TO
ENRICH LISTENING SKILL DEVELOPMENT

TANISARA PIMSAMARN

Advisor: assistant Professor Suchat Wongsuwanich

A RESEARCH PAPER SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

THE RUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ATRS
IN
EGLISH FOR CAREERS
LANGUAGE INSTIUTE,THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY
BANGKOK, THAILAND
 CHAPTER ONE
INTERDUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Communication is always important in everyday life. We need to

communicate by using language to interact with other people to express our feelings

or share our ideas and thoughts. In order to communicate, everybody has

automatically learned their native language (L1) since they were children mostly

through their society environment. However, in the international level, we are

demanded to be able to communicate well not only in our own language (L1) but also

by using an international language like English.

A great number people around the world study English as their second

language (L2). In the global level, English language has been used as the main tool to

communicate between people from different countries around the world.

In order to be a good communicator in English, it is important for people to

develop their linguistic competence includes four language skills which are reading,

writing, speaking, and listening. Out of all four language skills mentioned, listening

skill seems to be the one that tend to get negligence for various reasons. (Skripsi,

2009)

1. Many English learners assume that listening skill should be automatically

acquired by the English learners while learning to speak the English

language.

2. Listening is not given serious attention because the listening ability is

sometimes considered to be easy to hide through nodding or shaking the

 head. People might think that those actions indicate that the listeners

understand everything they try to communicate.

3. Some teacher might think that teaching students in English is the way to

teach English listening, but actually they are teaching other skills in

English.

4. Many people considered that study English grammar is very important,

and sometimes they underestimate the importance of listening skill

because they think that it is something easy to learn.

5. Many English learners encountered with the difficulties; however, instead

of trying to improve their listening skill, they tend to neglect the

importance of listening skill through guessing.

Listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying.

Without a good listening skill, we can not have a successful conversation. (Howatt &

Dakin, 1974)

According to Rivers (1981), listening skill can be categorized as the most

important skill in learning and communicating in English, and the normal course of

learning English in class, we can notice that listening skill is used nearly twice as

much as speaking skill and four to five times as much as reading and writing skill.

Therefore, it is obvious that we can not communicate or learn the English language

effectively if we lack good English listening skill.

In the modern society, media play an important role in communication. Also,

they have been used in many ways as English teaching tools. English movie is one of

the effective media for improving students’ listening skill. (Brown & Yule, 1983,

Meskill, 1996)
 Many students think movies are the easiest English media to improve their

English skill. (Winiyakul, 2010) They can pay attention and be happy to learn English

because they can enjoy the movies and improve their listening skill along the way.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study aims to answer the following questions.

1.2.1. How often do forth year English major students watch English

Soundtrack movies?

1.2.2 What are English major students’ opinions about watching English

movies to develop their listening skill?

1.2.3 Does English movie considered as an effective media for self-improve

listening skill in students’ opinion?

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

This research has the following objectives:

1.3.1 Main Objective

To explore the opinions of English major students at Khon Kaen University

about watching English soundtrack movies to develop their listening skill.

1.3.2 Sub-Objective

1. To identify the students’ behavior and motivation of watching English

soundtrack movies and their motivation.

2. To find out if English movie is an effective media for listening skill

improvement in students’ opinion.

1.4 DEFINITION OF TERMS

In order to understand this paper easier, there are some words which have an

operational meaning that the readers should be informed.

Listening skill

Thomlison (1984) defines listening as “Active listening, which is very

important for effective communication”. A good listening skill is more than just

hearing the sound but also being able to interpret and understand the meaning of a

conversation correctly. In this study, listening skill is referring specifically to the

English listening skill of English learners as a second language.

Media

The Longman dictionary of contemporary English defines media as the way of

communication, such as through newspapers, radio, and TV that provide the public

with news, entertainment, etc. In fact, it means almost anything can be media as long

as it is listened to. In this study, media is mainly referred to English movies

considered as a learning tool to improve students’ English listening skill.

Participants

The participants in this study are the forth year English major students at Khon

Kaen University.

Movies

In this study, the word movies refer to English soundtrack movies with

subtitle.

1.5 SCOPE OF STUDY

This study will focus on exploring opinions of forth year English major

students towards watching English soundtrack movies to improve listening skill.

1.6 SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY

This study aimed to explore students’ opinion on an effective way for students

to improve their own English listening skill. The finding from this study could be use

to encouraged student to watch English soundtrack movies with subtitles rather than

Thai audio movies. The process of improving English listening skill will be fun and

educational at the same time.

1.7 HYPOTHESIS

- Students believe that they can improve their own listening skill by watching

English movies.

- Watching English movies can help students better understand English spoken

conversation better.

VIII. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

The research paper will be organized into several sections. Chapter I is

the introduction which deals with the background of the study, statement of the

problem, purpose and significance of the study, definition of terms, research

questions, hypothesis, limitation of study, and the study organization.

Chapter II will guide to explore the related literatures concerned with the study

topic to clarify the understanding about the topic.

In Chapter III, provide the explanation on the design of the study including

type of research, subject of the study, objective of the study, study tools and technique

of collecting data.

Chapter IV provides the interpretation of the obtained data, the results and

finding of the study.

Chapter V summarizes the study and offers discussion and recommendation

related to the topic.

 CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

This chapter reviews the literature in four main areas: (1) media and English

skill development, (2) listening comprehension difficulties, (3) listening Micro skills,

(4) movies in listening comprehension along with the summary.

2.1 MEDIA AND ENGLISH SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

In everyday life, English has become more and more important; therefore, it is

demanded that we try to improve our English competence includes listening,

speaking, reading, writing and translation whenever we have time.

Listening comprehension, according to the Longman Dictionary of Language

Teaching & Applied Linguistic described listening comprehension as the process

of understanding speech in a second or foreign language.

According to Robin Wills (2006) listening is the most important component

in all five English competences; therefore, listening deserves particular

attention. The listening process involves understanding a speaker's accent

or pronunciation, the speaker’s grammar and vocabulary, and comprehension

of meaning. A study by Wilt (1950), found that people listen 45 % of the time they

spend communicating. (Howatt & Dakin, 1974) Harmer (1998) agrees that listening

is special because listening comprehension is a process of receiving, processing,

and interacting with the relevant knowledge in which our mind has to complete

instantly. This requires the listener to have a high sensibility in pronunciation and

its connection with word meanings.

 Like reading, listening is an active process that entails construction of meaning

beyond simple decoding; it is an internal process that cannot be directly observed.

Reading and listening are both highly complex process that require the knowledge of

the linguistic code, processing skill, scheme-based understanding (background

knowledge), and contextual clues both with in and outside the text. (Meskill, 1996)

For instance, a good reader use their past experience and knowledge in order to

understand the text. Likewise, people process the aural and visual input, our existing

knowledge interacts with the incoming information. The definition of listening

includes "active listening," which goes beyond comprehending as understanding the

message content, to comprehension as an act of empathetic understanding of the

speaker. (Thomlison, 1984)

Listening comprehension does not mean understanding every word; however,

some words are more important than others in listening comprehension. It is a normal

phenomenon not to understand every word that is being said. However, we may guess

the meaning of new words on the basis of the topic being discussed and gain some

understanding of the context from the grammatical structure and the background

knowledge of the topic.

People sometimes misunderstood that meaning of listening and hearing. Rixon

(1986) has mentions the different between listening and hearing, there is a very huge

distinction between hearing something and listening to it. Hearing is simply the

recognition of sound while listening implies some conscious attention to the message

of what is said.

In learning language, listening ability plays an important role in the

development of other language skills. When students first learn a language, they have

to listen to the words several times before they are able to recognize and pronounce
those words. Listening can also help student build vocabulary, develop language

proficiency, and improve language usage (Barker, 1971). Dunkel (1986) asserts that

developing proficiency in listening comprehension is the key to achieving proficiency

in speaking.

As mentioned in previous chapter, out of all the language skills, listening skill

seems to be the one skill that tends to get neglected. In Thailand nowadays, English

language was introduced to students in a very early stage (kindergartens) compared to

the past. In general, most Thai English as Foreign Language (EFL) students still

cannot acquire communicative English proficiency even though they spend so many

years studying English.

Traditionally, Thai English teachers most of the times focused on the grammar

knowledge, and pay their attention on written examination scores. Unfortunately, they

paid much less attention to students’ listening and speaking abilities. English is

frequently taught by having students read aloud from a text or repeat parrot.

Therefore, many students have massive language knowledge, but they are lack of

practice. Consequently, Thai students tended to rely excessively on their teachers and,

if comparing to Western countries students, Thai students would be considered very

passive learners. Although students have often learned significant amounts of

grammar, and memorized many English words, they have commonly been unable to

apply their knowledge to real life. Generally, they have found that it is difficult to

understand the real life spoken conversation.

For many students, listening is a difficult skill to be improved. Therefore,

students have to find the right method and right media to use to improve there own

listening skill.
 Media today have an enormous impact. They have become so important that it

is rarely that we can live without them. According to statistics from the Kaiser Family

Foundation (Rideout, Roberts & Foehr, 2005), youth ages 8-18 spend approximately

6.5 hours each day using media, an activity that far surpasses the time they spend with

parents, doing homework or playing sports.

English movie is one of media which can be used to improve students’

listening skill. It could help sensitivity to students’ sense of hearing. The influence of

watching English movies is improving students’ sense listening skill.

The movies along with the movies’ script are wildly used as a teaching

method to improve students’ listening skill; however, practicing only in class is never

enough. As Wills (2006) mentioned, successful listening skills are acquired over time

and with lots of practice. Tafani (2009) suggests that we should encourage students to

see as many movies as possible outside the classroom or parts of movies in the

classroom. Watching movies is very important as it increases their visual and critical

awareness.

Results of second language studies have shown that films are valuable sources

and motivating media of language from which students can acquire a target language.

Movies encompass various important listening situations and demonstrate

paralinguistic features which contextualize the spoken discourse for the better

understanding. (Markham, 2001) When learners are exposed to movies, they could

learn some words as well as phrases used in the movies and ultimately improve their

target language.
Listening comprehension difficulties

Both First Language (L1) and Second Language (L2) have difficulties in

listening process. There are several factors that can cause L1 listening comprehension

difficulty. (Watson & Smeltzer, 1984) Supportingly, Brown & Yule (1983) mention

that there are four main factors that affect the L2 listening process.

- The listener: The background knowledge of the listeners is needed for the

better understanding of the topic.

- The speaker: the extent of colloquial language and reduced form used can

impacts comprehension.

- The content of the message: Content that is familiar is easier to understand

than content with unfamiliar vocabulary.

- Visual support: Visual supports such as video, pictures, diagrams, gestures,

facial expression, and body language can increase comprehension of the listener.

Listening Micro skills

Multi modal processing can assists the development of listening competency.

Jack Richard (1985) describes listening competency as a set of “micro skills”. There

are thirty three micro skills all together. These are some of the example micro skills

that effective listeners should have:

Retention of language chunks in short term memory. Nowadays,

multimedia applications allow the student to be able to control over the rate of

language presentation. For instance, users can start, stop, and review chunks of

language to better understand and remember the correct sound of the aural text

provides.
 Recognizing patterns of stress, rhythm, and intonation and how they

signal information. Stress, rhythm, and intonation are automatically highlighted

when aural language is chunked. By watching movies, when specific words are

stressed and patterns of intonation are used, students can closely examine the image

and spoken reactions of the person speaking in the video or in the movie.

Understand reduced speech. English movie with subtitle is well suited to

assist students in their understanding of reduced forms of target language speech. For

example, you can see the visual text of the reduced speech in the subtitle and hear the

correct sound pronounce by the speakers in the movie. In this way, students can

understand the two different forms of the target language—spoken and written—as

well as learn to decode these reduced forms.

Recognize core vocabulary and rules and patterns of words used to

communicate. Students should coordinate the aural, visual, and textual information

while watching movie. Consequently, they will learn about new vocabulary and how

they are used from the real life conversation, so they can use them correctly in the

future.

There are some more micro skills that effective listeners normally have such

as the ability to process different speech styles, different rates, and errors; understand

communicative functions of utterances according to context; and recognize that

meanings can be expressed in different grammatical forms.

Movies in Listening Comprehension

There are several reason why using English movies as a tool to improve

English listening skills is a good idea.

First, movie is accepted to be the most authentic material that teachers can

provide in classroom situation according to the saying that “movies can bring real life

in to the classroom”. (Lonergan, 1984)

The second reason is that movies have to power to motivate people to listen

and pay their attention to the target language. Movies are generally made for

entertainment, and aimed to impress the audiences; therefore, they are more

interesting and enjoyable when compared to the video materials made for language

teaching purpose. Consequently, movies can entertain students and hold students’

attention for longer period, while the educational purpose videos might bore them

easily.

Third, movies provide visual context and non-verbal language, so the students

can understand the story by watching situations what pronoun is indicating or what

the speaker really want to say. As a result, students are not exposed to the danger

listening to too explicit language that is often used in teaching audio tapes. By

watching movie, students will have the opportunity to experience the semi-real

communication in face to face interaction.

Fourth, by watching movies student will also gain information about socio-

cultural that can be easily acquire by seeing on visual medium. Students will learn

about the cultural non-verbal language, for instance, student will know how to

respond verbally and Para-linguistically when communicate by using spatial and

gesture. (Rubin, 1984)

 The final reason is that movies provide meaningful contexts and vocabulary

with natural language spoken at a natural flow of speed. Student will get used to the

real conversation in everyday life which considered very important.

However, despite all the reason mentioned above, there are some

disadvantages of using movies as a tool to improve listening skill too. The whole

movie alone might not appropriate for teaching in the classroom. In that situation

student should be participate in learning activities that related to the movie. For

example, students should be encouraged to pay attention to the collocations or chunks

of language while watching the movies, to repeat in their minds the expressions in

current use and to parrot the words that they can understand but cannot use. If there is

no activity for them, students will only watch the movie for entertainment

Another problem is that sometimes the language in a movie is too difficult and

too rapid for foreign language learners who have limited linguistic competence.

Therefore, movie seems to be a suitable choice for advanced learners only.

Even though we believe that watching movies can help students improve their

listening skill, however, we still have one more thing to concern about which is the

subtitle. Several studies concerning film subtitles have demonstrated support to the

use of subtitles; however, whether to apply the first (L1) or the target language (L2)

subtitles as a better option remains unclear.

Watching movie without subtitles can be beneficial because the students will

be exposed to real spoken discourse with both linguistic and paralinguistic features.

Without the written texts, which may cause distractions, the students will have to pay

full attention to both sounds and images in order to understand the story.

However, without the subtitle, student may not be able to recognize all the

words that they already know or understand phrases used by the actors while
watching films. Although learners are exposed to visual clues, they might still

misinterpret the meaning of what the speaker says, especially when the images shown

do not clearly indicate the meaning of what the speakers intend to convey

Watching films with the target language subtitles (English) is useful for not

only L1 but also L2 learning. When students are exposed to all images, sounds and L2

(English) texts, everything will be much easier to comprehend for the students. The

image will give a clue on the meaning, and the L2 texts will help students to identify

the words that they are familiar with.

Nevertheless, while watching movie with L2 subtitle, the students might be

distracted by the target language texts and ended up paying less attention to the

images and the sounds.

Watching films with the subtitles of the students’ first language (Thai),

students’ attention is drawn not only to the translated texts but also to the sounds,

students will be able to confirm their understanding of what they hear with the

translation texts. However, students may not pay attention to what they actually hear

but the written text because they have stronger reading skills of their native language,

compared with their target language reading and listening skills

This study particular aimed to investigate the fact whether watching and

listening to English movies can help improve students’ listening skill. Also, we want

to find out if students can mastery their own English listening skill by watching

English movies. Also, we want to explore the options of student what choice of

subtitle they prefer and which one they think it is the most effective.
 CHAOTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes: 1). Subjects, 2). Materials, 3). Procedures used in the

collection and analysis of the data, and 4). Data analysis.

3.1 SUBJECT

The target population of this study was the forth year English major students

at Khon Kaen University. The total number of English major students from both

regular and special program is eighty four students. However, could not get four of

them; therefore, the population of this study was eighty student in total. The Reason

for choosing Khon Kaen University students as the population in this study was the

convenience in data collection.

3.2 MATERIALS

The research instrument in this study was a self-administrated questionnaire

asking about the subjects’ movie watching behavior and their opinions on watching

English movies to enhance listening skill development.

The questionnaire will comprise four main parts.

PART I: Background of the respondents

- Gender

- Frequency of using English

PART II: English movie watching behavior.

- How often?

- Preferred subtitle

- Time spent on watching

- Reason for watching

PART III: The effects of watching English movies

This part consisted of questions asking about the level of agreement for the

specific statements.

Before the distribution, it was tests on 25 undergraduate students at Kasetsart

University for the validity and reliability.

3.3 PROCEDURES

The self-constructed questionnaire asking about the subjects’ movie watching

behavior and their opinions on watching English movies to enhance listening skill

development will be distributed to forth year English major students at Khon Kaen

University. The respondents were asked to complete the questionnaire, and the

researcher waited for them to be completed in order to ensure that a hundred percent

of the questionnaires were returned.

3.4 DATA ANALYSIS

After the data collection, data obtained were analyzed by SPSS program. The

finding will be presented in descriptive statistics which include tables of frequency,

and percentage.
 CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS

This chapter reports the results of the study of “Students’ Opinion on

Watching English Movies to Enrich Listening Skill Development”. The data analysis

was conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)

version 17.0 to calculate frequencies, percentages, and means. The results are divided

into three parts as follows:

1.1 Background of the respondents includes gender, English skills, fondness of

English, English using frequency in daily life

1.2 English movies watching behavior: movie genre, frequency, choice of

subtitles, and the motivation of watching English movies with subtitle.

1.3 Opinions and gratification level obtained from watching English

Soundtrack movies.

4.1 BACKGROUND OF THE RESPONDENTS

The respondents in this study were eighty seven forth year English major

students of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University.

4.1.1 Gender

According to the result, most of the respondents were female (82.5%) and the

rest were male (17.5%).

Table1: The Number and the Percentage of the Respondents Categorized by

Gender
 Gender Frequency Percentage
(N) (%)
Male 14 17.5
Female 66 82.5
Total 80 100.0

4.1.2 Background of English Study

Te result obtained shows that the majority of the respondents (42.5%) have

been studying English for 13-15 years, following closely by 40% of student answered

10-12 years while 17.5% of them answered 16-18 years.

Table2: The Number of Years the Respondents Have Been Studying English.

Number of Years Frequency Percentage

(N) (%)
10-12 year 32 40.0
13-15 year 34 42.5
16-18 year 14 17.5
Total 80 100.0

4.1.3 Opportunity of Using English in Daily Life

The large number of the respondents at 42.5% (n=34) gave the responses that

they use their English skill three to four times a week, following by one or two times a

week at 32.5% (n=26). Whereas, one forth (25%) of the respondents answers they use

their English skills everyday.

Table3: The Number and the Percentage of the Respondents and Their opportunity

to use English in Daily life.

 Opportunity to use English Frequency Percentage
(N) (%)
1-2 times/week 26 32.5
3-4 times/week 34 42.5
Everyday 20 25.0
Total 80 100.0

4.1.4 English Skills Frequently Used

On consideration of which English skills is used most frequently by the

respondents, it was found that more than half (60%) of the respondents use English

Listening skill most frequently. The other groups at 22.5%, 11.3%, and 6.3% claimed

that they use English skill reading, speaking, and writing most frequently.

Table4: The Number and the Percentage of the Respondents and the English Skill

They Use Most Frequently.

English Skills Frequency Percentage

(N) (%)
Listening 48 60.0
Speaking 9 11.3
Reading 18 22.5
Writing 5 6.3
Total 80 100.0

4.2 RESPONDENTS’ ENGLISH MOVIE WATCHING BEHAVIOR

This part of the questionnaire aimed to study the English movie watching

behavior of the respondents. The questions focused on frequency, motivation, subtitle

and movie genre preferences. The study found the following outcome.
 According to the results, the majority of the respondents (35%) watches

English soundtrack movie once a week and all of the respondents preferred movies

with subtitle. Most of them (91.3%) choose Thai subtitle while others (8.8%)

preferred English. The majority (30%) is fond of comedy movies, and most of the

respondents (67.5%) watch English soundtrack movies for entertainment.

Table5: Movie Watching Frequency

Frequency of Watching Movies Frequency Percentage

(N) (%)
Everyday 4 5.0
More than once a week 21 26.3
Once a week 28 35.0
Once a month 8 10.0
Once in a while 19 23.8
Total 80 100.0

Table6: Subtitle Language Preferences

Subtitle Language Frequency Percentage

(N) (%)
Thai 73 91.3
English 7 8.8
Total 80 100.0

Table7: Movie Genre Preferences

Movie Genre Frequency Percentage

(N) (%)
Horror 6 7.5
Comedy 24 30.0
Romance 20 25.0
Action 22 27.5
Romantic comedy 8 10.0
Total 80 100.0
Table8: Motivation to Watch English Soundtrack Movie

Motivation Frequency Percent

(N) (%)
Entertainment 54 67.5
Improving skill 20 25.0
Both 6 7.5
Total 80 100.0
4.3 OPINIONS AND GRATIFICATION LEVEL OBTAINED FROM

WATCHING ENGLISH SOUNDTRACK MOVIES

According to table9, from students’ opinions, English soundtrack movie watch

helped improve their listening skill in various areas. The majority of the respondents

(45%) claimed that watching movie with subtitle can help them understand the

conversation in the movie better. Thirty five of the respondent from eighty (43.8%)

agreed that they can learn correct pronunciation and get used to unfamiliar accents

and dialects by listening from soundtrack movie, and half of the respondents (50%)

added that they can learn new vocabulary also.

Moreover, 41.3% of the respondents claimed, through watching movie, they

can improve their understanding of unfamiliar proverb and slang at a high level. At

the same time, 57.5 of the respondents agreed that motion pictures helped them gain

better understanding while listening to the movie. The majority of the respondents

agreed at a high level that English soundtrack movie can improve their listening skill

better than other English media, and they also considered it an appropriate tool for

teaching listening to students. They also believed that watching English movies can

be beneficial for English using in their daily life.

 Lastly, the results showed significantly, most of the respondents (61.3%)

agreed that they definitely can improve their listening skill by watching English

soundtrack movie.

Table9: Students’ Level of Agreement

Level of Agreement
Very High Moderate Low Very

high low Total

1. English subtitle helps you understand 36 32 10 2 - 80

conversation in the movies better. (45.0) (40.0) (12.5) (2.5) - (100.0)

2. Learn correct pronunciation through 35 30 13 2 - 80

movies. (43.8) (37.5) (16.3) (2.5) - (100.0)

3. Understand unfamiliar accents and dialects 19 35 22 3 1 80

better. (23.8) (43.8) (27.5) (3.8) (1.3) (100.0)

4. Learn new vocabularies 40 32 6 2 - 80

(50.0) (40.0) (7.5) (2.5) - (100.0)

5. Understand unfamiliar idiom, proverb, and 15 33 25 4 3 80

slang better (18.8) (41.3) (31.3) (5.0) (3.8) (100.0)

6. The motion picture in the movies helps 46 30 3 1 - 80

you understand the conversation better. (57.5) (37.5) (3.8) (1.3) - (100.0)
7. English soundtrack movie can improve 17 39 21 3 - 80

your listening skill better than other English (21.3) (48.8) (26.3) (3.8) - (100.0)

media normally used in class.

8. English soundtrack movie is good for 29 37 13 1 - 80

teaching listening for students. (36.3) (46.3) (16.3) (1.3) - (100.0)

9. Watching English movies can be beneficial 25 31 21 3 - 80

for English using in everyday life. (31.3) (38.8) (26.3) (3.8) - (100.0)
10. You can improve your listening skill by 49 27 4 - - 80

watching English soundtrack movie. (61.3) (33.8) (5.0) - - (100.0)

 CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSIONS, DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter presents (1) a summary of the study, (2) a summary of the

finding, (3) discussions, (4) conclusions, and (5) recommendations for further

research.

5.1 SUMMARY OF THE STUDY

The summary of the study in which indicates students’ opinions on watching

English soundtrack movie to enrich listening skill development. A case study of forth

year student at Khon Kaen University.

5.1.1 Objective of the study

The main purposes of this research were to investigate opinions of forth year

English major students at Khon Kaen University about the idea of using English

soundtrack movie to improve their listening skill. In addition, the study aimed to

explore students’ soundtrack movie watching behavior.

5.1.2 Subject, Materials, and Procedures

The subjects of this study consisted of 80 forth year English major students of

the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Khon Kaen University. A self-

administrated questionnaire was used to collect data for this survey research. The

questionnaire was focused on three main areas; the demographic background, the

soundtrack movie watching behavior, and opinions about using English movie to

improve listening skill. Furthermore, the Statistical Package for Social Sciences
Windows program (SPSS) was used to process the data; the data were analyzed in

descriptive statistics.

5.2 SUMMARY OF THE FINDING

5.2.1 Background Information of the Respondents

The results obtained showed the majority of the respondents were female, and

have been studying English for 13-15 years. In daily life, the respondents normally

used their English skills approximately 3-4 times a week, and the skill they used most

often is listening.

5.2.2 Respondents’ English Movie Watching Behavior

The majority of the respondents regularly watched English soundtrack movie

approximately one a week. Their preference is to watch soundtrack movie with Thai

subtitle rather than English subtitle. In addition, a lot of the respondents preferred

various genre of movies especially comedy, romance, and action. The motivation of

the respondents to watch English soundtrack movie is to entertain themselves.

5.2.3 Opinion and Gratification Level Obtained From Watching English

Soundtrack Movie

In regards to students’ opinion toward English movie as a tool to improve

listening skill, the majority of the respondents agreed that they definitely can improve

their listening skill by watching English soundtrack movie. In details, the results

showed, most of the respondents believe that reading Thai subtitle and watching

motion picture while listening to the conversation in the movie provided them a better

understanding at a very high level.

Furthermore, most of the respondents strongly agreed that they could learn

correct pronunciation and acquire new vocabulary through watching and listening to
soundtrack movie. A large group of the respondents agreed they can better understand

unfamiliar accents, dialects, proverb, and slang at a high level. They also believe that

watching English soundtrack movie can be beneficial for English using in daily life.

In addition, in regards to English soundtrack movie as listening teaching

equipment, the majority of the respondent agreed that it is an appropriate tool, and

they can improve their listening skill by watching movies better than using other

English media.

5.3 DISCUSSION

5.4 CONCLUSIONS

The following conclusions on the forth year English major students’ opinions

on watching English movies to enrich listening skill development at Khon Kaen

university, can be drawn from the discussion above.

5.5 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH