Impacts of google forms on english - Majored students listening skill

TNU Journal of Science and Technology 226(03): 80 - 85 
 80 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 
IMPACTS OF GOOGLE FORMS ON ENGLISH - MAJORED STUDENTS’ 
LISTENING SKILL 
Vu Thi Quyen
*
, Bui Ngoc Anh 
TNU - School of Foreign Languages 
ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT 
Received: 16/3/2021 The study aims at investigating the influence of Google Forms on 
English majored students’ listening skill at the School of Foreign 
Languages, Thai Nguyen University. There was a controlled group in 
which the students were given printed homework and an experimental 
group in which the participants were sent listening homework designed 
on Google Forms. Hence, the students in the controlled group could not 
get instantaneous feedback from their teachers while the students in the 
experimental group could check their answers and tapescript after their 
submission. The research employed tests and a questionnaire for the 
data collection. The study shows that the students in the experimental 
group got more success in listening tests than the students in the 
controlled group. Additionally, the students found doing homework on 
Google Forms motivating. Hence, they looked forward to listening 
assignments in other listening courses. The study can bring teachers 
who are in charge of listening lessons some ideas for listening 
homework management. 
Revised: 30/3/2021 
Published: 31/3/2021 
KEYWORDS 
Google Classroom 
Google Forms 
Listening skill 
Listening assignment 
Homework management 
ẢNH HƯỞNG CỦA GOOGLE FORMS ĐỐI VỚI KỸ NĂNG NGHE 
CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH 
Vũ Thị Quyên*, Bùi Ngọc Anh 
Trường Ngoại ngữ - ĐH Thái Nguyên 
THÔNG TIN BÀI BÁO TÓM TẮT 
Ngày nhận bài: 16/3/2021 Nghiên cứu nhằm tìm ra ảnh hưởng của Google Forms đối với kỹ năng 
nghe của sinh viên chuyên ngành tiếng Anh tại Trường Ngoại ngữ - 
Đại học Thái Nguyên. Sinh viên trong nhóm học truyền thống được 
giao bài tập trên bản in; trong khi đó sinh viên trong nhóm thử nghiệm 
được giao bài tập thiết kế trên nền tảng Google Forms. Sinh viên trong 
nhóm dạy học truyền thống không nhận được giải đáp ngay lập tức sau 
khi hoàn thành bài tập; trái lại, sinh viên ở nhóm thử nghiệm có thể tự 
kiểm tra đáp án và tra tapescript ngay sau khi nộp bài. Trong quá trình 
thu thập dữ liệu, nhóm tác giả đã sử dụng các bài kiểm tra và một bảng 
câu hỏi. Nghiên cứu chỉ ra rằng kết quả các bài kiểm tra nghe của sinh 
viên trong nhóm thực nghiệm cao hơn so với kết quả của sinh viên 
trong nhóm học truyền thống. Ngoài ra, sinh viên cảm thấy yêu thích 
việc học nghe trên Google Classroom. Từ đó, sinh viên mong muốn 
được làm bài tập nghe trên Google Forms trong các khoá học nghe 
khác. Nghiên cứu mang lại cho giáo viên dạy kỹ năng nghe một cách 
tiếp cận mới trong việc giao bài tập nghe cho sinh viên. 
Ngày hoàn thiện: 30/3/2021 
Ngày đăng: 31/3/2021 
TỪ KHÓA 
Google Classroom 
Google Forms 
Kỹ năng nghe 
Bài tập nghe 
Quản lý bài tập 
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34238/tnu-jst.4176 
*
 Corresponding author. Email: vuquyen.sfl@tnu.edu.vn 
TNU Journal of Science and Technology 226(03): 80 - 85 
 81 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 
1. Introduction 
Many human beings’ activities have been remarkably changed since the beginning of the 21st 
century and after the industry 4.0 era was declared. Hamiti & Blerim Reka [1] indicate that 
education, industry, social philosophy, psychology, culture, political philosophy, and human 
behaviors follow this disruption era. In education particularly, teachers and educators are facing 
up with the challenges brought by the changes. They are finding ways to improve students’ 
autonomy as well as the efficiency of the teaching and learning process. On the case, technology, 
which is believed to be able to enrich the learning environment by transferring teaching 
instruments toward student-centered, has been commonly used in education [2]. Teachers are 
quite familiar with computers, softwares, platforms, online materials and some kinds of modern 
teaching approaches namely distance learning, flipped learning and blended learning, which can 
support the teaching - learning process. 
In School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University, blended learning has been 
implemented frequently by most teachers. Blended leaning is defined as the combination of 
different instructional methods; the combination of different modalities or delivery media; the 
combination of face-to-face instruction with computer-mediated instruction [3], [4]. In the 
school, blended learning means the combination between face-to-face instructions and computer-
mediated instructions. The teachers deliver their lectures in classrooms; and then they send the 
students weekly assignments on Google Classroom as their homework. 
Due to the break-out of COVID 19 in Vietnam at the beginning of 2020, students at the school 
had new experience of distance learning in which they joined online lessons with their teachers 
on zoom.com or googlemeet.com. Additionally, they were sent lots of homework assignments on 
Google Classroom. Google Classroom was selected as a channel to send students homework 
because it is far better in the areas of communication, interaction, perceived usefulness, ease of 
use, and overall students’ satisfaction [5]. Moreover, Google Classroom plays a great role in 
making learning more easily as it is extremely useful in understandability, attractiveness, and 
operability [6]. The researchers were in charge of listening lessons for English majored students. 
Hence, the researchers had to find ways to apply the free platform in effectively controlling 
students’ listening homework. After some insight searches, Google Forms, which are available in 
Google Classroom, were selected by teachers of listening skill. 
Google Forms provide teachers a number of benefits for training courses since the application 
is free. Besides, Chaiyo & Nokham [7] state that Google forms help to facil ... oom. The teachers 
might show them the keys and share why they got incorrect answers by playing the audio and 
explain the keys if they had time. If there was a limitation of the time, the teachers read the keys 
only. The rest of students were classified in the experimental group in which they were sent the 
listening homework on Google Forms, which were created in folders in Google Classroom. The 
forms allowed the students to check their answers after their submission. Moreover, the 
tapescripts of the audios, which were cut as pictures, also were inserted in the forms after each 
listening section. Obviously, students’ names, answers, time and dates were shown clearly so that 
lectures could manage them with no challenges. Additionally, among the 90 students, there were 
10 students who did not have a desktop, a laptop or a smart phone. Hence, the researchers asked 
them to visit the Learning Resources and Information Technology Center, Thai Nguyen 
University for the free desktop and internet connection. 
To collect data for the study, tests and a questionnaire were applied. The students were asked 
to take five tests: a diagnostic test in the first week to find out the students’ levels and the 
differences in the students’ levels between the controlled group and the experimental one. 
Moreover, two mini tests in the 3
rd
 and 10
th
 week as well as two progress tests in the 7
th
 and 14
th
week were taken by the participants. The test questions were taken from Books of Primary 
English Test for School by Cambridge University so that all the test qualities including 
reliability, validity, practicality and authenticity were met. All the students’ results were carefully 
kept and analyzed. There were 25 questions in each test and the participants got 0.4 point for a 
correct answer. In other words, participants got 10 points if they got all 25 correct answers. 
At the end of the course, a questionaire was delivered to the 90 participants in the 
experimental group in order to investigate their feedback on the listening homework which was 
TNU Journal of Science and Technology 226(03): 80 - 85 
 83 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 
designed on Google Forms. The questionaire was adapted from Adit Gupta and Pooja Pathania 
[13]. There were two parts in the questionnaire: The first part included some questions to get 
personal information from the participants. The second part had eight questions which helped the 
researchers collect participants’ attitude toward the ease of listening homework designed on 
Google Forms. 
3. Findings and discussion 
As being mentioned in the previous part, the controlled group were sent printed documents 
while the experimental group were sent listening homework on Google Forms. After the study, 
there was a change in the test results gained by the two groups. The results of the five tests will 
be shown in the table 1. 
Table 1. Participants’ average scores 
 Average scores 
Controlled group 
Average scores 
Experimental group 
Diagnostic test (1
st
 week) 5.61 5.54 
Mini test 1 (3
rd
 week) 5.71 5.75 
Progress test 1 (7
th
 week) 6.02 6.34 
Mini test 2 (10
th
 week) 6.12 6.57 
Progress test 2 (14
th
 week) 6.23 6.65 
From the table 1, it is easy to find out two main points. Firstly, there was no significant 
difference in the listening results before the experiment. In the diagnostic test, the average score 
of the controlled group was 5.61 while the average score gained by the students in the 
experimental group was 5.54. The gap was only 0.09 point. Secondly, results for listening tests of 
the participants in the two groups were gradually improved after the tests. The average scores 
gained by the students in the controlled group were increased by 0.62 from 5.61 for the 
diagnostic test to 6.23 for the progress test 2. In contrast, the students in the experimental group 
got more achievement than their fellows in the controlled group because their average scores in 
the progress test 2 were 1.11 point higher than their results in the very first test. Additionally, 
their average score at the progress test 2 was 0.42 higher than the average scores got by the 
students in the controlled group. 
The change can be explained that thanks to the keys that was provided after each part of the 
test on Google Forms, the students could check their answers right after they submitted the test. It 
was the keys that helped the students more motivated in learning. Moreover, thanks to the 
tapescript after each part of the assignments, the students could check why they did not get the 
correct answer so that they could draw some valuable lessons for other listening exercises in this 
revision step. Meanwhile, the students in the controlled group only sent the keys due to the time 
limitation. Therefore, many students might not know why they got wrong answers, or even when 
they got correct answers, they were not so sure why they got points in the questions because they 
failed accessing the tapescript. As a result, even though they finished all of the homework, they 
got no strategies to improve their ability of listening comprehension. It means that students could 
not get the benefits of feedback for their listening homework. 
In order to investigate how much students appreciate the impacts of homework on Google 
Forms toward their listening skill, a questionnaire was sent to them on Google Forms. The result 
will be shown in the table 2. 
Table 2 shows 88.9% of the participants agreed that they could learn faster, more easily 
followed the assignments and more frequently remembered to do the homework on Google 
Forms. It is explained that the students could access to the homework whenever they connected 
with the Internet; they did not need to carry thick and heavy printed materials; they did not worry 
about loosing their printed homework because the Google Forms did it for them. Moreover, 
TNU Journal of Science and Technology 226(03): 80 - 85 
 84 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 
thanks to the Google Classroom, all the links for the homework were arranged in separate 
folders, it took them less time to find the assignments on Google Classroom than in the portfolio 
of the printed materials. Furthermore, Google Classroom usually reminded them before the 
deadline; hence, the students had no difficulty in remembering their homework. 
Table 2. Participants’ evaluation about impacts of listening homework 
on Google Forms toward their listening skill 
Item Agree % Disagree % Doubtful % 
1. I was able to learn faster through the 
homework on Google Forms. 
80 88.9 10 11.1 0 0 
2. I could follow the assignments on Google 
Forms easily than the printed document. 
80 88.9 10 11.1 0 0 
3. I forgot the homework less frequently than I 
did with the printed homework. 
80 88.9 10 11.1 0 0 
4. I felt relaxed when I did my homework on 
Google Forms from my mobile devices. 
83 92.2 5 5.6 2 2.2 
5. I could save more money with the homework 
on Google Forms than the printed materials. 
80 88.9 5 5.6 5 5.6 
6. I was able to check my answers easily 
through Google Forms. 
90 100 0 0 0 0 
7. I could quickly get explanation for the 
answers. 
90 100 0 0 0 0 
8. I look forward to listening assignments on 
Google Forms next terms. 
90 100 0 0 0 0 
Regarding the financial aspect, the same number of the participants responded that they could 
save money for the homework, because they did not have to spend money on printing the 
materials every week. However, there were about 11.1% of the students did not get the same 
experience that the homework on Google Forms brought to their fellows. When the researchers 
looked back their background, they noticed that all of these students announced that they did not 
have any media devices for the online assignments. 
When students were asked about the ease to access Google Forms for their assignments, 100% 
of the participants admitted that they could check their results as well as the tapescript quicker 
than with the printed materials. Additionally, all of them showed that they appreciated the 
listening homework on Google Forms and they were eager for listening homework designed on 
Google Forms in other listening courses at the School. 
4. Conclusion 
To sum up, the listening homework on Google Forms could help the students gain more 
success in the listening tests than the printed homework. Besides, the assignments on Google 
Forms brought students with a lot of benefits, for example the ease to access the homework, 
which was proved by Adit Gupta and Pooja Pathania; and David [13], [14]. The finding of the 
study also shows that the access to keys as well as explanation was quicker on Google Forms 
than from the teachers. It was this benefit that helped students more motivated and their learning 
was more enjoyable. Finally, they got more success in listening skill and listening tests. 
Although the researchers got students’ results in the tests in the course for the data 
collections, they could not access the students’ results in the ending course test from the 
School’s training department because of the privacy policies. Hence, the researchers could not 
make the complete comparison in the differences in the two groups’ results. Future researchers 
can take some consideration on the issues for a better study if they share the same interests 
with the current researchers. 
TNU Journal of Science and Technology 226(03): 80 - 85 
 85 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 
With regard to some other considerations which should be taken by teachers who take 
responsibility for listening skill, it takes much more time to design questions on Google Forms 
than printed questions. Each assignment takes the researchers twenty times longer to design an 
assignment on Google Forms than in PDF files. However, it is worth designing the assignments 
because they can be reduplicated for many courses and the homework can motivate students. 
Additionally, students who do not have any media devices may find this approach inconvenient 
as well as they may oppose the homework on Google Forms. Therefore, teachers are advised to 
persuade them to take advantages of their schools’ computer rooms or their schools’ libraries as 
they are living in the technology era and blended learning is inescapable. 
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