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Tiêu đề An Investigation Into TOEIC Listening Comprehension Problems Of Non-English Major Students
Tác giả Phạm Hồng Nhung
Người hướng dẫn Dr. Tô Thi Thu Hương
Trường học Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies
Chuyên ngành English Teaching Methodology
Thể loại Thesis
Năm xuất bản 2014
Thành phố Hanoi
Định dạng
Số trang 66
Dung lượng 1,07 MB

Cấu trúc

  • 2. Aims of the study (11)
  • 3. Research questions (12)
  • 4. Scope of the study (12)
  • 5. Method of the study (12)
  • 6. Significance of the study (0)
  • 7. Design of the study (13)
  • CHAPTER 1- LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Theoretical background to listening comprehension (0)
    • 1.1. Definitions of listening and listening comprehension (14)
      • 1.1.1. Definitions of listening (14)
      • 1.1.2. Definitions of listening comprehension (15)
    • 1.2. Models of listening process (16)
    • 1.3. Potential problems and strategies in listening comprehension (16)
      • 1.3.1. Potential Problems in listening comprehension (17)
      • 1.3.2. Listening Comprehension Strategies (18)
    • 2. Overview of the TOEIC test (20)
      • 2.1. The TOEIC test (20)
      • 2.2. TOEIC Test Area (20)
      • 2.4. Test Scoring (22)
      • 2.5. Who takes the test? (24)
      • 2.6. TOEIC Listening Comprehension Section (25)
    • 3. Related studies on TOEIC test–taking and listening comprehension (26)
  • CHAPTER 2- METHODOLOGY 2.1. The setting of the study (0)
    • 2.2. Participants (29)
      • 2.2.1. Teachers (29)
    • 2.3. Data Collection Instruments (30)
    • 2.4. Data collection procedures (31)
    • 2.5. Data analysis (31)
    • 3.2. TOEIC listening comprehension problems experienced by students at UNETI (33)
      • 3.2.1. Students’ opinions of strategies of TOEIC listening comprehension 23 3.2.2. Students’ opinions of TOEIC listening problems related to background (33)
      • 3.2.3. Students’ opinions of listening problems related to listeners (40)
      • 3.2.4. Students’ opinions of teacher’s teaching methods (42)
    • 3.3. The expectations of the students towards teachers of TOEIC listening skill (43)
    • 3.4. Listening comprehension problems reflected by teachers (44)
      • 3.4.1 Teachers’ opinions of teaching methods (45)
      • 3.4.2 Teachers’ opinions of students’ strategy uses (46)
    • 3.5. Recommendations for improvement of the efficiency of teaching and learning (48)
      • 3.5.1 Recommendations for teachers of English (48)
        • 3.5.1.1 Adapting and improving listening materials (48)
        • 3.5.1.2. Improving teachers’ classroom techniques (48)
      • 3.5.2. Recommendations for students (50)
        • 3.5.2.1 Improving English proficiency (50)
        • 3.5.2.2 Improving listening strategies (50)
    • 3.6. Summary (51)
    • 2. Limitations and suggestions for further study (53)

Nội dung

Aims of the study

The purpose of the study is to investigate the TOEIC listening comprehension problems of non English major students at UNETI so that teachers can help their students to enhance their English listening comprehension Therefore, the specific aims are to find out factors causing their difficulties in TOEIC listening comprehension and suggest some solutions to help students overcome these problems

The thesis is conducted at UNETI in order to perceive difficulties in learning TOEIC listening comprehension of non English major students The study focuses on describing the problems causing difficulties related to strategies, knowledge and linguistic ability of TOEIC listening comprehension, listener as well as teaching methods Then, some suggestions are made for addressing problems regarding how teachers can help their students overcome the TOEIC listening comprehension problems.

Research questions

The study aimed to find out the problems causing difficulties related to test-taking strategies, general background knowledge and linguistic ability of TOEIC listening comprehension, listener as well as teaching methods

This research was carried out to find proper answers to the questions:

1 What difficulties do non English students at UNETI face in TOEIC listening comprehension?

2 What could be done to help students overcome these problems?

Scope of the study

The thesis is conducted at UNETI in order to perceive difficulties in learning TOEIC listening comprehension of non English major students The study focuses on describing the problems and factors causing the given difficulties related to test-taking strategies, general background knowledge and linguistic ability of TOEIC listening comprehension, listener as well as teaching methods.

Method of the study

In order to fulfill the aims of the study as presented, the study has carried out with the quantitative method by collecting data from questionnaires on 10 teachers and

120 non English major students at the UNETI After being fulfilled and collected, all the questionnaires were analyzed carefully Then, those data were presented in tables which are shown clearly in chapter three

This study points out TOEIC listening comprehension problems encountered by non English major students at UNETI More importantly, it is a further contribution to the investigation of foreign language listening comprehension problems in actual language classroom practice

Hopefully, the findings and recommendations of this study will be of some help to the improvement of the teaching and learning TOEIC listening comprehension of Vietnamese students in general and of UNETI students in particular The study also gives some guidelines for teachers to help their students overcome their TOEIC listening comprehension problems The results of this study may also be useful for those who are interested in this field

This study consists of three parts:

Part A: Introduction This part supplies an overview of the study with specific reference to the rationale, the aims, the methodology and the design

Part B: Development In this part, four chapters are presented

Chapter 1 – Literature Review deals with an exploration of the theoretical background of the research It is concerned with the issues relevant to the topic of the research: listening and listening comprehension, and an overview of TOEIC listening comprehension tests

Chapter 2 – Methodology presents the background information of the subjects of the study, the instrument used to collect the data, the procedure of data collection

Chapter 3 – Findings and Discussion is aimed at describing data analysis in detail and a thorough discussion of the findings of the study Some explanations and interpretations of the findings are also presented in this chapter

Part C: Conclusion In this part, the limitations and some recommendations for further research are also explored

The Appendices lie on the last part of the study, following the References

Based on the rationale and the research questions raised in the previous chapter, the relevant literature in the field will be presented in this part This chapter focuses on definitions and processes of listening comprehension, then point out some potential problems and strategies of learning listening comprehension, which are considered to be the theoretical and conceptual framework for the present study

1 Theoretical background to listening comprehension

1 1 Definitions of listening and listening comprehension

Listening plays a significant role in daily communication and educational process In spite of its importance, listening has long been the neglected skill in second language acquisition, research, teaching, and assessment However, in recent years there has been an increased focus on L2 listening ability because of its perceived importance in language learning and teaching According to Morley

(1991, p.82), listening is the most common communicative activity in daily life: "we can expect to listen twice as much as we speak, four times more than we read, and five times more than we write."

Understanding the importance of listening and the different situations where listening skills are needed, there are numerous definitions of listening by many scholars Each one defines in a different way as seen from his own point of view

Rost (2011, p.2) defines listening as a process of receiving what the speaker actually says (receptive orientation), constructing and representing meaning (constructive orientation), negotiating meaning through involvement, imagination and empathy (transformative orientation)

Buck (2001, p.31), on the other hand, noted that listening is a complex and active process of interpretation in which listeners match what they hear with what they already know In order to comprehend spoken messages, listeners have to be able to apply their abilities and learning strategies involved in both linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic knowledge to interpret and comprehend messages from the speaker

Sharing the same opinion, Bostrom (1997, p 247) emphases that listening is the “acquisition, processing, and retention of information in the interpersonal context” It means that listening is receiving language through the ears Listening involves identifying the sounds of speech and processing them into words and sentences When listening, we use our ears to receive individual sounds and use our brain to convert these into messages that mean something to us

With regard to the term “listening comprehension” in language learning, scholars have proposed a number of different definitions Saricoban (1999), for example, noted that listening comprehension is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying This involves understanding a speaker‟s accent or pronunciation, his or her grammar and vocabulary, and grasping the meaning conveyed Listening comprehension can also be defined broadly as human processing which mediates between sound and the construction of meaning (Morley, 1991)

As Hasan (2000, p.138) pointed out, “listening comprehension provides the right conditions for language acquisition and development of other language skills” Listening, therefore, is essential not only as a receptive skill but also to the development of spoken language proficiency

A similar view is proposed by Buck (2001, p.31), who defined listening comprehension as the result of an interaction between a number of information sources, which include the acoustic input, different types of linguistic knowledge, details of the context, and general world knowledge Listeners use any information they have available, or any information that tends to be relevant to aid them in interpreting what a speaker is saying

In this section two important listening processes are examined to show their relationship to listening comprehension and their implications for improving listening comprehension are drawn

Bottom-up and top-down processes are two distinct processes that many researchers take as fundamental features of listening comprehension According to Brown (1994, p.246), bottom-up processing in listening “proceeds from sounds to words to grammatical relationships to lexical meanings to a final message.”

Design of the study

This study consists of three parts:

Part A: Introduction This part supplies an overview of the study with specific reference to the rationale, the aims, the methodology and the design

Part B: Development In this part, four chapters are presented

Chapter 1 – Literature Review deals with an exploration of the theoretical background of the research It is concerned with the issues relevant to the topic of the research: listening and listening comprehension, and an overview of TOEIC listening comprehension tests

Chapter 2 – Methodology presents the background information of the subjects of the study, the instrument used to collect the data, the procedure of data collection

Chapter 3 – Findings and Discussion is aimed at describing data analysis in detail and a thorough discussion of the findings of the study Some explanations and interpretations of the findings are also presented in this chapter

Part C: Conclusion In this part, the limitations and some recommendations for further research are also explored

The Appendices lie on the last part of the study, following the References.

LITERATURE REVIEW 1 Theoretical background to listening comprehension

Definitions of listening and listening comprehension

Listening plays a significant role in daily communication and educational process In spite of its importance, listening has long been the neglected skill in second language acquisition, research, teaching, and assessment However, in recent years there has been an increased focus on L2 listening ability because of its perceived importance in language learning and teaching According to Morley

(1991, p.82), listening is the most common communicative activity in daily life: "we can expect to listen twice as much as we speak, four times more than we read, and five times more than we write."

Understanding the importance of listening and the different situations where listening skills are needed, there are numerous definitions of listening by many scholars Each one defines in a different way as seen from his own point of view

Rost (2011, p.2) defines listening as a process of receiving what the speaker actually says (receptive orientation), constructing and representing meaning (constructive orientation), negotiating meaning through involvement, imagination and empathy (transformative orientation)

Buck (2001, p.31), on the other hand, noted that listening is a complex and active process of interpretation in which listeners match what they hear with what they already know In order to comprehend spoken messages, listeners have to be able to apply their abilities and learning strategies involved in both linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic knowledge to interpret and comprehend messages from the speaker

Sharing the same opinion, Bostrom (1997, p 247) emphases that listening is the “acquisition, processing, and retention of information in the interpersonal context” It means that listening is receiving language through the ears Listening involves identifying the sounds of speech and processing them into words and sentences When listening, we use our ears to receive individual sounds and use our brain to convert these into messages that mean something to us

With regard to the term “listening comprehension” in language learning, scholars have proposed a number of different definitions Saricoban (1999), for example, noted that listening comprehension is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying This involves understanding a speaker‟s accent or pronunciation, his or her grammar and vocabulary, and grasping the meaning conveyed Listening comprehension can also be defined broadly as human processing which mediates between sound and the construction of meaning (Morley, 1991)

As Hasan (2000, p.138) pointed out, “listening comprehension provides the right conditions for language acquisition and development of other language skills” Listening, therefore, is essential not only as a receptive skill but also to the development of spoken language proficiency

A similar view is proposed by Buck (2001, p.31), who defined listening comprehension as the result of an interaction between a number of information sources, which include the acoustic input, different types of linguistic knowledge, details of the context, and general world knowledge Listeners use any information they have available, or any information that tends to be relevant to aid them in interpreting what a speaker is saying.

Models of listening process

In this section two important listening processes are examined to show their relationship to listening comprehension and their implications for improving listening comprehension are drawn

Bottom-up and top-down processes are two distinct processes that many researchers take as fundamental features of listening comprehension According to Brown (1994, p.246), bottom-up processing in listening “proceeds from sounds to words to grammatical relationships to lexical meanings to a final message.”

Furthermore, Richards (1990) provides some detailed examples of bottom-up processes, such as scanning the input to identify familiar lexical items, segmenting the streams of speech into constituents, and using phonological cues to identify the information focus in an utterance

On the other hand, top-down processing is evoked from “a bank of prior knowledge, global expectations and other background information that the listener brings to the text” (Brown, 1994) It is “the application of the cognitive faculties”

(Kelly, 1991) It refers to “the use of background knowledge in understanding the meaning of a message” (Richards,1990) In this process, the listeners activate their

“schema” of the world and form a set of expectations so that they may predict what will come next in the listening text Both of these two processes are important to listening comprehension Richards (1990) claims that:

“fluent listening depends on the use of both top-down and bottom-up processing

The extent to which one or the other dominates reflects the degree of familiarity the listener has with the topic of discourse, the kind of background knowledge he or she can apply to the task, and the purposes for which he or she is listening.”

In this study, the purpose of the treatments is to provide both bottom-up clues (vocabulary in visual or aural form) and top-down clues (context) for the listeners so that listeners may reduce the load of cognitive processes and pay more attention to the content of the utterance as well as make predictions about the next utterance.

Potential problems and strategies in listening comprehension

1.3.1 Potential Problems in listening comprehension

Underwood (1989) outlines seven potential problems that could hinder listening comprehension

First, the speed of delivery is beyond the control of listeners Underwood says, “Many language learners believe that the greatest difficulty with listening comprehension, as opposed to reading comprehension, is that listener cannot control how quickly a speaker speaks” (Underwood, 1989, p.16)

Second, it is not always possible for learners to have words repeated This is a major problem in learning situations In the classroom, it is the teacher who decides whether or not a recording or a section of recording needs to be replayed It is “hard for the teacher to judge whether or not the students have understood any particular section of what they have heard” (Underwood, 1989, p.17)

Third, the small size of the learner vocabulary frequently impedes listening comprehension The speaker does not always use words the listener knows

Sometimes when listeners encounter a new word, they stop to figure out the meaning of that word, and they therefore, miss the next part of the speech

Fourth, listeners may not recognize the signals that the speaker is using to move from one point to another, give an example, or repeat a point Discourse markers which are utilized in formal situations (i.e., firstly, and after that) are relatively clear to listeners However, in informal situations, signals such as gestures, increased loudness, or a clear change of pitch are very ambiguous, especially to L2 learners

Fifth, it can be very challenging for listeners to concentrate in a foreign language It is generally known that in listening, even a slight break or a wander in attention can impede comprehension When the topic of the listening passage is interesting, it can be easier for listeners to concentrate and follow the passage; however, students sometimes feel that listening is very challenging even when they are interesting in the topic because it requires a lot of effort to figure out the meaning intended by the speaker

Sixth, learning habits emphasized in the classroom such as a desire to understand the meaning of every word Teachers oftentimes want students to understand every word they encounter while listening by pronouncing and repeating words clearly and carefully, and by speaking slowly and so forth As a result, students tend to feel worried when they fail to recognize what a particular word means and may further be discouraged by the failure Students should therefore, be instructed to tolerate incompleteness and vagueness of understanding

Seventh and last, comprehension problems arise when students lack contextual knowledge Even if students can understand the main idea of the text, they may still find it difficult to comprehend the whole meaning of the text

Listeners from different cultural backgrounds can also misinterpret nonverbal cues such as facial expressions, gestures, or tone of voice

In order to overcome these listening comprehension problems, learners need to develop techniques known as “listening strategies These strategies are mental processes that enable learners comprehend the aural text despite their lack of knowledge Listening strategies include inferring, elaboration, and regulating and monitoring comprehension, and they are discussed in detail in the next section

For learners, one of the methods learners can become actively involved in controlling their own learning is by using strategies Vandergrift (1999) showed

“Strategy development is important for listening training because strategies are conscious means by which learners can guide and evaluate their own comprehension and responses.” In O'Malley, Chamot, Stewner-Manzanares,

Kupper, and Russo‟s (1985) study, high school ESL students were randomly assigned to receive learning strategy training on vocabulary, listening, and speaking tasks and the result indicated strategy training can be effective for integrative language tasks Nakata (1999) studied the influence of listening strategy training on Japanese EFL learners‟ listening competence, and it showed that the effect of listening strategy training was more discernible on perception than on comprehension

Among all the strategies for listening, O‟Malley and Chamot (1990) claimed three main types of strategies: metacognitive, cognitive and social strategies The metacognitive strategy was a kind of self-regulated learning It included the attempt to plan, check, monitor, select, revise, and evaluate, etc For example, for metacognitve planning strategies, learners would clarify the objectives of an anticipated listening task, and attend to specific aspects of language input or situational details that assisted in understanding the task (Vandergrift, 1999)

Generally, it can be discussed through pre-listening planning strategies, while- listening monitoring strategies, and post-listening evaluation strategies

The cognitive strategies are related to comprehending and storing input in working memory or long-term memory for later retrieval They are investigated from the aspects of bottom-up strategies, top-down strategies For bottom-up processing, it refers to using the incoming input as the basis for understanding the message

Comprehension begins with the received data that is analyzed as successive levels of organization-sounds, words, as a process of decoding For bottom up strategies, Henner-Stanchina (1987) engaged in a similar study and pointed out that effective listeners were good at using their previous knowledge and experience to raise hypotheses about a text, integrating new information into their ongoing interpretations, making influences to bridge gaps, assessing their interpretations, and modifying their hypotheses, if necessary On the other hand, top-down processing went from meaning to language (Richards, 2008) Learners can try to predict what will utter by the signal However, Chiu (2006) claimed that listening comprehension was neither only top-down nor bottom-up processing

Simultaneously, Lu (2008) summed up that the scholars believed the listeners not only utilized bottom-up but also top-down processing models In sum, Thompson

& Rubin (1996) indicated the effects of metacognitive and cognitive strategy instruction on the listening comprehension performance of American university students learning Russian They found that the subjects who received strategy instruction in listening to video-recorded texts improved significantly over those who had received no instruction

For social/ affective strategies, Vandergrift (2003) defined the strategies as the techniques listeners used to collaborate with others, to verify understanding or to lower anxiety Habte-Gabr (2006) stated that socio-affective strategies were those which were non academic in nature and involve stimulating learning through establishing a level of empathy between the instructor and student They included considering factors such as emotions and attitudes (Oxford, 1990) It was essential for listeners to know how to reduce the anxiety, feel confident in doing listening tasks, and promote personal motivation in improving listening competence (Vandergrift, 1997) According to O‟Malley & Chamot (2001), among the four strategies of management strategies, social strategies, cognitive strategies, affective strategies in listening comprehension, both social and affective strategies influenced the learning situation immediately.

Overview of the TOEIC test

Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) measures the ability of non-native English-speaking people to use English in everyday work activities The TOEIC was developed by ETS (Educational Testing Service) in the United States following a request from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Trade and Industry

There are an estimated 3 million test takers per year

Since its administration in 1979, the TOEIC test quickly gained prominence within the field of EFL/ESL (English as a Second Language) education It has been lauded as an efficient and reliable test of EFL/ESL communicative abilities It is currently used in over 60 countries and there are an estimated 3 million test takers per year

As TOEIC measures the candidate‟s proficiency in the workplace and everyday communication, the test questions are based on real life work setting in an international environment (meeting, travel, telephone conversation, etc.) To ensure that the test measures what it is supposed to in a fair, valid and reliable way, these characteristics are common of the test items:

- Vocabulary, grammar and idioms are not specifically American English

- Culture specific and job/profession specific situations are avoided

- Names from different countries are included

- Different English accents are used throughout the test – mainly American, British, Canadian and Australian accents

The New TOEIC test is a two-hour, paper-and-pencil, multiple-choice assessment

There are two separately timed sections of 100 questions each

Examinees listen to a variety of questions and short conversations recorded in English, then answer questions based on what they heard

Examinees read a variety of materials and respond at their own pace to questions based on the content

The total score adds up to a scale from 10 and 990 points The following chart (Grant Trew, 2007, p.3) indicates the approximate correlation between TOEIC scores and levels of ability in order to measure a test-taker's English proficiency at the time that a test is administered

TOEIC Score Level Evaluation Guidelines

Can usually communicate adequately as a non-native speaker

Within his/her own realm of experience, the individual is capable of sufficient understanding and can typically respond with appropriate expressions even about topics outside his/her field of specialization

Although speech is not equivalent to that of a native speaker, the individual has a strong grasp of vocabulary, grammar, and structure and the ability to use the language relatively fluently

Is capable of communicating appropriately in most situations

Understands ordinary conversation well and can respond naturally The individual also has the ability to respond in some fashion, even when the topic relates to

470 specialized fields There are typically no great barriers to communicating in usual business situations

While grammatical and structural mistakes sometimes occur and some isolated disparities exist in terms of correctness and fluency, they are not so frequent that speech is misunderstood

Has sufficient knowledge for daily activities and conducting business within certain limits

Can understand the gist of ordinary conversation and has no trouble forming responses However, the individual shows some disparities in the ability to respond correctly and making himself/ herself understood in more complicated situations

The individual has acquired a fundamental knowledge of grammar and structure and has the vocabulary to communicate essential information, even when lacking expressive power

Is capable of the minimal communication in ordinary conversation

Can understand simple conversations when the other party speaks slowly and repeats or rephrases what is said Is capable of responding to familiar topics

Knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, and structure is generally inadequate

However, if the other party is used to dealing with non-native speakers, the individual can manage to get a point

Is not able to communicate adequately

Even simple conversation at a slow pace is only partially understood

Is able to communicate with isolated phrases but not in full, grammatically correct sentences and does not effectively serve to make himself/ herself understood

According to Grant Trew (2007), since the first TOEIC test was administrated in

1979, the numbers of test takers have increased dramatically Nowadays, TOEIC test is considered as one of the most effective tools toassess the English proficiency of those whose mother tongue is not English and to test the basic skills in English, mainly for communication purposes in the international working environment

Business test takers – An increasing number of companies worldwide use the

TOEIC to set targets for English proficiency for the purposes of hiring new workers, transfers to different companies, or for promotion to management positions This is especially true of large multinational corporations, or companies that export their products internationally

Academic test takers – Although originally aimed at English use within a business context, TOEIC Listening and Reading Test is increasingly being used within academic contexts In Japan, a significant proportion of the universities and colleges surveyed used the test for purposes of accreditation, course placement, and measuring progress within a curriculum A growing number of universities around the world have adopted TOEIC as a way of screening candidates for their graduate programs, especially in the fields of business or international studies In some institutions candidates who achieve high TOEIC scores also earn the right to be recommended for scholarships or for special certification

In the TOEIC Listening section, there are 100 questions in total

In Part 1, students see ten pictures For each, they will hear four statements and they must select the statement that best matches the picture Students should use the picture to try to predict vocabulary and statements they might hear By first picking out the key focus of the picture and quickly brainstorming related vocabulary and possible statements, they will be much better prepared when they actually listen

In part 2, students hear a question or statement followed by three possible responses They must choose the response that best matches the question This part of the test is a pure listening challenge as there are no clues students can use to predict what they are going to hear Students should not expect the kind of set- pattern responses they may have studied in school Responses here are authentic and students must often listen for the implied meaning of a response to realize it is the correct one Exposing students to questions and answers of this sort and focusing attention on the interrelation between the two is essential to helping them tackle this part of the test

In part 3, students hear a short, three or four part conversation, and then answer three questions about it The increase in the number of questions (from one to three) makes the listening task more manageable, in spite of the additional memory load and increase in text length Therefore, students should answer questions as quickly as you can, if possible while the listening text is still being read Moreover, students also need to use the time between conversations to skim the next three questions, predict what you are likely to hear, and isolate exactly what you should be listening for

As in Part 3, in Part 4 students hear a listening passage, followed by three questions The difference is that instead of a conversation, the listening features a single speaker giving a talk: a news report, an advertisement, an acceptance speech, etc Some of the passage lengths are also considerably longer than they have been in the past The similarities to Part 3 mean that students can adopt the same approaches used there In fact, the significantly longer texts make it even more important that students have an exact idea of what they are listening for in advance – listening first and considering the question later won‟t work because there is simply too much text to remember

In short, before listening, listeners should make a prediction based on the given information in the text to choose the best answer To answer the questions, test- takers must understand the major ideas and the relative importance of information in a text.

Related studies on TOEIC test–taking and listening comprehension

TOEIC test is an English language proficiency test for people whose native language is not English It measures the everyday English skills of people working in an international environment Nowadays, companies around the world have come to recognize that English language proficiency is a key to global competitiveness

TOEIC test is a valuable management tool that enables organizations to evaluate English language competence almost anywhere in the world Like many other countries in the world, Vietnam has also considered TOEIC as the standard to assess the level of professional English of people To achieve TOEIC test, it is necessary to provide learners with techniques or skills that help them to do well on the TOEIC test Therefore, there have been relatively studies on problems in taking TOEIC test encountered by many learners

With the aims of enhancing students‟ English proficiency and Test-taking skills through TOEIC preparatory materials, Yi-Ching Pan (2010) in the study named

“Enhancing Student's Communicative Competency and Test Taking Skills Through TOEIC Preparatory Materials” offered teachers a variety of activities dealing with how both to teach the TOEIC listening and reading test interactively and to prepare their students for success at the same time

Yi- Chun Pan (2012) also conducted an investigation “the effects of multi-faceted lexical instruction on the TOEIC listening performance of Taiwanese EFL college students” The findings of the study clearly indicate that the TOEIC listening performance of students generally improved as result of such instruction This study also discussed unexplored issues to offer suggestions for future researchers

In the context of Vietnam, TOEIC is an English examination that tests your English knowledge in four key areas: reading, listening, grammar and vocabulary One of the major factors that make learners rarely get high score in taking TOEIC test is listening comprehension Hence, there have been also some recent unpublished M.A theses on TOEIC listening comprehension Trang (2010) in her study entitled “How to improve listening skills in TOEIC in the case of: questions and responses – Short conversations” investigated the current situation in TOEIC test of non-English major students‟ at Hai Phong Private University to give method to improve listening skills in TOEIC test Besides, the study showed a clear status of students‟

English listening while TOEIC test is one of obligated tests to the students at Hai Phong Private University from 2009 In addition, a survey questionnaire was implemented to find out the non-English majors difficulties when they learn and join in TOEIC test as well as expectation about having methods to improve listening skills in this test, particularly, the case of questions-responses and short conversations Through the findings of the research, there are many ways to enhance listening skills in TOEIC test

Another example is “Common errors made by pre-intermediate students in the

TOEIC listening test and some suggested solutions” by Nhu Ha Phuong (2012) In this study, she used both quantitative and qualitative approaches, including survey questionnaires, students‟ TOEIC listening test paper and semi-structured interview to collect data for the study The participants of the study were 50 learners chosen from three TOEIC preparation classes at Haiphong Foreign Language Center After collecting data, the study primarily showed insightful knowledge of errors conducted by pre-intermediate students as well as their difficulties or strategies in listening TOEIC Pedagogically, the findings of the study are believed to be useful for both TOEIC teachers and listeners

In short, those above studies were very helpful in providing the researcher with general views of TOEIC test taking in general and TOEIC listening in particular They also offered the researcher with a guide to follow when writing a thesis on the concerned issue Those studies were conducted in definitely different contexts with different models and different data collection instruments Although the authors of those studies referred to some problems in the TOEIC listening test, there were still many limitations For example, in Trang‟s study (2010), she only focused on social communicative situations with giving questions and responses to serve effectively for answer the listening comprehension, the case of part 2 and part

3 in TOEIC test level 2 while other parts in TOEIC listening test are also very important and students usually meet difficulties when taking these parts In Phuong‟s study (2012), subjects of the study were learners from Haiphong Foreign Language Center, who are totally different from students at university, especially non-English major students in terms of classroom setting, linguistic competence, as well as the material and methodology exploited by teachers Therefore, it is opportunity for the researcher to carry out an investigation into TOEIC listening comprehension problems of non- English major students at UNETI.

METHODOLOGY 2.1 The setting of the study

Participants

Ten English teachers of English Department at UNETI aged from 30 to over 40 were chosen and volunteer to take part in completing the questionnaires They take charge of teaching TOEIC for mainly third and fourth year students and they also have many years of experience in teaching TOEIC All of them are qualified teachers who graduated from well- known universities for teacher training in Vietnam such as Vietnam National University, College of Foreign Languages,

Hanoi University, which have adopted the latest approaches in teaching English for years They all are very enthusiastic about their teaching career

The study was carried out with the participation of 120 non-English major students at UNETI They were studying in the seventh term and voluntarily joined for the questionnaires Their ages are more than 18 years old, of whom the number of females and males are nearly equal They have similar background and finished five terms of learning English at the UNETI Last semester, after acquiring the most Basic English language skills at pre-intermediate and intermediate level, students moved the second phase, in which they accessed TOEIC test through the textbook Longman Preparation Series for the TOEIC® Test: Introductory Course by Lin Lougheed In this semester, they continue studying TOEIC in the Intermediate Course

There are two reasons for choosing students who are studying in the seventh term as the participants of the study Firstly, the output quality of English students is of great concern to both the college authority and teachers at English Department

Secondly, although they have had one term training in listening TOEIC, their listening skill still seems to be the weakest among all the four skills learnt at university.

Data Collection Instruments

“Questionnaires are any written instruments that present respondents with a series of questions or statements to which they are to react either by writing out their answers or selecting from among existing answers” (Brown, 2001, p.6)

Questionnaires are probably the most common data collection technique used The questionnaires are frequently a very concise, preplanned set of questions designed to yield specific information to meet a particular need for research information about a pertinent topic Additionally, it can be given to large groups of subjects at exactly the same time; hence the data are more uniform, standard and accurate

In order to fulfill the aims of the study as presented, the study has carried out with the quantitative method by collecting data from questionnaires on 10 teachers and

120 non major English students at the UNETI The survey questionnaire was designed in such a way that both closed and open-ended questions to ensure deep data.

Data collection procedures

The questionnaires were delivered to 10 teachers and 120 students from 4 different classes (two from Technical Sector and two from Economic Sector) with the help of their teachers The participants were clearly explained the purpose of the research before they fulfilled the questions They were also encouraged to ask the researcher for any explanation The students were instructed to take as much time as they needed to complete it After that, data from responses of the students and teachers in the questionnaires were sorted and analyzed to get the answers to the research questions.

Data analysis

After being fulfilled and collected, the questionnaires for both teachers and students were analyzed carefully The questions of the questionnaires was separated and computed by Microsoft Office Excel to find out the percentage of teachers‟ opinions and students‟ opinions about questioned items Those data were presented in tables and charts which are shown clearly in chapter three

CHAPTER THREE - FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The previous chapter presented the methodology This chapter analyzes and discusses the results obtained from collected data to draw some main findings for the study and then gives recommendations for both teachers and students

3.1 Students’ attitude towards TOEIC listening test at UNETI

Student’s opinion Number of responses Percentage (%)

Table 1: Students’ opinion about the role of TOEIC listening test

Student’s opinion Number of responses Percentage (%)

Table 2: Students’ opinion about the difficult level of TOEIC listening test

Student’s opinion Number of responses Percentage (%)

Table 3: Students’ opinion about the difficulty of each part in TOEIC listening test

Table 1, 2 and 3 aims at asking students about their opinions of TOEIC listening test Most of students (82.5%) were aware of the importance of TOEIC listening test at UNETI whereas only 17.5% found it not important In table 2, the data showed that the TOEIC listening test is usually difficult for their English level while the rest (5%) say that the test is suitable None of them finds it easy 32.5 % report that Part

4 (Short talks) is the most difficult while 30% think that it is Part 3 (Short conversations)

Based on the results, the author of the study can come to a conclusion that the students perceived that the TOEIC test plays an important role in career searching process for students after graduation from university Currently, an increasing number of companies worldwide have used the TOEIC to set targets for English proficiency for the purposes of hiring new workers, transfers to different companies, or for promotion to management positions Hence, teaching and learning skills to take TOEIC tests at UNETI is more highly appreciated, especially listening comprehension because of its difficulty With well-prepared skills, students will not only self-assess their level of English proficiency but also familiarize with the format of a standard TOEIC in international workplace.

TOEIC listening comprehension problems experienced by students at UNETI

3.2.1 Students’ opinions of strategies of TOEIC listening comprehension

TOEIC Listening has been one of the most difficult sections for English as a second language learners taking up TOEIC exams Therefore, it is important to know what strategies proficient listeners use, and which strategies affect the quality of TOEIC listening comprehension adversely and lead to students‟ problems

Problems Never Seldom Sometimes Often Always

Before listening, read the task instruction, go through the questions and guess what the content is

5 Study pictures, then predict the sentences that best describe the pictures

6 Identify the types of questions to choose the correct answers

7 Paraphrase the questions and keep them in mind while listening

8 Recognize linking sounds, stressed word …

9 Guess the meaning of unfamiliar words or phrases from context

10 Use my experience and background knowledge of the topic to understand the spoken text

11 If I can‟t understand words or phrases while listening, I ignore it and keep on listening

Table 4: Students’ opinions of strategies of listening comprehension

Table 4 reveals that what students do before listening partially have impacts on their comprehension of the listening text According to the data which has been collected, 72.5% of students said that they often read the task instruction, went through the questions and guessed what the topic about As they read them, they know what they are supposed to do and how to deal with that It is reasonable enough for this first stage of listening There are just 2.5%, 5% and 20% of students never, seldom or sometimes use that strategy

In the TOEIC listening section, it is significant to know about some strategies that help students beware of test traps and direct them to the right answer Item 5 shows that in the first part of TOEIC listening section, most of the students (75%) have the habit to see photos and predict what they will hear based on the pictures In the second part, the number of students identify the types of questions to choose the correct answer or make sensible guess when they are not able to find the answer in general are 75% meanwhile 8.3% never or 10% seldom and sometimes 16.7%

Being asked about strategy in Part 3 and Part 4, their responses are follows: A considerable number of them (23.3% never, 16.7% seldom, 25% sometimes) apply the tips Paraphrase the questions and keep them in mind while listening, (23.3% never, 20% seldom, 22.5% sometimes) recognize sounds, stressed words and (17.5 never, 20.8 % seldom, 20% sometimes) guess the meaning of unfamiliar words or phrases from context From the comparison between the percentages, it suggests the strategies in Part 1 and 2 are fairly easy for students to apply However, in Part 3 and 4 which are considered the most difficult in the TOEIC listening test, students feel that it is challenging for them because in these Parts they need to use their short-term memory well to identify the linking sounds or stressed words or unfamiliar words, phrases, and so on

12 While listening, listen to every detail to get the main idea of the spoken text

Besides, (42.5% often and 23.3% always) of all the students being asked report that they often use their experience and background knowledge of the topic to understand the spoken text while none of the students never use that strategy These numbers suggests that most of students use such common listening strategies as pre- listening information and background knowledge of the topic to help them understand the text With pre-listening information or background knowledge, students know what is required in listening They can place the context into consideration while listening, which can help them understand the text with less confusion These strategies are considered to be effective in listening comprehension, especially in Short conversations or Short talks that would help learners to overcome their listening problems

In addition, Table 4 also indicates that the students use inappropriate strategies in listening comprehension New words are such matters that prevent students from understanding the text When encountering any new words or phrases, just 30.8% choose to ignore the word and keep on listening while 69.2% (20% never, 30% seldom, 19.2% sometimes) didn‟t use the strategy but tried to guess its meaning

Therefore, they are easy to miss related information, which makes them feel depressed and not listen anymore From this, we can see that lacking of vocabulary could be a barrier to students

In listening comprehension, a good listener will not listen to all the words of the listening task They may skip any part of it and just focus on the information that they need for their answer In contrast, most participants in my study consisting of 62.5% said that they never (8.3%) or seldom (19.2% ) listen to every detail to get the main idea of the spoken text, but often listen to word by word while only 30.8% agreed with the strategy Listening word by word, as they think, is very important to get the main ideas However, once they try to comprehend every single word, there is little chance for them to discover the key words which give them clues to understand the listening text

In our first language, we skim over parts of the message and pay attention to relevant parts only Thus sentences are not processed word by word and the focus is placed on the ideas behind these words and how these ideas are linked together to draw conclusions Brown (1992)

3.2.2 Students’ opinions of TOEIC listening problems related to background knowledge and linguistic ability

In this section, the students were asked to point out the difficulties in some aspects of knowledge and linguistic ability and the results are presented in Table 5 In particular, idiomatic expressions, unfamiliar vocabulary, difficult grammatical structures, unfamiliar situations, the length of the spoken text, pronunciation, speech rate, and variety of accents may present students with TOEIC listening problems

Problems Never Seldom Sometimes Often Always

13 Content of the message with unfamiliar vocabulary including jargon and idiomatic expressions interferes with my TOEIC listening comprehension

14 Difficult grammar structures interfere with my TOEIC listening comprehension

15 Unfamiliar topics interfere with my TOEIC listening comprehension

16 The long listening texts interfere with my TOEIC listening comprehension

17 I find it difficult to understand well when speakers speak with variety of accents

18 I find it difficult to understand well when speakers speak too fast

19 I find it difficult to understand the meaning of words which are not pronounced clearly

Table 5: Students’ opinions of TOEIC listening problems related to background knowledge and linguistic ability

Item 13 was given to know whether unfamiliar words, including jargon and idiomatic expressions interfere with the learners‟ listening comprehension The great majority of the students (76.6% including 20% sometimes, 23.3% often, 33.3% always) have responded that unfamiliar words, including jargon and idioms interfered with their listening comprehension This finding reported that the major problem hindering listening comprehension was that the students‟ vocabulary was too limited to understand the message Therefore, lack of vocabulary is a big obstacle to most students in TOEIC listening comprehension

Additionally, most of students 85% (25% sometimes, 33.3% often, 26.7% always) agreed that complex grammatical structures caused much trouble to them They usually stop listening and think about the structures This interrupts the flow of speech and thus the students may miss some essential information Hence, grammatical structures also need more attention while listening comprehension

As can be seen from item 15, it seems reasonable to generalize that unfamiliar topic hinders the listening comprehension of the majority of the students The figure shows that unfamiliar topic sometimes bring about a problem in listening comprehension 15% (sometimes) and 74.2% (often and always) of the students have problems with topics which are unfamiliar to them The TOEIC listening material may contain a variety of fields in life or society For instance, it is likely a business report, a daily conversation or a political issue which confuse the listener

These conversations may include words, phrases or terms unfamiliar to listeners

They are totally strange to them so it is such a hard job to listen when the message is full of terminology The solution is to ask the students to practice as much as they can on these various materials Therefore, they can get used to listening to the variety of topics without any difficulties

The long listening text is supposed to be an obstacle to students in listening claimed by 60.8% (35% always, 25.8% often) Actually, if the students do the listening for a long time, they will be under pressure This will not bring out good result

The expectations of the students towards teachers of TOEIC listening skill

The students in this present study were assumed to have certain difficulties in learning listening Thus, when they were asked “what do you expect your teachers of listening skill to do to help you overcome the difficulties you encounter in TOEIC listening comprehension?” they responded as follows:

Give you TOEIC listening techniques or strategies 112 93.3%

Give detailed explanations about your errors 98 81.7%

Design TOEIC listening tests to evaluate your levels at the end of each academic year 105 87.5%

Provide you with different sources of listening 88 73.3%

Table 8: The expectations of the students towards teachers of TOEIC listening skill

The table shows that the majority of all students (93.3%) wished their teachers to give listening techniques or strategies for the TOEIC listening section As a matter of fact, the students should obtain good listening skills and strategies to avoid the traps intentionally designed by the test-makers and the introduction to the traps should be given in the TOEIC listening right at beginning of their course In addition, 87.5% of the students agreed that they should know their listening levels at the end of each academic year so designing TOEIC listening tests to evaluate students‟ levels is really necessary Moreover, a considerable figure (73.3%) shows that except for listening materials for lecture, teachers should provide students with different sources of listening which are suitable for their level so that they can practice or study their self at home From the data collected, it can be agreed that students wished to get a great deal of support from their teachers to overcome difficulties in learning listening Accordingly, teaching styles should be varied and modified or adapted in order to suit the students‟ different learning styles and interests.

Listening comprehension problems reflected by teachers

Teacher‟s perception is very important in a teaching and learning situation as it reinforces teachers‟ decision-making on how to handle classroom situation Thus, teacher‟s perception of teaching methods as well as learner‟s strategy use should be revealed

3.4.1 Teachers’ opinions of teaching methods

The teacher‟s method of teaching is one of the important factors affecting student performance Thus, it becomes necessary to know what methods teachers often use, and which methods help improve the effectiveness of listening comprehension

A Encourage your students to use their own background knowledge in listening activities 10 100%

B Create comfortable environment for students to discuss and exchange information before listening 6 60%

C Offer chances for students to listen for several times 8 80%

D Provide them with certain key words to help students listen effectively 10 100%

E Explain the listening contexts clearly to your students 8 80%

F Suggest students some strategies needed for each kind of listening tasks 8 80%

G Exploit suitable listening materials to students‟ needs and interest 2 20%

H Other things that you have done 0 0%

Table 9: Teachers’ opinions of teaching methods

When asked the same question as in the table 5, the teachers had answered as follows: 100% of the teachers indicated that they had encouraged their students to use their own background knowledge in listening activities As a whole, students will take a listening session more effectively if they are given some background information about the topic, because they know what is required in listening All of them had also found it necessary to provide their students with certain key words to help students listen effectively 80% of all teachers had suggested students some strategies needed for each kind of listening tasks and explain the listening contexts clearly to your students Besides, they claimed that they had suggested students some strategies needed for each kind of listening tasks (80%) and had created comfortable environment for students to discuss and exchange information before listening (60%) Moreover, they had offered chances for students to listen for several times (80%) This may be due to the fact that they have aimed to teach their students to understand everything in listening text However, this method does not encourage learners to use top down processing strategies and it also leads to the habit of processing single word Only 20% of all the teachers reported they had exploited suitable listening materials to students‟ needs and interest This conforms to the data collected in table 5

3.4.2 Teachers’ opinions of students’ strategy uses

Teacher‟s perceptions toward learners‟ strategy use would benefit learners By focusing on the strategies effective listeners use and applying them in the EFL classroom, teachers can help their learners to overcome their listening problems and become better listeners

Item Never Seldom Sometimes Often Always

1.Activating prior knowledge to understand the spoken messages 0% 60% 20% 20% 0%

2 Predicting general content before listening using context and prior knowledge 0% 20% 20% 40% 20%

3 Working in pairs or in groups to help them understand the spoken text more 0% 20% 40% 20% 20%

4 Taking short note of important content words 0% 40% 40% 0% 20%

5 Continuing to listen for clarification in spite of difficulty 20% 20% 40% 0% 20%

Table 10: Teachers’ opinions of students’ strategy uses

The responses from the teachers as shown in table 10 reveal the fact that students appear to be partly ineffective and partly effective listeners As such, most of teachers claimed that students seldom activate prior knowledge to understand the spoken message However, according the collected data in table 4, the majority of students report that pre-listening information about the text (read the task instruction, went through the questions and guessed what the topic about) improves listening comprehension (34.2% often, 38.3% always) It may be attributed the fact that most students consider that strategy good whereas they do not apply it while listening

As shown in table 10, 40% of all the teachers agree that their learners often predict general content before listening using context and prior knowledge and none of them never use that However, according to the collected data in the table 5, students find it difficult to predict unfamiliar topics (44.2 % often and 30% always)

This may be due to the fact that teachers may think the contextual knowledge and vocabulary of the topics in listening texts are familiar to students while students have limited knowledge of language

Cooperative learning gives them the opportunity to share their listening strategies and learn new ones from their classmates, leading to an environment conductive to learning 40% of all the teachers state that working in pair or in group sometimes helps students understand the spoken text and 0% of students never use that

However, 20% of all the teachers complain that students seldom use cooperating with peers to understand the spoken text more It proves that students need a supportive environment in listening classroom

According to item 4, that all of students know the importance of taking short note of important content words and applied it in learning comprehension (40% sometimes,

20% often, and 20% seldom) This strategy can help learners encounter memory problems while listening, especially listening to a long spoken text

Item 5 indicates that psychological factors affect learners‟ listening comprehension very much They do not make effort to continue listening for clarification in spite of difficulty (20% never, 20% seldom) This proves that students need a lot of encouragements from their teachers.

Recommendations for improvement of the efficiency of teaching and learning

3.5.1 Recommendations for teachers of English

Based on the findings of the study, a number of suggestions on strategies for alleviating listening comprehension problems were given to teachers of English

They will be presented in details as follows

3.5.1.1 Adapting and improving listening materials

It is obvious that students differ in their learning styles and ability, therefore, teachers should adopt and adapt listening materials that match their students‟ interest and background since the listening materials only become stimulating and motivating them when they are slightly challenging to what they have already known and suit their interest

In view of the fact that many students in the study encounter various kinds of listening problems such as unfamiliar words, variety of accents, the rapid speed of delivery, native speakers‟ pronunciation, etc The study also reveals the fact that learners are in some respects poorly equipped with effective strategies The researcher advocates the following classroom techniques which can tackle learners‟ problems of listening comprehension and help them utilize listening strategies as well

 Activating or building students’ prior topical and linguistic knowledge

Activate the schemata by encouraging the learners to think about and discuss what they already know about the content of the listening text Teachers can also provide the background needed for them to understand the text, and it can help them focus attention on what to listen for Consequently, students begin to predict what they might hear and make connections with what they already know, increasing the relevance of the information

 Arousing interest and motivating students to attend to the spoken message

Students will be more willing to listen actively to what the speaker says if they are able to relate the listening experience to their own lives Besides, teachers can create an environment conductive to listening and encourage effective listening behaviors that are necessary lifelong skills

This technique can be employed in the pre-listening or while-listening stages

Students are asked to predict what the text is about or what the speaker is going to say next In order encourage students to imagine and predict what they are going to hear, teacher may tell something about the topic of the listening text or something about the speaker(s) Besides, students can be asked to predict the grammar structures that are likely to be used in the listening text or make a list of words, phrases that relate to the topic and may appear in the listening text By this way, they can familiarize students with key concepts and vocabulary before listening to spoken text When students have certain vocabulary in mind, they will be more self-confident and thus ready to listen effectively

The learners gather in groups or pairs to work out the spoken message together, the bond between them strengthens Cooperative learning gives them the opportunity to share their listening strategies and learn new ones from their classmates, leading to an environment conductive to learning

 Providing and trying to gain as much feedback as possible

During the course, the teacher should fill the gap between inputs and students‟ reply and between the teacher‟s feedback and students‟ reaction so as to make listening purposeful This not only promotes error correction but gives encouragements as well It can aid students to heighten their confidence in their ability to tackle listening problems Students‟ feedback can assist the teacher to judge where the class is going and how it should be instructed

There are many ways for students to tackle their listening comprehension problems which will be discussed in detail below

To overcome listening difficulties, students themselves must try to improve their English If their language proficiency is improved, they are likely to overcome the difficulties such as variety of accents, speech rate, native speakers‟ pronunciation, and vocabulary In class, students should participate actively in the lesson and get involved in extracurricular activities like joining an English club, talking with foreigners and working with a tutor Moreover, students can get access to authentic sources of communication themselves by watching TV, listening to the radio and logging on the Internet By doing so, they could get used to the lively contexts in which spoken language is used

When students know how to use appropriate listening strategies, they will be able to improve their listening practices and overcome listening difficulties Below are some of the most important strategies, which should be employed by the students while engaging in a listening task

 Listening for main ideas: students focus on the meanings, not just words

While listening, students note down main points and key words to work out the gist of the talk

 Guessing from the context: guess the meaning of unfamiliar words or phrases by looking at the context of the word (the surrounding words/ideas) and using logic and knowledge of the world to figure out what the word might mean

 Making inferences: students can learn to compensate for their lack of background knowledge by learning to reply on the visual or auditory cues

By paying attention to maps, charts, photographs, illustrations, or the background noise, they will be able to interpret the verbal messages more successfully and draw logical conclusion

 Predicting: Use clues from context and prior knowledge to predict general content before listening and predict what speakers are going to say

 Taking note: write down important content words This helps students overcome memory problems, especially when listening to a long spoken text

 Cooperating with peers: they can work jointly with their classmates to comprehend spoken text and then benefit each other by sharing the strategies they employed during the listening.

Summary

In this chapter the factors causing students‟ TOEIC listening comprehension problems are presented The problems fall into four categories of causes namely strategies, knowledge and linguistic ability of TOEIC listening comprehension, listener as well as teaching methods Based on the findings, a number of recommendations for teachers and students to reduce students‟ listening difficulties have been made As for teachers, they can adapt and improve listening materials, improving teachers‟ classroom techniques On the part of students, it is necessary for them to improve English proficiency and listening strategies

The study is aimed at finding out learners‟ TOEIC listening comprehension problems and factors causing the problems as well Since then, some suggestions on strategies are given to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning TOEIC listening comprehension

In general, the study has been carried with the aim to investigate the current problems in TOEIC listening comprehension of non English major students at UNETI The paper is relevant to the current situation as there has been a strong tendency to learn English for communication Therefore, it is necessary to give some suggestions on strategies to improve teaching and learning TOEIC listening comprehension

Being a teacher at UNETI, I can clearly see that the situation of teaching and learning English Listening comprehension in TOEIC test seems to be the weakest skill and students encounter various kinds of TOEIC listening problems This study is done in the hope of finding out the factors causing their listening comprehension problems and contributing some recommended strategies for teachers and students to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning TOEIC listening comprehension

Research results have allowed myself to arrive at the following conclusions:

- Students at UNETI encounter various kinds of listening problems in listenning comprehension which can be divided into four categories: strategies of listening comprehension (learning habit, learners‟ applications), knowledge and linguistic ability (unfamiliar words, the length of the spoken text, speed rate, a variety of accents, and pronunciation), characteristics of the listener (learning habits, and psychological factors), and teachers‟ teaching methodology (offer chances for students to listen for several times, exploit suitable listening material to students‟ needs and interest)

- Some suggestions that could be employed for teachers and students to encounter listening comprehension problems include adapting and improving listening materials, and improving teachers‟ classroom techniques on the part of the teachers As for students, they can alleviate their own difficulties by improving English proficiency, and improving listening strategies The given recommendations are definitely practical and workable under present circumstances in terms of technical and human resources of UNETI in particular.

Limitations and suggestions for further study

In most research projects, limitations are inevitable This study is of no exception Firstly, this research has investigated students‟ perceptions of listening comprehension problems Perceptions may, nevertheless, not always be accurate and reliable since the researcher in this current study used only one method: survey questionnaire with two groups of informants: teachers and students And so the triangulation is not strong Thus, it would be better to include class observation and other methods in a further research A study, which directly tests students‟ difficulties in listening acquisition, would also be useful for reliable data

Furthermore, it is vital to carry out a study which requires students to keep their learning records of listening skill so that there will be more profound and precise understanding about difficulties of students in listening skill

Secondly, since the writer‟s practical experience in teaching listening and knowledge of this field are limited, the suggestions in chapter three might be incomplete, leaving the issue open to debate Further work, therefore, should overcome this shortcoming

Thirdly, given the limited scope of the current study, the investigator could not examine teachers‟ views of teaching listening comprehension This calls for further research as well

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Survey questionnaire on listening skill (for students)

My name is Pham Hong Nhung I am doing a research entitled “An investigation into TOEIC listening comprehension problems of non English major students at University of Economic – Technical Industries” which is aimed at exploring students‟ listening comprehension problems Therefore, your assistance in completing this questionnaire is greatly appreciated Please be sure that all the information will be kept confidential and be used for the research purpose only

Thank you very much for your cooperation

4 Your years of learning English:

5 Your years of learning listening skill:

II Your attitude towards TOEIC listening test Circle the answer that is the most appropriate to you

Question 1: How do you think about TOEIC listening comprehension?

C Not important D Not very important

Question 2: How difficult is TOEIC listening to you?

Question 3: Which part is the most difficult in listening comprehension in TOEIC test?

A Pictures description B Questions and responses

III Your experience in listening classes Tick (√) to the column that is the most appropriate to you

Problems Never Seldom Sometimes Often Always

4 Before listening, read the task instruction, go through the questions and guess what the content is

5 Study pictures, then predict the sentences that best describe the pictures

6 Identify the types of questions to choose the correct answers

7 Paraphrase the questions and keep them in mind while listening

8 Recognize linking sounds, stressed word

9 Guess the meaning of unfamiliar words or phrases from context

10 Use my experience and background 6 5 30 51 28 knowledge of the topic to understand the spoken text

11 If I can‟t understand words or phrases while listening, I ignore it and keep on listening

12 While listening, I listen to every detail to get the main idea of the spoken text

13 Content of the message with unfamiliar vocabulary including jargon and idiomatic expressions interferes with my TOEIC listening comprehension

13 Content of the message with unfamiliar vocabulary including jargon and idiomatic expressions interferes with my TOEIC listening

14 Difficult grammar structures interfere with my TOEIC listening comprehension

15 Unfamiliar topics interfere with my TOEIC listening comprehension

16 The long listening texts interfere with my TOEIC listening comprehension

17 I find it difficult to understand well when speakers speak with variety of accents

18 I find it difficult to understand well when speakers speak too fast

19 I find it difficult to understand the meaning of words

5% 8.3% 33.3% which are not pronounced clearly

20 I feel nervous and tired when I don‟t understand the spoken text

21 I find it difficult when listening conversations or short talks without transcripts

22 I find it difficult to understand the spoken text which is not of interest to me

23 What have teachers of listening skill done to help you listen better or more effectively? Circle the thing(s) that your teachers of listening skill have done

A Encourage you to activate your previous knowledge into listening texts

B Create comfortable environment for you to exchange information before listening

C Offer you as many chances to listen again as you expect

D Provide you with certain key words

E Explain clearly about the listening contexts

F Suggest you essential listening strategies needed for each kind of listening tasks

G Exploit different kinds of listening materials suitable to your listening ability and your interest

H Other things that teachers have done Please specify ………

24 What do you expect your teachers of listening skill to do to help you overcome the difficulties you encounter in TOEIC listening comprehension?

A Give you TOEIC listening techniques or strategies

B Give detailed explanations about your errors

C Design TOEIC listening tests to evaluate your levels at the end of each academic year

D Provide you with different sources of listening

My name is Pham Hong Nhung I am conducting a research entitled “An investigation into TOEIC listening comprehension problems of non- English major students at University of Economic – Technical Industries” which is aimed at exploring students‟ comprehension listening problems

In this questionnaire, I have listed some listening strategies From your own teaching experience, would you please put a tick to the column indicating the frequency your learners use them in listening comprehension Then, please answer question 9 to indicate which method(s) you use in teaching TOEIC listening skill.

Thank you very much for your cooperation

Item Never Seldom Sometimes Often Always

1.Activating prior knowledge to understand the spoken messages 0% 60% 20% 20% 0%

2 Predicting general content before listening using context and prior knowledge 0% 20% 20% 40% 20%

3 Working in pairs or in groups to help them understand the spoken text more 0% 20% 40% 20% 20%

4 Taking short note of important content words 0% 40% 40% 0% 20%

5 Continuing to listen for clarification in spite of difficulty 20% 20% 40% 0% 20%

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