Statement of the problem and rationale for the study 1
Facts have shown that English proficiency tests such as the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), and the International English Language Test System (IELTS) are currently enjoying a surge in popularity in both workplace and universities, especially the TOEIC test In other words, many colleges and universities award credits in English courses to students who reach test score requirements, and an increasing number of companies are using these scores as one criterion for selecting new recruits and promoting employees Specifically, in Haiphong, the three biggest universities namely Vimaru (Vietnam Marine time University), Haiphong University and HPU (HaiPhong Private University) are forcing their students to have at least TOEIC 450 as a crucial requirement to graduate HPU also announced the target score for Vietnamese English teachers as TOEIC over 700 Some companies in the region like Vietnam register of shipping or Internal Relations Office demand their employees to have TOEIC at least 380 Yet, to many TOEIC students, listening is a nightmare and most failing in TOEIC, TOEFL or even IELTS are generally weak at listening Obviously, achieving language proficiency means mastering the four skills and listening is considered to be one of the most problematic
Establishing reputation for being a reliable place providing and training English courses for such a long time, Haiphong Foreign Language Centre has attracted thousands of learners to register TOEIC courses since they were first introduced in 2010 Identifying the demands of studying TOEIC in Haiphong as well as the teaching situation, “Common errors made by pre-intermediate students in the TOEIC listening test and some suggested solutions” was conducted to gain insights into students’ problems when listening TOEIC practice tests with the hope to contribute to the improvement of TOEIC teaching in Haiphong Foreign Language Centre as well as other educational institutions
The purpose of the study is to explore the following objectives:
To explore the students’ perceptions of the TOEIC listening test
To investigate the errors that pre-intermediate students at Haiphong Foreign Language Center often make when taking the TOEIC listening test
To suggest solutions to avoid errors based on the results of the study The research questions, therefore, are addressed as below:
1 What are pre-intermediate students’ perceptions of the TOEIC listening test?
2 What strategies do these students often apply when doing TOEIC listening test?
3 What are the common errors when taking the TOEIC listening test made by pre-intermediate students?
With the above objectives, the study primarily displays 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 learners
The research focuses mainly on the analysis of the data collected from the students’ TOEIC listening test papers and the survey questionnaire distributed to TOEIC students at Haiphong Foreign Language Centre
Both quantitative and qualitative approaches, including a survey questionnaire, students’ TOEIC listening test papers and semi-structured interviews, are employed to collect data for the study and the major method used is the quantitative one Firstly, the analysis of students’ TOEIC listening test papers is conducted to find out the common errors as well as the current situation of learning this skill Then, the data is also collected through survey questionnaire, informal interviews and discussions with these TOEIC learners
Part A- Introduction describes the study’s rationale, aims, objectives, research questions, scope, methods and significance
Part B- Theoretical Background lays the theoretical foundation for the research
Part C- Methodology details the research methods that have been used and the procedures of conducting the study
Part D- Results and Discussion presents the research’s findings about the errors of pre-intermediate students when listening TOEIC test and then explains the causes of these errors This explanation will lead to some possible implications behind the findings
Part E- Conclusions ends the study by summarizing its main points, implications, limitations and suggestions for further studies
Moreover, the thesis includes Appendices where the study’s bibliography, sample questionnaires and interview transcription are attached for reference
This part attempts to provide the framework within which the research is carried out
There are different definitions about listening coming from different views of the linguists It is believed that listening is a significant and essential element of communication and interaction in a native language and in second language as well Rost (2002, p 279) defines listening as “mental process of constructing meaning from spoken input” Similarly, Helgesen
(2003, p.24) proposes “listening is an active, purposeful processing of making sense of what we hear” From these definitions, it is clear that the listener is doing more than simply decoding what is heard
In fact, a person who is trying to learn a second or foreign language has to improve four basic language skills possessed by the native speakers of that language As stated by Harmer (1998), speaking and writing, which involve language production, are referred to as productive skills Listening and reading, on the other hand, involve receiving messages and therefore, they are identified as receptive skills
Listening skill is a receptive skill in which listeners actively produce comprehension There is a purpose behind every listening people perform
However, in a conversation listeners should also consider other factors apart from sound Listeners do not only receive the auditory stimuli but also visual stimuli, for example face expression, posture, movement, appearance and so on For example, in the TOEIC listening Part 1, visual stimuli (in the form of photographs) is used
When listening is referred to during discourse, it tends to be connected automatically to comprehension This is due to the fact that “comprehension is often considered to be the first-order goal of listening, the highest priority of the listener, and sometimes the sole purpose of listening.” (Rost, 2002)
Especially for the L2 learners who are acquiring a new language, the term
“listening comprehension” typically refers to all aspects of listening since comprehension through listening is considered to be a foundation for enabling learners to process the new language, and since L2 listening research has focused exclusively on the comprehensive aspect of academic listening However, Rost (2002) insisted that the term “comprehension” needs to be used in a more specific sense in listening studies
Buck, G (2001: 31) shares the idea that "listening comprehension is an active process of constructing meaning and this is done by applying knowledge to the incoming sounds" in which "number of different types of knowledge are involved: both linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic knowledge" Thus, the development of good listening skill is suggested to be valuable for its own sake and support the growth of other aspects of language use, such as reading and speaking
Listening comprehension is influenced by the listener’s world knowledge, linguistic knowledge, text structure knowledge, and met cognitive knowledge The following figure shows that the listening comprehension process is established through the relationship between the two main sources of information; namely: systematic or linguistic knowledge (knowledge of phonological, syntactic, and semantic components of the language system) and schematic or non-linguistic information In fact, it is hard to differentiate between what was actually said and what we have constructed by integrating the spoken words with students' own knowledge and experience
- how language is used in discourse
Knowledge of co-text context
- what has been/ will be said (written)
Knowledge of the language system
Figure 1 Information sources in comprehension (Anne Anderson & Tony Lynch, 1988, p.13)
Like reading comprehension, listening comprehension involves two stages: (1) apprehending linguistic information (text-based: low level) and
(2) relating that information to a wider communities context ( knowledge- based: high level) and there are two processing models for comprehension:
(1) bottom-up and (2) top down
1.3 Factors affecting learners’ listening comprehension
Of the five main lines of research on listening summarized by Dunkel (1991: 434), the following two have some bearing on the listening difficulties that learners experience while listening, namely: 1) Research on
Significance of the study 2
With the above objectives, the study primarily displays 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 learners.
Scope of the study 2
The research focuses mainly on the analysis of the data collected from the students’ TOEIC listening test papers and the survey questionnaire distributed to TOEIC students at Haiphong Foreign Language Centre.
Methods of the study 3
Both quantitative and qualitative approaches, including a survey questionnaire, students’ TOEIC listening test papers and semi-structured interviews, are employed to collect data for the study and the major method used is the quantitative one Firstly, the analysis of students’ TOEIC listening test papers is conducted to find out the common errors as well as the current situation of learning this skill Then, the data is also collected through survey questionnaire, informal interviews and discussions with these TOEIC learners.
Organization 3
Part A- Introduction describes the study’s rationale, aims, objectives, research questions, scope, methods and significance
Part B- Theoretical Background lays the theoretical foundation for the research
Part C- Methodology details the research methods that have been used and the procedures of conducting the study
Part D- Results and Discussion presents the research’s findings about the errors of pre-intermediate students when listening TOEIC test and then explains the causes of these errors This explanation will lead to some possible implications behind the findings
Part E- Conclusions ends the study by summarizing its main points, implications, limitations and suggestions for further studies
Moreover, the thesis includes Appendices where the study’s bibliography, sample questionnaires and interview transcription are attached for reference
This part attempts to provide the framework within which the research is carried out.
Listening 4
Listening Definition 4
There are different definitions about listening coming from different views of the linguists It is believed that listening is a significant and essential element of communication and interaction in a native language and in second language as well Rost (2002, p 279) defines listening as “mental process of constructing meaning from spoken input” Similarly, Helgesen
(2003, p.24) proposes “listening is an active, purposeful processing of making sense of what we hear” From these definitions, it is clear that the listener is doing more than simply decoding what is heard
In fact, a person who is trying to learn a second or foreign language has to improve four basic language skills possessed by the native speakers of that language As stated by Harmer (1998), speaking and writing, which involve language production, are referred to as productive skills Listening and reading, on the other hand, involve receiving messages and therefore, they are identified as receptive skills
Listening skill is a receptive skill in which listeners actively produce comprehension There is a purpose behind every listening people perform
However, in a conversation listeners should also consider other factors apart from sound Listeners do not only receive the auditory stimuli but also visual stimuli, for example face expression, posture, movement, appearance and so on For example, in the TOEIC listening Part 1, visual stimuli (in the form of photographs) is used
When listening is referred to during discourse, it tends to be connected automatically to comprehension This is due to the fact that “comprehension is often considered to be the first-order goal of listening, the highest priority of the listener, and sometimes the sole purpose of listening.” (Rost, 2002)
Especially for the L2 learners who are acquiring a new language, the term
“listening comprehension” typically refers to all aspects of listening since comprehension through listening is considered to be a foundation for enabling learners to process the new language, and since L2 listening research has focused exclusively on the comprehensive aspect of academic listening However, Rost (2002) insisted that the term “comprehension” needs to be used in a more specific sense in listening studies
Buck, G (2001: 31) shares the idea that "listening comprehension is an active process of constructing meaning and this is done by applying knowledge to the incoming sounds" in which "number of different types of knowledge are involved: both linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic knowledge" Thus, the development of good listening skill is suggested to be valuable for its own sake and support the growth of other aspects of language use, such as reading and speaking
Listening comprehension is influenced by the listener’s world knowledge, linguistic knowledge, text structure knowledge, and met cognitive knowledge The following figure shows that the listening comprehension process is established through the relationship between the two main sources of information; namely: systematic or linguistic knowledge (knowledge of phonological, syntactic, and semantic components of the language system) and schematic or non-linguistic information In fact, it is hard to differentiate between what was actually said and what we have constructed by integrating the spoken words with students' own knowledge and experience
- how language is used in discourse
Knowledge of co-text context
- what has been/ will be said (written)
Knowledge of the language system
Figure 1 Information sources in comprehension (Anne Anderson & Tony Lynch, 1988, p.13)
Like reading comprehension, listening comprehension involves two stages: (1) apprehending linguistic information (text-based: low level) and
(2) relating that information to a wider communities context ( knowledge- based: high level) and there are two processing models for comprehension:
(1) bottom-up and (2) top down
1.3 Factors affecting learners’ listening comprehension
Of the five main lines of research on listening summarized by Dunkel (1991: 434), the following two have some bearing on the listening difficulties that learners experience while listening, namely: 1) Research on
N the components (sub-skills) of listening involved in SL listening and 2) Research on the factors inside and outside the head that enhance or inhibit the comprehension of input in the SL
As the listening is a complicated active process in which learners decode and construct the meaning of the text by drawing on their previous knowledge about the world as well as their linguistic knowledge, there seems to be many factors affecting listening comprehension and these factors have been classified into different categories Boyle (1984), after conducting an interview with thirty teachers and sixty students from two Hong Kong University suggested lack of practice as the most important factors He also pointed out such factors as linguistic understanding, general background knowledge, while attitude and motivation may affect listening directly but more powerfully Two other factors that were mentioned by the students but not teachers in Boyle’ interview were “memory” and
“attention/concentration” In general, these factors can be divided into four categories, i.e., listener factors, speaker factors, stimulus factors, and context factors In her study Teng (1993) further divided these factors into a list as presented in the Table 1
1 Language facility, including phonological, lexical, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic knowledge
1 Language ability: native speaker vs nonnative speaker
4 Degree of pauses and redundancies
4 Presentation mode; audio only vs audio and visual
3 Interval between listening and testing
Table 1: Factors influencing Listening Comprehension Teng (1993)
The factors characterize listeners are the language facility, knowledge of the world, intelligence, physical conditions, metacognitve strategies and motivation (Boyle)
The language facility requires the learners have the knowledge of the phonological, lexical, syntactic, semantics and pragmatics which are not easy for the learners especially the low level learners and the non major ones
One of the most important factors which have influence directly on the listeners’ ability is the physical conditions which should be free from illness, and able to function efficiently and effectively, to enjoy leisure, and to cope with emergencies Health-related components of physical fitness include body composition, cardiovascular fitness, flexibility, muscular endurance, and muscle strength Skill-related components include agility, balance, coordination, power, reaction time, and speed Therefore it is advisable for the teachers to pay more attention to the learner’s health
Interest in a topic increases the listener’s comprehension; the listener may tune out topics that are not of interest This can create the motivation for the listeners to listen well and study better
During listening process, learners sometimes have difficulty to distinguish different voices of the speaker as well as the speech
Error 11
Different approaches towards the study of error 13
There are various approaches towards the study of error In general, they belong to either Linguistic Approaches or Non- Linguistic Approaches
The Linguistic Approaches include : (i) Contrastive Analysis Approach (ii) Error Analysis Approach while the Non-Linguistic Approaches include: (i) Sociological Approach (ii) Psychological Approach In the scope of this study, only Linguistic Approaches are closely considered
Contrastive Analysis Approach borrowed principles from the field of psychology of learning such as imitation, reinforcement, habit strength and positive and negative transfer This approach presupposed that language development consists of the acquisition of a set of habits, so errors in the second language were regarded as the result of the first language habits interfering during the acquisition of the habits of a second language Thus, special attention should be paid to the differences between the mother tongue and the second language However, this approach provides an incomplete presentation of the second-language acquisition process and it gradually became unpopular because of some obvious shortcomings Firstly, it overemphasizes the interference of the outer environment of language study while the language learners themselves are totally neglected
Secondly, the fact shows that most of learners’ errors are not predictable on the basis of contrastive analysis For examples, some types of errors like rule simplification and overgeneralization which show a striking resemblance to errors made by children while acquiring a first language, could not be accounted for by contrastive analysis
Error Analysis Approach is considered more reliable than the Contrastive Analysis Approach This approach adopts the view that the sources of linguistic interference are not restricted to the learners’ mother tongue Many analysts of this approach has pointed out that there are some similarities between the types of errors made by second language learners and those made by native speakers in their first language acquisition Therefore, the process of acquiring the first and second language are essentially the same (Corder 1967, Dulay and Burt 1972, Richards 1973)
This approach aims at describing the nature of the interlanguage in its stages of development through the evidence in errors, from which the process of second language acquisition can be inferred Between these two linguistic approaches, the writer prefers the Error Analysis Approach because it reflects truthfully the nature learning a foreign language as well as the nature of errors which are not only caused by the interference of the mother tongue but by other intralingual factors as well.
The TOEIC test 14
3.1 Overview of the TOEIC test
The Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), which was developed by Educational Testing Service (ETS) in Japan in 1979, is defined as “a standardized test that measures your listening and reading skills Unlike other tests, the TOEIC evaluates your ability to function in the business world rather than in an academic setting” For this reason, TOEIC has become the preferred exam for corporations, government agencies and many educational institutions to test learners’ English capabilities Many do the TOEIC with the hope to measure their improvements in English, others need to meet the demands of school or work
Traditionally and popularly, TOEIC is a paper-and-pencil test consisting two sections: listening and reading comprehension There are 100 multiple-choice questions in each section Separate scaled scores are provided for each section, the part score scales ranging from 5 to 495 and the total score scales ranging from 10 to 990 The TOEIC test provides a good indication of candidates' abilities in English
These are some examples of the topics examiners may find in TOEIC test questions, according to “TOEIC Examinees Handbook- Listening &
Corporate Development — research, product development
Dining Out — business lunches, banquets, receptions, reservations
Entertainment — cinema, theater, music, art, exhibitions, museums, media
Finance and Budgeting — banking, investments, taxes, accounting, billing
General Business — contracts, negotiations, mergers, marketing, sales, …
Health Care — medical insurance, visits to doctors, dentists, …
Housing/Corporate Property — construction, specifications, buying and renting, electric and gas services
Human Resources — recruiting, hiring, retiring, promoting, job applications, job advertisements, salaries, pensions, awards………
Manufacturing — assembly lines, plant management, quality control
The Office — procedures, board meetings, committees, letters, memos, telephone, fax and e-mail messages, equipment
Purchasing — shopping, ordering supplies, shipping, invoicing
Technical Areas — electronics, technology, computers, laboratories and related equipment, technical specifications
Travel — trains, airplanes, taxis, buses, ships, ferries, tickets, schedules, station and airport announcements, car rentals, hotels, reservations,
3.2 Overview of the TOEIC listening test
Needless to say, TOEIC listening is a kind of listening comprehension The TOEIC listening test includes 100 questions with a time limit of 45 minutes It is divided into 4 sections, namely: picture description
(10 questions), question-response (30 questions), short conversations (30 questions), and short talks (30 questions) Thus, each section has different stimulus material The listeners’s ability to understand what they hear and then choose the correct answer is being evaluated It might be a detail to remember, an inference to make, or main idea that they need to comprehend
All the questions will have topics or situations that you would likely encounter on a regular basis in a business environment
Part one : Pictures description (10 questions)
(Example taken from Tactics for the TOEIC® Listening and Reading Test, © Oxford University Press, 2007)
In this part, for each of the ten questions, the test taker sees a photograph and hears four descriptive statements related to the photograph
Examinees are asked to select the statement that best describes what is presented in the photograph The photographs show people in typical workplace settings as well as in everyday situations
There are four question types in this part They are:
* Action Questions: can be in either the active or the passive form
* Situation Questions: the condition of things in the pictures
The incorrect answers may have:
words that sounds similar but are in fact different
the right words used in a confusing manner/ inaccurately
answers that are only partially true
words that refer to a context other than the one shown in the picture The best way to approach these questions is to scan the picture completely and identify what's happening, just like a journalist or a spy Ask yourself: who, what, where, why? Listen for any words that are stressed, as they may hold a clue
The man is sitting on a couch
The man is coaching the woman
Words that have little sound difference
For example: The man is selling watches vs The man is sailing
The man is waiting for a train vs The man is weighing a train
Part two: Questions and Responses (30 questions)
In this part, test takers will hear a short exchange between two speakers with a question and three possible responses They must choose the response that best answer the question The question may ask about people, location, time, an activity, an event, emotions, reasons or opinions In short, the questions represent everyday conversational English The Question Types of Part 2 are information questions including three types: Questions with an Interrogative (Who/ Whose/ Whom, What/ Which, Where, When, Why, How), Questions with No interrogative (Be/ Do, auxiliary verbs) and Other types of Questions like Indirect questions, Tag questions, Negative questions, Alternative questions, Declarative sentences and Suggestions The trick here is to watch out for:
words that sound similar but have different meanings
Wh- questions - who what, when, where, why, what - that need logical answers
yes / no questions which may have no direct yes / no answers
To do well, keep the question clearly in mind when scanning the possible answers Choose the one that makes the greatest sense If in doubt, guess
Part Three : Short conversations (30 questions)
In this part, examinees will hear a short dialogue After each conversation, they are asked to answer three questions about what the speakers say The question will ask about the general idea of the conversation; usually it will not focus on specific details Students will be asked to identify an activity, an emotion, a relationship, or the location of the speakers In some instances, they may have to do some minor calculations based on measurements in the dialogues They will need to use short term memories as well Here comes one example:
Similar to Part 2, Part 3 includes Who, When, Where, What, How, Why, and Which question types The best strategies are to beware of:
words that change the meaning
negative words (hardly, not, etc.)
words associated with time (always, never, etc.)
It will help if students can read the question, and possibly even the answers, before you hear the dialogue Check all the options and try not to choose too quickly Try and picture the speakers and where they are
Part Four : Short talks (30 questions)
As in Part 3, 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, and so on
There are four types of question in this part, which are: Main Idea Questions, Fact and Detail Questions, Inference Questions and Cause and Effect Questions The same techniques as Part 3 are applied in this Part.
Related studies of listening comprehension and TOEIC listening errors 20
There has been relatively extensive research on difficulties encountered by learners when listening to a foreign or second language The most well-known are Underwood (1989), Hasan (2000) and so on Related to TOEIC, to the best knowledge of the writer, many researchers assessed the reliability and validity of the test like Wilson (1989), Dudley-Evans
(1996), Powers (2010), etc Significant studies on TOEIC have been conducted, however, none points out students’ difficulties or common errors that they make in the TOEIC listening test
Similarly, in the context of Vietnam, a number of studies in L2 listening have been done by different authors like Phung (2008), Vu (2009), Tran (2010) They mostly focus on the critical role of both bottom-up and top-down processes in comprehension Listeners use top-down process when they use context and prior knowledge (topic, genre, background knowledge, and other schema knowledge in long-term memory) to construct framework for comprehension Listeners use bottom-up process when they build meaning by accretion, gradually combining increasingly larger units of meaning from the phoneme-level up to discourse-level features Needless to say, these studies just focus on exploiting the difficulties related to level of students, learner strategies and teachers’ assistance when teaching and learning one specific textbook Bui (2009) had one study entitled “Problems faced by Vietnamese learners in learning IELTS listening” In her study, she analyses and finds out the real difficulties encountered by Vietnamese learners, which helps IELTS teachers adopt appropriate teaching method
Realizing that research in TOEIC listening is a new concept and being a teacher teaching TOEIC, the expression of disappointment on the students’ faces always preys on the writer’s mind, encouraging her to find out the solutions related to TOEIC listening problems
In the light of the literature reviewed in Part B the present study was undertaken with its own methods to bridge gaps existing in the research to date Hence, the aim of Part C is to report details of this implementation, including participant profiles, methods of data collection and analysis and procedures of collecting and analyzing data Justification for each step in the whole procedure will also be given.
Selection of subjects 22
The participants of the study were 50 learners chosen at random from three TOEIC preparation classes at Haiphong Foreign Language Centre
They were at the age of 19 to 35 and doing occupations of different fields, 70% of them were students and the ratio of male and female were 22/28
Although their length of time studying English was different, their English proficiency levels were reported to be at pre-intermediate All of them had already learnt the TOEIC listening strategies.
Data collection instruments 22
Students’ listening test papers 22
This data collection instrument is “considered a research technique that provides objective, systematic and qualitative data” (Verma and Mallick,
1999) In accordance with this, “data obtained from qualitative research is usually detailed, rich and deep” (Burnes, 1999) Hence, this íntrument is supposed to provide the researcher with a closer look into the current situation The study involves a modest number of fifty students’ listening test papers for latter analysis.
Questionnaires 23
Questionnaires, according to Verma and Mallick (1999:24), “can provide data economically and in a form that lends itself perfectly to the purposes of the study” if well-structured Moreover, the fact that “the employment of open-ended in addition to the conventional close-ended questions of this method provide more helpful, reliable data and more accurately reflecting what the respondents want to say” (Nunan, 1992) led the researcher to choose questionnaire as one of the major instruments to collect data
Pools of feedback from a large number of people were collected at different times via the questionnaire The questionnaire consists of four main parts The first part is intended to elicit personal information of the participants The second part with four questions aims at finding the students’ perceptions of the TOEIC listening test The third part investigates the students’ difficulties in listening TOEIC and the last part was designed to find out the strategies that students employ.
Semi-structured interviews 23
Since interactions in an interview could be “incredibly rich” and the data could be “extraordinary evidence about life that might not be gained in a questionnaire” in Nunan’s viewpoint (1992), in-depth information around the topic were expected to be pursued
In the study, researchers used semi-structured interviews with the average length of approximately 10 minutes each The choice of informal or formal settings depends on each interviewee The interviews helped to check the validity of the data from the questionnaires In addition, it allowed the researcher to gain an insight into the information provided by the participants
The interviewees were given a certain degree of control in the conversation to voice their opinions but were directed to the main areas if necessary All the interviews were tape-recorded to be transcribed at a later stage
All in all, for a collection of sufficient reliable and valid data for the study, students’ listening test papers, questionnaire and interviews were fully employed.
Research methods 24
Generally speaking, to collect the necessary data, the researcher combined qualitative and quantitative method of analysis
The quantitative data obtained from the questionnaire and the students’ listening test papers will be calculated and charts or tables will be employed to analyze and compare figures For example, the percentage of participants who share the same ideas or the same average rating will be calculated and illustrated by the charts or tables The qualitative data gained from the open-ended question in the questionnaire and from the interview as well as from the document analysis will be summarized and categorized A system of color coding will be adopted to highlight relevant information
The most typical quotations from the interview will also be used to support the analysis of the data.
Procedures of data analysis 24
First of all, the data collected from the questionnaire, the interview and the students’ listening test papers will be classified basing on the four research questions This phase focuses on the preparation for data collection and involves the designing of the questionnaire, students’ listening test papers and interview questions The researcher collected students’ TOEIC listening test papers Then, she classified the frequency of each type of errors
Basing on the students’ listening test papers analysis, the researcher designed the questionnaire to find out more about the causes of the errors
The Questionnaire was given to seven relevant respondents to get their feedback on the workability e.g: which questions or expressions were not clear and/ or lead to ambiguity and/ or misunderstanding Adjustments were made afterwards
Next, the questionnaire was randomly delivered to 50 students of the three TOEIC classes at Haiphong Foreign Language Center After the Questionnaires had been collected, the interviews were conducted to the preference of the interviewees The interviews were tape-recorded Lastly, the tapes from the interview were rechecked for technical mistakes regarding the tape’s quality and loudness in case they needed to be done again
To conclude, this part has justified the methodology applied in this paper by elaborating the two groups of participants involved in the process of data collection Next, the triangulation of data collection method was also described and followed by the accounts of the four-phase process of data collection and the process of data analysis in this part
This part aims to present and discuss the study’s finding with regard to the following research questions:
1 What are pre-intermediate students’ perceptions of the TOEIC listening test?
2 What strategies do these students often apply when doing TOEIC listening test?
3 What are the common errors when taking the TOEIC listening test made by pre-intermediate students?
Moreover, the implications of this survey results will be discussed
Additional explanations as well as the introduction of the cultural linguistic characteristics are also made.
Findings from the Questionnaires and Interviews 26
General information of the participants 26
Male Female Student Employed Unemployed
Table 3: Learners by age, gender and occupation
It can be seen from the table that 56% of the total number of participants are female and 44% are male The majority of the total population age from 18 to 35 32% of them are at the age from 23 to 35 and just 4% of them are over 35 years old 70% of the selected group are students, 24% work in different fields such as officers, assistants, and so on
Those take the TOEIC course while looking for jobs accounts for 6% of the participants From now on, the researcher calls those people learners of English as they are of different backgrounds
Years Learners’ experience of learning English
Table 4: Learners’ experience of learning English in years
The table indicates the learners’ experience of learning English
Obviously, all the participants have learnt English for at least 7 years at schools, universities or some Foreign Language Centers To be specific, 56% has spent from 8 to 10 years learning English and 28% have been learning the language for 7 years 16% of the total has more than 10 years’ experience in learning English
The information presented in table 5 is about learners’ purposes of learning TOEIC
Purposes of learning TOEIC Number of learners Percentage
To fulfill the requirement of a training course
To fulfill my company’s requirement 10 20%
To be prepared for the future 6 12%
Table 5: Learners’ purposes of taking TOEIC preparation course
As can be seen from the table, most of the learners have clear aims in attending TOEIC preparation course 50% of the total population learnt TOEIC in order to fulfill the requirement of a training course (e.g: graduating from university) whereas 20% aimed at fulfilling their company’s requirement 12% of the learners learnt TOEIC to prepare for the future and a small percentage of the informants learnt TOEIC to apply for a job (8%), to have a good command of English (6%) or to be promoted (4%), In general, all of the learners have their own purposes of learning; therefore, they have good attitude or strong motivation towards learning
1.2 Learners’ perceptions of TOEIC listening test
Question 1 and 2 aims at asking learners about their opinions of the TOEIC listening test, the answers are presented in the charts below:
Learners’ evaluation of the level of difficulty of TOEIC listening test
Table 6: Learners’ evaluation of the level of difficulty of TOEIC listening test Learners’ evaluation of the most difficult part of TOEIC listening test
Table 7: Learners’ evaluation of the most difficult part of TOEIC listening test
Table 6 indicates that most of the learners (58%) think the TOEIC listening test is suitable for their English level while the rest (42%) say that the test is difficult None of them finds it easy From table 7, it can be seen that 64% report that Part 4 (Short talks) is the most difficult while 36% think that it is Part 3 (Short conversations) When having further interviews with some of the learners, they revealed the reason was that the more they listen, the less concentrated they feel
The following table provides the information about how learners feel when listening
Others: ((Un) comfortable, Nervous, Confident, Motivated… 0%
Table 8: Learners’ feelings when doing TOEIC listening test
None of the learners feels comfortable or confident with the TOEIC listening test Most of them claimed that they were unable to concentrate on listening (96%) and a similar number of them reported they were confused when listening (94%) Besides, 12% felt de-motivated with TOEIC listening test The main reason they mentioned in the interview was too long listening
1.3 Learners’ perceptions of the causes of common errors when listening TOEIC test
Question 4 is to find out the causes of the common listening mistakes that learners often make in TOEIC listening test from their own perceptions and table 9 below presents the collected information
Causes of errors in TOEIC listening test Percentage
Different accents, stress and intonation 100%
Physical noises in or outside the examination room 14%
Lack of test-taking strategies 0%
Table 9: Causes of TOEIC listening errors
Obviously, there are a number of errors that learners make and the causes of the errors are various, too Looking at the information indicated in table 7, it is interesting to find out that all the learners blame pronunciation distractors namely similar-sound words or words related but have no meaning and different accents, stress and intonation for the major causes of the errors
Yagang (1994) assert that the listeners have tendency to get familiar with the accents which they mostly listen If listeners are exposed to standard British or American accents, they will face problems in understanding other accents During the interviews the reasons were asked to the students Many students said they were not successful since it was impossible for them to make out what the speakers said because they are unable to distinguish sounds The students recognized words in texts but they could not understand what they heard Interviewee 2, for instance, complained about the difference between weak and strong pronunciation:
“Sometimes consonants and syllables get lost or become almost inaudible”
Or “When I listen to native speakers, I feel that sounds change or blend with each other.”
The comments presented above show that the students had difficulties in identifying words in continuous speech Some students, on the other hand, thought they had been taught incorrect pronunciations of words Interviewee
4 blamed his teachers for the difficulties he faced: “When I was in high school, some of my teachers pronounced words incorrectly Now, I can't understand what I listen just because I don’t know the correct pronunciation”
Secondly, 88% suggest the limitation of vocabulary powder or background knowledge Additionally, 40% report it is because of the speed of the speaker Students found it easier to understand speakers who had a slow rate of speech and more difficult to understand speakers with a quick speech rate Some students thought it was especially difficult to understand native speakers “Native speakers speak too fast.” (Interviewee 1)
However, some participants found a connection between their perceptions of speech rate and their previous experiences: “Most of my friends think that native speakers speak too fast To be honest, I don’t think they speak too fast The main reason is that we don’t have enough experience We haven’t had many chances to listen to native speakers before”, said Interviewee 2
As a matter of fact, the natural talk is very fast to non-native learners thus it causes much trouble to them Nevertheless, in the streaming of listening students would notice that sometimes the speaker speaks a bit more slowly and clearly than he did before It is the chance for students to capture the necessary information in a listening text Speakers also use emphasis to signal the most important ideas What students should do is to pay attention to the speed and the intonation of the speaker and identify the points In his books “Advance listening strategies” (2003), Berman assumed that: “Pace is the speed of speech Unimportant points or small details are usually spoken more quickly Important points, such as main ideas, are usually spoken more slowly and clearly”
Moreover, 30% thought they committed errors due to listening only once or when the listening is too long Actually, if the students do the listening for a long time, they will be under pressure This will not bring out good result “The length of time students listen may cause memory problems or even fatigue and this would distract listeners’ attention from grasping the meaning of the text, and learners may miss the rest of the text when there is a lapse in concentration This may be attributed to the short memory span for the target language.” (Hasan, 2000: 143)
Learners’ perceptions of the causes of common errors when
Question 4 is to find out the causes of the common listening mistakes that learners often make in TOEIC listening test from their own perceptions and table 9 below presents the collected information
Causes of errors in TOEIC listening test Percentage
Different accents, stress and intonation 100%
Physical noises in or outside the examination room 14%
Lack of test-taking strategies 0%
Table 9: Causes of TOEIC listening errors
Obviously, there are a number of errors that learners make and the causes of the errors are various, too Looking at the information indicated in table 7, it is interesting to find out that all the learners blame pronunciation distractors namely similar-sound words or words related but have no meaning and different accents, stress and intonation for the major causes of the errors
Yagang (1994) assert that the listeners have tendency to get familiar with the accents which they mostly listen If listeners are exposed to standard British or American accents, they will face problems in understanding other accents During the interviews the reasons were asked to the students Many students said they were not successful since it was impossible for them to make out what the speakers said because they are unable to distinguish sounds The students recognized words in texts but they could not understand what they heard Interviewee 2, for instance, complained about the difference between weak and strong pronunciation:
“Sometimes consonants and syllables get lost or become almost inaudible”
Or “When I listen to native speakers, I feel that sounds change or blend with each other.”
The comments presented above show that the students had difficulties in identifying words in continuous speech Some students, on the other hand, thought they had been taught incorrect pronunciations of words Interviewee
4 blamed his teachers for the difficulties he faced: “When I was in high school, some of my teachers pronounced words incorrectly Now, I can't understand what I listen just because I don’t know the correct pronunciation”
Secondly, 88% suggest the limitation of vocabulary powder or background knowledge Additionally, 40% report it is because of the speed of the speaker Students found it easier to understand speakers who had a slow rate of speech and more difficult to understand speakers with a quick speech rate Some students thought it was especially difficult to understand native speakers “Native speakers speak too fast.” (Interviewee 1)
However, some participants found a connection between their perceptions of speech rate and their previous experiences: “Most of my friends think that native speakers speak too fast To be honest, I don’t think they speak too fast The main reason is that we don’t have enough experience We haven’t had many chances to listen to native speakers before”, said Interviewee 2
As a matter of fact, the natural talk is very fast to non-native learners thus it causes much trouble to them Nevertheless, in the streaming of listening students would notice that sometimes the speaker speaks a bit more slowly and clearly than he did before It is the chance for students to capture the necessary information in a listening text Speakers also use emphasis to signal the most important ideas What students should do is to pay attention to the speed and the intonation of the speaker and identify the points In his books “Advance listening strategies” (2003), Berman assumed that: “Pace is the speed of speech Unimportant points or small details are usually spoken more quickly Important points, such as main ideas, are usually spoken more slowly and clearly”
Moreover, 30% thought they committed errors due to listening only once or when the listening is too long Actually, if the students do the listening for a long time, they will be under pressure This will not bring out good result “The length of time students listen may cause memory problems or even fatigue and this would distract listeners’ attention from grasping the meaning of the text, and learners may miss the rest of the text when there is a lapse in concentration This may be attributed to the short memory span for the target language.” (Hasan, 2000: 143)
In the interview, the students revealed that their level of understanding English words was not always the same Topic was an important factor determining their understanding 16% of the learners complained about unfamiliar topics The 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 may 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 terminologies When the interview data were analyzed, it was found that this factor was partially related to the previous one, namely word knowledge As seen in the comments of Interviewee 3:“Sometimes there are dialogs about different topics that I don’t know any of the words related to those”
14% stated sudden physical noises in or outside the examination room cause their distraction in listening If the listening task is carried out with noises around, it is for sure they will not have a good result in listening
First, they are distracted by the noise no matter how hard they try to focus on the task Otherwise, the noise makes a complex of sounds instead of the solo recording being played This interrupts the students from hearing and focusing on the task
None of them mentioned poor quality listening equipment or low quality CD or tapes, as they answered in the interview, they feel satisfied with the quality of the CDs, just the matter of their abilities to listen
Similarly, their teachers had carefully provided them all the strategies and techniques thus none thought they were lack of test-taking strategies
1.4 Test-taking strategies applied by learners in TOEIC listening
Table 10 reveals the strategies that students often employ when listening TOEIC test
Use pictures to predict what you will hear 100%
Identify the types of questions in Part 2 100%
Make sensible guess when you cannot answer the questions 100%
Recognize linking sounds, stressed words, intonation, and so on especially in Part 1 & 2
Guess the topic in Part 3 and 4 80%
Guess the meaning of vocabulary in context 60%
Table 10: Strategies used by learners when taking TOEIC listening test
According to the figures in Table 10, all of the students have the habit to predict what they will hear based on the picture, identify the types of questions to choose the correct answer in Part 2 or make sensible guess when they are not able to find the answer in general In fact, the prediction brings about a number of advantages to students in their listening comprehension According to Hasan (2000), the problem is believed to cause by the habit of listening to word by word They do not focus on any particular cues which help them predict what is going to be talked about
Limitations of the study 47
Though this research has been conducted to the best of the researcher’s efforts, there remain several shortcomings for a number of reasons
Firstly, the researcher only involved 50 participants, thus these respondents’ comments cannot represent all the TOEIC learners’ errors or perceptions
Additionally, the writer admits that minor mistakes are inevitable
Therefore, any constructive comments, suggestions and recommendations would be highly appreciated.
Suggestions for further study 48 REFERENCES
The issues mentioned in this study can be reviewed and studied again
Hopefully future researchers would find this study useful, so that they could conduct their own studies, particularly on the same matter, in a more successful way Due to the limit of time and knowledge, this research merely focuses on the listening section of the TOEIC test Therefore, further studies might look into the following undone aspects of the research such as strategies for the Reading section of the TOEIC test or problems and factors that affect the students’ performance on the TOEIC test
The findings of these studies, together with those of this research, would be useful references for those who are learning or teaching for TOEIC certificate
Anderson, Anne & Tony Lynch (1988) Listening Oxford: Oxford
University Press Berman, M (2003) Listening strategy guide Dyed international Inc Boyle, J.P (1984) Factors Affecting Listening Comprehension ELT Journal
Buck, G 2001 Assessing Listening Cambridge Cambridge University
Burnes, D (1989) Teaching writing skills (2 nd ed.) London: Longman Chen, Y (2005) Barriers to acquiring listening strategies for EFL learners and their pedagogical implications Document retrieved from http://tesl- ej.org/ej32/a2.html
Corder, S.P (1967) The significance of Learners Errors Vol 9 No 2
International Review of Applied Linguistics Dunkel, P (1991b) Listening in the Native and Second/ Foreign Language:
Toward an integration of Research and Practice TESOL Quarterly
Forster, D & Karn, R (1998) Teaching TOEIC/TOEFL test-taking strategies Available at: http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails detailmini jsp Harmer, J 1998 How to teach English: An introduction to the practice of English teaching Longman
Harmer, J 2001 The Practice of English Language Teaching Longman
Hasan, A (2000) Learners’ perceptions of listening comprehension problems.Language, Culture and Curriculum, 13, 137-153
Helgesen, M (2003) Listening in Practical Language Teaching, edited by
James (1998) Errors in language learning and use: Exploring error analysis Harlow, UK: Addison Wesley Longman
Nunan D (1992) Research methods in language learning Cambridge:
CPU Richards, L.C (1984) Listening comprehension: Approach, design, procedure TESOL Quarterly
Rixon, S 1986 Developing Listening Skills London and Basingstoke:
Macmillan Rost, M (2002) Listening London: Longman
Snow, C (1977) Mother’s Speech Research: from insight to interaction
Teng, H C (1993) An investigation of EFL listening strategies by Taiwanese college students Proceedings of the Sixth International
Symposium on English Teaching Vol.6, pp.509-520 Taipei, Taiwan: The
TOEIC Examinees Handbook-Listening & Reading (2008) ETS Trew, G (2007) Tactics for TOEIC Listening and Reading Test Oxford:
Willis, J (1981) Teaching English through English London: Longman Underwood, M (1989) Teaching Listening London: Longman
Vandergrift, L (1999) Facilitating second language listening comprehension: acquiring successful strategies ELT Journal, 53(3), 168-
Verma, G.K and Marllick, K (1999) Research Education: Perspectives and techniques London: Falmer Press
Yagang, F 1994 Listening: Problems and Solutions English Teaching
APPENDIX 1 TOEIC Listening Research Survey
My name is Nhu Ha Phuong, a teacher of English at the Haiphong Foreign Language– Haiphong University I am now conducting a research on
“ Common errors made by pre-intermediate students in the TOEIC listening test and some suggested solutions ” The questionnaire is designed to collect data for the thesis Please indicate your opinions by completing these following items based on your own experience up to now I hereby certify that all the information achieved from this questionnaire would be dealt with anonymously Thank you for your cooperation!
In this section, I would like you to answer the questions by putting a tick and fill in where appropriate
● Length of time studying English:………
C To fulfill my company’s requirements
D To fulfill the requirements of a training course
E To be prepared for the future F: To improve English skills G: Others (please specify):………
Section II: Students’ perceptions of TOEIC listening test
In this section, I would like you to answer the questions by putting a tick in the box that best indicates your ideas
1 In your opinion, the TOEIC listening test is………:
2 In your opinion, the most difficult part in the TOEIC listening comprehension is ………
3 How do you often feel when listening TOEIC? (more than one answer)
4 In your opinion, the errors you often make when listening TOEIC test are mainly due to…………(more than one answer)
□ Physical noise in or outside the examination room
□ Different accents, stress and intonation
□ Lack of test-taking strategies
If you have any other difficulties, please specify them:
Section III: Strategies applied by students in TOEIC listening test
In the following section, you can put more than one tick for each statement Please put a tick at any response that you find suitable
Which strategies do you often employ when listening TOEIC test?
□ Use pictures to predict what you will hear
□ Identify the types of Questions in Part 2
□ Guess the topic in Part 3, 4
□ Guess the meaning of vocabulary in context
□ Recognize linking sounds, stressed words, intonation, and so on especially in Part 1 & 2
□ Make sensible guess when you cannot answer the questions
Thank you for your cooperation