A study on challenges and solutions to improve the listening skill of second year english majored students at english faculty, thuongmai university

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY GRADUATION PAPER A STUDY ON CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE THE LISTENING SKILL OF SECOND YEAR S YEAR ENGLICH – MAJORED STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONG MAI[.]

1 ABSTRACT English has long been considered a global language According to the British Council (2013), today, a quarter of the world's population uses English, and English has become a tool that allows speakers to access new sources of knowledge and ideas The study aims to find out the factors affecting English listening ability and the strategies implemented that can improve the listening ability of second year English department students, Thuongmai University To address these issues, this study employed quantitative methods and data collection used to conduct the study The study used questionnaires and interviews with students of the Faculty of English, Thuongmai University, as the main research tool to collect data The results of the study indicate that most of the challenges that lead to hearing loss are related to the speaker, the listener, and the listening material To uncover the obstacles, some learning strategies used by sophomores are also suggested to help students deal with difficulties in listening to English The researcher hopes that this study can help second-year students of the Faculty of English, University of Commerce improve their listening skills and support further research to avoid shortcomings and limitations ACKNOWLEDGMENT During this graduation, I received much-needed help, valuable knowledge, and encouragement from family, friends, and teachers People who deserve my gratitude and respect First words I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my teacher Tran Lan Huong, who has always enthusiastically guided and helped me to complete this research task Taking this opportunity, I would like to express my sincerest thanks to the teachers of the Faculty of English, Thuongmai University, who gave me the basic knowledge to complete this lesson I would like to sincerely thank the students of the K55 Faculty of English who wholeheartedly participated in the research, helped me complete the survey, and provided me with valuable information by completing the questionnaire Thanks to that, I can analyze and make the best suggestions for my research I would like to thank all the authors of the books, journals, and other documents listed in the references section for their ideas that were reflected and developed in the research Last but not least, I would like to express my special thanks to my family for their unconditional support and encouragement throughout this research They are a great source of encouragement for me to complete my studies well November, 24th 2022 Student Thao Ngo Thi Thao TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS No Abbreviations Vietnamese Meaning ULIS Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ – Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội University of Languages & International Studies VNU Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội Vietnam National University FELTE UTEHY EFL STMIK TMU Khoa Sư Phạm Tiếng Anh, Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ – Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội Đại học sư phạm Kỹ thuật Hưng Yên Việc học tiếng anh sinh viên khơng có ngơn ngữ mẹ đẻ tiếng anh Trường Đại học Bina Nusantara Trường Đại học Thương Mai LIST OF CHARTS English Meaning Faculty of English Language Teacher Education Hng Yen University of Technology and Education English as a Foreign Language STMIK STIKOM Indonesia ThuongMai University CHAPTER I: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale A number worth your attention is that English is the official language of more than 53 countries and territories Especially, in the current era of the explosion of science, technology, and information, the use of English as a foreign language has gradually become popular and plays an increasingly important role not only in the country but also in exchanges with other countries on the world Therefore, in education in Vietnam, English is a top priority foreign language Previously, the main goal of foreign language teaching and learning was reading comprehension and scientific research Currently, to serve the policy of opening up, innovation, and regional and world integration, the goal of foreign language teaching is communication and the importance of listening skills is also enhanced than ever Listening is the most frequently used skill in everyday communication (Morley, 1999; Scarcella & Oxford, 1992) Mendelsohn (1994) found that listening takes up between forty-five and fifty percent of total communication time Therefore, it cannot be denied that listening is essential for communication and learning a foreign language Furthermore, in foreign language learning, listening is a useful means of providing students with understandable input, which is an essential component of the entire language learning process And teaching listening skills in the classroom will help students transition from classroom English to real-life English more easily and effectively Therefore, this study was conducted to help students and teachers pay more attention to listening skills The last but not least reason for choosing the title of this thesis is that although we realize the importance of learning to listen in English, the status of teaching and learning listening skills has long been underestimated and neglected are concerned According to Hamouda (2013), learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) often have problems with listening comprehension because schools often pay more attention to teaching grammar, reading skills and vocabulary Listening skills are not emphasized in the majority of instructional materials, and teachers not focus on developing these skills in the classroom He also emphasizes that understanding what others say is a difficult activity for learners Learners face a lot of problems when listening If teachers want to help learners improve their listening skills, they need to find out what difficulties learners often face in order to find suitable listening strategies or effective remedy Moreover, learning English in Vietnam is about memorizing new words and sentence structure on paper As a result, many Vietnamese students, even those who score well on grammar tests, cannot successfully communicate with foreigners in everyday conversations According to Nguyen (2008), not being able to understand what native speakers say due to lack of understanding is the most serious cause In addition, at Thuongmai University, very few studies describe in detail the problems of second-year students in learning to listen That's why this study wanted to give some suggestions to help teachers motivate students to have more interesting learning and better listening skills Following English learning, at Thuongmai University for nearly years, I noticed that secondyear English majors still have many difficulties in listening skills To help students improve their listening skills, here are some suggestions to help teachers motivate students to learn more interesting and better listening skills With the hope of dipping into listening problems, a study entitled: " A study on challenges and solutions to improve the listening skill of second-year English-majored students at English Faculty, Thuongmai University" This study was conducted for the reasons mentioned above 1.2 Previous Studies 1.2.1 National studies First, a research paper by Nguyen Thi Thu Thao (2013) on the topic: "The main difficulties in learning cognitive listening skills of first-year students of Faculty of English Education, ULIS, VNU", has been done conducted a study to find out the main difficulties in learning the listening skills of freshmen The participants were 150 first-year students of FELTE, ULIS, VNU, and the tool was a mixed approach of both questionnaires and semi-structured interviews Brief descriptions of the participants as well as data collection methods are also provided The results of the study show that the majority of listening comprehension difficulties relate to four main categories: speaker, listener, material, and physical context To uncover obstacles, some of the learning strategies that freshmen use are also introduced Based on the findings of the study, several pedagogical implications are suggested for teachers and students in their teaching and learning of listening skills Second, a research paper by Bui Thi Thu Huong (2015) on the topic: "Difficulty in listening comprehension of first-year students of the Foreign Language Department of Hai Phong University" This is an outstanding problem that students in general and first-year students in particular, the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Hai Phong Private University face, which is extremely poor listening comprehension This leads to serious consequences for students' low foreign language proficiency as well as learning and teaching difficulties because listening skills are essential tools when learning to communicate in any language other Problems related to listening materials, physical limitations of students, assistive devices, in addition, factors affecting difficulty in listening to English are lack of knowledge and practice, environment English school… The purpose of this study is to investigate students' difficulties in learning English listening comprehension and some solutions The subjects of this study are 40 students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages who have finished semester Third, a research paper by Phung Thi Tho (2017) on the topic: "Research on difficulties and solutions in English listening skills of second-year students of the foreign language department at UTEHY" The research will find out the subjective and objective difficulties of students in learning listening skills Then find out the causes of those problems and solutions for both teachers and students in teaching and learning listening skills The research applied qualitative and quantitative methods to conduct the research So, data collection tools like questionnaires Interviews were used to conduct the research The research results will show the difficulties that students face when learning listening skills More importantly, the research finds out the causes of those difficulties to come up with a suitable solution to the problem With the hope of improving students' listening abilities Fourth, research by Nga HT Nguyen and Nghi TT(2017) Luu on the topic: "Difficulty in listening to second-year English majors at Tay Do, University in Vietnam" The study was conducted to find out the problems that second-year students face in listening to English Subjects participating in this study are 55 second-year English majors in English class, class 14 of Tay Do University Questionnaires and paper interviews were sent to collect the issues This is a quantitative and qualitative study The results of the study show that vocabulary, pronunciation, background knowledge, and psychological factors are the main difficulties in listening comprehension Based on these difficulties, English learners can find a suitable way to improve their listening skills The results of this study may also be useful to those interested in the field Finally, a study by Trinh Vinh Hien (2020) on the topic: "Difficulty and current situation in listening comprehension" conducted a study on listening difficulties and the participants were 50 first-year students of the English department Anh from Lac Hong University Quantitative data were collected using closed and open questionnaires Trinh Vinh Hien's findings indicate that the most common problems these students face are a lack of time to study and improve listening skills, inappropriate strategies that hinder listening comprehension, and listening materials and Facilities that also cause hearing problems In short, all of the research above points to the difficulty of listening skills The common point of these studies is that they all found the causes and factors causing difficulties such as lack of vocabulary, lack of background knowledge, poor pronunciation, environmental factors, psychological factors, and some difficulties related to other factors Thereby, the researchers are also in sync when from those difficulties propose solutions to help students improve their own listening skills At the same time, suggest solutions for students and teachers to improve their listening skills It is the right direction in learning and teaching listening skills On the other hand, besides the same factors, each researcher chooses his own direction and method If Bui Thi Thu Huong researches first-year students and only focuses on finding out the factors that cause difficulties only related to listening materials, students' physical limitations, assistive devices, lack of knowledge, etc and practice, English environment, Phung Thi Tho's research is aimed at second-year students and more broadly related to teachers to find the subjective and objective difficulties of students in learning skills listening skills, , This study is more outstanding than the previous research because here the researcher also investigates the levels of using skills to come up with the most appropriate solution direction and research methods of teaching skills listening for students more accurate and practical results in teaching students Next is the study of Nga HT Nguyen and Nghi TT Luu and Trinh Van This study also shows that difficulties in vocabulary, pronunciation, background knowledge, and psychological factors are difficulties During the listening comprehension process, no outstanding issues have been deepened In each study, the researchers only went to investigate a few issues that did not cover the entire content of the difficulty in listening skills But the most prominent is the study of Nguyen Thi Thu Thao, which highlights most of the factors that lead to difficulties in all of the above studies and investigates the extent to which the strategies are used student In addition, this study also raises students' awareness of the importance of listening skills Through the comparison of domestic studies on the above topic, the shortcomings of that topic are the basis and gaps for the study to find and discover, realizing that, the study also applies a several sources of knowledge and experience found new points and other points that need to be clarified 1.2.2 International Studies Firstly, Research by Naizhao Guo (2005) on the topic: “Investigate factors affecting English listening Understanding and possible measures for improvement” This article discusses an investigation of a one-year trial of Teaching English as a Foreign Language conducted at Shanxi University of Finance and Economics The experiment, which involved three teachers and 550 non-English majors from the University, was funded by the Ministry of Education of China The study aimed to find out the factors that influence English listening comprehension and the strategies implemented that can improve students' listening comprehension The study also sought new ways to improve listening comprehension in Teaching English as a 10 ... " A study on challenges and solutions to improve the listening skill of second- year English- majored students at English Faculty, Thuongmai University" This study was conducted for the reasons... (2013), VenChanthai Thepvongsa and Nilratana Klinchan and the solutions to improve listening skills found in the study of third -year students at STMIK Prabumulih, Watjana Suriyatham The experiment... questionnaires and interviews with students of the Faculty of English, Thuongmai University, as the main research tool to collect data The results of the study indicate that most of the challenges