Some difficulties in english listening comprehension of english majored sophomores at tay do university

TAY DO UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE Research proposal on SOME DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH LISTENING COMPREHENSION OF ENGLISH MAJORED SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY Supervisor: Bui Thi Truc Ly, M.A Student’s name: Tran Duc Huy Student’s code: 1652220201018 Class: English 11A May, 2020 Some difficulties in English listening comprehension of English Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deep gratitude to the individuals those who guided and supported me to finish this thesis Firstly, I was so grateful to Tay Do University, especially faculty of Linguistics and Literature, for giving me the possibility put into effect my studies Secondly, I would really like to expose my heartfelt thanks to my manager Bui Thi Truc Ly for her type help and assistance She became willing to give me positive comments and important corrections for activating my studies My thesis couldn't had been done without her encouragement and guidance Thirdly, I would like to show my sincere gratitude to 60 sophomores in English course 12 for spending their valuable time participating within the questionnaires and interview papers Their cooperation and guidelines have been truly beneficial for my studies Last but not least, I wish to give my special thanks to my own family and friends who continually beside and gave their encouragement i Some difficulties in English listening comprehension of English Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University COMMENTS ii Some difficulties in English listening comprehension of English Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University TABLE OF CONTENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .i COMMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENT iii ABSTRACT vi CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 The significance of the study 1.3 The organization of the study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 The definitions of listening 2.2 The importance of listening 2.3 Strategies of listening comprehension 2.3.1 Cognitive strategy 2.3.2 Metacognitive strategy 2.3.3 Socio-affective strategy .7 2.4 Potential difficulties in English listening comprehension 2.4.1 Vocabulary 2.4.2 Grammar 2.4.3 Pronunciation .9 2.4.4 Background knowledge .12 2.4.5 Length and Speed of Listening text 13 2.4.6 Accent and Intonation .14 iii Some difficulties in English listening comprehension of English Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University 2.4.7 Psychological factors 15 2.5 Way to learn English listening effectively 16 2.5.1 For teacher 16 2.5.2 For student 17 CHAPTER RESEARCH AIMS-RESEARCH QUESTION-HYPOTHESIS 19 3.1 Research aims 19 3.2 Research question 19 3.3 Hypothesis .19 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 20 4.1 Research Design .20 4.2 Participants 20 4.3 Instruments 20 4.3.1 Questionnaire .20 4.3.2 Interview 21 4.4 Procedure 22 CHAPTER EXPECTED OUTCOME 23 5.1 Vocabulary .23 5.2 Grammar knowledge .23 5.3 Pronunciation 23 5.4 Background knowledge 24 5.5 Length and speed of the listening texts 24 5.6 Accent and Intonation 24 iv Some difficulties in English listening comprehension of English Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University 5.7 Psychological factors .24 REFERENCES v APPENDIX A QUESTIONNAIRE xii APPENDIX B INTERVIEW xvi v Some difficulties in English listening comprehension of English Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University ABSTRACT In the process of learning English language, listening is considered as one of the most important and difficult skills Therefore, the learners frequently face the numerous obstacles which cause an obstruction in learning Listening skill For this reason, the current research aimed to investigate the difficulties in listening comprehension skill encountered by English majored sophomores at Tay Do University This study is conducted with the purpose of finding out difficulties that students face in listening The participants of this study are 60 English- majored sophomores at Tay Do University Questionnaire is used in this study as a tool to collect data It focuses on the attitudes of students towards learning listening and the difficulties in English listening comprehension When the problems have been identified, suggestions to improve the situation of learning listening to English would be made vi Some difficulties in English listening comprehension of English Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University CHAPTER INTRODUCTION This chapter presents (1) the rationale, (2) the significance of the research, and (3) the organization of the study 1.1 Rationale Listening plays a significant role in the lives of people It contributes to the communication process In addition, Listening is the most basic skill among the four major areas of communication skills and language development-listening, speaking, reading, and writing It is evident that children listen and respond to language before they learn to talk Until children to learn to read, they still have to listen so that they gain knowledge and information to follow directions In the classroom, students have to listen carefully and attentively to lectures and class discussions in order to understand and to retain the information for later recall Listening is not only the first of the language skills developed, it is also the skill most frequently used in both the classroom and daily life Rankin (1952) suggested that adults spend more than 40 percent of their communication time listening, in contrast with 31.9 percent speaking, 15 percent reading, and 11 percent writing Clearly, the educational process is based on skills in listening Students have to spend most of the time listening to what the teacher says, for instance, giving lectures, asking questions, or telling directions According to Wolvin and Coakley (1997), the amount of time that students are expected to listen in the classroom ranges from 42 to 57.5 percent of their communication time Taylor (1964), on the other hand, estimates that nearly 90 percent of the class time in high school and university is spent in listening to discussion and lectures Since listening occupies such a large percentage of the communication time of most people, it is therefore advantageous to possess effective listening skills in order to meet listening demands In a language classroom, listening ability plays a significant role in the development of other language arts skills When students first learn a language, they generally have to Some difficulties in English listening comprehension of English Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University listen to the words several times before they are able to recognize and pronounce those words Listening can also help students build vocabulary, develop language proficiency, and improve language usage (Barker, 1971) Despite the importance of listening practice in language instruction, Englishlanguage classes in many countries still emphasize only the skills of reading and writing This is especially the case of an English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) situation in which the English language is taught as a subject at school and used only inside, but not outside the classroom EFL students are studying English in their home countries where English is not the dominant native language Students who are from environments where English is not the language of the country have very few opportunities to hear the real language Consequently, students from the countries in which English is taught as a foreign language frequently have great difficulty understanding English spoken to them when they come into contact with native speakers of the language Thus, having good listening comprehension skill is not an easy job at all when the English learners have to face a lot of obstacles in background knowledge, length and speed, vocabulary, accent, pronunciation and grammar As a result, this study is carried out to find out some difficulties about listening of English majored sophomores at Tay Do University The findings of this study are expected to provide useful information students’ difficulties in listening skills Besides, this study can suggest them some ways to improve their Listening skill 1.2 The significance of the study This study was conducted to find out the problems of listening comprehension skill encountered by English majored sophomores at Tay Do University It is very necessary for learners to ascertain their difficulties in listening comprehension and determine which learning strategies are suitable for them to practice and become better listeners Moreover, awareness of the students’ problems in listening skill would benefit teachers to have a better understanding of their students’ listening difficulties and examine their own teaching methods to improve students’ listening Some difficulties in English listening comprehension of English Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University comprehension It was hoped that the findings about students’ listening difficulties can provide English teachers with some guidelines for material evaluation and selection Therefore, this research could be a useful material for those who want to use the findings as a basis for further study in this area 1.3 The organization of the study This study includes five chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Literature review Chapter 3: Research aims- Research question- Hypothesis Chapter 4: Research methodology Chapter 5: Expected outcomes Some difficulties in English listening comprehension of English Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University CHAPTER EXPECTED OUTCOME Listening comprehension is one of the complex skills in learning English Students may get difficulties in listening because of lack of background knowledge, poor pronunciation, unfamiliar vocabulary, grammar, Accent and Intonation, length and speed of the listening texts and Psychological factors 5.1 Vocabulary The problem is the limitation of vocabulary power Some students may think that meaning resides within the unfamiliar words, so they need a huge amount of vocabulary When facing a new word, they tend to find out the meaning rather than infer it from the context For this problem, it is expected that students can recognize the importance of learning vocabulary, and they will read more to enlarge their vocabulary 5.2 Grammar knowledge It is too difficult for students to remember all the grammatical structures, so students cannot understand the meaning of the listening texts because of facing strange structures Through this study, the students could realize the importance of grammar in listening They will try to improve their grammar knowledge to study listening better 5.3 Pronunciation Pronunciation was the first gap that students have to overcome They are not successful to make out what the speakers said or recognize the familiar words because of their lack of pronunciation ability In addition, it is not easy for students to find conveyed messages due to the effect of intonation on the meaning of the sentences They often get mistakes on stress, linking vowel, consonants, ect They will could raise their awareness to improve pronunciation by watching TV, news 23 Some difficulties in English listening comprehension of English Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University 5.4 Background knowledge Background knowledge plays an important role in listening skill Lack of background knowledge is one of the most obstacle factors that students have to face in listening comprehension even they can listen all, they can misunderstand It will prevent them from understanding the content of listening task correctly 5.5 Length and speed of the listening texts It is too difficult to catch target words if the speakers speak faster than normal listeners The length of the listening texts is also an obstacle in listening, students cannot catch the main points and can miss the rest of the texts when there is a lapse in concentration 5.6 Accent and Intonation Accent and intonation have a various kind in English Unfamiliar accents both native and non-native can cause serious problems in listening Also, intonation is a significant feature in English" When learning English, intonation usually makes students confused in communication because different intonations can make the same sentence have various meanings 5.7 Psychological factors Psychological factors affect students in the process of learning and practice English listening skills Students are usually fell shy whenever they try to communicate with others by English and got lots of mistakes For a long time without the solutions, the obstacles involved to psychological factors will build a wall that prevent students from overcome their fear Through this study, hoping that students can solve their problems 24 Some difficulties in English listening comprehension of English Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University REFERENCES Atkins, G (1995) Assessing listening Cambridge: Cambridge University Press http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511732959 Azmi, B M., Celik, B., Yidliz, N., & Tugrul, M C (2014) Listening Comprehension Difficulties Encountered by Students in Second language Learning 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Language and Speech, 28, No 2, 157–175 xi Some difficulties in English listening comprehension of English Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University APPENDIX A QUESTIONNAIRE Dear friends My name is: Tran Duc Huy This questionnaire is designed for our study namely ” Some difficulties in English listening comprehension of the English majored sophomores at Tay Do university” in completing these questions, please choose the answer by circling the letter next to your choice, ticking off these items in a checklist or expressing your ideas in the blanks All your personal information as well as your answer be kept confident and not be used for other purposes Thanks for your help Part 1: Your knowledge background Students’ information Students name: …………………………… Age: ……………………………………… Gender: …………………………………… Where are you from: ……………………… Please circling the letter next to your choice, or expressing your ideas in the blanks: Which skill you like best? A Listening B Speaking C Reading D Writing What you think about listening skill? A Very important B Important C Quite important D Not important How you evaluate your English skill? xii Some difficulties in English listening comprehension of English Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University A Beginner B Elementary C Intermediate D Advance How often you spend on practicing listening skill in everyday? A Always B Often C Sometimes D Rarely Other:………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………… How often you have problems in your listening? A Always B Often C Sometimes D Rarely What is the hardest course of difficulties in listening English? A Accent an Intonation B pronunciation C Vocabulary D Length and Speed of listening E Grammar F Background knowledge Other: ……………………………………………………………………………………… ………………… Part 2: The problems affecting to listening English skill Please check (ѵ) in the column that best fits your opinion in each statement in the following table according the 5-degree scale including xiii Some difficulties in English listening comprehension of English Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University (1) Strongly agree (2) Agree (3) No idea (4) Disagree (5) Strongly disagree Statement You feel hard to get through English listening tasks with unfamiliar topics You usually feel it difficult to understand the listening text in English when the speakers speak with varied accents The difference between British and American accent causes you difficulty in listening 10 You have trouble speaking when the speaker put the voice too low 11 Sometimes I misunderstand the clues when listening because of English intonation 12 You lose the flow of speech because you concentrate very hard on understanding long sentence you hear 13 You often fear that you will not understand the test before each listening test 14 You find it difficult to understand well when speakers speak too fast 15.You have a problem when you try to remember the meaning of a long listening text in English xiv Some difficulties in English listening comprehension of English Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University 16 You find it difficult to understand the listening text in English when the speaker does not pause long enough 17 When thinking about meaning of unfamiliar words, you neglect the next part of the listening text in English 18 It got little hard for you to understand the listening English text in which there are too many unfamiliar words 19 Because of one word has different meanings, so you got difficult to understand 20 You find it difficult to understand listening texts in which there are too many unfamiliar words including jargon and idioms 21.The speakers often linger and swallow sound, you are often hard to hear 22 I have numerous problems during listening a text because of my mispronunciation 23 You have trouble hearing because you hit the wrong stress of sound 24 A poor grammar foundation make you can not convey ideas more efficiently and coherently 25 Complex grammatical structures interferes with your listening comprehension 26 You don’t know how to different words come together so you don’t understand the deeper meaning of an utterance Thank you for your cooperation! xv Some difficulties in English listening comprehension of English Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University APPENDIX B INTERVIEW Dear friends! My name is Tran Duc Huy, a Senior of English major at Tay Do University, Can Tho City This interview paper will be a useful material for my graduation thesis “Some difficulties in English listening comprehension of the English majored sophomores at Tay Do university” I would be very appreciated if you can take a few minutes in order to complete all of following questions Thank you for your cooperation! PART 1: General background information of the participant Name: …………………………………………………………………………… Gender: Male □ Female □ Age: …………… years old PART 2: Opinions and suggestions solving the listening problems Instruction: Please fill in the answers in the blank Do you like English listening comprehension skill? Why/Why not? _ _ _ _ Do you think listening skill is important for English learners? Why/Why not? _ _ _ _ How often you practice English listening? how you exercise English listening? (internet, lecture room, etc) xvi Some difficulties in English listening comprehension of English Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University _ _ _ _ What are some difficulties in listening comprehension skills that you faced? _ _ _ _ which is the most difficult in English listening comprehension? Why? _ _ _ _ Thank you very much for your kind cooperation! xvii