A study on listening comprehension problems of atc first year students at banking academy

BANKING ACADEMY OF VIETNAM FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES GRADUATION THESIS TOPIC: A STUDY ON LISTENING COMPREHENSION PROBLEMS OF ATC FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT BANKING ACADEMY Student : Nguyen Huong Quynh Class : K20ATCC Academic year : 2017 – 2021 Student ID : 20A7510150 Advisor : Dr Can Thuy Lien Hanoi, May 2021 Tai ngay!!! Ban co the xoa dong chu nay!!! 17014125810811000000 CETIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I hearby declare the graduation thesis entitled "A study on listening comprehension problems of ATC first-year students at Banking Academy" submitted to the Banking Academy of Vietnam is a work carried under the guidance of Ms Can Thuy Lien I futher affirm that this work has not been submittied in any other institutes for any purpose Hanoi, 20 May, 2021 Author Nguyen Huong Quynh i ACKNOWLEDGMENT First and foremost, I would like to express all my gratitude and respect to my supervisor of the Foreign Languages Faculty at the Banking Academy – Mrs Can Thuy Lien for supporting and accompanying with me during the period of proceeding this graduation thesis Special thanks to my supervisor, who helped me with her dedication and infinite knowledge, she guided me from the first steps when starting up the study until I built and completed this graduation thesis successfully Secondly, I would love to express sincere thanks all of the lecturers of the Foreign Languages Faculty at the Banking Academy for their deliberate instructions and support during 4-year period Last but not least, I want to send my thankfulness to my parents and friends who have followed and accompanied with me to complete this dissertation despite their busy business They help me both mentally and physically by giving me encouragement, and useful suggestions ii TABLE OF CONTENT CETIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i ACKNOWLEDGMENT ii TABLE OF CONTENT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v LIST OF FIGURES vi LIST OF TABLES vii ABSTRACTS iii CHAPTER – INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Background of the study 1.3 Objectives of the study 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Scope and limitation of the study 1.6 Definitions of Terms CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 10 2.1 Literature review 10 2.2 Theoretical and Conceptual Framework 16 2.2.1 Theoretical Framework 16 2.2.2 Conceptual Framework 18 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 20 3.1 Locale of the study 20 3.2 Research design 20 3.3 Data gathering procedure 21 3.4 Population and Sample description 22 3.4.1 Population 22 3.4.2 Sample description 22 3.5 Research instrument 23 3.6 Statistical treatment 24 3.7 Reliability and validity 26 iii CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 28 4.1 Subjective problems during Listening comprehension process 28 4.1.1 Problems related to self-practice 28 4.1.2 Problems related to vocabulary master 29 4.1.3 Problems related to pronunciation 31 4.1.4 Problems related to psychological characteristic 32 4.1.5 Problems related to concentration 33 4.2 Objective problems during the Listening comprehension process 34 4.2.1 Problems related to Listening materials 34 4.2.2 Problems related to the speaker 39 4.2.3 Problems related to the physical setting 41 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 44 5.1 Summary of Findings 44 5.2 Conclusion 44 5.3 Recommendations 45 5.3.1 For Banking Academy 45 5.3.2 For teachers 48 5.3.3 For students 49 REFERENCES 55 APPENDICES 58 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ATC Faculty of Foreign Languages at Banking Academy ULIS University of Languages and International Studies VNU Vietnam National University v LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page Figure 2.1 Theoretical Framework 16 Figure 2.2 Conceptual Framework 18 Figure 3.1 Data gathering procedure 21 Figure 3.2 Statistical analysis 25 vi LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 3.1 Fundamental anthropological information of participants 23 Table 4.1 Problems related to self-practice 28 Table 4.2 Problems related to listening topic 29 Table 4.3 Problems related to searching for socio-cultural, factual, and contextual information 30 Table 4.4 Problem related to pronnunciation 31 Table 4.5 Problems related to psychological characteristic 32 Table 4.6 Problems related to concentration 33 Table 4.7 Problems related to the speed of listening materials 34 Table 4.8 Problems related to the density of information 35 Table 4.9 Problems related to the appearance of unfamiliar words or jargon or idioms in the recording 36 Table 4.10 Problem related to complex grammatical structure 37 Table 4.11 Problem related to the signals 38 Table 4.12 Problem related to the native speaker's accent 39 Table 4.13 Problem related to the speaker's stress or information 40 Table 4.14 Problem related to poor quality equipment and facilities 41 Table 4.15 Problem related background noises, the large and crowded classroom 42 vii Abstracts A study on Listening comprehension problems of ATC first-year students at Banking Academy Author: Nguyen Huong Quynh Keywords: Listening comprehension problems Supervisor: Dr Can Thuy Lien Listening is defined as the ability to understand knowledge when engaging in listening tasks Although students have been learning English since they were preschool children, listening is still viewed as challenging skill As a result, the aim of this research are to explore students' difficulties in listening subjects, their perspectives on listening comprehension, and the factors that contributed to their progress in listening Following that, the questionnaire was sent out The research draws certain conclusions about students' attitudes toward listening skills as well as some of the more typical issues they encounter when learning listening after gathering and analyzing the data The outcomes suggest that the majority of the participants have mutual listening comprehension problems such as lack of practice and vocabulary, pronunciation, psychological characteristics, concentration, listening materials, the speaker and physical setting Consequently, learners will recognize the significance of listening skill, and teachers can support students during the teaching activities iii CHAPTER – INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction No one can deny that English is viewed as a global language and currently the most often taught language in various nations in the world In modern life, the English language teaching method has adjusted immensely recently Learners are able to use English for communicative purposes becoming the goal To use English effectively, learners need to flourish in communicative competence Additionally, they should be assisted to improve four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing Among those mentioned skills, listening is an irreplaceable tool to convey information to listeners via five steps: receive, understand, evaluate, remember and respond We normally interact with others in our daily life through two significant elements such as speaking and listening Nadig (2013) supported the theoretical point "Speaking is only half of the communication process needed to be effective between individuals The other half is listening and understanding what others convey to us." Furthermore, listening is commonly recognized as a vital tool in supporting language learning among the aforementioned skills It is said that an average of 45% is spent time on Listening compared to 30% Speaking, 16% Reading, and 9% Writing (Adler, R et al 2001), which denotes the influence of listening in our society Nevertheless, many students (and even teachers) often fail to pay enough attention to Listening, which makes students say that listening is the most challenging of all skills Being aware of all the challenges that students cope with and enhancing their listening comprehension is of great significance If the listeners have a good listening capacity, they have competence to understand information during the listening comprehension process or transfer it in written or oral form It is also the relevant ability to understand, communicate, and respond to what is listened to Therefore, to master the communication process, the learner needs to have good listening skills as it closely relates to communication In other words, communication will not be effective if the capacity for listening does not support it