Investigating difficulties in english listening comprehension encountered by grade 10 students at a high school in thai nguyen province

Trang 1 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES PHAM THANH HANG INVESTIGATING DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH LISTENING COMPREHENSION ENCOUNTERED BY STUDENTS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN THAI

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES PHAM THANH HANG INVESTIGATING DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH LISTENING COMPREHENSION ENCOUNTERED BY STUDENTS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN THAI NGUYEN PROVINCE M.A THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 THAI NGUYEN- 2022 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES PHAM THANH HANG INVESTIGATING DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH LISTENING COMPREHENSION ENCOUNTERED BY STUDENTS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN THAI NGUYEN PROVINCE M.A THESIS (APPLICATION ORIENTATION) Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Dang Thi Thanh Huong, Ph.D THAI NGUYEN- 2022 ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN TRƯỜNG NGOẠI NGỮ PHẠM THANH HẰNG NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC HỌC KỸ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG TẠI THÁI NGUYÊN LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ (Định hướng ứng dụng) Ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Mã số: 8220201 Cán bộ hướng dẫn: TS Đặng Thị Thanh Hương THÁI NGUYÊN - 2022 DECLARATION I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “Investigating difficulties in English listening comprehension encountered by grade 10 students at a high school in Thai Nguyen Province” is my own research and the substance of this research has not been submitted to any other universities or institutions Approved by Supervisor Thai Nguyen, July 2022 Submitted by: Dang Thi Thanh Huong Ph.D Pham Thanh Hang i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It always takes a great deal of effort to carry out a study, this study is no exception If it had not been for the guidance and assistance of our supervisor, teachers, friends, and family, I could never have conducted this research Firstly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Dang Thi Thanh Huong, lecturer of School of Foreign Language, Thai Nguyen University for her immeasurable assistance and valuable comments throughout the conduct of the research Thanks to her substantial assistance and encouragement during the process, I could successfully accomplish this research I also truly appreciate all the participation of the teachers, my colleagues, as well as grade-10 students at Dong Hy High School in this research Their contribution is undeniable that they directly devote to the study and at the same benefit from it I am grateful to my classmates for their encouragement through every moment, the support and building up in my every part of completing the study Finally, my gratitude is for my family and the people who have been there for me It was challenging time but their understanding and compensation made it a lot easier ii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF TABLES vi LIST OF FIGURES vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii ABSTRACT ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .1 1.1 Rationales 1 1.2 Statement of the problem 3 1.3 Aims of the study 4 1.4 Research questions 4 1.5 Scope of the study 4 1.6 Significance of the study 5 1.7 Organization of the Study 5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6 2.1 Understanding spoken language .6 2.2 Listening comprehension 7 2.3 Listening in line with other language skills 9 2.4 The teaching of listening through time 10 2.5 Factors affecting listening comprehension .12 2.5.1 Speaker-related difficulties .13 2.5.2 Linguistic-related difficulties 14 2.5.3 Learner-related difficulties .17 2.5.4 Material-related difficulties 19 2.5.5 Physical-setting-related difficulties 21 2.6 Listening strategies 22 2.7 Listening strategies and good listeners 26 2.7.1 Meta-cognitive Strategies .27 iii 2.7.2 Cognitive Strategies 29 2.7.3 Socio-affective Strategies .30 2.8 Related studies 31 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 35 3.1 Justifications for the selected research design 35 3.2 Research setting 35 3.2.1 The research context .35 3.2.2 Participants .36 3.2.3 Sampling 36 3.3 Instruments 37 3.3.1 Listening difficulty questionnaire 37 3.3.2 A listening proficiency test .37 3.3.3 Listening strategy questionnaire .37 3.4 Research procedures .38 CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH FINDINGS 39 4.1 Listening difficulties encountered by students .39 4.1.1 Linguistic-related difficulties 41 4.1.2 Learner-related difficulties .42 4.1.3 Speaker-related difficulties .43 4.1.4 Material-related difficulties 44 4.1.5 Physical-setting-related difficulties 44 4.1.6 A summary of listening difficulties encountered by participants 45 4.2 Overall listening strategies used by students 46 4.3 Listening strategies used by students of different language proficiency 47 4.3.1 Scores of the listening proficiency test 47 4.3.2 The uses of listening strategies by levels of proficiency 49 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 52 5.1 Discussions of the research findings .52 5.1.1 Research question 1: What listening difficulties do grade 10 students encounter? 52 iv 5.1.2 Research question 2: What listening strategies are used to deal with listening difficulties? 54 5.1.3 Research question 3: What is the relationship between the use of listening strategies and the listening proficiency levels? 55 5.2 Conclusions 55 5.3 Limitations of the study 57 REFERENCES 59 APPENDICES I APPENDIX A: LISTENING DIFFICULTY SURVEY I APPENDIX B: LISTENING STRATEGY SURVEY IV APPENDIX C: A SAMPLE OF PET LISTENING TEST VI v LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 Reliability table for linguistic-related difficulties 39 Table 4.2 Reliability Table for learner-related difficulties 39 Table 4.3 Reliability Table for Speaker-related difficulties 40 Table 4.4 Reliability Table for Material-related difficulties 40 Table 4.5 Reliability Table for Physical-setting-related difficulties 40 Table 4.6 The percentage of students encounters linguistic-related difficulties 41 Table 4.7 The percentage of students encounters learner-related difficulties 42 Table 4.8 The percentage of students encounters speaker-related difficulties 43 Table 4.9 The percentage of students encounters material-related difficulties .44 Table 4.10 The percentage of students encounters physical-setting-related difficulties 45 Table 4.11 Means of listening strategy uses 47 Table 4.12 Frequencies and percentages of listening proficiency 48 Table 4.13 ANOVA analysis of strategy uses 50 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1: proportion of students encounters linguistic-related difficulties 41 Figure 4.2 proportion of students encounters learner-related difficulties 42 Figure 4.3 proportion of students encounters speaker-related difficulties .43 Figure 4.4 proportion of students encounters material-related difficulties 44 Figure 4.5 proportion of students encounters physical-setting-related difficulties 45 Figure 4.6 A summary of listening difficulties encountered by participants 46 Figure 4.7 The distribution of overall uses of listening strategies 47 Figure 4.8 The distribution of listening proficiency 48 Figure 4.9 The distribution of strategy uses by levels of listening proficiency .51 Figure 5.1 A summary of listening problems by categories 52 vii