Efl 11th grade students listening comprehension difficulties and their strategies a study at a high school in binh dinh province

Trang 1 LE THI THU THAO EFL 11TH GRADE STUDENTS'''' LISTENING Trang 3 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP The thesis entitled "EFL 11th grade Students'''' Listening Comprehension Difficulties and their

INTRODUCTION

Research rationale

English is an international language which is spoken almost everywhere in the world With the success of cutting-edge technology, English is of significant value in many sectors, including education, engineering, medicine, and so on Remarkably, English is the dominant language in international relations and diplomas The information on means of media today, such as the Internet, television, and the press, is uploaded in this global tongue Magazines, newspapers, and books are written and translated into English Therefore, this language is the key to accessing humankind's knowledge reservoir As a result of comprehension of international language, human beings can approach new cultures, open their vision, and reach the zenith of success We easily land high-paid jobs related to global communication and worldwide data sharing Students need to know English

Due to globalization and internationalization efforts, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education in Vietnam has gained increasing importance in recent years The Ministry of Education and Training approved the “Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages for Students from the 1 st to the 12 th Grade in the National Education System Period 2008-2020” project Since then, listening lessons have been integrated into official syllabuses at all levels Listening comprehension is essential for effective communication and language acquisition among the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing However, students have gained minor achievements despite the efforts made for years Most school students, especially those in rural areas, still show a tiny improvement in listening ability during their school years As a result, when attending universities in big cities or even after graduating from university, they have to rush to language centers with the hope of finding a quick way to improve their listening capacity EFL students often

2 face issues understanding spoken English, hindering their language proficiency development

According to Hamouda (2013), EFL learners have crucial problems in listening comprehension because universities pay attention to grammar, reading, and vocabulary Listening and speaking skills are unimportant in many books, and teachers do not consider them in their classes Hamouda (2013) emphasized that comprehending speech is challenging for students Learners face a lot of problems when they listen to a language

We have recognized some significant obstacles, such as limited vocabulary, different accents, the speed at which the speakers speak, problems of interpretation, concentration, the quality of recorded materials, etc

The current study aims to investigate the listening comprehension difficulties encountered by 11 th -grade EFL students and explore the strategies they employ to enhance their listening skills The study was conducted at a high school in Binh Dinh Province, a region known for its diverse educational landscape The research offered valuable insights into EFL students' challenges in Binh Dinh Province It contributed to the broader understanding of listening comprehension in the Vietnamese EFL context

The significance of this study lies in its potential to inform EFL educators and curriculum designers about the specific listening difficulties faced by 11 th -grade students and the strategies they employ to address these challenges effectively Understanding the factors that impede students' listening comprehension and identifying effective strategies will assist educators in developing targeted interventions, instructional materials, and classroom activities to improve their ability to listen in the EFL classroom

In language teaching, listening skills are considered very complicated Therefore, this study clarifies the difficulties the 11 th -grade students encountered and their strategies for learning listening skills in Tieng Anh 11 at Nguyen Dinh Chieu high school

Aim and objectives of the study

This study aims to identify the listening comprehension difficulties encountered by 11th-grade EFL students at Nguyen Dinh Chieu high school and explore their strategies to enhance their listening skills

To achieve this aim, the researcher set up two main objectives:

+ To investigate the difficulties that 11 th -grade students at Nguyen Dinh Chieu high school encounter in learning listening skills in Tieng Anh 11

+ To examine the students' listening strategies

Research questions

To obtain the research aim and objectives, the researcher derived the following questions:

1 What problems do 11 th -grade students at Nguyen Dinh Chieu high school encounter when learning listening skills in Tieng Anh 11?

2 What strategies do 11 th -grade EFL students employ to enhance their listening comprehension skills in this context?

Scope of the study

Because the time is limited, the study mainly focused on investigating EFL students' difficulties and their listening strategies toward learning listening skills in Tieng Anh 11

The study was conducted at Nguyen Dinh Chieu high school with 80 EFL students in 11th grade participating.

Significance of the study

This study is of significance because of the following reasons First of all, there have not been any studies on difficulties and strategies in learning listening skills at Nguyen Dinh Chieu high school; this study, therefore, was conducted in the

4 hope of helping 11 th -grade students at Nguyen Dinh Chieu high school overcome difficulties in learning listening and their strategies in learning this skill Hopefully, those findings contribute to teaching and learning to listen and help students find suitable learning methods The result of this study is supposedly beneficial not only to the teacher and students of the surveyed class but to other teachers and students working in the same conditions as well by making teachers and students aware of some problematic areas in learning listening skills and some strategies in learning this receptive skill.

The organization of the thesis

The thesis consists of 5 chapters:

- Chapter 1, Introduction, presents the rationale, the aim, the research questions, the scope of the study, the significance of the study, and the organization

- Chapter 2, Literature Review, presents a theoretical background with a definition of listening, the difficulties of learning listening skills, and their methods

It briefly presents a review of previous studies related to this study

- Chapter 3, Research Methods and Procedures, deals with the research methods, procedures, data collection, and data analysis

- Chapter 4, Findings and Discussions, explores how EFL students learn to listen and their strategies to learn listening skills

- Chapter 5, Conclusion, gives a summary of the results of the study It also offers limitations of the research and suggestions for further investigation

LITERATURE REVIEW

Theoretical background

Like other abstract terms, the definition of listening varies from scholar to scholar According to Chastain (1971), listening is comprehending normally-paced native speech Postovsky (1975) asserts that listening differs in meaning from sound discrimination to aural comprehension According to Morley (1972, as stated in Pourhosein Gilakjani & Sabouri, 2016), listening involves auditory discrimination, acoustic grammar, selecting necessary information, retaining it, and connecting it to the process between sound and form of meaning Bowen, Madsen, and Hilferty

(1985) showed that listening is understanding the spoken language To understand what is being said, students listen to spoken language, segment it into lexical and syntactic parts, and comprehend the message Listening is receiving what the speaker says, creating and demonstrating meaning, negotiating meaning with the speaker, responding, and generating sense through participation, creativity, and empathy

Underwood (1989, p.1) describes listening as simple and easily understandable “Listening is the activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from something you hear.” To succeed in listening, listeners must understand the words given and seek the real meaning hidden in words

Buck (2001, p.3) asserts listening in a communicative approach: “Listening comprehension is the result of interaction between several information sources, which include the acoustic input, different types of linguistic knowledge, detail of

6 context, and general world knowledge, and so forth, and listeners use whatever information they have available, or what ever information seems relevant to help them interpret what the speaker is saying.” In this definition, Buck highlights the active role of the learners who act as negotiators and integrators in learning to listen Saricoban (1999) defined listening as recognizing and understanding what others are saying According to Bulletin (1952), listening is an essential means of education for children, teenagers, and adults It helps them learn facts, gain an awareness of the world and human affairs, develop ideas, and develop a sense of morality and appreciation

According to Rost (2002), listening is a problematic interpretive process in which listeners compare what they hear to what they already know According to Rost (2009), listening is one of the essential components of successful communication Jafari and Hashim (2015) stated that listening is a channel for intelligible input, and more than 50 percent of the time learners spend learning a foreign language is devoted to listening Listening means communicating others' ideas, information, and feelings It is the most important way the listener can understand others through language

Based on the definitions above, listening is an action or a process that connects the listener to the speaker's ideas by helping them understand the meaning, message, and purpose of the speaker and the listener In summary, listening is a cognitive process in which listeners hear sounds, analyze them, and use other linguistic factors to grasp information or ideas that speakers would like to mean

Listening comprehension is a foundational skill for effective communication in English Thanks to it, students can follow conversations, comprehend spoken language, and appropriately reply Students with good listening abilities may communicate effectively, interact meaningfully, and interact with others

Listening is a primary mode of input in language acquisition Through exposure to authentic spoken English, students can internalize vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and intonation patterns Improved listening abilities facilitate the

7 acquisition of new language structures, enhance vocabulary knowledge, and contribute to overall language proficiency

Listening skills are crucial for academic achievement In EFL classrooms, students must comprehend spoken instructions, lectures, and discussions Strong listening abilities enable students to grasp information in various educational contexts, enhancing their comprehension and academic performance

Listening is one of the four basic skills of language acquisition (Ellis, 1997; Harmer, 2007) It is essential to language acquisition as it helps individuals understand and comprehend spoken language, which is crucial for effective communication Additionally, listening skills play a significant role in language development and proficiency However, it may cause confusion and misunderstanding to EFL/ESL learners if they cannot comprehend what people say regarding sound, intonation and stress, everyday vocabulary, and each may use a different accent, etc (Ur, 1984, Wilson, 2008) People do not pay much attention to teaching listening skills at most Vietnamese high schools

Consequently, teaching and learning this receptive skill is less effective than expected (Nguyen, 2013) Moreover, Vietnamese students in high schools are not well-equipped with appropriate strategies to develop their listening comprehension independently (Do, 2007; Nguyen & Tran, 2015) That is why there is a need to provide students with tactics to facilitate their listening skills; as Brown (2006, p.6) pinpoints," strategies are ways to ease the burden of listening and should be taught." Listening skills are essential beyond the classroom In today's globalized world, people use English in various professional settings, travel, and international communication Proficient listening skills enable students to understand and engage in real-life situations, increasing their intercultural competence and global opportunities

It is beneficial to teach listening strategies to students (Goh, 2000) However, it will be insufficient unless teachers help their students learn more vocabulary,

8 grammar, and phonology knowledge Vandergrift (1999) claims, "Strategy development is essential for listening training because listening is a conscious way for learners to direct and evaluate their comprehension and responses." (p.176) Most researchers concluded that listening comprehension has mainly cognitive, metacognitive, and socio-affective strategies The strategy may change due to the level of the learners Students' language level is essential

Vandergrift (2007) states that listening learning strategies refer to "strategies that listeners consciously or unconsciously use to understand, analyze, and interpret a text." Good language learners typically employ their cognitive and metacognitive strategies In contrast, less proficient listeners work at a word level and try translating what they hear into their first language without relating it to their knowledge (Berne, 2004) Meanwhile, Wenden and Rubin (1987) describe that obtaining, storing, retrieving, and using information is made more accessible by using learning strategies, which are described as "any sets of actions, steps, plans, routines, or practices used by the learner Along the same line, learning strategies are defined as "particular thoughts or behaviors that people employ to aid in their understanding of, acquisition of, or the storage of new information" (O'Malley & Chamot, 1990, p.1) Language learners can employ various techniques to fulfill language learning tasks, including reading and listening They can use different strategies to complete them In terms of categories, listening skills consist of various strategies divided into distinguished categories O'Malley and Chamot (1990) affirm that throughout the listening comprehension process, there are three different types of strategies: (1) metacognitive strategies, (2) cognitive strategies, and (3) socio- affective strategies In particular, metacognitive strategies involve planning, monitoring, and evaluating comprehension, while cognitive strategies are used to manipulate information, and socio-affective strategies are related to how learners interact with others More specifically, Oxford (1990) classifies listening learning strategies into two primary groups, direct and indirect, based on how much they relate to language Remarkably, these two strategies are not separate or contradictory but closely interdependent As the name implies, direct strategies

9 directly relate to language's intellectual processing, such as vocabulary memorization or form recognition

For several reasons, investigating the listening comprehension difficulties and strategies of 11th-grade EFL students in Binh Dinh Province is paramount Firstly, understanding these students' specific challenges allows educators to design targeted interventions, instructional materials, and strategies that effectively address their unique needs Secondly, exploring the methods students employ to enhance their listening skills provides valuable insights into practical learning approaches that can be shared with educators and learners alike Finally, by improving listening comprehension among EFL students, this research aims to optimize language learning outcomes, foster successful communication, and empower students in their academic and future endeavors

Therefore, studying the listening comprehension difficulties and strategies of 11th-grade EFL students in Binh Dinh Province not only contributes to the field of language education but also equips students with the necessary skills to become competent and confident English language users in academic and real-life contexts

In our communication-oriented era, listening is more crucial than ever Because of this, effective listeners are more likely to hold higher positions and be promoted in most companies than ineffective listeners (Lucas, 2008)

Procedures of a Listening Lesson in a Language Classroom

It is difficult for students to understand what they will hear if the teacher says,

“Listen to this, " then switches on the cassette recorder or begins reading aloud Even if the sounds and words are familiar to students, they may still be unable to comprehend them because they lack the necessary knowledge of the topic, setting, or the relationship between speakers Therefore, Pre-listening is the first step, where the context is established The teacher creates motivation, and students participate in several tasks to prepare themselves for what they hear The teacher starts by introducing the topic of the listening strategy and prepares the students for what they are about to hear, which could include previewing vocabulary and structures, brainstorming ideas related to the topic, or activating prior knowledge The teacher provides a straightforward task or purpose for listening, which could be a specific question to answer, a gap-filling exercise, or a summary to write

The next level is listening, where students complete various assignments from the textbook or the teacher to find answers The purpose of the exercises carried out during this stage is to assist the students in understanding the text's core message so that they will have enough knowledge to interpret it One of the most crucial roles of while-listening activities is presenting the target language's sound Students can do activities such as gap-filling, true or false statements, answering comprehension questions, matching, multiple choice, recording, etc The students may need to listen to the text more than once to finish their while-listening activities After checking the students‟ answers, the teacher should emphasize the text's key points

18 and explain the difficulties in vocabulary or structures that the students encounter Students can improve their listening comprehension through this presentation, which also acts as a model for their speaking

The final step is post-listening, where students can review their responses to the material they have been listening to The teacher gives comments and consolidates what they have just learned Teachers might also benefit from this stage since it enables them to identify and assess specific listening-related issues that students may already be experiencing.

Major problems students face in learning to listen to English

2.3.1 Problem-related to bottom-up processing

2.3.1.1 Problem-related to hearing sounds

One of the learners' biggest problems when listening to a foreign language is identifying sounds Learners of English commonly encounter this problem as a foreign language As stated in Rixon (1986), one of the most common problems students face is how English words are pronounced Still, unfortunately, this aspect of English cannot be overlooked as the pronunciation of English can cause students problems in recognition and, therefore, comprehension

Rixon proposes four explanations for the difficulty caused by English sounds The first difficulty is caused by different ways to pronounce the same sound

There are two ways to pronounce the sound /t/ In so-called BBC English, one of the ways engages aspiration hissing sounds, which happens if the /t/ is placed at the beginning of the syllables Students without experience with aspiration in their mother tongue can hear /st/ Rixon (1986, p 38)

The second difficulty appears as a result of differences between English sounds and their spellings, "As there is a difference between the spoken and written form of words in English, students can fail to identify the pronounced form of words they know in written form" (Rixon, 1986, p 38)

Rixon asserts the necessity of students" awareness of English-connected

19 speech, which makes it difficult for learners to recognize individual words He talks about this phenomenon concerning stressed/ unstressed vowel sounds

In natural speech, listeners can encounter three main types of sound change involving vowels' weak form, which means that words that are in unstressed positions have different pronunciations in comparison with stressed vowels, e.g., when to is said in isolation, it is pronounced as /tu:/, but on the other hand, in the connected speech, the pronunciation changes into /tə/ (Ibid.)

Elision and assimilation, in Rixon‟s view, are reasons for this difficulty

Another connected speech factor is deletion, which means a loss of sounds in natural speech, e.g., the word probably is pronounced /problem/ The third factor of connected speech is called assimilation Assimilation means that the pronunciation of a letter can be influenced by the letter before or after it so that it changes its sound For example, ten bikes can be pronounced /tem banks/ (Ibid.)

Another aspect of sounds is that there are sounds that do not exist in students‟ first language or pairs of sounds that seem indistinguishable to learners Ur (1996, p 11) gives the following example of his French student's problem

The sound /θ/ as in 'think,' for example, does not exist in French; a native

French speaker may very often, therefore, not notice at first that it occurs in English – he may assimilate it to the nearest sound familiar to him and say /s/ or /f/

Ur points out the fact that it may take a Hebrew learner quite a long time to practice distinguishing differences between "ship" and "sheep" or "fit" and "feet" as Hebrew does not have similar sounds

At the same time, Ur (1996) is concerned about the sequences and juxtapositions of sounds For example, a chain of successive consonants (or consonant clusters) also brings problems to listeners They may mispronounce a consonant (hearing "parts" for "past") or omit one of the sounds ("crips" for

Also concerning this problem, Brown (1990) adds that students cannot use the phonological code well enough to identify which words the speaker uses and how

20 these words are organized into sentences He assigns the reason for this to the fact that students are relatively more successful at interpreting the written form of the language

At Nguyen Dinh Chieu high school, most students habitually use Vietnamese pronunciation in English pronunciation One of the most obvious mistakes is that they usually do not turn on or „swallow‟ the last consonant of English words This problem is easy to understand because the last consonant in Vietnamese does not pop Ignoring or swallowing the final consonants causes a lot of misunderstanding among Vietnamese students

Many English words can only be distinguished by the final consonants turned on, such as nine, nice, night, knight, etc Therefore, the listener must understand the English words correctly, and the speaker must turn on the last consonant perfectly The listener may face communication dilemmas if you do not pronounce the final consonant sound

Besides, there are many mistakes that students in grade 11 at Nguyen Dinh Chieu high school often make pronouncing English: confusion between phonemes and sounds; pronouncing some phonemes in English; false accent; the influence of mother tongue in pronunciation, irrespective of solid and weak pronouns, operative words, etc For example, the students pronounced “arrived.” It should be pronounced /ə‟raivd /, but the students said /ə‟raived/ It can make it challenging for the listener to comprehend what the speaker wants to convey

2.3.1.2 The problem of understanding stress and intonation

When a second language listener has limitations in other decoding skills, understanding the stress and intonation of the speech can support them even though the group's influence might cause certain words to be shortened in form, making them harder to recognize There is a positive advantage in that emphasis on important information is highlighted through focal stress

Although the group's influence may cause some words to lose some of their original lengths and become more difficult to understand, this draws attention to

21 essential information through focal stress

It has been argued that apart from instruction in pronunciation for isolated words and sentences, more attention needs to be paid to intonation training because learners who better understand prosodic features are shown to be more proficient in English According to Fan (1993), English learners pay more attention to the sounds (word pronunciation), vocabulary, and grammar when listening to English instead of intonation and rhythm This is why many English learners complain about the speed of the listening texts being too fast occasionally In their study, Hsieh, Dong, and Wang (2013, cited in Gilbert, 1994) state that intonation allows people to follow the flow of information in spoken English They also said that if the speaker can use appropriate intonation structure at the discourse level, recipients will perceive the speaker‟s English as more intelligible They also indicate that intelligibility is increased with intonation structure at the discourse level, and learners‟ fossilized pronunciation is also improved Therefore, the inability to correctly interpret intonation and stress patterns will hinder listening

2.3.1.3 The problem of understanding different accents

Listeners feel strange to various accents and will surely encounter difficulties when they hear a new accent When considering the problem with an accent, Buck

(2001, p.35) confirms: “accent is potentially a significant variable in listening comprehension” and “an unfamiliar accent can make comprehension almost impossible for the listener.” Various accents can cause students another problem in acquiring listening skills If students are frequently exposed to just one or two accents and get familiar with them, they will be confused when hearing someone with a different accent They can perceive that kind of accent as unfamiliar or even wrong According to Ur (1996), there is rarely such a thing as a "wrong" accent: there are simply accents that are more or less difficult to understand

Ur also states that many foreign-language learners who are used to the accent of their teacher are surprised and dismayed when they find they have difficulty understanding someone else

Factors affecting the effectiveness of learning listening skills

Some factors affecting the point of learning the listening skills include:

Firstly, 11 th -grade EFL students have difficulty comprehending the spoken language, especially in one-way listening situations Students are not informed of the topics in advance; they can listen to the input only once and may not receive any supporting information (Chang & Read, 2006) Unsurprisingly, EFL learners experience considerable stress when taking high-stakes listening tests According to Luo (2005), students performed significantly better on the test with pictures than without pictures Secondly, students‟ background knowledge is vital in learning listening skills Lack of background knowledge will cause the wrong interpretation

30 of the listening text because “when we listen, we use our background knowledge of the world to set up expectations, and then we use those expectations to help us comprehend what we hear” (Buck, 2001, p.8) Thirdly, students have critical difficulties in listening comprehension because universities and schools pay more attention to writing, reading, and vocabulary Listening is not essential to many course books; most teachers ignore this skill in their classes

Last but not least, students‟ concentration and physical settings play an essential part in learning these receptive skills Students who concentrate on the listening content can easily understand and remember the information Besides the, concentration helps students follow and grasp important details in listening material, which improves their ability to listen and understand the content In contrast, if students ignore the listening content, they may miss vital information and be unable to understand the materials thoroughly It can hinder the process of learning listening skills.

Strategies to help students overcome difficulties in learning listening 30 2.6 Related studies

Some strategies can help students overcome difficulties and challenges in learning listening

Strategies for bottom-up processing

Learning stress and intonation demands a lot of time and effort for practice Students need new tools for learning stress and intonation to make it more exciting and encouraging For example, students can use e-learning to develop pronunciation Using an e-learning program can encourage individual students' autonomous learning, and it is an excellent way to improve pronunciation

Strategies for top-down processing

The schools need to provide the appropriate materials Providing quality listening materials relevant to the age and level of students is very important Schools should invest in facilities, including computers, projectors, and speakers, to create a good learning environment

The environment for learning listening should be comfortable and quiet so that students can concentrate on listening and understanding

Technology is a valuable tool in learning listening skills Students can use technology or software that helps them improve their listening skills Students can participate in this activity with their friends and discuss the content of the listening tasks to enhance their understanding of English

The study was designed to find out the EFL 11 th -grade students‟ listening comprehension difficulties and their strategies The study findings would benefit students at Nguyen Dinh Chieu high school One such study was conducted by Hien

(2015), which conducted research entitled “Difficulties and Strategies in Listening

Comprehension.” Yagang (1994) stated that the problems in listening were accompanied by the four following factors: the speaker, the message, the listener, and the physical setting Moreover, much research has been carried out to identify the listening problem The difficulties of listening also came from the environment surrounding the students If students did the listening tasks with noises around, they would not have a good result in listening The noises surrounding them interrupted students from doing the listening tasks and concentration The problem also came from the poor quality of the tapes or disks The inadequate equipment was an obstacle for students in learning to listen

Rakhman, Tarjana, and Marmanto (2020) conducted a case study of the listening difficulties encountered by six Indonesian English Department Freshman students (aged 19-20) in their listening classes Collecting their data using questionnaires, interviews, and observation, Rakhman et al found that the students encountered several difficulties when listening to English, including problems with short-term memory, homophones, and speech rate

Le Thi Xuan Anh (2001) examined tertiary Vietnamese students‟ listening strategies She found that the students had not been explicitly taught how to apply

Do Thi Thu Thuy (2005) studied problems first-year university students face when learning listening skills The finding shows issues related to students‟ attitude, speed of delivery, limited vocabulary, listener‟s lack of contextual knowledge or background knowledge, inability to concentrate, learning habits, stress, intonation, and pronunciation.

Summary

Learning a foreign language involves learning how to use it in everyday situations As a result, listening is regarded as the most important of all language abilities, as it reflects how individuals understand what others say This chapter sheds light on the significance of listening skills, their definition, as well as, in addition to the students‟ common difficulties, and their strategies for learning to listen As mentioned in this chapter, 11 th -grade students who learn listening skills face several problems These challenges include difficulties in keeping up with fast- paced spoken English, understanding unfamiliar accents, comprehending complex vocabulary and sentence structures, and maintaining focus throughout listening tasks However, various strategies can help students overcome these difficulties and enhance their listening skills

The following chapter will discuss the research design, sampling procedures, instruments, data collection, and techniques

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research design, learning materials, and procedure

The design of this research is qualitative research Gay et al (2011) state that qualitative research collects, analyzes, and interprets comprehensive narrative and visual (i.e., nonnumerical) data to gain insights into a particular phenomenon of interest Qualitative research methods are based on different beliefs and are designed for other purposes

Besides, the method applied in this study is quantitative The quantitative approach in this research is a descriptive statistic using numbers and percentages to investigate students' difficulties and their strategies in learning listening in Tieng Anh 11 Aliaga and Gunderson (2002) have described quantitative research methods as investigating a social issue, acquiring numerical data, and analyzing phenomena using mathematically based methodologies, particularly statistics

The materials used at Nguyen Dinh Chieu high school are Tiếng Anh 10, Tiếng Anh 11, and Tiếng Anh 12 This set of textbooks aims to develop students‟ communicative competence in four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing to achieve level 3 of the Vietnamese Foreign Language Competence Framework (in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, B1 equivalent) when finishing Upper-Secondary School The 11 th -grade students at Nguyen Dinh Chieu high school learn the “Tiếng Anh 11” book There are two volumes in the textbook Tiếng Anh 11: Volumes 1 and 2 Each volume contains a book map, five units, two review lessons, and a glossary A book map provides information about

34 each unit's sections and the book's structure A glossary provides phonetic transcription of new words and their Vietnamese equivalents The books consist of ten departments and four review lessons Students should study 5 topic-based units and 2 Review Lessons each term

Each unit comprises eight 45-minute lessons They are “Getting Started, Language, Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, Communication and Culture, Looking Back, and Project.” Teachers of English should teach each Review Lesson in two 45-minute lessons

In listening, the 11 th -grade students learned ten units from Unit 1 to Unit 10 and four Review Lessons, Communication and Culture, corresponding with ten topics They are “The Generation Gap, Relationships, Becoming Independent, Caring for those in need, Being part of ASEAN, Global Warming, Further Education, Our World Heritage Sites, Cities of The Future, and Healthy Lifestyle and Longevity.” Although these topics are familiar to students, they are challenging to listen to The listening sub-section consists of four or five activities representing the three stages of the lesson: Pre-listening, while-listening, and post-listening The first activity is to draw students‟ attention to the lesson's topic, making them interested in the content of the listening text It is also a chance for students to share their background knowledge related to the topic with their peers The following two activities provide students with practice listening for the gist or listening for details Some tasks help students learn new vocabulary or the new meaning of previously known language in meaningful contexts The most common task types are True/False, multiple choice, comprehension questions, gap filling, etc There are many kinds of task types for students, but one of the most challenging tasks for 11th-grade students is listening to a dialogue, choosing the talk's main idea, and filling in the gaps with no more than three words The last activity, which can be considered a post-listening one, aims to check students‟ listening comprehension and ask them to express their opinions of the content of the listening text

Firstly, the questionnaires were designed and distributed to 11th-grade students at Nguyen Dinh Chieu High School to discover their common problems and learning strategies for listening skills

Secondly, qualitative and quantitative methods were applied to discover common problems and their strategies when learning to listen

Thirdly, the researcher engaged in listening classes with observation to take notes on students‟ common problems and strategies during listening classes

Finally, descriptive, contrastive, and comparative methods were employed to process, examine, and report the data after it was collected from the questionnaires and the interview.

Data collection

The study was conducted at Nguyen Dinh Chieu high school in Binh Dinh Province This academic year, there were 26 classes (9 for grade 11 with nearly 357 students) The researcher chose 80 eleventh-grade students from two categories because of the limited time They were male and female students These students came from different areas, both rural and urban At the time of data collection, they were in the 10 th week of the first semester and had just had the first proficiency test

Regarding language learning, the students from class 11 had different levels of language proficiency, learning styles, and attitudes toward English Generally speaking, most of them have had a lot of difficulties and strategies in mastering listening skills Thus, English teachers must find effective ways to help enhance their listening skills

Furthermore, they have learned English for over seven years The researcher chose students in 11 th grade because they spent one-year learning Tiếng Anh 10 and are now working on Tieng Anh 11 It is the second time they have experienced learning the textbooks for upper-secondary school students

To carry out this research, the researcher used three research instruments:

1 The questionnaire to collect quantitative data

2 The interview question list to find qualitative data to further and deepen information about students' difficulties and strategies in learning listening

3 The observation to find out students' difficulties and their strategies in learning to listen

According to Brown (2001), a survey questionnaire is a written instrument consisting of a list of questions, and respondents are to write down answers or select from suggested choices This instrument is recommended to be among the most effective for collecting data in social sciences Using it, the researcher can take advantage of putting less pressure on respondents, avoiding bias, simplifying the analytic stage (Gillham, 2000 cited in Duong, 2014), and conducting research on a large scale in a short time (Le, 2011) Because of its simplicity and effectiveness, the questionnaire is believed to be the most suitable for this research The face-to- face type of questionnaire has been used to ensure that the students under investigation thoroughly understand the questions and fill in all the items As a result, the researcher has gotten valuable data for her study The questionnaire has been designed based on the theoretical background of problems and strategies that affect listeners of English discussed in the Literature Review section This questionnaire consists of two parts: Students‟ background information and Students‟ opinions concerning difficulties and strategies they encounter in studying listening skills The first part collects information about the students‟ prior language learning and how they perceive the importance of listening skills The second part consists of

4 sections of questions related to 4 sets of problems and strategies mentioned in the previous chapter To carry out this research, the researcher surveyed 80 11 th -grade students at Nguyen Dinh Chieu high school, and all of them have learned listening in Tieng Anh 11 The questionnaire is designed for these students because the

37 researcher finds it easy to summarize and analyze the collected data The survey questionnaires were delivered to 80 11 th -grade students at Nguyen Dinh Chieu high school to find information Among the questions, the first part is designed to collect general information about students Part II questions aim to discover the students' difficulties and strategies in learning to listen The results of this research show the challenges these students face and the techniques for learning listening skills in Tieng Anh 11 The reliability and validity of the samples must be guaranteed The questions for learners are directly distributed to learners of 11 th -grade students during their break time in the class and collected right away That meant these learners could pay more attention to answering the questions about what they had just experienced Before asking the learners to do the survey questionnaire, the researcher briefly states the purpose and significance of the study and clarifies any misunderstanding about the survey questions Besides, the written instructions on the handout are presented to avoid ambiguity In the end, 20 students are participating in giving responses to survey questions

The researcher interviewed students in 11 th grade at Nguyen Dinh Chieu high school According to Holstein & Gubrium (2004) and Nunkoosing (2005), an interview is a method of collecting data in qualitative social research methods Nunkoosing (2005) emphasized the importance of interviews as a method of data collection, enabling individuals to think and talk about their predicaments, needs, expectations, experiences, and understandings The researcher can use face-to-face interviews to collect information because it is believed to be the most suitable method for this research The face-to-face interview has been used to ensure that the students under investigation thoroughly understand the questions and fully answer all the questions The data was recorded and then transcribed to answer the research questions The interview was conducted to get the exact information and viewpoint of difficulties and strategies in learning listening skills of 11th-grade students at Nguyen Dinh Chieu High School As a result, the researcher has gotten valuable data for her study

Gay et al (2009) state that the researchers observe and record behaviors but do not interact with or participate in the life of the setting under study The researcher observed the students‟ learning ability by listening to identify their difficulties and strategies in the learning process This type of instrument helps the researcher to get more reliable information During classroom observation, the researcher observed students' difficulties and strategies when learning to listen

The data collected in the study is derived from 11 th -grade students learning English at Nguyen Dinh Chieu high school To collect information about the difficulties and strategies of learning listening in the textbook Tieng Anh 11, the researcher used survey questionnaires for 80 11 th -grade students The researcher delivered the questionnaires in hard copies and directly to 80 11th-grade students In addition, after collecting the interview questionnaires, the researcher randomly selected twenty students The interview questions were raised to understand better the difficulties in learning listening and their strategies for learning listening skills in Tieng Anh 11 The interview was conducted in Vietnamese, so students could easily express their opinions During the interview, the researcher recorded the answers for later analysis In this research, the researcher attended two 11 th classes The observations focused on the problems that students face and their strategies for learning listening Observations enable the researcher to gather data on students' physical and interactional settings when they know to listen.

Reliability and validity

The reliability and validity of the questionnaire must be increased It was written first in English and then translated into Vietnamese to help the participants understand the items in the questionnaire better, just in case some participants are not proficient in English Moreover, a researcher checked the English version for the validity of the content, and two Vietnamese English teachers cross-checked the Vietnamese version Concerning the fact of the interview questions, the researcher

39 consulted the supervisor about the range of the interview questions.

Summary

To sum up, this chapter presents the methods that the researcher used in the study to answer the research questions The results in this chapter would benefit the findings and discussions in the next chapter

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

Students‟ background information

7-9 years more than nine years

As seen from Table 1, most participants joining the survey were female, accounting for 56.25%, while the number of male participants constituted only 43.75% However, we can see that this survey consists of opinions from both genders, which would adequately lead to an objective result In addition, the years they have spent learning English range from 7 to 9 years The year number of students experiencing English from 7- 9 years is 87.5% In detail, 12.5 % of participants have learned English for more than nine years, which means they

41 started learning it at least nine years ago This figure indicates that all survey-takers have known English for quite a long time.

Students‟ interest in learning listening skills

Question 3 collects information about students‟ interest in learning listening skills Among 80 students asked, 43.75 % said they were interested in learning listening skills This figure indicates that few students at Nguyen Dinh Chieu High School like learning to listen.

Students' opinions concerning difficulties and strategies they have

4.1.3.1 Students’ perception of the importance of listening skills

Question 4 aims at getting information about the students‟ perception of the importance of listening in language learning

Chart 1: Students’ perception of learning listening skills

Chart 1 shows students‟ perception of learning listening skills The collected data shows that all students have approved of the significance of listening skills The percentage in Chart 1 shows that 20% of the students believe listening skills are highly critical 35% think it is essential, 30 % think it is relatively vital, and 15 % say it is unimportant There seems to be a connection between students‟ perception of the importance of listening and their performance in the listening section when most students think listening is somewhat essential

4.1.3.2 Students’ average scores in listening skills last semester

Question 2 collects information about students‟ performance in listening sections of the previous proficiency tests Among 80 students (equal to 100%) responding to question 2, more than half (60%) have got average grades in listening sections of the previous tests below 5.0; 24 respondents (30 %) have had average scores from 5.0- 6.4; only 8 participants (10%) have got scores from 6.5 to 7.9, and none has scored more than 8.0 The figures show the poor performance of 11 th -grade students in listening and calling for radical changes to improve the situation

4.1.3.3 Students’ perception of the difficulty of listening skills

Responses to question 6 reveal that 3.75 % of the participants think listening is much easier than other skills Also, 7.5 % think listening is not as difficult as the other skills, while 20 % say it is as complex as the others 31.25 % say it is more complicated, and 37.5 % believe it is much more difficult The result shows that most students find listening more challenging than the other language skills (see chart 2)

Chart 2: Students’ perception of the difficulty of listening skills

37.50% listening is much easier than other skills listening is not as difficult as the other skills listening is as complex as the others listening is more complicated listening is much more complicated

Students‟ responses to the questions about problems related to the bottom-up process

4.1.4.1 Students’ responses related to the problem of hearing sounds

Table 2: Students’ responses related to problems of hearing sounds

Statements Never Sometimes Often Always

1 I find it challenging to understand reduced forms

2 I find the pronunciation familiar but cannot recognize the words

3 I find it challenging to recognize the words I know because of how they are pronounced

4 There are words that I would generally understand in writing, but when I hear them in a stream of speech, I find it difficult to tell where one word finishes and another begins

5 I find it challenging to understand the meaning of words that are not pronounced clearly

There are five questions related to the problem of identifying sounds The finding shows that all students experience difficulties related to sound recognition Responding to the first item regarding the reduced form of words, only 4 participants (5%) never encountered this kind of problem, whereas 43.75 %

44 sometimes chose, 26.25 % opted for often, and 25 % always ran into it Even when they hear the speaker‟s pronunciation, 56.25 % say they sometimes can not figure out the right words, the other 31.25 % say they usually, and 12.5 % choose always for this difficulty

4.1.4.2 Students’ responses related to the problem of understanding stress and intonation

Table 3: Students’ responses related to problems of understanding stress and intonation

6 I fail to recognize the speaker‟s attitude and opinion through their intonation

The problem of understanding stress and intonation appears not too challenging to most students As shown in Table 3, only 20 % of the students find themselves unable to understand the speaker‟s attitude, opinion, or other characteristics related to their intonation

4.1.4.3 Students’ responses related to the problem of understanding different accents

Table 4: Students’ responses related to the problem of understanding different accents

7 I find it difficult to understand well when speakers speak with various accents

The figures in Table 4 show that different speakers' accents pose quite a problem for students 20 % of the students claim that different accents are always difficult for them, 50% respond that they usually are, and 30 % say they sometimes are

4.1.4.4 Students’ responses related to the problem of mismatch between learners’ vocabulary and vocabulary used in listening texts

Table 5: Questions related to the problem of the mismatch between learners’ vocabulary range and vocabulary used in listening texts

Statements Never Sometimes often Always

8 There are too many unfamiliar words

9 I find it surprising and challenging to deal with colloquial language and slang

Table 5 shows learners‟ problems caused by their lack of vocabulary The chart indicates that limited vocabulary range, in general, can frequently result in challenges for most 11 th -grade students Vocabulary is a component of listening In listening to English, students need to master a lot of vocabulary because by getting many words, they will easily understand what the speaker wants to convey Knowing what they are talking about is sometimes challenging when listening to English The chart indicates that limited vocabulary range, in general, can frequently result in challenges for most 11 th -grade students More than half of students (62 %) agree that they always find listening difficult because the listening text often contains too many new vocabulary items to them

Meanwhile, informal expressions and slang also hinder students‟ listening comprehension As the chart illustrates, 43.75 % often and 37.5 % always find it challenging to understand colloquial language and slang

4.1.4.5 Students’ responses related to the mismatch problem between learners’ syntactic knowledge and syntax used in listening texts

Table 6: Students’ responses related to problems of mismatch between learners’ syntactic knowledge and syntax used in listening texts

10 The grammar structures used in listening text are too complex

Besides vocabulary, the limited knowledge of grammar structures hinders students‟ comprehension Among the 80 students, only two students say they never face any problem with sentences of complex grammar structures, while 28 students (35%) admit that they sometimes encounter it, (32.5%) often, and (30 %) always do.

Students‟ responses to questions about the factors related to top-

Table 7: Students’ responses related to problems of cultural differences and unfamiliar topics

11 The listening text is about a cultural issue that is unfamiliar to me

12 The topic of the listening text is unfamiliar or of no interest to me

Item 11 addresses the problem of a cultural gap between the speaker and the listener Most of the students get into trouble at low-frequency levels 20% never get it, while 50 % opt for it sometimes Only 15% say they often find listening difficult because of cultural differences; the same percentage complain they always do

4.1.5.2 Problem of an unfamiliar topic

Item 12 of the questionnaire identifies the number of students with unfamiliar topics Table 7 shows that only a few students have difficulty with unknown issues of the listening text Less than one-third of the students (28.75%) face this problem with high frequency, while most choose the column never or sometimes (23.75 % and 47.5 %, respectively)

In general, the mismatch between the listener‟s background knowledge and the topic of the listening does not cause trouble for many students

4.1.5.3 Students’ responses related to the problem of the complexity of the task

Table 8: Students’ responses related to the problem of the complexity of the task

The questions in the listening task require other than a short answer

14 I lose my concentration when I think of another question

15 The multiple-choice questions in the listening task are confusing or too long

The following three items (13-15) cope with the problems of the complex tasks The task of answering long questions (item 13) causes difficulty to many students, with 20% choosing sometimes, 37.5 % opting for often, and 42.5% marking always The multiple choice type of questions causes even more trouble to learners More than three-quarters of the students (80 %) often or always get into problems with these questions in the listening task The complexity of the study also often distracts the students when they are listening As is shown by the table, 50 %

48 of the students say they sometimes lose concentration due to this problem, while 40

% choose often and 10% opt for always.

Students‟ responses to questions about other factors

4.1.6.1 Students’ responses related to the problem of failing to apply effective learning styles and strategies

Table 9: Students’ responses related to the problem of failing to apply effective learning styles and strategies

16 I fail to infer the meaning of an unknown word while listening

17 I find it challenging to understand the recorded material if I cannot get things repeated

18 I fail to recognize the signals which indicate that the speaker is moving from one point to another

19 I find it difficult to get a general understanding of the spoken text from the first listening

20 At the time of listening, I find it difficult to predict what will come next

21 I find it difficult to quickly remember words or phrases I have just heard

Lack of language knowledge, effective learning styles, and practical strategies create difficulties for the respondents On average, more than 60 % of the students say they often or always face all problems of this type 63.75% say they cannot

49 recognize the signals which indicate that the speaker is moving from one point to another 35 % think they always fail to get the overall meaning of the listening text Significantly, 52.5 % of the students lack predictive strategies, and they find it difficult to predict what will come next Finally, three-fourths of the students say they often or always have difficulty remembering words or phrases they have heard

4.1.6.2 Students’ responses related to problems of fatigue and lack of concentration

Table 10: Students’ responses related to problems of fatigue and lack of concentration

22 I lose focus of the talk when

I have an expected answer in my mind

23 It is difficult for me to concentrate with noises around

24 I lose my concentration when the text is too long

I think about the meaning of new words

As far as fatigue and lack of concentration are concerned, four questions are raised First, the factor that affects most students' attention is the excessive length of the text (45 % choose often and 27.5 % mark always.) The second most common situation that makes students lose focus is when they think about the meaning of new words 62.5 % of students agree that trying to decode one word‟s meaning often or always (50 % and 12.5 %, respectively) distracts them from the listening text Besides, the habit of keeping expected answers in their mind during the listening time also causes students to lose concentration, with 30 % of the students choosing sometimes, 37.5 % opting for often, and 17.5 % marking always Last, surrounding noise accounts for frequent distraction among half of the students (31.25% usually and 17.5% always)

4.1.6.3 Students’ responses related to problems of physical settings

Table 11: Students’ responses related to the problem of physical settings

26 Unclear sounds from poor- quality audio files with my listening comprehension

27 The enormous size of the class prevents my listening

28 I lose my concentration if the recording is of poor quality

Among the factors related to physical settings, the enormous size of the class appears to be the least troublesome As is illustrated by the table, 18.75% of the respondents say they are never, 56.25% are sometimes affected by this matter, while only 25% say they often or always experience the problem The poor quality of listening equipment and the recording trigger challenges to students with roughly the same frequency Approximately half of students accept that their comprehension is often or always hindered by these two factors

4.1.6.4 Students’ responses related to problems of lacking invisibility of the speaker

Table 12: Students’ responses related to the problem concerning the lack of invisibility of the speaker

29 I find it challenging to understand the meaning of the spoken text without seeing the speaker‟s body language

The gathered data shows that lack of visibility of the speaker frequently affects 36/80 students, whereas the other 44 only sometimes or even never find it a problem

4.1.6.5 Students’ time for learning listening

Table 13: Students’ time for learning listening

2 Spend more time learning new words by yourself

3 Read and listen to English more often

As seen from the table, most students spend more time practicing listening every day 55 % of students choose sometimes, and 31.25% choose often They thought it would help them improve their listening skills by practicing listening to English more 48.75 % of students sometimes spend time learning new words Nearly 90 % of students practice reading and listening to English It can be inferred from these figures that many students know the necessity of self-learning listening and spend a certain amount of time learning listening at home Still, some others seem to pay little attention to listening and learning Hence, the students‟ little practice outside the classroom also accounted for their listening acquisition and comprehension difficulties Learning a language needs continual training Therefore, only learning and listening to English at school is not enough to achieve good results No matter how good the teachers are, students‟ self-study is essential to their learning process

4.1.6.6 Students’ response related to listening tasks in the “Tieng Anh 11” textbook

Chart 3: Students’ assessment of tasks in the “Tieng Anh 11 textbook

Chart 3 shows that 63% found that listening tasks in the “Tieng Anh 11” textbook were appropriate and suitable for their level 21 % thought the lessons were challenging, and 13 % said they were demanding Only 3% of the participants found them easy This finding showed that listening tasks were complex for more than one-third of the students It might cause students boredom, and it could not motivate them to learn because levels of the listening tasks were much higher than their proficiency

The data shows that the 11 th -grade students at Nguyen Dinh Chieu High School experience all of the problems mentioned above at various frequency levels, and no other difficulty is added to the list (by the students) The factors that appear to be frequently problematic to most students are those related to the students‟ limited vocabulary range and the fast speed at which the speakers deliver their speech In contrast, the class size seems to affect the smallest number of students The 29 questions answered have been classified into four sections and ranked in the table below (according to the high frequency with which the students face them)

Appropriate Difficult Very difficult Easy

Strategies influencing the student's listening skills

An analysis of the study's overall results indicated that many strategies affect students‟ listening skills at Nguyen Dinh Chieu high school Results of the teachers‟ questionnaire showed that time for preparation, vocabulary, listening task topics, psychology, and the surrounding environment are the most important factors affecting students‟ listening proficiency The experts who are viewed as efficient elements in the teaching process have conveyed their opinions that teaching methods are significant in teaching listening They stressed an urgent need for more teacher training on teaching listening skills Teachers should set time for students to scan the listening text and guess what they will listen to

Furthermore, teachers provide students with sufficient instruction and direction The mentioned factors in this paper have an essential role in developing learners‟ listening skills Teachers should be aware of their students‟ interests and feelings, try to boost their learners‟ interests, and select the most effective teaching strategy to keep them engaged in the listening activity Teachers should give their students more opportunities to listen to English by assigning them listening tasks to practice at home, which will improve their listening activities.

Results for research question 2

4.2.1 Students’ strategies to overcome difficulties (Results from the questionnaire)

4.2.1.1 Strategies to overcome bottom-up processing

Table 14: Data from a survey of strategies to overcome bottom-up processing for students

Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

Taking part in extracurricular activities for students

Getting support and feedback from the teachers

Learning listening by using modern technology

Learning vocabulary more at home

Students should find strategies to help them overcome their difficulties when learning to listen According to the research above, it can be seen that the majority of students (72%) strongly agree that they should take part in extracurricular activities for students Besides, 68% of students agree they should get support and feedback from their teachers The percentage of students strongly agree that learning to listen using modern technology is 75 %, and learning vocabulary more at home is 64%

Chart 4: Strategies to overcome bottom-up processing (for students)

4.2.1.2 Strategies to overcome top-down processing

Chart 5: Strategies to overcome top-down processing (for students)

Getting supports andfeedback from the teachers

Strategies to overcome bottom up processing (for students)

Strongly disagree disagree Neutral Agree Strogly agree

Choosing clear and quality recordings when practising at home.

Reading more English books and listening to English news to widen knowledge about cultures of other countries

Ignoring some new words and keeping on listening

Strategies to overcome top down processing

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

From the above results, it is clear that most students strongly agree with the view that they need to choose clear and quality recordings when practicing at home, accounting for 55% Additionally, 60% of students also strongly agree that they should read more English books and listen to English news to widen their knowledge about the cultures of other countries In addition, the percentage of students who strongly agree that they should ignore some new words and keep on listening accounts for 28%; 39% agree that they ignore new comments and keep on listening

4.2.1.3 Other strategies for students to improve listening learning

Table 15: Data from a survey of strategies for students to improve listening learning

1 Scan the listening test to guess what they are going to listen to

2 Practice listening to English outside the classroom 85 %

3 Ignore the new words and keep on listening 60 %

4 Listen to word-by-word 80%

As seen from Table 15, students should scan the listening test to guess what they will listen to, which partially impacts their comprehension of the listening text According to the data collected, 70% of the students said they would go through the questions and guess the topic Most students believe practicing listening to English outside the classroom is the best option (85%) By doing that, students could improve their listening skills In addition, new words are such matters that prevent students from understanding the text When encountering a new word, just 60 % choose to ignore the word and keep on listening As Hedge (2000, p.237) pointed out, many language learners tend to integrate their linguistic competence, experience, and background knowledge to comprehend the text instead of listening to every word in the first language In listening comprehension, a good listener will not listen to all the words of

56 the listening task They may skip any part of it and focus on the information they need for their answer

In contrast, most participants in my research, consisting of 80 %, agreed that they listen to word by word Listening word by word or listening for detail, as they think, is essential to get the main ideas Once they try to comprehend every word, there is little chance for them to discover the keywords that give them clues to understand the listening text In our first language, we skim over parts of the message and only pay attention to relevant details Thus, sentences are not processed word by word, and the focus is placed on the ideas behind these words and how these ideas are linked together to conclude

After the intervention, a semi-structured interview was conducted with twenty interviewees to understand thoroughly the entire process of learning listening skills of 11 th -grade EFL students via video projects and to support the researcher‟s conclusion about students‟ strategies in learning listening skills apart from the data collected in the questionnaire The interviewees were coded as ST1, ST2, ST3, ST4, ST5, ST6, ST7, ST8, ST9, ST10, ST11, ST12, ST13, ST14, ST15, ST16, ST17, ST18, ST19 and ST20) when being mentioned to protect their identities

4.2.2.1 Students’ strategies for learning listening skills

To begin with, the researcher asked the participants to share their strategies for learning listening skills

When asked whether the participants had their method for learning listening skills, ten participants (ST1, ST2, ST3, ST4, ST5, ST6, ST7, ST8, ST9, and ST10) said they should have a good memory Five participants (ST11, ST12, ST13, ST14, and ST15) said they should have metacognitive strategies Three participants (ST16,

ST 17, and ST 18) said they should have an effective strategy Two participants (ST19 and ST20) said they should have a social approach

About the participants‟ experiences during the process of learning listening

57 skills, interviewees ST1, ST2, ST3, ST4, ST5, ST6, ST7, ST8, ST9, and ST10 clarified:

“I think listening skills play an important role in learning a foreign language

We should have good memory to have good results in learning to listen Memory strategies enable learners to learn and retrieve information in an orderly string.”

Meanwhile, ST11, ST12, ST13, ST14, ST15 said metacognitive strategies are important in developing listening skills They shared different answer with ST1, ST2, ST3, ST4, ST5, ST6, ST7, ST8, ST9, ST10:

“Metacognitive strategies are essential for successful language learning.”

The researcher then asked the ST16, ST17, and ST18 about their strategies for learning listening They share the different answers:

“Affective strategies in learning listening skills play vital roles Affective processes provide learners with several ways of controlling their emotions, regulating their motivations, and improving their learning attitudes

Another strategy stated by interviewees ST19 and ST20 was social strategies

“Social strategies can assist learners’ learning through communication and interaction with others.”

4.2.2.2 The Role of Pre-listening

When asked, nineteen students said pre-listening is essential to developing listening skills Students should scan the text to guess the main idea of the listening task and predict what people will talk about Only one student said he did not watch the listening test before listening

4.2.3.1 The quality of the recordings

The researcher observed two 11 th classes in a listening lesson and found that the quality of the tapes plays a vital role in the result of students‟ listening Most of the students could do the tasks well because of the excellent quality of the recordings The listeners often feel the utterances disappear if the recording is not sound In

58 other words, students learning to listen can not keep up

Concentration plays a vital role in learning listening If students concentrate on their listening tasks, they may find them easy To help students concentrate more, teachers should choose interesting topics and good-quality recordings

This chapter presented significant findings concerning the challenges 11th- grade students face at Nguyen Dinh Chieu high school and their strategies to deal with the difficulties In this chapter, the data was analyzed and discussed; the study's findings are the answers to the research questions proposed in the introduction The findings show that Nguyen Dinh Chieu high school students face many problems For example, they lack understanding of different accents, vocabulary, and prior knowledge Besides, students‟ interest, noise, and listening speed are also problems that students encounter in learning to listen

To solve the difficulties that EFL 11 th- grade students encounter when learning listening skills, practicing listening to English outside the classroom, learning listening by using modern technology, taking part in extracurricular activities for students, and getting support and feedback from the teachers are also needed to develop their listening skills Appropriate materials and modern tools also help students engage more actively in learning (Renandya et al., 2011) Students must actively acquire the necessary abilities to use modern technology to find interesting listening tasks to improve their listening skills Applying technology in learning also helps create a current and suitable learning environment for new-generation students In the classroom, students must engage in conversation, voice their thoughts, and actively participate in their education

In conclusion, using suitable strategies can help EFL 11 th -grade students overcome their difficulties in learning to listen.

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS

Conclusion

Listening is one of the receptive skills through which students can gain more vocabulary, grammar, structure, and knowledge about the world Besides, listening helps students learn other skills Therefore, the importance of listening is undeniable Enhancing EFL 11th-grade students‟ listening skills is essential in learning a foreign language Listening skills are necessary for learning English, especially at the intermediate level This gives them chances to improve their communication skills, understand language cultures, and create opportunities to interact with English in real-life situations However, in the process of learning to listen, EFL 11 th -grade students often encounter obstacles and challenges that have an impact on their learning Therefore, it is vital for 11 th -grade students to overcome difficulties and have suitable strategies for learning listening skills

Consequently, having appropriate strategies helps students overcome difficulties The author surveyed 80 eleventh-grade students at a high school in Binh Dinh Besides using questionnaires, the author also conducted interviews and observed the classroom to complete the research objective of this thesis The research's primary purpose is to discover some difficulties EFL 11 th -grade students encounter when learning listening skills In addition, the research object is to find strategies to solve those difficulties

In general, EFL 11th-grade students at a high school in Binh Dinh province encounter difficulties learning listening skills, including different accents, unfamiliar words, unfamiliar topics, cultural differences, concentration, etc To solve these difficulties, students need to take part in extracurricular activities for students, get help and feedback from teachers, practice listening every day, etc

Implications

After carrying out an analysis of the student's difficulties and strategies in learning listening, specific implications can be drawn as follows:

In this study, the researcher has sought to respond to some research questions related to the topic

The first practical contribution of the present research is that it provides us with some common problems and strategies that 11 th -grade students at Nguyen Dinh Chieu High School encounter when learning listening skills Thanks to the findings above, teachers can realize that most students have difficulties using vocabulary, different accents, listening speed, and surrounding noise Prior knowledge seems to be the most severe problem when they learn listening skills

In light of the previous conclusion, students should listen to the audio files at least twice and have clear instructions and explanations from the teacher The study also advises students to use modern technology to develop their listening skills Modern technology helps students interested in the lesson, promotes interaction, and helps them access many valuable sources such as videos, radio news, and online English learning applications Students should also practice listening to English at home They can practice listening by listening to English songs, films, English cartoons, etc Moreover, Students can practice listening by watching videos about real-life situations such as everyday conversation

Moreover, Students also have appropriate materials and advanced learning tools to learn more outside of the class, which is essential in stimulating and creating effective learning environments for EFL 11 th -grade students In addition, extracurricular activities also promote interest and passion in learning listening skills Students can share their experiences and exchange ideas with other students Lastly, developing listening skills also helps students learn how to listen, comprehend the nature of language, and participate in authentic language activities, such as conversation, discussion, and expressing opinions It will help them become better listeners as a result of this

Limitations

It is necessary to acknowledge that the study has several limitations, although it has achieved its aim The first limitation is that the current study was conducted in the natural setting of English learning at a high school in Binh Dinh province, where the researcher worked As a result, it failed to adhere to random sampling

Secondly, the research was conducted only on a small population because of time limitations, knowledge, and the limited size of minor research This number is insufficient for the researcher to fully understand the difficulties and their strategies in learning to listen

Thirdly, due to time limitations and the scope of the study, the study can not investigate the effectiveness of some listening learning strategies Due to time limitations, some essential aspects of the problem may not have been considered in detail

In addition, the suggestions to overcome difficulties are likely to be subjective and incomplete.

Students‟ perception of learning listening skills

Chart 1 shows students‟ perception of learning listening skills The collected data shows that all students have approved of the significance of listening skills The percentage in Chart 1 shows that 20% of the students believe listening skills are highly critical 35% think it is essential, 30 % think it is relatively vital, and 15 % say it is unimportant There seems to be a connection between students‟ perception of the importance of listening and their performance in the listening section when most students think listening is somewhat essential

4.1.3.2 Students’ average scores in listening skills last semester

Question 2 collects information about students‟ performance in listening sections of the previous proficiency tests Among 80 students (equal to 100%) responding to question 2, more than half (60%) have got average grades in listening sections of the previous tests below 5.0; 24 respondents (30 %) have had average scores from 5.0- 6.4; only 8 participants (10%) have got scores from 6.5 to 7.9, and none has scored more than 8.0 The figures show the poor performance of 11 th -grade students in listening and calling for radical changes to improve the situation

4.1.3.3 Students’ perception of the difficulty of listening skills

Students‟ perception of the difficulty of listening skills

Chart 2: Students’ perception of the difficulty of listening skills

37.50% listening is much easier than other skills listening is not as difficult as the other skills listening is as complex as the others listening is more complicated listening is much more complicated

4.1.4 Students’ responses to the questions about problems related to the bottom-up process