Chuyên đề tốt nghiệp: Difficulties in listening comprehension faced by second-year business english students at national economics university

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Affect, or the emotional dimension of listening, is an important factor that can affect listening comprehension Researchers have explored different aspects of affective factors that can pose challenges to successful listening.

Chang and Roebl (2011) included affect as one of the six key factors contributing to difficulties in listening Affect refers to the emotional dimension of listening, including comprehension failure and anxiety levels The authors found that listeners can experience negative emotions, such as frustration and anxiety, when they face listening difficulties These negative emotions can then affect their motivation to continue listening, which can further impede comprehension.

Similarly, Rahimi and Abedini (2009) found that anxiety can negatively impact listening comprehension among Iranian EFL learners They suggested that teachers should address learners' anxiety levels and create a supportive classroom environment to help reduce anxiety and improve listening performance.

In another study, Lee and Oxford (2008) explored the relationship between affect and listening comprehension strategies They found that positive affective states, such as interest and enjoyment, can lead to the use of more effective listening strategies, while negative affective states, such as boredom and frustration, can lead to the use of less effective strategies.

Research on problems associated with contextual factors in listening comprehension has identified several factors that can negatively affect comprehension, including noise and poor audio quality.

One study by Mehrpour and Rahimi (2012) investigated the effect of background noise on listening comprehension in a second language The study found that the presence of background noise significantly decreased participants’ comprehension scores Similarly, another study by Kim (2014) examined the effect

Nguyễn Thị Hà Vy - 11195842 - Business English 61B of noise on listening comprehension in a Korean language classroom and found that background noise significantly reduced students’ comprehension.

Audio quality plays a crucial role in comprehension Research by Ching and Kwok (2013) demonstrated that comprehension scores for ESL learners significantly decreased when listening to inferior audio quality, highlighting the impact of CD quality on listening comprehension.

Furthermore, research has shown that the type of noise can also impact listening comprehension For example, a study by Habibi and Alipour (2014) found that speech noise, such as background conversations, was more disruptive to listening comprehension than non-speech noise, such as white noise.

On the basis of the literature review and previous studies, the framework below is suggested to identify and measure the difficulties in listening comprehension faced by second-year BE students at National Economics University.

Nguyễn Thị Hà Vy - 11195842 - Business English 61B

This chapter includes the setting of the study, participants, data collection procedures and data analysis procedures

This research implements the quantitative method which enables researchers to apply mathematical techniques to reach impartial and logical deductions (Creswell, 2009) A self-administered survey questionnaire was adapted to examine the proposed hypotheses.

With the aim of gathering realistic particulars about listening comprehension difficulties faced by NEU sophomores, 100 second-year students from different classes of BE major, course (2022 - 2023) were invited to contribute to an online questionnaire The participants came from diverse backgrounds, including both rural and urban areas, and all spoke Vietnamese as their native language and English as a foreign language They were all at the same academic level and had been studying English listening skills at NEU for two years In order to have a thorough insight into the problems, this research is based on their current real situation.

The questionnaire comprised one question and 40 measurement items in total and was divided into 2 main parts:

Part 1 consisted of one question which investigated the students’ listening competence Students were required to report their listening skills GPA from the last semester, with four options corresponding to four grade levels: >=9, >9 and

In part 2, there were 40 measurement items on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from | for “strongly disagree” to 5 for “strongly agree” This measurement scale was adapted from the research of Lotfi (2012) to measure 6 conceptual factors mentioned in the proposed framework This research designed Beliefs on English Language Listening Comprehension Problems which was based on six categories specified by Lotfi (2012) The questionnaire was found to be reliable and practical with a Cronbach's alpha of 96 for all 40 items The internal consistency reliability coefficients for each category were also high, ranging from 87 to 94.

3.4 Data collection procedures Step 1: Design the questionnaire with measure items adopted from the Lotfi (2012) measurement scale.

Step 2: Pilot-test the questionnaire with the instructor and a small group of

BE students to identify any potential issues with clarity or comprehension of the questions.

Step 3: Distribute the online questionnaire to a sample of 100 BE students, through social media.

Step 4: Collect the responses from participants and transfer them into figures and tables in a spreadsheet or statistical analysis software.

Step 5: Analyze the collected data by SPSS

3.5 Data analysis procedures The data collected in the survey is analyzed under the form of charts, tables and descriptive statistics In detail, the data related to the difficulties in listening comprehension is calculated with the assistance of SPSS Statistical software The researcher conducted data analysis using descriptive statistics to obtain means for the variables of perception One-way ANOVA was conducted to determine if there were significant differences between groups Finally, regression analysis was used to compute the coefficients and examine the relationships between variables.

There were 100 in the survey, and all of them are valid and can be used for the research The detailed analysis is presented in the next chapter.

ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

Descriptive nh

BE students’ listening GPA in the last semester

Based on the responses of the 100 students, we can see that the distribution of the listening GPA in the last semester is as follows: ° 20 students (20%) had a GPA of 9 or higher ° 36 students (36%) had a GPA between 8 and 9 ° 34 students (34%) had a GPA between 7 and 8 e 10 students (10%) had a GPA lower than 7

The largest group of students fell into the range of a listening GPA between

8 and 9, accounting for 36% of the total number of students On the other hand, the smallest group of students had a listening GPA lower than 7, accounting for only 10% of the total number of students Based on the information provided, we can see that the distribution of listening GPA among the 100 students is fairly balanced The majority of students GPA fall within the range of 7 to 9, with the largest group being those with a GPA between 8 and 9 This suggests that the majority of students are performing well in their listening classes.

0 Process Input Listener Taskdemands Affective Contextual characteristics factors factors

The mean scores of the major factors are as follows: Input (3.77) received the highest score, followed by Contextual factors (3.45), Process (3.37), Affective factors (3.34), and Listener characteristics (3.33), while Task demands (2.98) received the lowest score These results suggest that the quality and complexity of the listening material, as well as the cognitive and affective processes involved in listening, play significant roles in determining listening comprehension success.

On the other hand, the low score for task demands indicates that the specific requirements of the listening task itself may be less influential in determining listening comprehension success.

The mean scores for the items in the process subscale suggest that the second-year business English students at National Economics University face difficulties in various aspects of listening comprehension.

Students struggle with inferring the meaning of unfamiliar words from their existing knowledge This is evident in the finding that the mean score for the item "Guess the meaning of unknown words by linking them to known words" was the highest (M = 3.76).

1 Guess the meaning of unknown 1.06694 words by linking them to known words.

3 Make a mental summary of 1.00792 information gained through listening.

4 Check understanding of the text 1.05444 based on background knowledge of the topic.

5 Evaluate the overall accuracy 1.20898 of my comprehension.

6 Check comprehension of the 1.09935 whole chunks of the listening text.

7 Relate what I hear with 99057 something from an earlier part of the listening text.

8 Use the context to guess those 1.00122 parts of a listening text that I cannot hear clearly.

9 Predict from the visuals what I 1.04764 will hear.

10 Make meaningful personal 96658 associations with the new information.

11 Listen for the main idea of the 1.07076

12 Find out the main purpose of 1.03194 the listening task.

Table 1 Process related difficulties in LC

Another challenging aspect for the students is maintaining focus when they encounter difficulties in understanding, as shown by the high mean score (M 3.72) for the item "Focus on the text." Furthermore, the mean scores for the items related to summarizing and evaluating comprehension (M = 3.62) indicate that the students have difficulty with these higher-order cognitive skills.

Additionally, the mean scores for the items related to checking comprehension and relating different parts of the text suggest that the students have difficulty with constructing a coherent mental representation of the text.

Understanding the main purpose of listening tasks can present challenges for students despite it being a less difficult aspect To improve this, more explicit guidance on the objectives of listening tasks can be beneficial.

In terms of standard deviation, the item with the lowest standard deviation is item 2 "Focus on the text," which indicates that students' responses on this item were relatively consistent, with a standard deviation of 0.92934 On the other hand, item 5 "Evaluate the overall accuracy of my comprehension" had the highest standard deviation (1.20898), indicating greater variability in students’ responses.

4 Understand the meaning of 3.64 1.08214 words which are not pronounced clearly.

6 Unfamiliar stress and intonation 3.5 1.23156 patterns

7 Speakers speak with varied 3.44 94954 accents.

8 Speaker does not pause long 3.42 1.09096 enough.

Table 2 Input related difficulties in LC

The mean scores for the items in the input subscale indicate that the second- year business English students at National Economics University face challenges in understanding various aspects of spoken language.

The highest mean score (M = 3.9) was for the item "Too many unfamiliar words," suggesting that the students struggle with processing and inferring the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary.

Another challenging aspect for the students is coping with fast speech, as shown by the high mean score (M = 3.82) for the item "Speakers speak too fast."

Additionally, the mean scores for the items related to difficult grammatical structures (M = 3.72), unclear pronunciation (M = 3.64), and long listening texts (M = 3.56) suggest that the students struggle to understand complex and lengthy utterances.

Moreover, the mean scores for the items related to stress, intonation patterns (M = 3.5), and accents highlight the students’ difficulty in understanding spoken English that varies from the standard or familiar varieties Specifically, the students find it challenging to comprehend speakers with unfamiliar accents, and they struggle to process the meaning of speech that does not have enough pauses or has unusual stress and intonation patterns.

As we can see, item I] "too many unfamiliar words" not only receives the highest mean score but also has an impact on GPA Therefore, we need to focus more on this difficulty of students.

In terms of standard deviation, the item "Too many unfamiliar words" has a high standard deviation value of 1.21638, indicating that some students find it more challenging than others to process unfamiliar vocabulary Similarly, the items related to unfamiliar stress and intonation patterns and unfamiliar accents have relatively high standard deviation values, indicating great variability in students’ responses.

The analysis of the mean scores for the items in the listener characteristics subscale shows that the second-year business English students at National

Economics University face challenges related to their memory and attention while listening.

Subscale Items Mean Std Deviation

Listener 1 Neglect the next part of 3.56 1.14571 characteristics | the listening text when thinking about the meaning of unfamiliar words.

2 Quickly remember words 3.54 1.09246 or phrases I have just heard.

3 Over-focus on 3.54 1.32803 comprehending every word or phrase.

4 Slow to recall the 3.48 1.12938 meaning of words that sound familiar.

5 Remember the meaning 3.46 1.16829 of a long listening text.

6 Recall the meaning of 3.3 1.16426 familiar words immediately.

7 Forget the content which 3.32 1.16426 was mentioned before when encountering new words.

8 Don’t know which 3.08 1.22824 strategy to use while listening.

10 Struggle to comprehend 3.04 1.10583 due to an inability to understand every single word.

Table 3 Listener characteristics related difficulties in LC

The three highest mean scores were for the items "Neglect the next part of the listening text when thinking about the meaning of unfamiliar words." (M 3.56), "Quickly remember words or phrases I have just heard" (M = 3.54), and

"Over-focus on comprehending every word or phrase" (M = 3.54), indicating that the students struggle with their working memory capacity and tend to lose the flow of speech due to their intense focus on understanding every word or phrase they hear.

Moreover, the mean scores for the items related to attention, such as

The impact of listening problems on student GPA

4.2.1 The impact of listening problems related to process on student GPA

Sum of Squares Mean Square

The regression model exhibited statistical significance (p < 0.05), indicating its effectiveness in capturing the relationship between the independent and dependent variables This significance suggests that the model can reliably predict the dependent variable based on the independent variables, making it a valuable tool for analysis and forecasting.

P2 P3 P4 PS PG P7 Pa Pg a Dependent Variable: GPA

Table 8 Regression model of GPA with Process

The regression analysis shows that three variables, P2, P4, and P8, have a significant effect on GPA (Sig < 0.05) Among these variables, P8 has a negative relationship with GPA, with a beta coefficient of less than zero (Beta < 0), while changes in P2 and P4 are positively associated with changes in GPA.

It appears that difficulties in listening comprehension (P2, P4, and P8) are related to lower levels of student performance (GPA) This suggests that improving students’ listening comprehension abilities may lead to improvements in their overall academic performance Additionally, the finding that P8 has a negative relationship with GPA suggests that addressing difficulties specifically related to P8 (which is negatively associated with GPA) may be particularly important for improving student outcomes.

4.2.2 The impact of listening problems related to input on student GPA

Sum of Squares Mean Square

Table 9 ANOVA one-way analysis of GPA with Input

The regression model has statistical significance (p < 0.05), indicating agreement between the model and the data The independent variables present in the model are significantly related to the dependent variable, supporting the model's ability to make accurate predictions.

Standardized Coefficients Std Error a Dependent Variable: GPA

Table 10 Regression model of GPA with Input

The regression analysis shows that five variables, II, I2, I5, I6 and I9, have a significant effect on GPA (Sig < 0.05) Among these variables, II, I5 and I9 has a negative relationship with GPA, with a beta coefficient of less than zero (Beta

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