A study on major factors affecting the freshmen's performances on TOEIC listening test at Vietnam Maritime University = Nghiên cứu các nhân tố ảnh hưởng dến kết

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYEN THI HUYEN TRANG A STUDY ON MAJOR FACTORS AFFECTING THE FRES

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN THI HUYEN TRANG

A STUDY ON MAJOR FACTORS AFFECTING THE FRESHMEN’S

PERFORMANCES ON TOEIC LISTENING TEST

AT VIETNAM MARITIME UNIVERSITY

NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC NHÂN TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN KẾT QUẢ BÀI THI

NGHE TOEIC CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HÀNG HẢI VIỆT NAM

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

HA NOI – 2012

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN THI HUYEN TRANG

A STUDY ON MAJOR FACTORS AFFECTING THE FRESHMEN’S

PERFORMANCES ON TOEIC LISTENING TEST

AT VIETNAM MARITIME UNIVERSITY

NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC NHÂN TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN KẾT QUẢ BÀI

THI TOEIC CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HÀNG HẢI VIỆT NAM

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Phạm Thị Hạnh, M.A

HÀ NỘI - 2012

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Table of content

Declaration

Acknowledgements

Abstract

List of tables, figures, and abbreviations

Part one: introduction ……… 1

1 Rationale for the study ……… 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study ……… 2

3 Scope of the study ……… 2

4 Significance of the study ……… 2

5 Method of the study ……… 3

6 Organization of the study ……… 3

Part two: Development ……… 4

Chapter 1: Literature Review ……… 4

1.1 Listening ……… 4

1.1.1 Definitions of Listening ……… 4

1.1.2 Definitions of Listening comprehension ……… 4

1.1.3 Sources of listening difficulties ……… 5

1.1.3.1 Linguistic factors ……… 6

1.1.3.2 Non- linguistic factors ……… 8

1.2 Listening TOEIC test ……… 11

1.2.1 Test ……… 11

1.2.1.1 Definitions of a test ……… 11

1.2.1.2 Types of tests ……… 11

1.2.2 TOEIC test ……… 12

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1.3 Summary ……… 12

Chapter 2: Methodology ……… 13

2.1 The setting of the study ……… 13

2.1.1 Participants ……… 13

2.1.2 Materials and current English study situation …… ……… 13

2.2 Data collection instruments ……… 14

2.2.1 Questionnaires ……… 14

2.2.2 Semi-structured interviews ……… 15

2.2.3 Observations ……… 16

2.3 Data collection procedures ……… 16

2.3.1 Delivering questionnaires ……… 17

2.3.2 Holding the semi-structured interviews ……… 17

2.3.3 Carrying out observations ……… 17

2.4 Data analysis ……… 17

2.5 Summary ……… 18

Chapter 3: Results and discussions ……… 19

3.1 What are Vimaru freshmen’s attitudes towards TOEIC listening? … 19

3.1.1 Reading Comprehension vs Listening Comprehension in TOEIC test 19 3.1.2 Vimaru freshmen’s attitudes towards TOEIC listening ……… 20

3.1.3.Vimaru freshmen’s feelings when taking TOEIC listening test ……… 20

3.2 What are Vimaru freshmen’s current study situation and performances on TOEIC listening test? ………

21 3.2.1 Vimaru freshmen’s results in semester 1- TOEIC test ……… 21

3.2.2.Difficult parts of TOEIC listening perceived by Vimaru freshmen … 22 3.2.3.Vimaru freshmen’s strategies while doing TOEIC listening test …… 23

3.2.4.Vimaru freshmen’s habits before doing TOEIC listening test ……… 24

3.2.5.Vimaru freshmen’s habits while doing TOEIC listening test ………… 25

3.2.6.Vimaru freshmen’s habits when they cannot listen to TOEIC test …… 25

3.2.7.TOEIC practice before taking the final test ……… 26

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3.2.8.Factors causing difficulties in doing TOEIC listening test ……… 27

3.3 What are linguistic factors affecting Vimaru freshmen’s performances on TOEIC listening?………

28 3.4 What are non-Linguistic factors affecting Vimaru freshmen’s performances on TOEIC listening?………

30 3.5 What are Vimaru freshmen’s suggestions for improving TOEIC listening skill? ………

33 3.6 What are Vimaru freshmen’s expectations to improve the final TOEIC listening results? ………

34 3.7 Summary ……… 34

PART three: Conclusion ……… 35

1 Summaries of major findings ……… 35

1.1 What are Vimaru freshmen’s attitudes towards TOEIC listening? …… 35

1.2 What are Vimaru freshmen’s current study situation and performances on TOEIC listening? ………

35 1.3 What are linguistic factors affecting Vimaru freshmen’s performances on TOEIC listening? ………

36 1.4 What are non - linguistic factors affecting Vimaru freshmen’s performances on TOEIC listening? ………

37 1.5 What are suggestions and expectations made by the freshmen to improve their TOEIC listening results ………

37 2 Pedagogical recommendations to improve freshmen’s final TOEIC listening results ………

38 2.1 Recommendations for English study in the class ……… 38

2.2 Recommendations for facilities ……… 39

2.3 Recommendations for TOEIC-based listening test ……… 39

3 Limitation of the study ……… 40

4 Recommendations for further related study ……… 40

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Figure 1: Reading comprehension vs Listening comprehension in TOEIC test Figure 2: Vimaru freshmen’s attitudes towards TOEIC listening

Figure 3: Vimaru freshmen’s feelings when taking TOEIC listening test

Figure 4: Vimaru freshmen’ TOEIC results in semester 1

Figure 5: Difficult parts of TOEIC listening perceived by Vimaru freshmen

Figure 6: Vimaru freshmen’s strategies while doing TOEIC listening

Figure 7: Vimaru freshmen’s habits before doing TOEIC listening test

Figure 8: Vimaru freshmen’s habits while doing TOEIC listening test

Figure 9: Vimaru freshmen’s habits when they cannot listen to TOEIC test

Figure 10: TOEIC practice before taking the final test

Figure 11: Vimaru freshmen’s suggestions for improving TOEIC listening skill Figure 12: Vimaru freshmen’s expectations towards the final TOEIC listening test

:

Table 1: Factors caused difficulties in doing TOEIC listening test

Table 2: Linguistic factors affecting Vimaru freshmen’s performances on TOEIC listening

Table 3: Non-Linguistic factors affecting Vimaru freshmen’s performances on TOEIC listening

Abbreviation:

Vimaru: Viet Nam Maritime University

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Part one: Introduction

1 Rationale for choosing the topic

In the age of economic growth and global integration, English obviously plays a very important role However, the criteria for evaluating one’s English competence are more and more difficult In today’s context, the A, B, C certificates used for people wishing to find a job are out-of- date, and the so-called IELTS, TOEFL or TOEIC have been the best choices TOEIC, together with other requirements for job seekers, is preferred by most companies in order to assess their employees’ qualifications Therefore, a lot of people are trying hard to achieve the success in a TOEIC test

It is no doubt that among the four skills normally mentioned in English, listening is always considered “a key language skill” which “has a vital role in the language acquisition process” ( Brett, 1997) Nevertheless, it is listening that is always a nightmare for English learners due to its difficulty My primary observation shows that students normally get lower marks in listening test in comparison with other skill tests

In addition, being a lecturer of English at Vimaru University, through my teaching experience, I have found out that my students are always more afraid of listening as compared to other skills Students, especially freshmen, find listening boring and stressful, and unfortunately, they have to sit for a TOEIC- based test which includes Reading and Listening comprehension for the final examination Therefore, many of the students get bad results because of low scores in English subject in which listening is always a target of blaming

For all of the abovementioned, I would like to carry out a small- scaled study

on “major factors affecting the freshmen’s performance on TOEIC listening tests at Vietnam Maritime University” so as to help solve out the problems

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2 Aims and objectives of the study

The purposes of the study will be achieved through the answering of five research questions:

1 What are Vimaru freshmen’ attitudes towards listening TOEIC?

2 What are Vimaru freshmen’s current performance and study situation on listening TOEIC?

3 What are linguistic factors affecting Vimaru freshmen’s performance on listening TOEIC?

4 What are non- linguistic factors affecting Vimaru freshmen’s performance on listening TOEIC?

5 What are Vimaru freshmen’s suggestions and expectations to improve their TOEIC listening results?

3 Scope of the study:

There are three terms that should be specified in the study Firstly, there are many kinds of English tests, but the author considers TOEIC test only Secondly, it

is TOEIC listening which is the focus of the study, not TOEIC reading Finally, the study is aimed at the freshmen of Vimaru University whose proficiency levels are from low to high basing on their latest TOEIC results

4 Significance of the study

Investigating the “major factors affecting the freshmen’s performance on TOEIC listening tests at Vietnam Maritime University”, the study is expected to make certain contributions to the related populations including freshmen taking TOEIC test, teachers teaching TOEIC, and researchers of the same subjects

First of all, through the problems pointed out and the suggestions made, the freshmen may improve their performance in listening TOEIC test

Similar to the students, the study would help teaching TOEIC teachers to realize their problems in guiding their students in sitting for a test in order to achieve the best results Moreover, by noticing the students’ difficulties in listening,

5 Method of the study

Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are utilized in order to “provide

a better understanding of the research problem and question than either method by itself” (Creswell, 2002) Questionnaire is the first thing to be made which is delivered to the freshmen after they take the first TOEIC- based test and have the final results Then, it is the turn of interview in which the author wishes to have the reliable share from the students The last but not least, test room observations are carried to have the direct data

6 Organization of the study

The rest of the study includes two parts as follow:

Part 2 consists of:

Chapter 1 Literature Review presents related theoretical background of the study in which concepts of listening and factors affecting the students’ performances in listening TOEIC would be discussed

Chapter 2, Methodology, covers four major parts, namely, participants, data collection instruments, data collection procedures, and data analysis procedures

Chapter 3, Results and Discussions, presents, analyzes and discusses the findings in order to answer the five research questions of the study

Part 3, Conclusion, provides summaries of the main findings, suggestions for better results, limitations of the study, and lastly, recommendations for further related researches

There are some traditional views that consider listening as a passive language skill alongside with reading skill However, listening is a really receptive skill and the role of the listeners is no longer passive but active in many scholars’ point of views Bentley and Bacon (1996), define listening as “an active process during which the listener constructs meaning from oral input”

Sharing the same idea towards the activeness of listening, Underwood (1989) shows that “listening is the activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from something we hear”

1.1.2 Definitions of listening comprehension

Mentioning the definition of listening comprehension, Gary Buck (2001) suggests that “listening comprehension is an active process of constructing meaning and this is done by applying knowledge to the incoming sound” in which “number

of different types of knowledge are involved: both linguistic knowledge and linguistic knowledge”

non-5

Unlike the other authors, Brown (1994) sees both narrow and broad definition towards listening comprehension According to him, in its narrowest definition, listening is the process by which listeners come to an interpretation for a stream of speech In its broader definition it also includes the process by which listeners use those interpretations for intended process

Rost (2002), on the other hand, defines listening comprehension as “a process of receiving what the speaker actually says, constructing and representing meaning, negotiating meaning with the speaker and responding, and creating meaning through involvement, imagination and empathy”

It is no doubt that different scholars have different ideas to the definition of both listening and listening comprehension Nevertheless, I totally agree with the view of Wolvin and Coakley (1985) in which listening is defined as “the process of receiving, attending to and assigning meaning to aural stimuli” The definition suggests that listening is a complex, problem- solving skill, and the task of listening

is more than the perception of sound; it also requires comprehension of meaning

1.1.3 Sources of listening difficulty

Unlike the case of investigating the definition of listening and listening comprehension, while searching theory for sources of listening difficulty I have found out that there are some similar views towards this matter To some authors,

what make listening difficult include 7 matters as: Lack of control over the speed

at which speakers speak, Not being able to get things repeated, The listener’s limited vocabulary, Failure to recognize the “signals”, Problems of interpretation, Inability to concentrate, and Establish learning habit (Underwood, 1989)

A little bit shorter but include these above points, Anderson and Lynch (1998) suggest two problem including background problems and language problems According to them, “gaps in our knowledge of L2 culture, of the associations and references available to native uses can present obstacles to comprehension”

Duzer (1997), on the other hand, proposes another set of factors including

the listener, the speaker, content, and visual support

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Based on the theories collected from many different authors whose points of

views are more or less the same, I would like to divide them into two main factors:

Linguistic and Non- linguistic factors in which Linguistic factors include the sound

and pronunciation, the stress and intonation, speech, syntax and vocabulary,

informal language, and accent while Non- linguistic factors consist of fatigue,

listener’s background, listener’ competence, message, and physical setting

1.1.3.1 Linguistic factors

1.1.3.1.1 The sounds and pronunciation

The way that a word is pronounced is one of the most difficult factors to most English learner to recognize and comprehend (Underwood, 1989) In English, just as in other languages, there are sounds which are unknown or unusual for foreign listeners, and which they may therefore fail to distinguish from other similar sound or even fail to hear at all For example the sound /w/ or /j/ as in “wait” or

“just” are not existed in the way of pronunciation for Vietnamese students In addition, learners may find it difficult to distinguish between “ship” and “sheep”, or

“fit” and “feet” Another difficulty may be the “schwa” where the sounds are not strongly pronounced but they may vary from many different vowels such as “e” as

in “student”, or “o” as in “today”

According to Buck (2001), “the sound of a language must be learned in order

to understand speech” This is obvious; it is not the sound themselves, however, that causes the most comprehension problems, but the way they vary in normal speech

Moreover, Ur (1984) suggests that sometimes the foreign learners of English may have difficulty with the sequences and juxtapositions of sounds typical of English words

1.1.3.1.2 The stress and intonation

It is a fact that the English language derives much of its rhythm from the use

of stressed syllables Therefore, Underwood (1989) mentions that “students have to

be helped to get used the fact that words spoken in continuous speech are often not

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given the same stress as they receive when they are said in isolation” The problem

is that students have often learnt the pronunciation of new words by hearing them clearly enunciated, one at a time, by the teachers

Mentioning to intonation, Buck (2001) said that “the intonation can make a considerable difference to the meaning” Obviously, stress and intonation are very important in word recognition, and moreover, in comprehension Lynch (1998) also suggests that prosodic features have a direct impact on how listeners chunk and interpret discourse segments

1.1.3.1.3 Speech

“All second- language listeners have probably had the experience of

listening to something and not quite understanding it because it seem too fast, of feeling that they could have understood if only it had been a little slower” (Buck, 2001) Certainly, the actual speech rate does affect comprehension and results generally support the common-sense belief that the faster the speech, the more difficult it is to comprehension

1.1.3.1.4 The syntax and vocabulary

In Underwood’s point of view “listeners who struggle to understand every word using their knowledge of the structure of the language to decipher the message often have problems” (Underwood, 1989) They tend to get confused and will probably be less successful than listeners who seek the meaning without focusing overmuch on the language Oslen and Huckin (1990) point out that ESL students can understand all the words of the listening and still fail to understand the main points, and Dunkel and Davis (1994) claim that comprehension depends less on the meaning of the individual sentences and more on their inter-relatedness and the structures of the whole text” (as cited in Buck, 2001)

1.1.3.1.5 Formal and informal language

On the first place, it is necessary to clarify the difference between formal and informal language According to Underwood (1989), “a distinction is sometimes

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made between the language spoken in formal situations and the language used in informal situation as, for example, a lecture and a chat between friends” In his theory, many language learners have limited experience on English language in formal situation In their lessons, they tend to use formal language because this is what is expected when teachers and students talk to each other, and so they have difficulty in understanding informal spoken discourse

Contributing to this idea, Ur (1984) points out that much of informal language may already be known to the foreign listener, but this does not mean that

he is familiar with it

1.1.3.1.6 Accent

Ur (1984) says that “many foreign- language learners who are used to the accent of their own teachers are surprised and dismayed when they find have difficulty understanding someone else” In fact, when listening, students may encounter a number of different accents In the case of English, Australian pronounces English differently from American, and this is different again from British English Even within countries there can be considerable variation: the difference between the North and the South (Buck, 2001)

The listeners are usually much less familiar with the range of common accents, and they sometimes have considerable problems when they hear a new accent for the first time and the stronger the accent, the lower the listeners’ comprehension

1.1.3.2 Non-linguistic factors

1.1.3.2.1 Fatigue

Not many authors mention the effect of fatigue when listening, but I totally agree with Ur (1984) when he points out “how tiring it is listening to and interpreting unfamiliar sounds, lexis, and syntax for long stretches of time” Reading, writing, and speaking are also tiring but in these activities, the learners can

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make their own break when and where they wish However, in listening, doing this

is impossible because students may miss the important clues while listening

1.1.3.2.2 Listeners’ background knowledge

It is true that the background of the listeners may affect the listening comprehension According to Anderson (1984), listeners with different background will have different level of difficulty in listening comprehension and without background knowledge; they will have many difficulty in this field Sharing the same idea, Underwood (1989) also points out that students whose culture and education includes a strong storytelling and oral communication tradition are generally better at listening comprehension than those from a reading and book- bases cultural and educational background

In addition to cultural background, the way to interpret language is also different from country to country For Vietnamese students they may find it hard to understanding the meaning of the sentence “It is hot here” (when the speaker may want to open the door rather than mentioning about the today’s weather only)

Therefore, Vietnamese students whose background knowledge is much different from that of in English may have a lot of trouble in listening comprehension

1.1.3.2.3 The listeners’ competence

It can be said that listeners’ competence is of great important to the listening comprehension which is a complex, problem-solving skill (Wolvin and Coakley, 1985) In this study, listeners’ competence can be understood as language competence, ability to predict and concentrate The success of listening may be mainly due to a good language competence such as good vocabulary, pronunciation and listening skill

Normally students face a lot of problems in having rich vocabulary For them,

“listening to foreign language, an unknown word can be like a suddenly dropped

“sheep”, “for” or “four” Especially, many of them blame for the use of linking sound such as “lookat” or “putup”

Apart from language competence, ability to predict and concentrate can be

factors leading to listening problems If the listeners can make a guess as to the sort

of thing that is going to be said next, he will be much more likely to perceive it and understand it well, he may even be enabled to do without it altogether (Ur, 1984) Unfortunately, not many students can take advantage of this point

1.1.3.2.4 Message and topic

Again, this is the factor to determine the ability to concentrate of the listeners

It is easier for the listeners to concentrate if the topics of the listening are interesting and related to common and familiar issues of everyday life On the other hand, if the topic is boring or together with the noise of the room or the quality of the tape, etc, the students may find it hard to concentrate (Underwood, 1989)

1.1.3.2.5 Physical setting

Mentioning to this problem, Underwood (1989) states that: “Outside factors may well make concentration difficult, too” Sharing the same idea, Harmer (1991)

says that “Physical condition (classroom size, book, char, desk, light, etc) had great

impact on student’s leaning as well as the subject matter” According to Ur (1984), some words may be drowned by outside interference, others indistinctly pronounced

The foreign- language learner, whose grasp of meaning is slower than that of a native and demands more of an effort, find these gaps far more difficult to take in his stride This outside interference can be understood as the noise from outside, the noise inside the room and even the cough of someone else in the room Moreover,

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the atmosphere in the room as it is too hot or the number of students which is over

70 students per room can be a matter contributing to listening problem

1.2 Listening TOEIC test

1.2.1 Test

1.2.1.1 Definitions of a test

Towards the meaning of a test, many different authors have different definitions According to definition cited in Longman dictionary, a test is: “any procedure for measuring ability, knowledge or performance” Alphonse (2008), on the other hand says that “testing is one of the best way which enables the teacher to see at a glance how the students’ perform or how they are progressing” However,

I have found that the definition made by Rubayee (2008) is the most effective in which “tests are important in determining the students’ learning achievements in the classroom; at the same time they also help teachers to monitor his/her teaching

methods in the classroom” (cited in To and Nguyen, 2008)

1.2.1.2 Types of test

There are many ways to classify tests including basing on their uses and purposes, or on the types of test tasks, etc According to test purposes as the grouping principle, we can classify tests into four common types as below:

Proficiency

tests

To see how good students are at language, or use of the language The contents of a proficiency tests are not chosen according to what has been taught, but according to what is needed for a particular purpose

Achievement

tests

To see how well students have learnt the language taught in class Achievement tests are often at the end of term or end of the year and test the main points of what has been taught in that time

Placement

tests

To identify students’ level of language and find the best class for them These are essential in large institutions that frequently receive new students

In 2005, the Ministry of Education and Education testing Institute- based in

US regarded the use of TOEIC to asset students’ English language proficiency Thus, universities in Vietnam can apply the TOEIC program to teach and evaluate students’ learning outcomes instead of the old program and tests for A, B, C certificates

The new TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) is a standardized, multiple-choice test for adult, non-native speakers designed to measure your language ability and your ability to understand English In order to score well on the new TOEIC test, you must have two goals: improve your proficiency in English and improve your test- taking skills The test has two sections: Listening comprehension and Reading comprehension

The TOEIC test is scored on a scale of 10 to 990 Only correct responses count toward your score These correct responses are added and converted to a

TOEIC score (please see the Appendix 1)

Listening TOEIC test is divided into four parts including photos description, listening and responses, conversations, and the last one is talks (Please see Appendix 2)

1.3 Summary

To sum up, this chapter has provided some different current theories of both listening and sources of listening difficulty in order to give a clear overview on the matter of the study The following chapter will deal with the methodology with which the study was conducted

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Chapter 2: Methodology

After reviewing a theoretical basis for the study in the previous part, in this chapter, the researcher will discuss the methodology used to implement the research The chapter will cover four major parts, namely, participants and current English study situation at Vimaru, data collection instruments, data collection procedures, and data analysis procedures

2.1 The setting of the study

2.1.1 Participants

50 first-year students who are in the second semester of the academic year 2011-2012 at Vimaru were chosen randomly for the study They come from different departments at different levels and they have different attitudes and preferences towards listening skills in general and listening TOEIC in particular Despite the limited number of the subjects, she still believes that 5% of the population (50 over 1000 freshmen of Vimaru) will partly represent for the whole group; therefore, the reliability and validity of the study could be achieved Apart from these surveyed students, other 4 students whose recent TOEIC scores were different were chosen to participate in the semi-structured interviews

2.1.2 Materials and current English study situation

Applied the credit study of Education Ministry, the freshmen at Vimaru can

register at any English classes that are suitable for their time Therefore, in each English class, normally ranging from 65 to 80 students per class, there is a mix of different students- that means students come from different departments and levels

of English Often, students coming from Maritime Economics Department are better

at English than the other Departments, and Navigation students are normally worse However, these freshmen are taught the same coursebook- NewHeadway- Elementary- 3rd edition in 6 periods of English per week They have to study English two times a week and within 15 weeks of studying, each class has 3

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TOEIC-based progress tests designed by the teacher of that class The length and content of the tests are different at different classes At the end of 15 weeks, they are asked to sit for a full TOEIC- based test and then, the scores will be converted into 10-mark scale as traditional way of marking

2.2 Data collection instruments

Concerning the aims at answering the five research questions, both quantitative and qualitative approaches with the triangulation of questionnaires, observations, and semi-structured interviews were utilized in the study so as to reach the targeted goals According to Cohen et al (2000), the combination was investigated because it helps myself as the researcher feel confident about the findings, and moreover increases the depth and quality of information, (Verma & Mallick, 1999)

2.2.1 Questionnaires

Questionnaire “is a relatively popular means of collecting data” (Nunan, 1992) which is “unprecedented efficient in terms of researcher time, researcher effort, and financial resources” (Nguyen et al., 2007) The questionnaires were done

to collect data answering for five research questions and had five parts In the questionnaires, both open-ended and close-ended questions were made under a variety of forms such as multiple choices, putting a tick, etc The content of questionnaire takes the basis of what has been discussed in this paper’s Literature Review and contained factual, behavioral, and attitudinal questions In each set of questionnaires, different questions were categorized in groups following the five research questions Particularly, to help the participants find it easy to complete the questionnaires, the researcher paid much attention to clarify the terms used in the papers thoroughly and Vietnamese was used to ensure that the non-major freshmen

at Vimaru can totally understand the questions (Please see Appendix 3

After finishing the first version, the set of questionnaires was sent to the supervisor and colleagues for getting further revised Then, it was piloted with some

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freshmen from the university The final version which was adjusted after revising and piloting process was delivered to the freshmen

To be more specific, part 1 of the questionnaire included three first

questions aiming to find out the Vimaru freshmen’s attitude towards TOEIC test in

general and TOEIC listening test in particular Part 2 including question 4 to

question 11 were done to know the actual performances of these students in TOEIC listening tests and their current TOEIC and English study situation in the classroom

and the test room Part 3 had only question 12 consisting of 5 subquestions with a

hope to investigate what linguistic factors affecting the freshmen’s performances on

TOEIC listening test Like part 3, part 4 contained only question 13 but including 5

subquestions with a purpose to find out the non- linguistic factors that influences the

freshmen’s performances on TOEIC listening test Finally, part 5 had two last

questions aiming to understand the students’ wants and suggestions to improve the matter

In general, it can be said that the questionnaires could answer all the research questions made; however, along with observations and semi-structured interviews, the outcome could yield more reliability and value

2.2.2 Semi-structured interviews

Semi-structured interview was carried out as “the interviewer has a general

idea of where she wants the interview to go, and what should come out of it” (Nunan, 1992)

The semi-structured interviews were carried out with 4 students who were of different levels basing on their latest English study result in the class With an attempt to create an open and friendly atmosphere for the respondents to express and share their opinions as well as their attitudes, the interviews were held one-by-one with Vietnamese as the main language

In terms of structure, the interview for students included four parts yet attempting to investigate their opinions and attitudes towards TOEIC listening, and what have made difficulties to their performances on TOEIC listening test, and

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lastly, their own preferences and suggestions for improvement (Please see Appendix 4) The procedure of building questions for the semi-structured interviews happened

in the same way as the process of drawing up the questionnaires

Along with other instruments, the semi-structured interviews help to

“validate other methods, or to go deeper into the motivation of respondents and their reasons for responding as they do” (cited in Cohen, Manion, and Morrisor,

2000, p.268)

2.2.3 Observation

Observations were taken as one method among others and were carried out

in the test room

Observations in the test rooms were made to find out any factors can affect the students’ performances on TOEIC listening test These observations were carried out the whole day on June, 1st when all the freshmen had to take the final TOEIC tests After that, journals were produced to keep the data for analysis

process (please see Appendix 5)

2.3 Data collection procedures

The procedures of data collection went through three main phases in chronological order: delivering questionnaires, holding semi-structured interviews and carrying out the observations

2.3.1 Delivering questionnaires

75 questionnaires for students were randomly distributed to three classes having students from different levels and coming from different departments at Vimaru The reason to deliver such number of questionnaires was to eliminate the invalid ones and get back 50 most comprehensible ones, and to avoid losing the questionnaires made by the students

On the day of giving questionnaires, the researcher asked for the help of the teachers teaching those periods to deliver the papers to the students after introducing the purposes and explaining some necessary information in case of

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having any problems The reason to let the teachers send out the questionnaires was that under the “authority” of the teachers, students would complete the papers seriously

2.3.2 Holding the semi-structured interviews

One-by-one interviews for the students were done in their dormitory rooms The first part of the interviews was to introduce and establish the close rapport between the interviewer and the interviewees Then, the researcher started the interviews and asked the permission to the use of tape-recording along with the confirmation of confidentiality of the interviews Under the friendly and open atmosphere, the respondents were encouraged to express their views and share their opinions towards the questions raised by the researcher During the interviews, in addition to asking for the respondents’ point of views, the researcher also let them chances to clarify and explain what listening difficulties they had to face A part from the use of tape-recording, the researcher took notes on some important information through the interviews for the sake of later transcription

2.3.3 Carrying out the observations

After holding the interviews, two observations in the test rooms were carried out in the morning and afternoon on June, 1st While the students were taking the tests, the researcher was observing and taking notes Everything happened in the test room from the attitudes and performances of students to the outside factors were written down

2.4 Data analysis procedure

Procedure “refers to sifting, organizing, summarizing, and synthesizing the data so as to arrive at the results and conclusion of the research” (Seliger and Shohamy, 1989) The collected data was synthesized and analyzed according to five research questions as follows:

The first research question (What are Vimaru freshmen’ attitudes towards TOEIC listening?) was answered by the information from the first 3 questions in the

interviews as well as the data from question 12 in the questionnaires

The fourth one (What are the non- linguistic factor affecting Vimaru freshmen’s performance on TOEIC listening?) dealt with the information during the

interviews Furthermore, the question 13 of the questionnaires and the observations were another source of data to answer this research question

The last research question (What are Vimaru freshmen’s suggestions and expectations to improve their TOEIC listening results?) was answered by the

information from the interview and the last two questions in the set of questionnaires

2.5 Summary

The third chapter gave a clear view on the methodology of the research including participants, data collection instruments, data collection procedure and data analysis procedure Based on the aims of the study, using triangulation of questionnaires, observations and semi-structured interviews was considered as the best choice to collect the thorough and in-depth information from the respondents and can make the data gained afterward reliable and comprehensive All those findings will come in the following chapter

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Chapter Iii: Results and discussion

The data, after being collected from the questionnaires, the observations, and the semi-structured interviews, would be analyzed and interpreted to answer the five research questions

3.1 What are Vimaru freshmen’s attitudes towards TOEIC Listening?

3.1.1 Reading Comprehension vs Listening Comprehension in TOEIC test

As can be seen from the chart, 54% of the participants thought that both skills are difficult while 46% of the others expressed that Listening is harder There was no answer for the other options It is understandable because TOEIC may be a hard-to-cope-with test for the non-major freshmen whose English were normally weak Moreover, through the results from this question, it could be seen that listening is always a threat for the students in comparison with reading as “language learners often feel inundated with problems when they first attempt to listen to a new language” (Underwood, 1989) The next two questions give more insights into the attitudes of these students towards TOEIC listening

than Listening Listening Listening is harder than Reading Both are difficult Both are easy

So so

Figure 1: Reading comprehension vs Listening comprehension in TOEIC test

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3.1.2 Vimaru freshmen’s attitudes towards TOEIC Listening

FIGURE 2: Vimaru freshmen’s attitudes towards TOEIC listening

Again, most of the students were afraid of listening; the option “very difficult” accounted for 30% and “difficult” was 54% Explaining for this fear, one

of the interviewee shared that “to listen well needs a lot of elements such as good pronunciation, rich vocabulary and sometimes, a little bit luck” (S2, line 38)

Surprisingly, 16% of the students thought that, for them, listening is “neither difficult nor easy” However, there were no confident students who dared to say that listening is “very easy” or “easy”

In conclusion, that TOEIC listening was considered difficult could help the teachers teaching English in general and teachers at Vimaru in particular point out the solution to teaching listening as well as designing the test

3.1.3 Vimaru freshmen’s feelings when taking TOEIC listening test

FIGURE 3: Vimaru freshmen’s feelings when taking TOEIC Listening test

Difficult Neither

difficult nor easy

easy

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From the chart, “tense”, “anxious”, “scared”, “unable to concentrate” and other feelings happened when the respondents did the TOEIC listening tests Among these feelings, “tense” made up for 36% and coming next was “anxious” with 14%, “scary” with 10%, and “unable to concentrate” with 10% These were normal feelings when students considered listening as an obstacle and of course, these feelings could affect their listening results

However, many students (30%) cannot define their feelings when having to take the listening test that they chose “other feelings” when being asked Responding to this phenomenon, different participants had different reasons They varied from “hard to understand”, or “not sure the answers” to “cannot listen”

Noticeably, an interviewee shared that he felt sleepy because of “the monotonous sounds from the tape” (S3, line 71)

Generally, students encountered a variety of feelings when taking listening test These often occurred when they were afraid of listening or they were not confident when doing listening test However, if they could not have a comfortable mind, it could have had impact on their listening results

3.2 What are Vimaru freshmen’s current study situation and performance

on TOEIC listening test?

3.2.1 Vimaru freshmen’s results in semester 1- TOEIC test

figure 4: Vimaru freshmen’s TOEIC results in semester 1

Overall, these students got low results in the first final test at the university Within the researcher’s expectations, there were 18 respondents under the average

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point, (200 points which was equivalent to 5 point when it was converted into traditional 10-scale mark), 27 students got a little above and above the average, and only 5 students got quite higher ones This fact could reveal a problem that TOEIC test in general and TOEIC listening in particular was too new and hard for these non-major students who did not have many chances to study listening before However, there were still some students got quite high results which indicated that they may have good English background

As a whole, most of the freshmen were at low English level and not many of them got good results at the final English test The reasons for getting low mark in TOEIC test and specially TOEIC listening would be explained in the next questions

3.2.2 Difficult parts of TOEIC Listening perceived by Vimaru freshmen FIGURE 5: Difficult parts of TOEIC listening perceived by Vimaru freshmen

The chart shows that many more students were afraid of part II, III, IV than part I 32% thought that picture descriptions were difficult since they can understand the picture but cannot listen to the answers The problem here was that their vocabularies were limited that they could not choose the correct options

“Part 1 is hard for me because I cannot recognize what the words are due to my bad pronunciation, hence, I always choose randomly” (S3, line 75)

Though this is still a difficulty for some students, it was optimistic that many could get points in this part, which can motivate them to continue other harder ones

With 82% agreed, part 3- conversations was seen as another difficulty that the freshmen had to overcome They claimed that, like the case in part 2, though they can understand the conversations but they still cannot choose the best answers

as “sometimes the four options were hard to clarify” (S1, line 22) Strikingly

from the chart, 100% of the surveyors were afraid of Part 4 It is understandable that non-experienced students cannot do well in this part as it requires much knowledge

of a wide range of topics Furthermore, some students wrote that part 4 was too fast

to listen and normally they could hear the sound of speaking but understand nothing

One of the interviewees explained that “part 4 had one voice and I did not have rich vocabularies for those topics” (S3, line 43)

3.2.3 Vimaru freshmen’s strategies while doing TOEIC Listening test

FIGURE 6: Vimaru freshmen’s strategies while doing TOEIC listening TEST

Listening strategies are vital for students’ success in listening acquisition; therefore, it is essential to investigate to what extent the students apply listening strategies in listening comprehension (Rost, 1991)

Regarding to the strategies used while taking TOEIC listening test, only 22%

of the participants had strategies of doing TOEIC listening while the other 78% did

22%

78%

Yes

No

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not use any Investigating more in used listening strategies, the respondents shared various ways such as “listen to key word”, “listen to Question word”, or “listen to known words”

In short, it was understandable that the freshmen were not taught much about listening strategies while they were at high school as listening was rarely carried out

in the class By these findings, teachers of English should bear in mind a need of teaching the students listening strategies

3.2.4 Vimaru freshmen’s habits before doing TOEIC listening test

FIGURE 7: Vimaru freshmen’s habits before doing TOEIC listening test

Not surprisingly, when being asked to share the habits before listening, only 24% “read through and underline the keywords” while 42% “have a look at the paper test but do not read anything”, and the other 22% “do nothing” Having no choice from these three options, the rest 12% had their own ideas that they tried to calm down before doing the test or relaxed for a while by facing down the table

These findings from the questionnaires were quite similar to those of observations Through her observations, the majority of the students had a look at the paper tests but they did not carefully read or underlined keys words The others looked around to find their friends or someone who had the same test codes to seek for help Like the information in the questionnaires, there were some students faced down the table to rest and some just sat in silence There were still many students reading the paper test and used their pencils to do something, however, the researcher was not sure that whether they did it effectively or not

24%

42%

22%

12% Read and underline the key words

Have a look at the paper test but do nothing

Do nothing Others

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To summarize, students normally did not have good preparation before listening as they may not have many chance to practice when they were at High schools However, they should be taught to well prepare before listening since the more and effectively they do it, the higher points they can get

3.2.5 Vimaru freshmen’s habits while doing TOEIC listening test

FIGURE 8: Vimaru freshmen’s habits while doing TOEIC Listening test

Concerning to the usual actions while doing TOEIC listening, 66% of the respondents “try to understand every words” and the other 42% “try to listen to every details” These figures indicate that students had a tendency to understand everything if they wanted to choose the answers correctly Among the respondents, there were 30% “reading the options while listening”, 28% “listen to main ideas” and 26% “try to listen to the key words” These findings were suitable to what were pointed out in students’ listening strategies that some were trying to apply academic techniques to get right answers Unlike the above surveyors, the other 10% held other habits as they “try to guess the ideas based on what can be listened”

Generally, lots of students did not have good habits while listening in general and TOEIC listening in particular, which could made their listening ineffective

3.2.6 Vimaru freshmen’s habits when they cannot listen to TOEIC test

Figure 9: Vimaru freshmen’s habits when they cannot listen to TOEIC test

Listen to main ideas Listen to key words Others

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As naturally, most of the respondents (72%) “choose randomly” if they could not listen to the TOEIC test It was understandable as many students relied on luck rather than the strategies or their knowledge in getting correct options In addition, the others even did not have any strategies to use Among the respondents, only 28% tried to “read the options again and choose logically” Even these students could not listen well; they tried their best to get the correct answers basing on something they could listen There was no place for “others” as the fresh-year students just had two above choices if they could not listen well

Generally, many of the students had a tendency of choosing randomly if they could not listen to the normal tests as well as the TOEIC test

3.2.7 TOEIC practice before taking the final test

Figure 10: TOEIC practice before taking the final test

It is a fact that TOEIC was a new kind of test to the first-year students whose English was, basically, grammar only without listening or reading skills Therefore, when being asked whether they had a TOEIC practice before the final test or not, 76% of the surveyors had not seen such kind of test and only 24% of these students had chances to practice the test but it did not last long The longest practice as proved by these students was 2 months and the shortest was a week This fact indicates that the time of training was not enough for students to have a good result

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In short, most of the students had not practiced TOEIC before and the others though were trained, the time for practicing was too short to master the test

3.2.8 Factors caused difficulties in doing TOEIC listening test

Table 1: Factors caused difficulties in doing TOEIC Listening test

to find out that linguistic factors seemed to have much more effect on the students’ listening rather than non- linguistic factors More specifically, 84% of the respondents had to cope with the problem of “speakers’ pronunciation” which made

up the highest proportion of all the suggested difficulties

“There are some words I know but I cannot listen because they were spoken differently from what I usually pronounce” (S2, line 48)

After “speakers’ pronunciation”, “speakers’ fast speed” and “new vocabularies and structures were two more difficulties that students had to deal with which accounted for 78% and 74% respectively

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Apart from these obstacles, 54% and 52% pointed out that because of

“unfamiliar topics” and “limited background knowledge”, they could not listen effectively Meanwhile, the other 44% found TOEIC listening hard due to the problem of “only listening once”

Coming next was “speakers’ stress and intonation” which was considered as another difficulty by 38% of the participants Almost equally as the above, “long time of listening” was chosen by 32% of the respondents for what made them listen ineffectively

The small proportions in the table belonged to some non-linguistic factors such as “large and crowded rooms” with 18%, “poor listening equipment” with 10%,

“background noise” with 18%, and “personal mood and health” with 22%

Finally, option “others” did not get any agreement as our students had to face too many difficulties that they could not think of anything else

As a whole, these above all caused challenges to the respondents and among these sources of difficulties, the linguistic elements accounted for much more proportion than the non-linguistic ones The next two questions would explain more for these findings

3.3 What are linguistic factors affecting Vimaru freshmen’s performances

on TOEIC listening?

Table 2: Linguistic factors affecting Vimaru freshmen’s

performance on TOEIC listening

Totally don’t agree

1 I feel confused when the speakers

pronounce differently from what I usually do

2 I feel hard to understand if there are too

many new vocabularies and structures

3 I cannot understand the main ideas if the

speakers speak too fast

4 I think that speakers’ intonations don’t 8% 22% 30% 36% 4%

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have any effects to their listening

5 I don’t understand the meanings of slang in

the listening

It can be recognized from the table that pronunciation caused students a lot

of difficulties due to the fact that 30% and 54% “totally agree” and “agree” with the suggested problems 12% of the respondents are “not sure” with this statement as sometimes, pronunciation was not a big problem for them The other 4% did not face this difficulty when listening since they may have good pronunciation to cope with the listening However, that the majority of the students considered pronunciation as an obstacle advised teachers to help their students enhance their pronunciation as much as possible

After pronunciation, new vocabularies and structures were another threat for students when listening, which also realized by Underwood (1989) and Higgin (1995) When being asked, 66% (24% for “totally agree” and 42% for “agree”) confessed that too many new words and phrases made them feel hard to understand

the listening “as there are too many new words and some words I know but they have many meanings which I cannot work out immediately”(S3, line 81)

Nevertheless, 10% were “not sure” about this and 4% did not agree with as their vocabularies were rich enough to master their listening Again, the findings called for a need of enriching and improving vocabularies and structures during the process of studying by students themselves It was, consequently, important for teachers to encourage and activate their students’ vocabulary acquisition

Another challenge for student was the speed of delivery which was totally agreed by 32% and agreed by 60% of the participants Only 6% was “not sure”

about that as “Speed is not really my problem since there are both slow and fast parts” (S1, line 18) Unlike the above, there was no one disagreed with this

statement As a result of these findings, the students obviously face certain difficulties in listening and listening TOEIC because they lack control over the

on their listening and in fact, it is true that “intonation can make a considerable difference to the meaning” (Buck, 2001)

Last but not least, slang can create a great deal of troubles to students while listening as “many language learners have limited experience of English in informal situation” (Underwood, 1989) Therefore, 26% totally agreed and 66% agreed that

“slang” made the listening hard to understand The rest of the students (8%) were not sure about this matter which showed that they may have known some and could overcome this obstacle when doing TOEIC listening However, the above mentioned problem should be improved by introducing students these informal expressions suitably Particularly, it is vital for the students themselves to cover slang in any sources

In summary, almost all of the students found them in the above situations when doing listening TOEIC test showing that the linguistic factors were really big problems for the freshmen, both for the bad and good ones

3.4 What are non - linguistic factors affecting Vimaru freshmen’s

performances on TOEIC listening?

Table 3: non-Linguistic factors affecting Vimaru freshmen’s performance on

Totally don’t agree

1 I feel hard to understand the

unfamiliar topics

2 I cannot choose the answers though

I can listen to the tests

3 I cannot listen well if the test rooms 24% 22% 36% 18% 0%