Factors causing challenges in learning listening skills faced by first-year non-English major students at Hanoi University of Industrykhó khăn khi học nghe hiểu

iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES PART I: INTRODUCTION i ii iii iv vi vii viii 1 Rationale Aims of the study Research questions Significance of the study Scope of the study Design of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 The role of Listening in language Learning and Teaching 1.2 Previous studies in listening problems faced by language learners 1.2.1 In general 1.2.2 In Vietnamese context 1.3 Common potential problems in EFL listening comprehension 1.4 Summary CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 2.1 The context of Hanoi University of Industry 10 10 2.1.1 Teachers 10 2.1.2 Students 10 2.1.3 Teaching and learning facilities 11 2.2 Research questions 11 2.3 Target population and sampling 11 2.4 Data Gathering Instruments 12 2.4.1 Student questionnaire 12 v 2.4.2 Teacher interview 13 2.4.3 Classroom observation 13 2.4.4 Document analysis 13 2.5 Data Analysis CHAPTER 3: RESULTS 3.1 Results of the document analysis 14 14 15 3.1.1 The English program for non-English major students at HaUI 15 3.1.2 The website http://haui.vietnamlearning.vn/ 16 3.1.3 The textbook of “New headway Elementary and Pre-intermediate” 16 3.1.4 The types and requirements of listening comprehension activities for nonEnglish major students at HaUI 17 3.2 Analysis of the Questionnaire Data 18 3.2.1 The listening text 18 3.2.2 Listener factors 21 3.2.3 Speaker factors 25 3.2.4 Environmental factors 26 3.2.5 Other factors that affect the learners‟ listening comprehension 28 3.2.6 The listening factor that poses the most difficulty for the learners 30 3.3 Analysis of Interview Data 31 3.4 Analysis of the data obtained from observation of the classroom listening environment 34 3.5 Summary of the Results 34 PART III: CONCLUSIONS 36 Conclusions 36 Recommendations 37 Limitations and suggestions for further study 40 References 42 APPENDIXES Appendix A: Questionnaire I Appendix B: Instructor Interview III Appendix C: Observation check list IV vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL – English as a Foreign Language ELT – English Language Teaching HaUI – Hanoi University of Industry L1 listening – Listening in a Native Language L2 listening – Listening in English vii LIST OF TABLES Page Table-1: Factors related to listening texts 19 Table-1a: Learners‟ responses that refer to listening problems related to unfamiliar words and difficult grammatical structures 19 Table-1b: Learners‟ responses that refer to listening problems related to long spoken text .20 Table-1c: Learners‟ responses that refer to listening problems related to unfamiliar topics 21 Table 2: Factors related to listeners .22 Table-2a: Learners‟ responses that refer to listening problems related to the skills of predicting and getting general idea of a text .22 Table-2b: Learners‟ responses that refer to listening problems related to native speakers‟ pronunciations .23 Table-2c: Learners‟ responses that refer to listening problems related to the ability of managing tasks 24 Table-3: Learners‟ responses that refer to listening problems related to the natural speech of native speakers 25 Table-4: Learners‟ responses that refer to listening problems related to the listening environment 27 Table-4a: Learners‟ responses that refer to listening problems related to the listening recording material 27 Table-4b: Learners‟ responses that refer to listening problems related to insufficient time to accomplish tasks .27 Table-5: Other factors that affected learners‟ listening performance 30 Table-6: Learners‟ responses that refer to the listening problem that poses the most difficulty for them 30 Table-7: Factors that influenced the learners' listening comprehension .35 viii LIST OF FIGURES Page Chart 1: Learners‟ responses referring to listening problems related to native speakers‟ Pronunciations .24 Chart 2: Learners‟ responses referring to listening problems related to speech of the native speakers 26 PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale It cannot be denied that English has been taken up by people in all walks of life, especially in companies, academic institutes and so on in Vietnam People are eager to learn English and wish to acquire it at an early age Also, in order to speed up the country‟s economy and to improve the living standards as soon as possible, it is necessary for engineers, technicians, scientists, etc to learn and acquire English to keep up to date with the latest developments in technology in the world To meet the requirements of these people in learning English, now more and more teachers of English who have teaching qualifications are needed in Vietnam In brief, nowadays more and more Vietnamese people want to learn English, and more and more teachers of English are needed to meet the social requirements In learning and teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in Vietnam, the macro skill of listening is of great importance and it draws the attention of both teachers and learners as Brett (1997) states that “listening is a key language skill, it has a vital role in the language acquisition process”(p.39) Compared to the other language skills, research on listening suggests that on average people can expect to listen “twice as much as we speak, four times more than what we read and five times more than we usually write” (Morley, 2001, p.70) As listening being a vital skill for oral interaction, it is, therefore; the most important medium for input in learning a foreign language (Lewis, 1993) and by increasing our students‟ ability to perceive speech, the amount of input they receive will increase and thus aiding students‟ language acquisition; which is true to the students of Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) Hence, it is essential for them to acquire the ability to listen to spoken English effectively However, despite the teachers‟ and students‟ efforts, the students, especially the first year non – English majors often have a lot of difficulties in learning listening comprehension Many students fail to take the listening input so they can hardly understand the spoken messages That is the reason why lots of them find it challenging to learn listening well or they become stressful in listening lessons Therefore, as a teacher teaching English listening, it is necessary and motivating for the writer to carry out a study on factors causing challenges to the first year non – English major students at HaUI in learning English listening comprehension Furthermore, this thesis is expected to provide insights for teachers and students in learning and teaching English listening so that even more successful ELT in Vietnam or elsewhere could be achieved Aims of the study The general aim of this study is to seek useful information that can help to solve the problems of non – English major students in learning English listening comprehension and to suggest possible measures that could contribute to planning a lesson taking the learners‟ problems into consideration The specific aims of the study are: To identify factors causing challenges for the first year non-English major students at HaUI in learning English listening comprehension To find out which particular factor poses the most difficulty for the non-English major freshmen at HaUI in learning English listening comprehension To give some pedagogical implications and suggestions to improve the teaching and learning English listening comprehension of the non-English major students at HaUI Research questions The purpose of the study is to find out factors causing challenges in learning English listening comprehension faced by the first year non-English major students at HaUI To this end, the researcher has formulated the following leading questions to be answered in the course of the study: What factors cause challenges for the first year non-English major students of HaUI in learning English listening comprehension? Which particular factor poses the most difficulty for the first year non-English major students of HaUI in learning English listening comprehension? What could be done to improve the teaching and learning of English listening comprehension of the non-English major students at HaUI? The study, therefore, tries to seek answers to the three above questions Significance of the study Awareness of the factors causing problems that EFL learners encounter in learning English listening would benefit both the learners and the instructors After this study is completed, the finding may help instructors to become aware of the problematic areas of listening skill so that they can take necessary treatment measures, which are suggested as an implication of the study More specifically, the study derives its importance from the context it explores, i.e., it tries to give an account of the difficulties EFL learners of HaUI encounter in listening classes These particular learners, as the researcher observed them in the past, had listening problems when they engaged in EFL listening activities Understanding their listening difficulties will permit the instructors to modify their teaching practices The study would also help learners to identify their difficulties of learning English listening skill to ascertain what further learning strategies are necessary Learners need to be aware of the factors which contribute to their difficulties in listening; when listeners know something about their own problems, they will be able to improve their listening practices and become better listeners The finding would also encourage material designers (instructors) to conduct needs analysis, and to revise modules or course contents in order to adjust the materials in such a way that they address the learners‟ listening deficiencies, which are indicated as an implication of the study Hopefully, this information can probably be used as additional evidence for sources of difficulties that Vietnamese college students have in learning English listening Scope of the study Dealing with all factors causing challenges in all aspects of learning English listening of EFL learners is too broad for a study of this size Therefore, this study focuses on investigating the factors causing challenges in learning English listening comprehension, especially with the course book series “New Headway” Also, due to the constraints of time, this study just involves a sample of non-English major freshmen at HaUI Design of the study The study is divided into parts: The first part, Introduction, presents the rationale, aims, research questions, significance, scope and design of the study The second part, Development, is the main part of study, consisting of three chapters Chapter discusses the role of listening in language learning and teaching Then, it reviews previous studies on listening problems faced by language learners in general and in Vietnamese context Finally, it deals with theories on common potential problems in EFL listening comprehension Chapter introduces the context of Hanoi Univesity of Industry where the study is conducted It also describes the methodologies employed in the study in terms of the research questions, target population and sampling, the data gathering instruments and data analysis Chapter presents the results, discussion of major findings on factors causing challenges faced by the non-English major freshmen at HaUI and the particular factor posing the most difficulty for them in learning English listening comprehension The third part, Conclusion, summarizes what are addressed in the study and makes a brief summary of major findings as well as gives some recommendations The limitations and suggestions for further study are also included in the last section PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter comprises four sections The first section discusses the role of listening skills in language learning and teaching The second section reviews the studies conducted on listening problems faced by language learners in general and in Vietnamese context Then common potentials problems in EFL listening comprehension are presented in the third section Finally, a brief summary of the reviewed literature will be given 1.1 The role of Listening in language Learning and Teaching Language acquisition depends on listening since it provides the aural input that serves as the basis for acquisition, and listening is the first language mode that children acquire At birth we know nothing about language, and yet we will complete much of the first language acquisition process within our first five years, depending almost exclusively on listening As it is indicated in second language acquisition theory, language input is the most essential condition of language acquisition As an input skill (says Krashen) listening plays a crucial role in learners‟ language development (1985) Beginning in the early 70's, work by Duker, Carroll and others, and later by Krashen, brought attention to the role of listening as a tool for understanding and emphasized it as a key factor in facilitating language learning As the studies on listening increased, it became a centre of attention not only in the process of first language acquisition but also in second language acquisition As a result, it is recognized as an important language skill for EFL learners especially for those students who learn English for academic purposes Feyten (1991) points out that listening plays a very important role in a student's academic success and it is a key component to successful learning This is true according to Dunkel (1986) in the sense that students spend most of their time listening to their teachers‟ lecture Duker (1971) is also among the writers who early noticed the importance of listening Duker reported data on how people spend their communicative time: of the total time devoted to communication, 45% is spent on listening, 30% on speaking, 16% on reading and 9% on writing From the data given above, one can understand that listening is the most frequently used language skill which plays a great role in the process of communication Similarly, an article which appeared on the web page of International Listening Association (Beard, 2005) indicated that listening is the fundamental language skill, and it is the medium through which people gain a large portion of their education, their information, their understanding of the world and of human affairs, their ideals, sense of values, and their appreciation In this day of mass communication, much of it oral, listening is of vital importance and students should be taught to listen effectively and critically Although listening has such significant roles in communication and second language acquisition, it has long been the neglected skill in research, teaching, and classroom assessment (Rubin, 1994; Richards and Renandaya, 2002) In recent years, however, there has been an increased focus on developing foreign language listening ability because of its perceived importance in language learning and acquisition Especially these days, there has been increasing emphasis on listening comprehension in ... sources of difficulties that Vietnamese college students have in learning English listening Scope of the study Dealing with all factors causing challenges in all aspects of learning English listening. .. non-English major students of HaUI in learning English listening comprehension? What could be done to improve the teaching and learning of English listening comprehension of the non-English major. .. the listening factors relating to specific context of learning and teaching English listening at HaUI It is, therefore, essential for the researcher to fill in the gap by investigating what factors