The difficulties in learning listening skill of non english major learners at the university of industry and how to deal with these difficulties

The difficulties in learning listening skill of non english major learners at the university of industry and how to deal with these difficulties The difficulties in learning listening skill of non english major learners at the university of industry and how to deal with these difficulties The difficulties in learning listening skill of non english major learners at the university of industry and how to deal with these difficulties The difficulties in learning listening skill of non english major learners at the university of industry and how to deal with these difficulties The difficulties in learning listening skill of non english major learners at the university of industry and how to deal with these difficulties The difficulties in learning listening skill of non english major learners at the university of industry and how to deal with these difficulties The difficulties in learning listening skill of non english major learners at the university of industry and how to deal with these difficulties The difficulties in learning listening skill of non english major learners at the university of industry and how to deal with these difficulties The difficulties in learning listening skill of non english major learners at the university of industry and how to deal with these difficulties

Nowadays, the English language plays an important role in every field of ourdaily lives Therefore, there is a great demand for learning English not only in Vietnambut throughout the world as well for different purposes Learning English is dividedinto four main skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing And, as a child,listening is the initial and the most important step which becomes the foundation,helping people to learn other skills of a language So, this study is conducted with theaim of investigating the obstacles when learning to listen to English and providingsuggested solutions to improve listening skills for 1st - year English-majored studentsat Thuong Mai University through qualitative and quantitative methods Collectingdata instruments like survey questionnaires and interview questions were used to dothe research With the hope of improving students’ listening competence, I have triedmy best to do this thesis based on my own experiences and knowledge in Englishlearning methodology

During the process of doing this graduation paper, I have received a lot ofessential assistance, precious ideas and timely encouragements from my teacher,family and friends.

First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms.Nguyen Thi Thanh Ha who has always been willing to give me valuable support,guidance, and encouragement in order that I can complete successfully this study.

I also would like to take this opportunity to convey my sincere thanks to all myteachers in the English faculty, Thuong Mai University, who have taught me basicknowledge for four years to complete this study My grateful appreciation goes to 52students of K54 at the Faculty of English, TMU for their enthusiastic help and support.Lastly, special thanks and love to my family and friends who were always by myside and gave me motivation in my education and every other aspect of life.

Student Hoang Thi Ngan

1.7 Organization of the Study 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Overview of Listening 6

2.1.1 Definition of listening skill 6

2.1.2 Types of Listening 7

2.1.3 Significance of Listening 11

2.1.4 Processes of listening comprehension 12

2.2 Factors affecting students’ English listening 13

2.2.6 Basic background knowledge 16

2.2.7 The speed rate of speech 17

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 18

3.1 Participants 18

3.2 Data Collection Instruments 18

3.2.1 Survey questionnaire 18

3.2.2 Interview Questions 19

3.2.3 Data Collection Procedures 19

3.3 Data Analysis and Discussion 20

3.3.1 Findings from Survey Questionnaire 20

3.3.2 Findings from Interview Questions 28

3.4 Discussions and Recommendations 32

3.4.1 Discussions 32

3.4.2 Recommendations 32

CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 36

4.1 Summary of the Study 36

4.2 Limitations of the Study 36

4.3 Suggestions for further research 37

APPENDIXES

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTSTABLES

CHARTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY1.1 Rationale

In recent years, Vietnam's economy has been integrating more deeply andbroadly with the global economy The demand for high - quality resources has notonly deepened but also for proficiency in foreign languages and soft skills.Nowadays, English has become an important part of every business It is the key toopening the door to discover and exploit new markets, and seek foreign investorsand production scale English is considered the second-most widely used languagethroughout the world There are four skills in English communication: listening,speaking, reading, and writing Of the four language skills, listening is believed tobe the most challenging for the students.

As a researcher, I would like to present the thesis titled “Difficulties inListening Skills of English-majored Freshmen at Thuong Mai University and somesuggested solutions” for several reasons.

First of all, listening is the initial and most important skill in communication.In reality, in the process of learning a language, human beings have to listencorrectly, which results in speaking or reading correctly Besides, people canunderstand each other thanks to communication Communication is simply the actof transferring information from one person to another The way they understandothers is through their languages No matter what the language is, as long as theyunderstand each other, it means they have already completed the process ofcommunication Of the four language skills, listening and speaking are two majorparts of communication They are closely interdependent If we cannot hear, ofcourse, we cannot speak If we fail to understand spoken language, we may missimportant information and cannot respond or respond in an inappropriate way.

Secondly, listening is viewed as the most difficult skill in learning a language.Unlike reading, a reader could base on the text and could have opportunities to referback to read the text over and over again; besides, a reader can control the speed ofreading and has more time to get its meanings; whereas, a listener has to understandthe messages without any text and just one time

Last but not least, the ability of listening requires long and extremely hardeffort to progress That is the reason why a lot of people feel bored and easily giveup learning to listen

Like many other universities, many students at Thuong Mai University,especially first - year students of the English Faculty, are faced with manydifficulties when they listen Listening skills not only help many students widentheir knowledge but also advance them to improve other language skills such asspeaking and writing That motivates them to find effective listening methods thathelp them to improve their listening skill

That is why the writer decided to choose the study.

Another study titled “The difficulties encountered by EFL Learners inListening Comprehension as perceived by ELC Students at the Arab AmericanUniversity-Jenin” by Ahkam Hasan Assaf The study aimed to investigate thedifficulties EFL students encounter in listening comprehension as perceived by ELCstudents at the AAUJ through two different data collection instruments: a surveyquestionnaire and two interview questions The results of the study showed thatthere were no significant differences in the difficulties students encountered inlistening comprehension due to academic level, academic year, gender, type ofschool and number of school years studying English In this study, the author paid

attention to difficulties more, he did not present effective methods helping studentsto learn listening fruitfully.

The last study which I found is “The difficulties in Learning Listening Skill ofNon-English Major Learners at the University of Industry and how to deal withthese difficulties” by an anonymous Industry student The author discovered someobstacles and solutions to improve listening skill but they are somewhat meagre andgeneralized.

Therefore, I would like to present a few more factors which affect listeningand more concrete recommendations and suggestions

1.3 Aims of the Study

This study was conducted in order to explore the current situation of Englishlistening skill of first - year students of the English Faculty at Thuong MaiUniversity More specifically, this study attempts to investigate the difficulties thatthe students faced when learning listening English and the factors bringing aboutdifficulties for the 1st year students of English major Based on the findings, theresearch further seeks to suggested solutions to help the students overcome thedifficulties in order to improve their listening effectively.

1.4 Research Subjects

The subjects of this study are difficulties in Listening Skills of the English-majoredFreshmen at Thuong Mai University and some suggested solutions The participantsare 52 K54 students in English faculty at Thuong Mai University The participantsconsisted of 48 female and 4 male students who are learning English in business.They came from different provinces and they were divided into different classes tostudy every subject together This practice formed multi-level classes In Englishclasses, while some students were good at English, others had lower Englishproficiency.

1.5 Scope of the Study

The research has been completed to find out the reality of learning thelistening skill in the first-year students of the English Department and provide sometechniques to help them improve their English listening skill It was carried out overone month in the second semester of the 2018-2019 academic year However, the

study could not include all K54 students at Thuong Mai University, its scope areonly 52 students of K54 at English Faculty Thus, the results of the study are limitedto the students enrolled in this study and the findings can affect the generalization ofthe larger population of all students It can also be a reference for anyone who wantsto practice listening to English.

1.6 Research Methodology

In consideration of the research’s purposes, this study was completed in bothquantitative and qualitative The data were collected by means of surveyquestionnaires and interview questions at Thuong Mai University.

The main method of the study was a quantitative survey questionnaire.Furthermore, in order to achieve the set goals, the researcher collected someinformation based on her interviews qualitative method to make sure that the datawould be more accurate and reliable.

A combination of two different methods above will provide reliable data,based on which the conclusions and suggestions will be made in the following parts.The quantitative data were presented in the form of tables while the qualitative datacollected from open-ended questionnaires and interviews were presented by quotingrelevant responses Then the data were analyzed both descriptively andinterpretively.

The purpose of using questionnaire and interview questions as researchmaterials to collect data in this study is to triangulate the data and to overcome thelimitations or drawbacks of other methods because one can well support anotherwhich helps strengthen the research findings.

Both survey questionnaire and interview questions were used to serve thefocal questions that guide the study These focal questions are:

1) What are the difficulties in learning English listening skill of majored freshmen at Thuong Mai university?

English-2) What are strategies which help them to improve their English listening skill?

1.7 Organization of the Study

The study is divided into 4 main chapters:

Chapter 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY includes the rationale, the aim of

the study, research questions, the scope, the significance, the research methodologyand the organization of the study.

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW gives situation analysis, research

question, the methods of the study This chapter studies on data collection, dataanalysis and provides the definition of listening, the significance of listening, theprocesses of listening comprehension and factors affecting student’s listening skill.

Chapter 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS studies on findings, discussions offindings and some recommendations for TMU students

Chapter 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS gives a summary,

limitations of the study and suggestions for further research.CONCLUSION

APPENDIXES

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW2.1 Overview of Listening

The purpose of this chapter is to review the theories concerning the subjectmatter of the study The literature review consists of four sections: section oneresolves definitions of listening, section two focuses on types of listening, sectionthree deals with the significance of listening and the last section is about processesof listening comprehension.

2.1.1 Definition of listening skill

There are many definitions of listening in language learning methodology.Listening is defined as the ability to recall and understand information which ispresented orally Listening is not only important but it is also difficult, becoming theproblem of many people who learn languages That is the reason why more andmore people pay attention to this skill So far, there have been a number ofdefinitions of listening by different linguists.

According to Thomlison’s (1984) listening is “the ability to identify andunderstand what others are saying This process involves understanding a speaker’saccent and pronunciation, the speaker’s grammar and vocabulary, andcomprehension of the meaning An able listener is capable of doing these fourthings simultaneously”

Ronald and Roskelly (1985) stated that “listening is an active processrequiring the same skills of prediction, hypothesizing, checking, revising, andgeneralizing that writing and reading demand”

Hirsch (1986) defined “listening as an aspect of skills: involves neurologicalresponse and interpretations of sounds to understand and to give meaning byreacting, selecting meaning, remembering, attending, analyzing and includingprevious experience”.

Purdy (1997) defined listening as “the active and dynamic process ofattending, perceiving, interpreting, remembering, and responding to the expressed(verbal and non-verbal), needs, concerns, and information offered by other humanbeings” Therefore, in order to listen well, listeners have to use a variety ofstrategies and tips to make sense, not hearing only

According to Brown (2001), listening is “not merely the process ofunidirectional receiving of audible symbols” He supposed that one aspect oflistening comprehension which is “the psychomotor process of receiving soundwaves through the ear and transmitting nerve impulses to the brain” Hence,listening comprises of three elements: the sender, the message and the listener

Ma Lihua (2002), stated that listening is “a complex psychological process oflisteners’ understand language by the sense of hearing It is an interactive process oflanguage knowledge and psychological activities However, this process is notsimply decoding the message, it also involves the combining of the decoding or themessage process with its reconstruction as meaning”.

O’Malley, Chamot, and Kupper (1989) stated that “listening comprehension isan active and conscious process in which the listener constructs meaning by usingcues from contextual information and from existing knowledge while relying uponmultiple strategic resources to fulfil the task requirement”

In short, to listen effectively, people must be actively involved in thecommunication process, and not just listening passively

2.1.2 Types of Listening

Most people, most of the time, take listening to a language for granted, unlikeother skills, it is something that just happens It is only when you stop to think aboutlistening and what it entails that you begin to realize that listening is, in fact, animportant skill that needs to be nurtured and developed in a long process with a lotof effort.

Effective listening is the foundation that underpins all positive humanrelationships If there are a lot of different definitions of listening skill, there aremany different opinions about its clarification This part draws on the work ofWolvin and Coakely (1996) and others to demonstrate the various types of listening

2.1.2.1 General Listening Types

The two main types of listening – the foundations of all listening subtypes are:- Discriminative Listening

- Comprehensive Listening

 Discriminative Listening

Discriminative listening is first developed at a very early age – perhaps evenbefore birth, in the womb This is the most basic form of listening and does notinvolve the understanding of the meaning of words or phrases but merely thedifferent sounds that are produced In early childhood, for example, a distinction ismade between the sounds of the voices of the parents – the voice of the fathersounds different from that of the mother

Discriminative listening develops through childhood and into adulthood Aswe grow older and develop and gain more life experience, our ability to distinguishbetween different sounds is improved Not only can we recognize different voices,but we also develop the ability to recognize subtle differences in the way thatsounds are made – this is fundamental to ultimately understanding what thesesounds mean Differences include may subtleties, recognizing foreign languages,distinguishing between regional accents and clues to the emotions and feelings ofthe speaker.

Being able to distinguish the subtleties of sound made by somebody who ishappy or sad, angry or stressed, for example, ultimately adds value to what isactually being said and, of course, does aid comprehension When discriminativelistening skills are combined with visual stimuli, the resulting ability to listen tobody-language enables us to begin to understand the speaker more fully – forexample recognising somebody is sad despite what they are saying or how they aresaying it.

Comprehensive Listening

Comprehensive listening involves understanding the message or messages thatare being communicated Like discriminative listening, comprehensive listening isfundamental to all listening sub-types.

In order to be able to use comprehensive listening and therefore gainunderstanding the listener first needs appropriate vocabulary and language skills.Using overly complicated language or technical jargon, therefore, can be a barrier tocomprehensive listening Comprehensive listening is the further complicated by thefact that two different people listening to the same thing may understand the

message in two different ways This problem can be multiplied in a group setting,like a classroom or business meeting where numerous different meanings can bederived from what has been said.

Comprehensive listening is complimented by sub-messages from non-verbalcommunication, such as the tone of voice, gestures and other body languages Thesenon-verbal signals can greatly aid communication and comprehension but can alsoconfuse and potentially lead to misunderstanding In many listening situations, it isvital to seek clarification and use skills such as reflection aid comprehension

2.1.2.2 Specific listening types

Listening types can be defined by the goal of listening The three main typesof listening most common in interpersonal communication are:

- Informational Listening (Listening to learn)

- Critical Listening (Listening to Evaluate and Analyze)

- Therapeutic or Empathetic Listening (Listening to understand Feeling andEmotion).

Informational Listening

Whenever you listen to learn something, you are engaged in informationallistening This is true in many day-to-day situations, in education and at work It isalso true when you listen to the news, watch a documentary, when a friend tells youa recipe or when you are talked-through a technical problem with a computer –there are many other examples of informational listening too.

Although all types of listening are ‘active’ – they necessitate concentrationand a conscious effort to understand Informational listening is less active thanmany of the other types of listening When we are listening to learn or be instructedwe are taking in new information and facts, we are not criticizing or analyzing.Informational listening, especially in formal settings like in work meetings or whilein education, is often accompanied by note taking – a way of recording keyinformation so that it can be reviewed later.

Critical Listening

We can be said to be engaged in critical listening when the goal is to evaluateor scrutinize what is being said Critical listening is a much more active behavior

than informational listening and usually involves some sort of problems solving ordecision making Critical listening is akin to critical reading; both involve analysisof the information being received and alignment with what we already know orbelieve Whereas informational listening may be mostly concerned with receivingfacts and/or new information – critical listening is about analysing opinion andmaking a judgement.

When the word ‘critical’ is used to describe listening, reading or thinking itdoes not necessarily mean that you are claiming that the information you arelistening is somehow faulty or flawed Rather, critical listening means engaging inwhat you are listening to by asking yourself questions such as, ‘what is the speakertrying to say?’ or ‘what is the main argument being presented?’, ‘how does what Iam hearing differ from my beliefs, knowledge or opinion?’ Critical listening is,therefore, fundamental to true listening.

Many day-to-day decisions that we make are based on some forms of ‘critical’analysis, whether it be critical listening, reading or thought Our opinions, valuesand beliefs are based on our ability to process information and formulate our ownfeelings about the world around us as well as weigh up the pros and cons to make aninformed decision.

It is often important when listening critically, to have an open-mind and not bebiased by stereotypes or preconceived ideas By doing this you will become a betterlistener and broaden your knowledge and perception of other people and yourrelationships.

Therapeutic or Empathic Listening

Empathic listening involves attempting to understand the feelings andemotions of the speaker – to put yourself into the speaker’s shoes and share theirthoughts.

Empathy is a way of deeply connecting with another person and therapeutic orempathic listening can be particularly challenging Empathy is not the same assympathy, it involves more than being compassionate or feeling sorry for somebodyelse – it involves a deeper connection – a realisation and understanding of anotherperson’s point of view.

Counsellors, therapists and some other professional use therapeutic orempathic listening to understand and ultimately help their clients This type oflistening does not involve making judgement or offering advice but gentlyencouraging the speaker to explain and elaborate on their feelings and emotions.Skills such as clarification and reflection are often used to help avoidmisunderstandings.

We are all capable of empathic listening and may practice it with friends,family and colleagues Showing empathy is a desirable trait in many interpersonalrelationships – you may well feel more comfortable talking about your own feelingsand emotions with a particular person They are likely to be better at listeningempathetically to you than others, this is often based on similar perspectives,experiences, beliefs and values – a good friend, your spouse or sibling for example.

2.1.3 Significance of Listening

No one can deny the importance of listening skills in foreign languagelearning because the key to acquire a language is to receive language input.Listening is the first language mode that provides the foundation of cognitivedevelopment and the most common communicative activity in daily live Morley(1991) stated that listening is the thing that people do most of their time ‘We havetwo ears but only one mouth’, that is the reason why people listen more than theyspeak, read and write Moreover, Gilakjana and Ahmadi (2011) stated that of thetotal time spent on communicating, listening takes up 40-50%; speaking accountsfor 25-30%; reading and writing, about 9%, which means that listening is crucial forcommunication

To understand more deeply about the importance of listening, it is necessary todistinguish between ‘listening’ and ‘hearing’ Hearing is an accidental andautomatic brain response to sound that requires no effort We are surrounded bysounds most of the time There are a lot of kinds of sounds which people can hearevery day such as the sounds of bicycles, airplains, lawn mowers, and so on Peopleusually ignore them Listening, on the other hand, is purposeful and focused ratherthan accidental Therefore, it requires motivation and effort Hearing is a part of fivesenses (hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and looking) and a part of listening as

well If hearing is through ears, then listening is through mind The purpose oflistening is understanding the meanings expressed by a speaker Hence, listening isessential not only as a receptive skill but also to the development of spokenlanguage proficiency.

According to Devine (1982), listening is the primary means by whichincoming ideas and information are taken in In fact, students from kindergarten tohigh school were expected to listen to 65-90 per cent of the time This is easilydemonstrated at schools in Vietnam, where the main activity of students in class islistening to teachers Wolvin and Coakley (1988) concluded that, both in and out ofthe classroom, listening consumes more of daily communication time than otherforms of verbal communication Listening is central to the lives of studentsthroughout all levels of educational development (Coakley & Wolvin, 1997).Listening is the most frequently used language skill in the classroom (Ferris, 1998;Murphy, 1991; Vogely, 1998) Both instructors (Ferris & Tagg, 1996) and students(Ferris, 1998) acknowledge the importance of listening comprehension for successin academic settings Numerous studies indicated that efficient listening skills weremore important than reading skills as a factor contributing to academic success(Coakley & Wolvin, 1997)

As for students of the English Department, TMU, especially English-majoredfreshmen, the importance of listening skill is undeniable Because most of thespecialized subjects at school are taught in English, it is very difficult for students tounderstands the lesson if they cannot listen Besides, when it comes to four skills inlearning a language, people can easily list them respectively: listening, speaking,reading, and writing However, not everyone understand that it is also the orderlyprocess for a language learner Listening is the first step and well listening is thesolid foundation for developing other skills

2.1.4 Processes of listening comprehension

As mentioned above, listening is the psychological process of receiving,attending to, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken or nonverbalmessages There are four steps in the listening process.

The first step is receiving It refers to the response caused by sound wavesstimulating the sensory receptors of the ear; it is the physical response.

The next step is understanding It is the stage at which you learn what thespeaker means - the thoughts and emotional tone.

The third step is remembering It is an important listening process because it meansthat an individual has not only received and interpreted a message but has also added it tothe mind’s storage bank However, just as our attention is selective, so too is our memory– what is remembered may be quite different from what was originally seen or heard

The final step is evaluating It consists of judging the messages in some way.At times, you may try to evaluate the speaker’s underlying intentions or motives.Often this evaluation process goes on without much conscious awareness.

It can be concluded that listening is a complex process When you have ears,you can hear everything within hearing range; but that does not necessarily meanyou understand what you heard Listening, on the other hand, is a skill

2.2 Factors affecting students’ English listening

These aspects of motivation are supported by Brophy's method for motivation(1998, 3): "Motivation is a theoretical construct used to explain the beginning,direction, intensity, and motivation Maintenance of behaviour, especially behaviourtowards the goal In the classroom context, the concept of student motivation is used

to explain the degree to which students invest in attention and effort in differentactivities, which may or may not be something that the teacher desire " As it isevident, motivation constitutes one of the significant backbones of the learningprocess in student life; So many studies put a high value on this concept.

Lack of motivation is still a big problem for both teachers and students inlanguage classes It is important to identify the cause of insufficient motivation andknow how to deal with students who lack motivation Timmins (1999) suggests findingreasons for lack of motivation in students by using psychology in the classroom.Therefore, it is very important for the teacher to put emotional factors into account

Any threat to the psychology of students also reduces their interest in thelesson However, it is not a problem that cannot be solved Teachers should take amore careful role McDonough (2007, 2) describes the role of the teacher in thisregard: "Linking provides a supportive and challenging learning environment, butalso facilitates the development of motivational thinking of the learner, in additionto determining their original orientation “Similarly, the willingness to transfer rolesbetween teachers and students is motivating to learn, so positive emotions are infact students taking on a more active role in learning Scharle and Szabo (2005, 7)said, "a sense of responsibility and independence brings feelings of happiness andconfidence." In classrooms, where students give students the opportunity to getactive participants, students become more eager for the unit Therefore, learnerautonomy motivates their level of motivation to learn Self-help environmentsprovide students with choice and encouragement.

Motivation is essential in doing everything, including in learning something.In learning language, learners need motivation because it helps them in trying anddevelop their understanding of a new language With motivation, a learner wants tosucceed So without it, he or she certainly would not make the necessary effort Inaddition, Harmer (2003: 10) outlines some of the characteristics of good learners inthe classroom, including the willingness to listen, readiness to read, willingness toask questions, willingness to think about learning and available will accept theadjustment.

So, it is part of a teacher’s job to encourage students and create a goodatmosphere for them to study.

2.2.2 Quality of Recorded Materials

Not only listening English, but any kinds of sound arround us, the quality ofsound system is the important factor which decides listening results If the sound issqueaky, or simply too small, of course the listener cannot listen well Therefore, inclassrooms, ensuring that the recorded materials have appropriate volume whicheveryone can hear is essential

2.2.3 Pronunciation

Pronunciation is the most essential thing we have to master Otherwise, wecannot get the message that people say According to Penny Ur (2001), Jack C.Richard (2002), pronunciation is the sound of language or phonology; tension andrhythm; and intonation and can insert each sound and segment and ultrasound Inaddition, Otłowski (2004: 1) states that pronunciation is an acceptable or commonpractice From above, we can conclude that an interpreter is a sound generator thatis divided and that segments are accepted or understood.

Learners who have good English pronunciation can be understood even if theyhave errors in other areas, while poorly learned ones will not understand, even iftheir grammar is perfect Pronunciation is one of the most important things thatstudents must master to communicate fluently According to Fangzhi (1998: 39), itis important to pay attention to the pronunciation as it results in the message thatone can be passed on or not by others This leads to the fact that only when wepronounce correctly, can we speak and listen correctly In addition, Gilbert (quotedin Otlowsky, 2004: 3) stated that if someone could not hear English well, she or hewould be ignored We can conclude from above that pronunciation has a significanteffect on the meaning of what others say and hear as well

2.2.4 Vocabulary

Vocabulary is an important element which needs for teaching and learning aforeign language It is the foundation for the development of all other skills: readingcomprehension, listening comprehension, speaking, and writing Vocabulary is akey tool for students in their efforts to use effective English When facing a nativeEnglish speaker, when watching a movie without subtitles or when listening to afavorite English song, when reading a text or writing a letter to a friend, the studentwill always need to use vocabularies

The fact is that students often find it difficult to listen to English well Theirconversation is immediately interrupted because they do not know what the speaker issaying And the main reason for such communication problems is the lack of vocabulary.Other students are facing the problem of forgetting words right after the teacher hassuggested their meaning or after they have looked at them in the dictionary, and this isalso the cause of the lack of vocabulary The more students learn, the easier it is toremember.

Cardenas (2001) stated that vocabulary is used to determine a student's level ofproficiency in the communication process This is said that vocabulary is an essentialingredient to determine how many students are able to communicate successfully.Hence, learning vocabulary is very important for students who learn English as a foreignlanguage That is why all those who learn English or some other language should knowthe words The rich vocabulary can assist them in listening If they do not know themeaning of words, they hear only and do not understand the messages of speech

2.2.5 Accent

Munro and Derwing (1999) expressed that too many accented speech can leadto an important reduction in comprehension According to Goh (1999), 66% oflearners mentioned a speaker’s accent as one of the most significant factors thataffect listener comprehension In reality, with the same language, listening to acountryman is easier than listening to a person who comes from another place.

2.2.6 Basic background knowledge

Background knowledge about a topic is also an important variable that caninfluence listening Even if a person has mastered the skill of analyzing speechaccurately and automatically, the lack of basic background knowledge can causereduced listening comprehension (Samuels, 1984) Underwood stated that lackingbackground information and contextual knowledge were a hindrance for listeningcomprehension Students could understand the surface meaning of what they werelistening to, but they were still ignorant of the meant meaning Koichi (2002) gavean example of how the lack of background knowledge could be a difficulty inlistening comprehension He stated that non-native speakers might not understandthe cashiers in American supermarkets when they ask them about what type of bags

they would like to have their purchases in In fact, non-natives could know themeaning of bag, but it might be difficult for them to realize its meaning in thiscontext, maybe because they have no such things in their cultures

2.2.7 The speed rate of speech

The speed rate of speech has a significant influence on listeningcomprehension Brown (1989) stated that the faster rate of speech affectednegatively on comprehension Likewise, Korst (1997) conducted a study wherestudents were allowed to control the speech rates of the input texts delivered bycomputers He found out that slower speech rates led to better comprehension.Therefore, students found it difficult to construct meaning out of the informationdelivered quickly and could not control how quick speakers were

Using reduced forms, linking and elision while speaking are the reasons whichmake native speakers speak faster The reduction can be phonological,morphological, syntactic or pragmatic such as “he’d” instead of “he had” or “hewould”, “won’t” instead of “will not”, “haven’t” instead of “have not” Examplesfor linking are “lemme” instead of “let me”, “kinda” instead of “kind of”, andelision are /im/ instead for /him/, /a:st/ instead of /a:skt/ These reductions pose a bigproblem for learners, especially beginners who have not practiced listening Englishmuch

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS3.1 Participants

The study was undertaken with the participation of 52 first-year students at theEnglish Faculty of TMU Their ages are from 19 to 20 The subjects of the study are52 freshmen at English Faculty (K54N7) when they are in the second semester oftheir 2018-2019 academic year at TMU The majority of these students have somepoints in common: Most of them come from rural areas, they have been learningEnglish for over 7 years However, their English listening is not good because theydo not have environment to practice English, and they did not learn English with theright method At high school, they mainly focused on grammars and reading skills.That is the reason why they did not spend much time on listening skills Thus, theyhave encountered many difficulties in learning English listening skill at university.

3.2 Data Collection Instruments

The instruments which were used in this study are a survey questionnaire andtwo interview questions

3.2.1 Survey questionnaire

To gather data for this study, the questionnaire was distributed to 52 first-yearstudents in English faculty during their break times in the class and collected theright way Before they do the survey questionnaire, the researcher would brieflystate the purposes and significance of the study and clarify any misunderstandingabout the questionnaire These aim to guarantee the reliability and validity of thesamples

All questions and its items were written in simple English words to make surethat the students had a clear understanding of the questions and answers before theyanswered The questionnaire consists of two parts Part one was intended to collectpersonal information of the participants, such as their age, gender, years of learningEnglish Part two of the questionnaire consisted of 10 questions both closed andopen-ended questions The purpose of the questionnaire was to investigate:

- The students’ general attitudes towards learning English

- Their perceptions of the importance of learning English listening skills

- Their ways of learning English listening skills- Their difficulties in learning English listening skills

3.2.2 Interview Questions

There are two interview questions designed for students at the English faculty– TMU by open-ended questions with the aim of collecting information about thestudents’ opinion about difficulties in learning English listening and suggestions toimprove their English listening skill In addition, an interview provides anopportunity for the interviewer and interviewees to share ideas widely andcollaboratively, without imposing the same as in the questionnaire.

After the interview, all the collected results would be recorded carefully Theresearch based on these results were used to analyze and conclude the commonproblem of students and some strategies in learning English listening skills as well.In the analyzing process, some answers of interview questions would be quoted asproof and the interview data analysis would be presented to find out the results ofthe study

3.2.3 Data Collection Procedures

Data play a very important role in research because if there is no data, theresearcher cannot get the results of the study To collect information about theissues of learning English listening skill of first-year English-majored students atTMU, first of all, 52 copies of survey questionnaire were handed out to students.After that, they were also invited to answer interview questions

After the data collection procedure has been completed, all the informationwas transcribed, typed and translated for further explanations and analysis Whenthe data collection was accomplished, the researcher carried out data analysis