A study on difficulties in english listening skill for the second year students in english faculty, thuongmai university and some suggested solutions

1 THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY GRADUATION PAPER Topic: COMMON ERRORS IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS OF ENGLISH – MAJOR FRESHMEN AT THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY Supervisor: Pham Thi Xuan Ha (M.A) Student: Trinh Thi Thuong Class: K52N3 Student Code: 16D170186 HANOI, 2020 ABSTRACT Today, the position of English in the areas of life is increasingly important and necessary To learn English well and fluently, learners must improve their language skills Listening is considered to be the most difficult skill when learning a foreign language in general and English in particular, a skill that learners face many difficulties and challenges Students at Thuongmai University also have difficulty hearing English There are many domestic and foreign authors studying the areas of listening skills However, there are no major studies targeting second-year English students Therefore, we conducted a study on the difficulties in English listening skills of second-year English language students This thesis focuses on three main issues: the attitude of second-year students in English Faculty, Thuongmai University on English listening skills, difficulties in listening skills of English second-year students in English Faculty, Thuongmai University and proposing solutions to help the students improve their listening skills This study is based on quantitative, qualitative methods The survey questionnaire was used to distribute 100 students in K54N classes to collect data Raw data is converted into numbers and percentages From the results, there are conclusions drawn about students' attitudes and difficulties in English listening skills In general, second-year students are aware of the importance of listening skills and most of them consider that this is the most difficult skill in English skills Second-year students have many difficulties in listening (subjective and objective difficulties) From the research findings, the researcher has made suggestions and recommendations to help students solve difficulties when listening to English The researcher hopes this research can help second-year students in English Faculty, Thuongmai University improve their listening skills and support follow-up research to avoid shortcomings and limitations ACKNOWLEDGMENT On completing this graduation paper, I would like to send my deepest and most sincere gratitude to many people for their invaluable help during the conduct of the research First and foremost, I would like to send my heartfelt gratitude towards my supervisor Ms Pham Minh Hong for her constructive and timely feedbacks as well as her constant and unfailing support which were decisive factors to the completion of the study Furthermore, I would love to thank all the teachers who have taught me academic writing and research methodology I would also like to say the sincerest thanks to second-year students in English Faculty, Thuongmai University who have enthusiastically participated in the study Their participation has been crucial to the completion of the research Last but not least, I express my truly gratitude to my family and friends who emotionally and spiritually comforted me through the challenging time of conducting the research The study could not have been completed without their continual encouragement TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT i ACKNOWLEDGMENT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v LIST OF TABLE AND FIGURES vi CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Previous studies 1.3 Research subjects 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Research methodology 1.6 The organization of the study .7 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 An overview of listening skills .8 2.1.1 Definition of listening 2.1.2 The features of listening skills 10 2.1.3 The significance of listening skills 10 2.1.4 Types of listening 11 2.2.2 Elements make English listening difficult 15 2.3 Factors affecting English listening 16 2.3.1 The class atmosphere 16 2.3.2 Students’ motivation 16 2.3.3 Quality of recorded material 17 2.4 Summary 18 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH FINDINGS .19 3.1 Methodology .19 3.1.1 Research methodology .19 3.1.2 Research questions 19 3.1.3 Participants .20 3.1.4 Data collection instruments 20 3.2 Data analysis and discussions 21 3.2.1 The difficulties, like and dislike .21 3.2.2 The importance of learning English listening skills and frequency of students having problems in learning English listening skills .23 3.2.4 Causes affecting English listening skills 25 3.2.5 The activities students should before and while listening 29 3.2.6 Results of the interview 30 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 32 4.1 Summary of the study 32 4.2 Possible solutions to improve listening skills 32 4.2.1 Solutions for students 32 4.3 Recommendations 34 4.3.1 For school or university 34 4.3.2 For lecturers 35 4.3.3 For students .35 4.4 Limitation of the study 37 4.5 Suggestions for the study 37 CONCLUSION 38 REFERENCES 39 APPENDIX 40 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS TMU: Thuongmai University LIST OF TABLE AND FIGURES Chart 3.2: The student’s interest in learning listening skills .22 Chart 3.3: The importance of English listening skills 23 Chart 3.4: The frequency of students having problems in learning English skills 24 Chart 3.5: Students’ interest in extra listening activities 24 Chart 3.7: Difficulties in English listening related to the listener .26 Chart 3.8: Other problems in listening English skills 28 Chart 3.10: Students should during English listening 29 CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY The first chapter includes an overview of the research topic The first problem mentioned is the reason for studying the topic as well as previous research and the aims of the study In addition, Chapter I also points out the salient features of the research subjects and scope of the study Moreover, this is also the chapter outlining the research methodology used in the study process Finally, this chapter is also a chapter that summarizes the parts of the organization of the study 1.1 Rationale In the age of explosion of science, technology and information, the most common use of foreign languages: English to communicate with other countries in the world is a very necessary thing Therefore, English is becoming the number one foreign language taught in our country Previously, the main objective of teaching and learning foreign languages was reading comprehension for literary and scientific research Currently, in order to serve the open policy of, innovate and integrate into the region and the world, the goal of foreign language teaching is communication In order for students to communicate well, teachers have to change the way of teaching using verbal communication method (listening and speaking) Listening plays a vital role in daily lives People often listen for different purposes such as entertainment, academic purposes or obtaining necessary information Of the four language skills Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing that all language learners are supposed to acquire Listening is believed to be the most challenging due to the complex and subtle nature of listening comprehension in a second or foreign language As a researcher, I would like to present the thesis title “A study on difficulties in English listening skills for the second-year students in English Faculty, Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions” for several reasons First of all, listening is the most important skill in communication in our real life Listening is key to all effective communication Without the ability to listen effectively, messages are easily misunderstood As a result, communication breaks down and the sender of the message can easily become frustrated or irritated Moreover, in learning a language, listening is a useful means of providing students with comprehensible input, which is an essential component of the whole language learning process And teaching listening skill in the classroom helps students make the transition from classroom English to real-life English more easily and effectively Therefore, I would like to this research to help the students and teachers pay more attention to listening skill Secondly, learning listening skill is the most difficult in learning a foreign language Listening, like reading, is a receptive skill but it is often the most daunting for students When reading, a reader usually has more opportunities to refer back to the text to clarify understanding, which a listener cannot in most listening contexts such as TV programs, meetings, discussions, lectures or conversations Last but not least, reason for choosing this thesis title is that many students are not interested in learning listening skill They find listening classes boring On the other hand, practicing listening skill is difficult and it takes a long time That is the reason I would like to work out some suggestions to help teachers motivate their students to study listening skill more excited and better After studying in English Faculty, Thuongmai University, for nearly four years, I realize that the second-year students of English major still have to cope with many difficulties in their listening skill In the hope of finding out some difficulties of listening that they normally get, a study entitle: “A study on difficulties in English listening skill for the second-year students in English Faculty, Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions” has been conducted because of all above mentioned reason 1.2 Previous studies According to some previous research from Hamouda (2013), who completed the related study, he concluded that in order to help students to improve their listening ability, language lecturer had to understand students’ listening difficulties in comprehending listening text, and instruct effective listening strategies to help the students to solve their listening difficulties As well as the lecturer knows their students’ difficulties, students as subjects have an important role in developing their listening Students successful in listening depend on how they can know and solve would come next, the percentage reaches 11% Besides, the intonation of the speaker also makes students difficult to understand about 9% Lastly, 7% of learners only listen to the stressed words It is not easy for them to realize the stress word in the utterance Generally, it means that many students find it difficult to concentrate when answering and listening at the same time 53% It is considered as a main cause leading to difficulties in listening to English related to the listener This may be due to the limited time of the English listening comprehension test They not have time to think the correct answer It shows that students cannot concentrate because they seek answers, while listening to the conversation In conclusion, there are many factors affecting the students’ learning skill and each student has different trouble, therefore students should practice listening regularly to repair the trouble The next question is “What other problem in listening English skills?” We can see the chart 3.8 below 70% 63% 60% 50% 40% 30% 29% 20% 10%8% 0% A Lose concentration because of poor quality of recording C Don't have any time because you have to learn much other subjects The chart shows other problems in English listening skills such as: losing concentration because of poor quality of the recording, not having a good environment to practice listening skills or not having any time because you have to learn many other projects In terms of not having a good environment to practice listening skills, the percentage of these problems is the largest in three situations, it took 63% Next, the percentage of not having any time because you have to learn many the projects Chart 3.8: Other problems in listening English skills took 29% As you know that poor quality of tape will make sounds of the speaker is not clear and make us lose concentration However, only a small minority of students chose answer A, which losing concentration because of the poor quality of recording at 8% In short, a good environment still plays an important role in English listening skills When students have a good environment, the students will have more chances to practice listening English skills However, students should create their own effective English learning environment, learners need to develop strategies appropriate for each skill In addition, students must be determined to follow the plan and maintain their own pace of learning English clubs are not a bad idea Or a stroll "hunting foreigners", or simply a group of friends who want to improve their English, practice communication skills as well as listening skills 3.2.5 The activities students should before and while listening “In the listening class, how did they learn this skill?” 2.00% 90.00% 8.00% A Should learn some related new words B Should predict the content of the activities that the teacher gives C Both A & B D Do nothing The following charts would express they did The chart shows that most students (90%) in listening classes are taught the new words relating to the listening texts and they often predict the contents of the listening text base on the activities given by the teacher But some of them only learn the new words (2%) and the other learners (8%) guess the content before they start listening No one chose answer D, this question shows that most students prepared well before English listening Chart 3.9: Students should before English listening 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 51% 47% 2% The last question in the survey is “What students should during English listening?” The pie chart 10 will shows the answer for the question The chart 10 shows that there is only a small difference between answer A and answer B The percentage of listening and answer the question reach 51%, the percentage of listening and take notes reaches 47% A small minority of listening only is just 2% or less In conclusion, students still have a habit of listening and answering questions rather than taking notes 3.2.6 Results of the interview According to the random interviews of three students, first student shared that “I think that English listening skills is always a great challenge for some students I face many difficulties in not being able to distinguish English sounds, homophones, especially words with similar pronunciation, for example I / eye; she / see ” Second student said that “I think that listening skills in English is one of the most important skills in life because people understand each other better So this skill is very important However, foreigners often stick their tails to each other, for example, the phrase "live in" is rarely pronounced in / lɪv / and / ɪn /, which is pronounced as / lɪvɪn / Therefore, I have a hard time understanding what they say, and as a result, I can't keep up with the speaker's speed” Final student shared that: “For me, stress is the hardest Unlike Vietnamese, words in English have accents so listeners need to pay attention to this Even a word with different accents can have different meanings For example, the word "decrease" is a Chart 3.10: Students should during English listening noun if you say it with the first sound / ˈdiː.kriːs / and a verb if you say with the second stress / dɪˈkriːs /” In conclusion, most students are unable to comprehend listening text There are many problems in learning English skills that were found in analyzing students' difficulties, they were: lack of vocabulary, poor grammar mastery, accent, pronunciation, lack of concentration, speed of speech, inability to apply listening strategy, bad quality of recording It is correct that the problems in listening comprehension faced by students' not only from the listeners themselves but also from content material and environment of listening comprehension Hence, the students have to study hard and have more practice to improve their listening comprehension Difficulties in listening is inevitable, but thanks to those difficulties, each student will has his or her own experience to become more and more progressive in the future CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 4.1 Summary of the study The study was to found out the problems encountered the students from three factors: Listening material, listeners' factor, and physical setting The study was conducted using quantitive, qualitative methods and interviews to analyze and to find the solution about the problems There were 100 second-year students in English Faculty, Thuongmai University as the subject in this study Data were gathered by questionnaire and interview while observation during listening was used to confirm students' answer The result of analyzing students' difficulties toward listening comprehension showed that listening is very difficult skill for students who study foreign language It was based on three factors influencing their listening, they were listening material, listener factor, and physical setting Accents, pronunciation, speed of speech, insufficient vocabulary, different accent of the speakers, lack of concentration, and bad quality of recording were the major problems encountered by students' English Faculty This research topic is really useful for everyone especially for second-year students in English Faculty, Thuongmai University Because English is becoming more and more important in both study and life And in the period of international economic integration, if you have good listening and speaking skills, it becomes one of the important criteria for recruiting human resources Therefore, students are more aware of the difficulties they often face, from which, students have experiences and find more effective methods In addition, understanding the student's difficulties allows teachers to help students develop effective learning strategies and ultimately improve their hearing 4.2 Possible solutions to improve listening skills 4.2.1 Solutions for students From the answers we received from 100 second-year students in English Faculty, Thuongmai University Based on the result study formerly, listening is one of the difficult skills for students as foreign language learners even though they are students in English Education Department Although students encountered various kinds of problems in listening comprehension, they need to study hard to become better listeners Because listening is one of the important skills that provides input for the learners not only in language learning but also in daily communication Accordingly, we offers the following suggestions We want to divide activities into three stages to help students improving listening skills: pre-listening activities, while listening activities, post-listening activities - Pre-listening activities: The pre-listening stage is very important because it is the base for the listening process The pre-listening stage helps our students to prepare for what they are going to hear, and this gives them a greater chance of success in any given task Students should learn new related words with different topics to improve vocabulary Therefore, pre-listening activities can help students prepare for the vocabulary and language structures in the text and help students mitigate anxiety Moreover, environment also plays a vital role, learners should find out appropriate environment to practice listening skills such as practicing in Hoan Kiem Lake, there are many foreign visitors help learners practice both speaking and listening skills with natives Besides, learners should arrange a suitable schedule to have more time to improve their English listening skills - While listening activities: While-listening stage is the time for students to listen to the text and understand it Students not need to understand all about the listening text Firstly, they not need to memorize the exact words or sentences that are said They just need to catch the major ideas Students should take note of important words or keywords because it is easier for students to understand fast and inconveniently Therefore the students will not be distracted by the long listening Secondly, learners should listen at a pace that is appropriate for their level so that they can catch up with the speed of the speaker or the tape Furthermore don not forget to apply listening strategies which become the main point if learners want to success in listening comprehension tests Keep positive thinking of their listening comprehension test - Post-listening activities: Firstly, learners write up the information that they have in their listening They reconstruct the text in their own words using the notes or drawings as cues They can practice writing in groups, in pairs or individually Secondly, learners retell the story in the listening text in their own words They should practice speaking in groups or pairs Finally, students can make role play, take the roles of the characters in the story they have just heard All ways will help students increase the ability to remember more 4.3 Recommendations Each of us needs to understand the learning process - practice listening comprehension skills must build our skills to capture information by many different methods Use your basic knowledge to capture information quickly and correctly Determining the practice of listening comprehension skills will not only improve listening skills but also develop other skills such as speaking skills and reading comprehension skills Through this research paper, we would like to offer some ideas: 4.3.1 For school or university The university should continue to equip more modern equipment and focus on the management, maintenance, and maintenance of equipment for teaching and learning regularly weekly, monthly Creating the most advantageous conditions to meet the learning requirements of students in learning activities - training understanding skills The university needs to have functional classrooms for students to learn to listen and also needs to be equipped with wifi for students to exploit learning materials Additionally, the university should have student societies - groups of students who organize talks, meetings and other events relating to a shared interest From there, students can exchange knowledge and practice English listening skills together Especially, the school should regularly organize seminars and invite experienced foreign lecturers to attend, which will help students be more interested The teachers and lecturers from foreign partners will really become a great example for the generation of students to follow, because of the enthusiasm in their work, wholeheartedly with students 4.3.2 For lecturers Lecturers play a crucial part in improving learners’ listening skills In order to support learners, lecturers need to have strong professional qualifications and teaching experience In addition to reinforcing knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, teachers need to help them have good pronunciation because phonetics is very important in learning listening comprehension In parallel with linguistic knowledge and teaching experience, teachers also need to accumulate rich background knowledge and cultural knowledge to be able to explain, help and guide learners Teachers need to see the strengths and weaknesses of the students to help them adjust, change their learning and practice methods, or build listening strategies and skills, provide or guide the necessary and useful resources useful for learners so they can actively practice more at home Additionally, to take the lessons more fun and lively, teachers should provide fun activities related to the lessons such as interesting topics about culture, society, and environment For instance, “Word of Mouth” game, this game will be very suitable for the classroom environment Teachers can organize this as an activity for students Classes are divided into groups to suit the class size The groups stand in rows and whisper into each other's words, phrases or sentences in order from the beginning of your surrender to the end of the line You are at the bottom of the line tasked to read aloud or rewrite what you hear If correct, you will get points The team with the correct pronunciation or the most words and phrases will win 4.3.3 For students Students need to be aware of the purpose and requirements of the study practice listening comprehension skills to plan to adjust this skill effectively The students need to train their listening at home intensively in order to help them overcome their problems with the topic in listening They need to always listen also various accents by listening to English songs or watching TV - In terms of music and entertainment: Got Talent, Next Top Model, The Ellen Show, etc - In terms of cooking: Master Chef, Hell’s Kitchen, etc If you like starting a business, Shark Tank is a program that will give you many unique ideas, presentation styles to sell ideas, and ways to convince investors These practical programs will give you the most natural view of how native speakers use language to communicate in different contexts And the reality shows are designed and choreographed to keep them entertained, grab the attention of the viewers during each episode, so make sure you guys get super excited and will watch them without getting tired Furthermore, they will help students to improve their vocabulary automatically When doing the lesson, students should underline the keywords to focus on listening And when the learning process, ask the lecturer about clarification of the answer to the question and let the lecturer know if you not understand something Moreover, the students want to learn the listening better, they themselves ought to try their best to change their bad habits of listening and to improve their background knowledge Students need to avoid passive listening habits and tapescript preview habits In addition, students need to read more books and papers related to different topics to broaden their socio-economic background Additionally, imitating the character may be an actor or a singer, it's a great inspiration to improve your English listening ability Students have to learn the correct pronunciation, and when students learn new words they should listen to the native pronunciation, then they should listen foreigners say, which help them not to feel strange about their pronunciation Moreover, as students learn to listen, students should write down all the new words in that listening test, check its meaning and learn those listening words to supplement students' vocabulary Then they should listen to it over and over again until they understand the content, the pronunciations of words and sentences, and then move on to the new one Next, students should try to answer questions related to the listening as much as possible because when they answer the questions, their brain must be more active, think more and then they will understand the lesson sounds better Students should buy an MP3 player or phone capable of listening to music Students should copy the lessons and save the device or phone and take them with them And they should try to listen whenever they have free time, gradually the students will see the effect increase markedly Finally, students should start learning to listen from the beginning to create a habit and maintain it regularly Listening daily, continuously and regularly, because English needs a long and steady accumulation before we can see a clear result Good English listeners will have to spend many hours of persistence in practicing English listening Therefore, perseverance is the most important factor if students want to listen well in English 4.4 Limitation of the study It is clear that the study still has a number of shortcomings Firstly, due to the limitation of the scope of the study, I only focus on the second-year students in English Faculty, Thuongmai University which accounts for a small number of students in Thuongmai University Therefore, the result of the study can’t be generalized Secondly, due to the limited time, and experience, I could not conduct other methods such as classroom observation which can make the obtained results more reliable Despite the mentioned limitations, I hope that this exploratory research will contribute to the better situation of teaching and learning English listening skills in English Faculty, Thuongmai University 4.5 Suggestions for the study Because of the limitation, this study could not cover all of the aspects of the study Besides, the study only focuses on difficulties for only second-year students in English Faculty, Thuongmai University to help them improve their listening skills Moreover, for further studies, to get better results, the study should be invited to more participants and the data collection method Together with using survey questionnaires and interviews, observation is also necessary to get more persuasive conclusions In conclusion, I hope that there will be many comments and suggestions for better further study CONCLUSION It can be said that this study is an answer to any reader who is interested in improving English listening skills, especially for second-year students in English Faculty, Thuongmai University In the first chapter, readers will get the basic information why this study is fulfilled, how it is conducted and what it is conducted for The second chapter will provide readers an overview of the theoretical background on which this study bases on They include the definitions of listening, types of listening and factors affecting listening comprehension such as: listener factors, speaker factors, bad quality of recording The chapter also introduces the method applied in this study It is the action research with the definitions and processes Techniques employed in this minor thesis such as data collection and data analysis can be found here The chapter 3, the most important chapter of this study in which provides the data and evidence was analyzed to help the writer to fulfil the task The data from questionnaire was analyzed and discussed The last chapter is the summary of the previous chapters It is also the chapter the concluding marks are drawn out and pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research are presented REFERENCES Brown, HD (2001) Teaching by principle: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy Second Edition Essex: Longman Bentley, S., & Bacon, S (1996) The all new, state-of-the-art ILA definition of listening: Now that we have it, what we with it? Listening Post, 56, 1-5 Gary Buck (2001), Assessing Listening Goh, C (1998) How ESL Learners with Different Listening Abilities Use Comprehension Strategies and Tactics Language Teaching Research, 2, 124-147 Howatt, A and J Dakin (1974), Language laboratory materials, ed J P B Allen, S P B Allen, and S P Corder Andi Asmawati (2017), Analyzing students’ difficulties toward listening comprehension Kieu Thi Thu Huong (2014) Improving Foreign-service Officials’ Listening Comprehension Abilities in English for International Relations Nguyen Luong Ha Lien & Nguyen Thi Thanh Ha (2018), Methods of improving listening skills for non-english major students APPENDIX Survey questionnaires for students This survey questionnaire is designed for my graduation paper namely: "A study on difficulties in English listening skills for the second-year students in English Faculty, Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions" in completing these questions, please choose the answer by circling the letter next to your choice, ticking off the items in a checklist or expressing your idea in the blanks All personal information and your answers will be kept confidential and not used for other purposes Thanks for your help! Personal information: Full Name: ……………………… I A B C D A B C D A B C D A B C D A B C D II Your opinion on studying listening skills What you think of difficulties in English listening skills? Easy Normal Difficult Very difficult Do you like learning listening skills? Don’t like Don’t mind Like Very like How you feel about the importance of English listening skills? Very important Important Quite important Not important How often you have problems in learning listening skills? Always Often Sometimes Rarely What you like in extra listening activities? Songs Films of stories News speeches or lecturers Dialogues: conversations, interviews The causes affecting to listening English skills What difficulties in English listening related to the content of the listening text? A B C D A B C D E A B C Difficult to understand unfamiliar words Poor grammar Difficult to understand length of spoken text Fatigue when listen long spoken text Which difficulties in English listening related to listener? Difficulties to understand intonation of the speaker Difficult to predict what would come text Unable to concentrate when answer and listen at the same time Only listen to stressed words Try to listen to every word so cannot catch up the speed of the speech What other problems in listening English skills? Lose concentration because of poor quality of recording Don't have a good environment to practice listening skills Don't have any time because you have to learn much other subjects III Activities for improving English listening skills What should student before English listening? A Should learn some related new words B Should predict the content of the listening text by the activities that the teacher gives C Both A & B D Do nothing 10 What should student during English listening? A Listen and take notes B Listen and answer the questions C Listen only APPENDIX Interview question for students What you think about the importance of English listening skills? What difficulties you have in listening English? ... common in interpersonal communication are:  Informational Listening (Listening to Learn)  Critical Listening (Listening to Evaluate and Analyse)  Therapeutic or Empathetic Listening (Listening. .. graduation paper namely: "A study on difficulties in English listening skills for the second-year students in English Faculty, Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions" in completing these... difficulties of listening that they normally get, a study entitle: ? ?A study on difficulties in English listening skill for the second-year students in English Faculty, Thuongmai University and some suggested