Difficulties encountered in the toeic listening test by the second year students at university of economics and business administration thai nguyen university

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** DƯƠNG THANH HẢO DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED IN THE TOEIC LISTENING TEST BY THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN KHI LÀM BÀI THI NGHE TOEIC CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KINH TẾ VÀ QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH THÁI NGUYÊN M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 Hanoi – 2016 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** DƯƠNG THANH HẢO DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED IN THE TOEIC LISTENING TEST BY THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN KHI LÀM BÀI THI NGHE TOEIC CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KINH TẾ VÀ QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH THÁI NGUYÊN M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 Supervisor : Assoc.Prof Dr Lâm Quang Đông Hanoi – 2016 DECLARATION I declare that this minor thesis entitled “Difficulties encountered in the TOEIC listening test by the second-year students at University of Economics and Business Administration, Thai Nguyen University” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts is the results of my own work and that is thesis does not contain material which has been accepted for the award of any degree or diploma in any university, nor does it contain material previously published or written by any other person, except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis Hanoi, 2016 Duong Thanh Hao i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the process of doing my research paper, I have received a lot of help and encouragement from teachers and colleagues First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor Assoc.Prof Dr Lâm Quang Đông who has generously given me invaluable assistance and guidance Without his help, this paper would not have been successfully completed Secondly, my graduation subject now is completed successfully thanks to all teachers‟ support at University of Economics and Business Administration, Thai Nguyen University (TUEBA) who did their best to help me gather data from students‟ questionnaires Besides, my sincere thanks are also extended to all the students who helped me fulfill the survey questions and interviews Finally, I am grateful to my family and friends who have given me much encouragement throughout ii ABSTRACT The study investigates difficulties in TOEIC listening comprehension encountered by a group of sophomore students of TUEBA 50 sophomores at TUEBA were selected for the study The data were gathered by means of students‟ listening test papers, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews The results of the study showed that general linguistic ability, background knowledge and facilities were the major TOEIC listening comprehension difficulties encountered by second-year students at TUEBA While doing the TOEIC test, the study‟s participants normally applied such strategies as guessing or predicting, identifying types of question in part 2, and listening for gist and details On that basis, suggestions and recommendations were provided so as to deal with the problems This work hopes to be useful for those who are interested in this subject and to pave the way for future studies in this field iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II ABSTRACT III TABLE OF CONTENTS .IV LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS VII PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 RATIONALE OF THE STUDY OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY SCOPE OF THE STUDY METHODS OF THE STUDY ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1- LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND TO LISTENING COMPREHENSION 1.1.1 Listening strategies 1.1.2 Processes of listening comprehension 1.1.3 Potential problems in listening comprehension 1.2 TOEIC TEST 1.2.1 Overview of the TOEIC test 1.2.2 TOEIC listening 1.2.3 TOEIC listening strategies 13 1.3 RELATED STUDIES OF LISTENING COMPREHENSION AND TOEIC LISTENING14 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 16 2.1 SELECTION OF PARTICIPANTS 16 2.2 RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS 16 2.2.1 Students’ listening test papers 16 2.2.2 Questionnaires 17 2.2.3 Semi-structured interviews 18 iv 2.3 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES 18 2.4 DATA ANALYSIS PROCEDURE 19 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 21 3.1 WHAT DIFFICULTIES DO THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT TUEBA FACE IN THE TOEIC LISTENING TEST? 21 3.1.1 Students’ opinions of TOEIC listening test 21 3.1.2 Students’ opinions of TOEIC listening difficulties related to background knowledge and linguistic ability 22 3.1.3 Students’ opinions of listening difficulties related to listener or nonlinguistic factors 25 3.1.4 Types of difficulties of each part in TOEIC listening test through analyzing TOEIC listening test papers 27 3.2 WHAT CAUSES SUCH DIFFICULTIES? 31 3.3 WHAT STRATEGIES DO THESE STUDENTS OFTEN APPLY WHEN TAKING TOEIC LISTENING TEST? 34 3.5 SUMMARY 36 PART C: CONCLUSION 37 SUMMARY OF THE STUDY 37 PEDAGOGICAL RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE STUDENTS‟ TOEIC LISTENING RESULTS 38 2.1 To the students 38 2.2 To the teachers 38 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 39 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES 39 REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX I APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEWS IX v LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Chart 1: students‟ opinions about the difficult level of toeic listening test 21 Chart 2: students‟ opinions of the most difficult part of toeic listening test 22 Chart 3: students‟ opinions of toeic listening difficulties related to background knowledge 23 Chart 4: types of difficulties in toeic listening test and their percentage 28 Chart 5: tueba second-year students‟ suggestions for handling such difficulties ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED Table 1: students‟ opinions of toeic listening difficulties related to linguistic ability 24 Table 2: students‟ opinions of listening difficulties related to listener (nonlinguistic factors) 26 Table 3: causes of toeic listening difficulties 31 Table 4: strategies applied by students when taking toeic listening test 34 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS TUEBA: University of Economics and Business Administration, Thai Nguyen University TOEIC: Test of English for International Communication ETS: Educational Testing Service ESL English as a Second Language L2 learners: Second Language learners vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study As an international language, English obviously plays a crucial role in the age of global economic integration The scores of worldwide standardized English tests such as the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) are widely used as recognized evidence of one‟s English proficiency, especially the TOEIC test Most companies require TOEIC certificates as one of their employees‟ qualifications Many colleges and universities like TUEBA have used the TOEIC test to classify students‟ English proficiency, place them into the right classes and use their test‟s results at the end of each course to calculate credits Moreover, the minimum TOEIC score of 450 is a compelling requisite for students to meet the requirement of graduation Among all the skills tested, listening is always the hardest to second, or foreign, language learners, and my students at TUEBA are no exception Being an English teacher at TUEBA, through my teaching experience, I notice that comparing to other skills, students find listening most difficult and stressful and their TOEIC listening scores tend to be lower than those of other skills For all of the above mentioned reasons, I would like to carry out a small study entitled “Difficulties encountered in the TOEIC listening test by the second-year students at university of Economics and Business Administration, Thai Nguyen University “in order to help solve out the problems Objectives of the study The purpose of the study is to investigate the TOEIC listening comprehension difficulties encountered by the second-year students at University of Economics and Business Administration, Thai Nguyen University, identify the factors that lead to such difficulties and suggest solutions to help students overcome these DLVLS Oral Interview Project Lu, P.H (2008) English listening comprehension strategy used by students of pre-sessional courses of Northumbria University, Unpublished master thesis, Southern Taiwan University Nakata, Y (1999) The effects of listening strategy training on listening competence Paper, AILA, Tokyo Nguyen, T P Q (2010) Current situation in teaching and learning English listening at Tay Ho high school in Hanoi and solutions M.A Minor thesis Hanoi: ULIS, VNU, Resources Center Nguyen, T T (2013) An Exploratory Study on the Teaching and Learning of TOEIC Listening Skill at a University in Hanoi MA Minor thesis Hanoi: ULIS, VNU, Resources Center Nunan, D (1992) Research methods in language learning Cambridge: CPU Nunan, D (1999) Second Language Teaching & Learning Canada, Heinle&Heinle Publishers O‟Malley, J Michael, Anna UhlChamot, Gloria Stewner-Manzanares, Lisa Kupper& Rocco P Russo (1985) Learning strategies used by beginning and intermediate ESL students, Language Learning, 35/1, 21-46 O‟Malley, J.M and A Chamot (1990) Strategies used by Second Language Learners Cambridge: CUP O‟Malley, J M &Chamot, A.U (2001) Learning Strategies in Second Language Acquisition Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press Oxford, R (1990) Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know Boston, MA: Heinle&Heinle Richards, J C (2008) Teaching Listening and Speaking Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press Rost, M (2002) Teaching and Researching Listening London: Longman Rubin, J (1981) Study of cognitive processes in second language learning, 42 Applied Linguistics, 11, 117 Taylor, A (2006) Mastering TOEIC Test-taking Skills: TOEIC Analyst Second edition Compass Publishing Thompson, I & Rubin, J (1996) Can strategy instruction improve listening comprehension? Foreign Language Annals, 29, 331-342 Underwood, M (1989) Teaching listening London New York Longman publisher Vandergrift, L (1999) Facilitating second language listening comprehension: acquiring successful strategies.ELT Journal, 168-176 Verma, G.K and Marllick, K (1999) Research Education: Perspectives and Techniques London: Falmer Press Willis, J (1981) Teaching English through English London: Longman Online source Chui, B E (2006) Ann Investigation of English Listening Strategies Used by Continuous Education Program Students in Taiwan Retrieved October 30,2008 from HTTP://web.nanya.edu.tw/tcof/tcrd/word Habte-Gabr, E (2006) The importance of socio-affective strategies in using EFL for teaching mainstream subjects Humanizing English teaching, 8(5) Retrieved fromhttp://www.hltmag.co.uk/sep06/sart02.htm#C1 Mainstream Subjects The Journal of Humanizing Language Teaching, 8(5) Retrieved September 10, 2009, from http://www.hltmag.co.uk/sep06/sart02.htm#C1 Vandergrift, L (2003) Listening: theory and practice in modern foreign language competence Retrieved http://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/gpg/67 43 January 4, 2009, from APPENDIX TOEIC Listening Questionnaires My name is Duong Thanh Hao, an English teacher at Economics and Business Administration of Thai Nguyen University I am now conducting this survey questionnaire in order to collect information for my thesis “Difficulties encountered in the TOEIC listening test by the second-year students at university of Economics and Business Administration, Thai Nguyen University” Please support to help me to fulfill my research by completing these following items I hereby certify that all information achieved from this questionnaire would be deal with anonymously Thank you for your cooperation! I Your attitude towards TOEIC listening test Circle the answer that is the most appropriate to you Question 1: In your opinion, the level of difficulty in the TOEIC listening test is………… A Very difficult B Difficult C Suitable D Easy E Very easy Question 2: Which part is the most difficult in listening comprehension in TOEIC test? A Pictures description B Questions and responses C Short conversations D Short talks I II Students’ typical difficulties in TOEIC listening Tick (√) to the column that is the most appropriate to you Difficulties Never Seldom Use my experience and background knowledge to understand the4.spoken text grammar Difficult structures interfere with my TOEIC listening comprehension The long listening texts interfere with my TOEIC listening comprehension I find it difficult to understand well when speakers speak with variety of accents I find it difficult to understand well when speakers speak too fast I find it difficult to understand the meaning of words which are not pronounced clearly I feel nervous and tired when I not understand the spoken text 10 I find it difficult when listening conversations or talks without transcripts 11 I find it difficult to understand the spoken text which is not of interest to me II Sometimes Often Always III Students’ main causes of difficulties in TOEIC listening test 12 You can choose more than one option A Similar-sounding words B Speakers‟ pronunciation C Speakers‟ fast speech D Poor quality listening equipment E Lack of test-taking strategies F Limited background knowledge (Vocabulary) G Personal mood and health H Only listening once I Long time of listening without break-time J Large room K Background noise Others (Please specify)………………………………………………………… IV Strategies applied by students in TOEIC listening test Tick (√) to the column that is the most appropriate to you Strategies Yes 13 Predict what you will hear by using pictures 14 Identify the types of questions in part 15 Ignore incomprehensible words and keep on listening 16 Guess the topic in part 3,4 17 Guess the meaning of vocabulary in context 18 Listen for gist 19 Listen for details 20 Make inferences 21 Recognize linking sounds , stress words, intonation and so on 22 Use my experience and background III No V Suggestions made to improve the matter What can help you handle difficulties in TOEIC listening test? (You can choose more than one option) A Buy references and more practice listening at home B Listen to music and watch movies in English C Listen to news In English D Do much more samples of TOEIC test before examinations E Do the test in the smaller room with fewer students Others ……………………………………………………………………………… IV PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA VỀ NGHE TOEIC Tên Dương Thanh Hảo - Giảng viên môn Tiếng Anh trường Đại học Kinh tế Quản trị Kinh doanh, Đại học Thái Nguyên Tôi phát phiếu điều tra nhằm thu thập thông tin cho nghiên cứu “ Những khó khăn làm thi nghe TOEIC sinh viên năm thứ trường Đại học Kinh tế Quản trị Kinh doanh Thái Nguyên” Mong bạn giúp đỡ tơi hồn thành nghiên cứu việc hồn thành mục bên Tơi xin đảm bảo bí mật thơng tin mà bạn đưa phiếu khảo sát Cảm ơn hợp tác bạn I Thái độ bạn thi nghe TOEIC (Khoanh tròn vào đáp án phù hợp với bạn nhất) Câu hỏi 1: Theo bạn, mức độ khó thi nghe TOEIC ……… ? A Rất khó B Khó C Phù hợp D Dễ E Rất dễ Câu hỏi 2: Phần khó thi nghe TOEIC? A Hình ảnh B Nghe Hồi đáp C Hội thoại D Bài nói V II Những khó khăn tiêu biểu thi nghe TOEIC (Tích vào cột phù hợp với bạn nhất) Những khó khăn Khơng Hiếm Thỉnh thoảng Thường xuyên Luôn Sử dụng kinh nghiệm kiến thức để hiểu nói Cấu trúc ngữ pháp gây khó khăn đến việc nghe hiểu TOEIC tơi Nghe khóa dài gây khó khăn cho việc nghe hiểu TOEIC tơi Tơi thấy khó hiểu tốt người nói với nhiều ngữ giọng Tơi thấy khó hiểu tốt người nói q nhanh Tơi thấy khó hiểu nghĩa từ mà không phát âm rõ rang Tôi cảm thấy lo lắng mệt mỏi khơng hiểu nói 10 Tơi thấy khó nghe hội thoại hay nói mà khơng có ghi nội dung băng nói 11 Tơi thấy khó hiểu nói có nội dung khơng phải điều quan tâm tơi III Những ngun nhân gây khó khăn cho sinh viên thi nghe TOEIC 12 Bạn chọn nhiều phương án VI A Từ phát âm giống B Phát âm người nói C Tốc độ người nói D Chất lượng bang đĩa E Thiếu chiến thuật làm F Kiến thức hạn chế G Sức khỏe tâm trạng than H Chỉ nghe lần I Bài nghe dài khơng có thời gian nghỉ J Phòng rộng K Tiếng ồn bên bên Những điều khác: ……………………………………………………………… IV Chiến lược bạn áp dụng thi nghe TOEIC (Tích vào phù hợp với bạn) Các chiến thuật Có 23 Sử dụng tranh để dự đốn bạn nghe 24 Xác định loại câu hỏi phần 25 Bỏ qua từ khó hiểu tiếp tục nghe 26 Đốn chủ đề nói phần 27 Đoán nghĩa từ theo ngữ cảnh 28 Nghe hiểu ý 29 Nghe hiểu chi tiết cụ thể 30 Suy luận 31 Nhận nối âm, trọng âm từ, ngữ điệu, vân vân 32 Sử dụng kinh nghiệm kiến thức VII Không V Một số giải pháp đưa giúp cải thiện khó khăn tồn Điều giúp bạn giải khó khăn thi nghe TOEIC (Bạn chọn nhiều lựa chọn) A Mua tài liệu tham khảo luyện tập thêm nhà B Nghe nhạc xem phim Tiếng Anh C Nghe tin tức Tiếng Anh D Học thêm nhiều từ cách phát âm E Luyện tập thêm thi nghe TOEIC trước kì thi F Thi phịng nhỏ có sinh viên VIII APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEWS Findings from the interviews with the students 1.1 Findings from the interview with the student 1.1.1 Background of the subject Date of interview: October 2nd, 2016 Interview Duration: minutes Gender: Male 1.1.2 Findings Interviewer: What you think about TOEIC listening? Interviewee: In my opinion, TOEIC listening is harder than reading because to listen well, we need to have good pronunciation rich vocabulary and so on Interviewer: What listening parts in the TOEIC cause difficult for you? Interviewee: I think the most difficult part is the part I not have enough rich vocabularies to understand clearly every topic and it is such a hard job to listen when the message is full of terminologies Therefore, I often ignore information that is essential to answer questions Besides, the information of two questions includes in only once statement It is easy for me to miss one of two questions Interviewer: Have you ever studied pictures and predicted the sentences that best describe the pictures? Interviewee: In the first part of TOEIC listening, I often observe the whole picture and then I guess these sentences can be used to describe these pictures Interviewer: Does similar-sounding words cause you difficulties when taking the TOEIC listening test? Interviewee: To choose correct answers, I suppose I have to be careful with similar-sounding words because those words often cause me confused to understand the meaning of sentences IX Interviewer: Do you have any suggestions and preferences to improve the problem when taking the TOEIC listening test? Interviewee: To listen well, I think I should enhance much of my pronunciation and I would like to be taught more about words having the same spelling and pronunciation but totally different meanings and words having the same pronunciation but different meanings 1.2 Findings from the interview with the student 1.2.1 Background of the subject: Date of interview: October 2nd, 2016 Interview duration: minutes Gender: Male 2.2.2 Findings Interviewer: What is your attitude towards TOEIC listening test? Interviewee: A lot of things constitute good listening such as good pronunciation, large vocabulary, and good skills and so on Therefore, I hate listening as well as listening TOEIC and when I don‟t understand the listening, the sounds from the recording made me fall asleep Interviewer: What listening parts in the TOEIC cause difficult for you? Interviewee: Let me see I am not good at listening Therefore, all of the four parts are very difficult Part is harder for me because the options for many questions are often stated indirectly Only when I listen to related vocabularies and make inferences basing on context, could I choose correct answers Interviewer: Do you often identify the types of questions to choose the correct answers when taking the TOEIC listening test? Interviewee: Yes, particularly in part 2, most of students identify the types of questions such as Wh-questions or Yes-No questions I am not the exceptional students Interviewer: What makes you feel annoyed when doing listening test? X Interviewee: Sometimes, the noise in the test room makes me feel hard to listen They can be steps made by teachers going around the test room or students‟ voice when chatting outside I prefer doing the listening in a quiet room Interviewer: Do you have any suggestions and preferences to improve the matter? Interviewee: In my opinion, to improve my listening TOEIC, I would like to be taught more and more new words Furthermore, I wish the test would be easier In addition, the test rooms should be equipped with sound-proof windows 1.3 Findings from the interview with the student 1.3.1 Background of the subject: Date of interview: October 2nd, 2016 Interview Duration: minutes Gender: Female 1.3.2 Findings Interviewer: What you think about listening TOEIC listening? Interviewee: Well, TOEIC is difficult for me both listening and reading However, I am very scared of listening because I can listen to the test a bit but still cannot choose the correct Interviewer: What listening parts in the TOEIC cause difficulty for you? Interviewee: All of the four parts but the most difficult part is the part 2, the options are very tricky All the options seem to become answers Interviewer: What difficulties you encounter when you listening to TOEIC test? Interviewee: I face many difficulties while listening to TOEIC test such as the pronunciation of the speakers, the fast speech and especially new words I not understand because there are too many new words Interviewer: Do you think that unfamiliar topics may cause challenges to your listening? XI Interviewee: Sure, In part there are many new topics that I not have much knowledge of, hence, I always choose randomly In other words, unfamiliar topics or unknown words are my problems Interviewer: Do you have any suggestions and preferences to improve the matter? Interviewee: In my point of view, I think that a huge volume of vocabularies and structures and good pronunciation are needed to listen effectively Therefore, I would like teachers to provide us as many as possible 2.4 Findings from the interview with the student 2.4.1 Background of the subject: Date of interview: October 2nd, 2016 Interview Duration: 10 minutes Gender: Female 2.4.2 Findings Interviewer: What is your feeling towards TOEIC listening? Interviewee: I think that in general, TOEIC listening is suitable for me because my major is accounting and TOEIC is a kind of English test which is essential for my job in the future Interviewer: What listening parts in the TOEIC cause difficulty for you? Interviewee: Sometime, part is hard to listen as in some talks, speakers speak too fast and a lot of information comes in a short period of time therefore information can be forgotten or dropped Interviewer: Have you ever ignored words or details that you cannot understand and kept on listening? Interviewee: Certainly, I had to ignore words or details that I cannot understand and keep on listening If I try to identify the unknown words, I will lose the following information for the next questions Interviewer: Do you have any difficulties while doing listening TOEIC? XII Interviewee: I find it is difficult to understand well when speakers speak with variety of accents There are some words I know but I cannot interpret when listening This is due to they were spoken differently from what normally know Interviewer: Do you have any suggestions and preferences to improve the matter? Interviewee: I believe that to improve my TOEIC listening, I usually buy TOEIC books to self-study at home Besides, I usually watch movies in English for not only relaxing but also practicing listening If I can suggest something, I would like to have chance to practice sample tests before the examination XIII ... declare that this minor thesis entitled ? ?Difficulties encountered in the TOEIC listening test by the second- year students at University of Economics and Business Administration, Thai Nguyen University? ??... ? ?Difficulties encountered in the TOEIC listening test by the second- year students at university of Economics and Business Administration, Thai Nguyen University ? ?in order to help solve out the. .. Objectives of the study The purpose of the study is to investigate the TOEIC listening comprehension difficulties encountered by the second- year students at University of Economics and Business Administration,