An investigation of some difficulties in the listening of english majored freshmen at thu dau mot university

THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - GRADUATE PAPER Title: AN INVESTIGATION OF SOME DIFFICULTIES IN THE LISTENING OF ENGLISH - MAJORED FRESHMEN AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY LECTURER: NGUYEN HOANG MINH DUC STUDENT: CAO THANH THAO STUDENT CODE: 1722202010325 CLASS: D17AVKD04 MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE COURSE: 2017-2021 Thu Dau Mot, december 15th, 2020 i THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - GRADUATE PAPER Title: AN INVESTIGATION OF SOME DIFFICULTIES IN THE LISTENING OF ENGLISH - MAJORED FRESHMEN AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY LECTURER: NGUYEN HOANG MINH DUC STUDENT: CAO THANH THAO STUDENT CODE: 1722202010325 CLASS: D17AVKD04 MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE COURSE: 2017-2021 Thu Dau Mot, december 15th, 2020 ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Student full name Cao Thanh Thao Student ID 1722202010325 Title of paper AN INVESTIGATION OF SOME DIFFICULTIES IN THE LISTENING OF ENGLISH - MAJORED FRESHMEN AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY I hereby confirm that I am the sole author of the paper presented Where the work of others has been consulted, this is duly acknowledged in the paper’s bibliography I have also not consulted any other unnamed online sources All verbatim or referential use of the sources named in the bibliography has been specifically indicated in the text Binh Duong, October 2020 Signature iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Taking this opportunity, I would also like to thank the Foreign Language Department teachers, Thu Dau Mot University, who gave me the necessary knowledge to complete this lesson Thanks to all the authors of the books, tapes, and other materials listed in the references Their ideas reflected and researched You in the class because of your comments, many members of the study results.During the time of this graduation report, I have received many valuable suggestions, and encouragement and help from seeing her, her family and friends First of all, I would like to express my profound thanks to ancient Nguyen Hoang Minh Duc, teacher of English in the Foreign Language Department, who always gave her advice and advice to complete this talent I also want to send my most sincere thanks to the ladies in the Foreign Language Department, Thu Dau Mot University, who have taught you the basics to complete this lesson First-year students (D20) foreign language department wholeheartedly participated in the survey Finally, I would like to send a special thank you to my mother for their encouragement and support that played a significant role in my graduation paper iv ABSTRACT Listening skill is one of the essential skills for communicating in real life In learning a foreign language, this skill is even more important to remember Everyone knows that hearing a message is not as simple as hearing it, so the listener must understand the message and respond appropriately The thesis will study the students' subjective and objective difficulties in learning listening skills Therefore, I have applied quantitative methods to the research So the collecting data instruments like questionnaires were used to the study The results of the investigation will show the difficulties that students face when learning listening skills More importantly, research helps me find the cause of those difficulties so that students can realize what obstacles they encountered when listening and can promptly overcome them With the hope of improving the students' listening ability at TDMU, I have tried to this thesis with my own experience and knowledge of English v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Acronyms Full word TDMU Thu Dau Mot University FFL Faculty of Foreign Language vi LIST OF CHARTS Chart The age 17 Chart The period is learning English 18 Chart The ability 18 Chart The frequency of practicing listening skills at home 19 Chart The factors are affecting 20 Chart The importance of English listening skill 21 Chart The frequency of getting difficulties in listening skill 21 Chart The difficulty in listening skill 22 Chart The causes of getting difficulties in listening skill 23 Chart 10 The difficulties of listening 24 vii TABLE OF CONTENT STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv ABSTRACT v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi LIST OF CHARTS vii TABLE OF CONTENT viii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 THE RATIONALE OF THE STUDY 1.2 THE AIMS OF THE STUDY 1.3 THE RESEARCH OF THE STUDY 1.4 THE ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY CHAPTER OVERVIEW OF PREVIOUS WORK CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 3.1 OVERVIEW OF LISTENING 3.1.1 Definition of listening 3.1.2 The importance of listening skill 3.1.3 Types of listening 3.1.3.1 Discriminative Listening 3.1.3.2 Comprehensive Listening 3.1.3.3 Specific Listening Types 3.2 THE DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING THE LISTENING SKILL 10 3.2.1 What problems students have with listening? 10 3.2.2 The reasons make students difficult to learn listening English 12 3.3 THE FACTORS THAT AFFECT ENGLISH LISTENING 14 3.3.1 The classroom atmosphere 14 3.3.2 Students’ motivation 14 3.3.3 Quality of recorded material 14 viii CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 15 4.1 THE RESEARCH DESIGN 15 4.2 THE PARTICIPANTS 15 4.3 THE DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENT 15 CHAPTER PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS, AND DISCUSSION OF THE DATA 17 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 26 6.1 RECOMMENDATION 26 6.2 CONCLUSION 26 REFERENCES 28 APPENDIX 29 ix CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 THE RATIONALE OF THE STUDY In today's era, the booming age of science, technology, and information, it is indispensable to grasp English to communicate with other countries worldwide because English is extremely popular worldwide The main goal of teaching and learning foreign languages was reading comprehension to serve literary, scientific, and technical research Today, to administer the open policy of innovation, integration with the region and the world, the goal of foreign language teaching is communication Teachers must change education according to the verbal communication method (listening - speaking) Listening is one of the four critical skills of learning a foreign language We cannot communicate without hearing To be successful in conversation, you must listen to and understand what other people say When we speak English, we have time to think about what to say and how to use words When listening, we must pay attention to listening and understanding Learning to hear is the weakest of the four skills The teaching of listening skills is sometimes not respected and methodical due to several reasons such as lack of facilities in the schools, or at the end of the term, at the end of the year, there is no listening test, etc As a researcher, I would like to introduce to you the name "Investigating some difficulties in hearing English of first-year students majoring in Thu Dau Mot University" due to the above reasons Having spent a long time studying English at Thu Dau Mot University (TDMU), for more than three years, I feel that the first-year students majoring in English are still confused and difficult to hear To find out the difficulties that students often encounter when practicing listening, I decided to choose the topic titled "An investigation of some difficulties in the listening of English-majored freshmen at Thu Dau Mot University." when entering the lecture halls at TDMU Before asking participants to a survey questionnaire The researcher has briefly stated the purpose, significance, and importance of the survey and explained the survey questions Like the instructions written on the survey given out, Vietnamese education and explanations are given to avoid any ambiguity in the questions Finally, 100 freshmen students completed the study Data collection for the study was obtained from freshmen students in FFL To synthesize information about freshmen English listening problems of students majoring in English at TDMU, out of 100 questionnaires were sent to students Time was sent from October 19 to October 24, in the mornings from 8:30 a.m to a.m., I started to class D20, contacted three previous classes for 100 students to participate in the survey After handing out the survey papers and collecting them from the students, data analysis began, after which all valid surveys were included in the report 16 CHAPTER PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS, AND DISCUSSION OF THE DATA This chapter will provide all of the data collected through a student survey questionnaire about factors affecting first-year English listening skills of freshmen students in FFL at TDMU, which shows that attempts to answer research questions were in place at the start of the research One hundred copies of the questionnaire were delivered to the freshmen students The data analyzed in this part of the study are shown in the tables and graphs below, showing the survey responses Question How old are you? Chart The age Among the students surveyed, 93% of students in the age group 18-20, 7% of students in the age group 20 - 22, and 0% of students in the age group 22 - 24 Finding out the difficulties in English listening skills of students in the above age groups shows that students in the age group 18 - 20 and students in the age group 20 - 22 have almost no difference in listening to English It can be said that age is not a factor affecting TDMU students' English listening skills This result shows that depending on each student who believes in learning to improve their English, their English listening skills will 17 be better than students who only study at school and spend less time in English Therefore it is indispensable to spend more time improving this skill Question How long have you been learning English? Chart The period is learning English The chart above shows that 100% of students are studying English for more than seven years But the real situation is good; it can be seen that, although looking for a long time, most students are not proficient in the skills, which can be seen more clearly when talking about listening skills All the students think English is difficult and most of them believe that it is difficult to correct However, if students focus their time on listening skills, learning the language will be more comfortable Question How is your ability to hear English? Chart The ability 18 Each individual has a different English language ability When surveying listening skills, no one student dares to admit that they are good at English Which accounts for 0%, we can see clearly in the chart above Besides, only 11% thought they were right, 67% were average, and 22% were weak This fact shows that English is a prevalent language, but it is an obsession for students, especially when it comes to listening skills From the chart, it can be seen that the percentage of students still in the middle and weak level is still very high, so students should focus on improving this skill, especially those at FFL Question Do you often practice listening at home? Chart The frequency of practicing listening skills at home To this question, I received a surprising result because 68% of the students said no, and 32% of the students answered yes We are very convinced that this ratio shows that the students are very superficial when learning English More than half of the students surveyed responded that it does not make us all rethink language learning This skill is complicated, and if we not practice much, then we cannot master it But the students gave me back to get unfortunate results because if students don't practice voluntarily, this skill will always be a hindrance when it comes to language learning 19 Question What factors affect your english listening? Chart The factors are affecting The chart shows that 58% of the students thought that the quality of the recording affects their English listening This factor is probably the main factor when you are sitting in the classroom studying with the transmitter, but if it is too old and has brutal sound, it will become a real problem This factor can be overcome by changing the recording material; the student will get more straightforward listening content Besides, 23% of students said that their motivation also affects listening Perhaps if students are not motivated to learn, laziness will be a massive obstacle to language learning, which is extremely difficult to overcome Each student will have different consciousness to improve their hearing weaknesses In the end, only 19% of students thought that the atmosphere in the classroom had some effect Because if they are listening in an environment that is too hot or too cold, it is difficult to concentrate because if they are not focused during the listening process, they cannot hear what the speaker wants to convey 20 Question What you think about the importance of English listening skill? Chart The importance of English listening skill To better study student opinion at FFL, TDMU, the question that always comes first when testing any skill is its importance This question of the survey questions used to define their assessment of the importance of learning As can be seen from the above chart, most students think listening is critical because the percentage of students choosing listening skills is significant, accounting for a very high rate at 96%, but 4% believe that it's quite essential Furthermore, 100% of students agree that English listening skills are necessary for students This question shows the importance of English for students and every person when they want to develop more with a modernized and developed life Question How often you have problems in your listening skill? Chart The frequency of getting difficulties in listening skill 21 To learn more about students' facts about English Listening at TDMU, The statistics provided in the chart show the frequency with which students have problems hearing According to the collected data, 29% of students often have difficulty, but most students always have difficulty listening practice accounting for 61% of 100 students participating in the survey Besides, only 6% sometimes have a problem, and only 4% rarely have difficulty, which indicates the proportion of students who have very little time to practice and practice English Moreover, listening will become more comfortable when students have more perseverance while studying and spending more time contacting and practicing English Question In your opinion, listening skill is difficult for you, isn’t it? Chart The difficulty in listening skill It can be seen in the chart that listening skill is an essential skill, thereby asking question ten to see that although it is difficult, when contacting, the new language is always a problem that makes it difficult 64% of learners think that listening is a difficult skill Students who are just starting and learning this skill are a considerable problem considered a real stumbling block for learning English Moreover, the number of learners who agree that learning listening skills are hard to hear causes boredom at 19% It is almost the same rate as the number of learners who think the talent is difficult but has some impressive accompanying level 17%, and in the end, this number makes us staggering that no one feels that listening skill is the same The talent is easy for the learner or makes any fun because most of the students believe 22 that listening is one of the most challenging skills and challenging to improve, so these numbers are also worrying Is afraid of teachers in school As can be seen from the survey, the students who did well in listening were the best In short, the survey assumes the difficulty of learning English in general and listening and speaking skills of interest in language learning Question Which of the following reasons make you difficult to learn to listening English? (choose more than one) Chart The causes of getting difficulties in listening skill The chart shows the reasons why students find it challenging to learn English This question is the tenth question, and from here, we see the reasons that most of the students face First of all, CDs and music players' low quality is the biggest problem for everyone in general and students in particular account for a very high percentage 83% Only a few learners think this report will solve their problem because thanks to the information, the teachers will find a way to help you improve your listening skills 61% of students choose the speed of speech so fast that the students can not keep up, thereby causing the omission of information about the listening test and not knowing the lesson's main idea Besides, for this reason, many learners feel confused when listening to content with too many new words, making them pause to translate the meaning and think During that time, they tried the content ahead Still, at 23 the same time, they also missed a lot of important information in the background, causing panic while listening, this proportion of more than half of the students participating in the survey 79% Another reason that a small number of students have because their skills may not be excellent due to the beginner is that they have problems with the speaker's voice through listening Each place has a distinctive voice, so some students who have not practiced much have encountered many cases of unfamiliar tones and agents that cause confusion and make students unable to grasp the content of the listening lessons—accounting for 24% Besides, many students not know the listening content's main ideas, making themselves difficult to understand and unable to follow because they not know exactly where the keywords account for 45% Besides, 62% of the learners said that students are distracted by outside noise, making them distract when it is also that they cannot focus on grasping the main content Question 10 The difficulty of listening to English that you often encounter (choose more than one) Chart 10 The difficulties of listening The chart above shows the difficulties their listeners experience as they learn listening skills As shown on a map, students often try to hear but cannot recognize English sounds due to many reasons such as too fast speaking speed, ambiguity, misleading or stressful speaker Moreover, dialects are 24 different due to each word region, so they cannot keep up with the speed of the speech and understand the information of the listening for 49% They not easily repeat the emphasized words in the word Most students need to listen two or three times Lack of concentration is a problem that 86% of students face for many statistical reasons Therefore, we feel that students should work hard to focus more on practicing and improving this skill Besides, vocabulary can also be enhanced with each listening lesson because 93% of students have voice deficiency This can be considered the main reason students must know their language's vocabulary when learning a foreign language However, students cannot receive information without a voice even though they can hear it With concentration but no literacy knowledge, students cannot grasp information Through this can be seen, the addition of vocabulary is always necessary to learn foreign languages 62% of students have limited knowledge of the UK's social culture Although this language is prevalent, the culture of this country is not interested in many students Hence, the socio-cultural knowledge of the language a student learns is of the utmost importance when a student begins to learn any language Besides, the lack of vocabulary and sentence structure also becomes one of the difficulties students not know many forms of sentences For complex sentences, students who not understand listening will not be able to grasp the listening content This proportion accounts for 50% of the total number of students participating in the survey Finally, equally important is the factor that is too difficult for the student to be when they cannot keep up with the speaker's speed Which makes it easy for students to miss important information in the speaker's background too fast accounts for more than half of the students participating in the survey, 74% 25 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 6.1 RECOMMENDATION The survey that first-year students should try to get through this stage better, change their hearing loss, and improve their background knowledge Today there are many simple ways to practice English skills To improve your listening skills, you should spend to 10 minutes or more every day, reading short English news to supplement your knowledge According to the survey, most students often quickly get tired and bored with listening practice leading to loss of concentration As a result, they answer questions mainly by guessing, not by understanding the text because there is so much information that cannot be fully understood Students should realize every keyword to get the information they need to answer the information given correctly Therefore, students should learn to focus on the message and keywords to capture the article's data When listening, students should summarize the ideas they want They should not translate the text as it slows down the reception of information, but try to understand it in the language you are listening to During language transitions, they confuse and quickly forget the old news that they have just remembered Besides, outside class time, students should practice listening to English songs, practicing voices according to native speakers, and watching foreign programs (such as HBO, CINEMAX, etc.) From there, we can both practice listening to words while learning interesting phrases in everyday language that they often say to each other that we may not know 6.2 CONCLUSION I want to thank the students' contributions at TDMU so that I can complete this project One of the most critical components is all the experience I have at TDMU that enables me to address difficulties in listening to English to help students recognize the challenges they face to timely remediation and better study Today, English is and is widely used as an indispensable language in any way Therefore, interacting in communication with English skills, especially 26 listening skills, in the right way is essential for every language student who wants to improve their skills and wish to communicate effectively I am a final year student at TDMU, so I always have to use my unique skills, especially English listening skills, during my studies So I find that listening to English is an obsession for every student, especially the freshman students, so it is still a lot of confusion Besides, it is also a massive problem for all students when listening skills are complicated and cannot be improved quickly Most students not know how to improve their listening skills to improve themselves because they have not recognized the shortcomings they are facing but always want to improve this skill I have found the hearing difficulties I have encountered myself to help students learn more effectively in the future The conclusion is that after a period of surveys, I found the listening skills that most students always face in their learning 27 REFERENCES Ánh, N T (2016, 05 24) Những khó khăn giải pháp việc học kỹ nghe tiếng Anh nhà sinh viên năm 2, chuyên ngành tiếng Anh Sư phạm trường CĐSP Lạng Sơn Retrieved 11 18, 2020, from TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG SƯ PHẠM LẠNG SƠN - Langson College of Education: http://lce.edu.vn/vi/news/Bai-viet-khoa-hoc/Nhung-khokhan-va-giai-phap-trong-viec-hoc-ky-nang-nghe-tieng-Anh-o-nha-cuasinh-vien-nam-2-chuyen-nganh-tieng-Anh-Su-pham-o-truong-CDSPLang-Son-442.html Nordquist, R (2019, 06 01) The Definition of Listening and How to Do it Well Retrieved 11 09, 2020, from ThoughtCo.: https://www.thoughtco.com/listening-communication-term-1691247 PHƯƠNG, T N (n.d.) Báo cáo nghiên cứu khoa học: "KHẢO SÁT NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG QUÁ TRÌNH DẠY KỸ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CHO SINH VIÊN HỌC TIẾNG ANH KHÔNG CHUYÊN NGỮ" potx Retrieved 11 28, 2020, from 123doc: https://123doc.net//document/1912457-bao-cao-nghien-cuu-khoa-hockhao-sat-nhung-kho-khan-trong-qua-trinh-day-ky-nang-nghe-hieu-chosinh-vien-hoc-tieng-anh-khong-chuyen-ngu-potx.htm Sebongbong, R (2010, 11 15) Definition of Listening Skills Retrieved 13, 2014, from SCRIBD: https://www.scribd.com/document/206910494/Definition-of-ListeningSkills Tiret, H (2015, 11 23) The importance of listening skills Retrieved 11 12, 2020, from MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY - MSU Extension: https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/the_importance_of_listening_skills Types of Listening (n.d.) Retrieved 11, 2020, from SKILLSYOUNEED Helping You Develop Life Skills: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/listening-types.html 28 APPENDIX Survey questionnaires for students This survey questionnaire is designed for my graduation paper, namely: "An investigation of some difficulties in listening ability of English-majored freshmen at Thu Dau Mot University." When completing these questions, please select the answer by circling the Capital letter next to your choice, ticking off the items in a checklist, or state your opinion in the blanks All your personal information and your answers will be kept confidential and not be used for other purposes Thanks for your help! I Personal information How old are you? A 18-20 years old B 20-22 years old C 22-24 year old How long have you been learning English? A About years B About years C About years D Over years How is your ability to hear English? A Good B Fair C Average D Weak Do you often practice listening at home? A Yes B No II The importance and difficulty of English listening skill What factors affect your English listening? A The classroom atmosphere B Students’ motivation C Quality of recorded material D Other What you think about the importance of English listening skill? A Very important B Important C Quite important D Not important How often you have problems in your listening skill? A Always B Usually C Sometimes D Rarely 29 In your opinion, listening skill is difficult for you, isn’t it? A Difficult and boring C Very difficult B Very difficult but interesting D Very interesting Which of the following reasons make you difficult to learn to listening English? (choose more than one) A Poor quality CD B Talking speed C The content has many new words D Having problems with different accents E Don't know the key words F Getting distracted by background noise G Other 10 The difficulty of listening to English that you often encounter (choose more than one) A Do not recognize English sounds (different accents and dialects, speed of speech, unclear pronunciation) B Lack of concentration C Limited vocabulary D Limited cultural and social knowledge E Insufficient vocabulary and sentence structure F Not keeping up with the speed of the speaker G Other Thank you very much for your cooperation! 30 .. .THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - GRADUATE PAPER Title: AN INVESTIGATION OF SOME DIFFICULTIES IN THE LISTENING OF ENGLISH - MAJORED FRESHMEN AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY. .. that students often encounter when practicing listening, I decided to choose the topic titled "An investigation of some difficulties in the listening of English- majored freshmen at Thu Dau Mot. .. specific listening types Listening types can be defined by the goal of the listening The three main types of listening most common in interpersonal communication are: Informational Listening (Listening