A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL OF THE SECONDYEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL OF THE SECONDYEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL OF THE SECONDYEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL OF THE SECONDYEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL OF THE SECONDYEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL OF THE SECONDYEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL OF THE SECONDYEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL OF THE SECONDYEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL OF THE SECONDYEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL OF THE SECONDYEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL OF THE SECONDYEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL OF THE SECONDYEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL OF THE SECONDYEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH - - GRADUATION PAPER Topic: A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL OF THE SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS Student Student code Administrative Class Supervisor : Nguyen Thi Kieu My : 17D170264 : K53N5 : MA Pham Thi To Loan HANOI – 2021 ABSTRACT Currently, with the development of international trade, the integration of foreign companies or multinational corporations are increasing Demand of foreign language, especially English, has also become more urgent than ever English is considered as a compulsory and basic skill for students to approach businesses, grasp job opportunities in reality We can’t deny the role of English for students in particular and employees in general However, learning English now not only requires to communicate or talk normally basic with foreigners, but also able to read, listen and understand well when approaching a professional working environment Listening skill is one of the most necessary skills to communicate in real life and it is also important in learning foreign language Everybody knows that in order to listen a message is not as simple as hearing it, so the listener has to understand the message and respond in the right manner Especially, with the students of English faculty, Thuongmai University, English listening skill is a compulsory main subject and plays a very important role in learning programs as well as equipping skills for students In study program, the business students will have to practice some other subjects such as Interpretation Practice and Advanced Interpretation, which require students to have good listening skill However, in the learning process, students usually get unsatisfactory results due to lacking knowledge and skill, especially for those who are just exposed to this subject Most of these students met several difficulties when they studied English listening skill The problems that students encounter can come from many different reasons such as poor vocabulary, knowledge, understanding et cetera To identify certain difficulties when listening English, the researcher has conducted a study on difficulties in English listening skill by the second-year students of English faculty, Thuongmai University The aim of the study is to find out difficulties of students English listening skill and suggest several solutions to improve students’ listening skills ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the time of making my graduation paper, I have received a lot of support, assistance and encouragement from my family, teachers, friends who bring me a lot of motivation to complete my thesis successfully Thus, I would like to show acknowledgement to them First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor - MA Pham Thi To Loan for her guidance, comments and encouragement during my study With her dedicated guidance as well as her experience and knowledge, she has directly oriented, supported and helped me finish my study Secondly, I would like to show my special thanks to my teachers of English faculty at Thuongmai University for their teaching In my four-years of study at Thuongmai University, the college board, principal and teachers have given the best condition and facilities to us to finish our college curriculum Besides, I also want to thank all the students for spending their time to answer my survey questions With their enthusiastic assistance, I have collected valuable data to complete my survey Additionally, I also give my appreciation to all the authors of the books, reliable data sources and other materials listed in the reference part which have given me helpful consultancy to develop my graduation paper Due to limited implementation time and knowledge, I look forward to receiving comments and suggestions in order to perfect the graduation paper Sincere thanks! Hanoi, April 15th 2020 Student Nguyen Thi Kieu My TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 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 Aim of the study 1.4 Research subjects 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Research methodology 1.7 Organization of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Listening theory 2.1.1 Definition of listening 2.1.2 The importance of listening skills in learning 2.2 Listening Strategies 10 2.3 Difficulties in learning English listening skill 13 2.3.1 Difficulties from the speakers 13 2.3.2 Difficulties from learners 15 2.3.3 Difficulties from the materials 16 2.3.4 Difficulties from physical setting 16 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 18 3.1 Results collected from the questionnaire 18 3.1.1 The students’ attitude toward English listening skill 18 3.1.2 Difficulties in English listening skill 24 3.2 Discussion .35 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATION AND SUGGESTIONS .38 4.1 Suggestion for teachers 38 4.2 Suggestions for students 39 CONCLUSION 42 REFERENCES .I LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS No Abbreviations English ESL English as Second Language VCD Video Compact Disc BBC British Broadcasting Corporation CCN Cable News Network ABC American Broadcasting Company VOA Voice of America TV Television LIST OF TABLE AND FIGURES Table 3.1: The reason why students study English listening skill 18 Chart 3.1: Listening level of students 19 Chart 3.2 The frequency of students self-studying listening 20 Chart 3.3: Time of practicing listening 21 Table 3.2 Student’s method self-study at home 22 Table 3.3 What students before listening 22 Chart 3.4 What students for the first listening 23 Chart 3.5 Student’s attitude when they cannot understand words or phrases 24 Chart 3.6 Main difficulties for the learners 25 Chart 3.7 Listening problems from the speakers 26 Chart 3.8 Listening problems from the listeners 28 Chart 3.9 Listening problems from the materials 30 Chart 3.10 Listening problems from the physical setting .32 Chart 3.11 Possible solutions for listening problems 33 CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale Nowadays, listening plays a vital role in daily life People listen for different purposes such as entertainment, academic purposes, or obtaining the 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 The teaching of listening has attracted a greater level of interest in recent years than it did in the past Now, university entrance exams, exit exams, and other examinations often include a listening component, acknowledging that listening skill is a core component of second-language proficiency, and also reflecting the assumption that if listening isn’t tested, teachers won’t teach it Listening is one of the receptive skills and as such, it involves students in capturing and understanding the input of English Reading, the other receptive skill involves students in understanding and interpreting the written word Listening is probably more difficult than reading because students often recognize the written word more easily than they recognize the spoken word Furthermore, when reading, students can go back and reread a phrase whereas with listening they only get one chance With reading, it’s the reader who sets the pace whereas with listening it’s the speaker or recording that sets the pace Furthermore, English has been widely used as a major language in daily life and many education levels all over the world, both native and non-native English speaking countries Listening comprehension is becoming more and more important in acquiring a new language as well as knowledge displayed in lectures and media Especially, it is a vital skill for most English as second language learners (ESL) Despite its importance in learning English listening, the state of teaching and learning listening skills has long been ignored and gives little consideration It can newspapers and books are also good methods for students to improve their listening ability 51 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATION AND SUGGESTIONS In chapter 3, based on the results of the survey, students have recognized difficulties in listening and reasons why they usually have these difficulties In this chapter, some suggestions are given to help them overcome the issues and improve their listening skills To improve students’ English listening skill, I think both teachers and students should consider and change teaching and learning methods together 4.1 Suggestion for teachers It cannot deny the role of teachers in imparting and improving students’ listening skills Thanks to dedicated teachers’ intensive and extensive knowledge and experience, all students of English faculty have experienced good listening lessons, then they can improve and enhance their listening skills However, in this thesis, I would like to suggest several useful solutions for teachers of English faculty to make their lessons interesting The below are some solutions which I hope to become helpful consultations for you All students of English faculty at Thuongmai University have to study the background of the listening subject first so that it will be a basic premise for students to practice listening more effectively, then the students deeply and clearly understand the importance of listening subjects The teachers should have good lessons which are interesting and attractive for students then they can easily remember and apply for listening For each listening class lesson, the teachers should prepare for their teaching slides and provide related materials to make the lessons attractive Making the class exciting is an indispensable thing With exciting class hours, the students will easily learn and remember the knowledge of listening as well as specialized knowledge which the teachers impart, then they can apply it on their listening Teachers play a crucial part in improving learners’ listening skill In teaching the listening skill to the beginners, the teachers have to pay attention to the 52 important elements Additionally, teachers should provide more interesting topics for further listening The authentic listening material is usually interesting because the listeners are exposed to real life With the listening text in the textbook, the teachers can create more exciting activities to motivate students to take part in Meanwhile, to help the learners omit their bad habits, they should be encouraged not to panic when they miss a piece of information On the other hand, teachers have responsibility for providing necessary background knowledge which relates to the listening texts for the learners before they listen In addition, teachers can warm up by exciting games which introduce more about the culture, society and countries in the world Because of the various differences in the learners, teachers should upgrade the level of the listening tasks in order to encourage them The teacher should also provide students with different kinds of input, such as lectures, radio news, films, TV plays, announcements, everyday conversation, interviews, storytelling, English songs, and so on Teachers should make students aware of different native-speaker accents Of course, strong regional accents are not suitable for training in listening, but in spontaneous conversation native speakers have certain accents Moreover, the American accent is quite different from the British and Australian Therefore, it is necessary to let students deal with different accents, especially in extensive listening 4.2 Suggestions for students Through the findings of the survey questionnaire, we can see all the common difficulties affecting the students’ listening process so that I would like to offer some solutions to overcome the difficulties Firstly, improving pronunciation could bring students enormous benefits Students should spend more time on improving their pronunciation to get the exact words in listening Students often encounter the difficulties listening for accurate meaning and learning to produce the correct sounds at the same time Therefore, getting familiar with using English dictionary to look into both meanings and pronunciation of words is better Besides, to deal with unusual fields and strange 53 accents, students listen to a variety of topics in several sources This is also a chance for the students to make acquaintance with some non-standard accents such as Indian or French We know that listening to the varieties of inputs, for example, songs, news reports, films or lectures, is the most frequently-used method for students to improve their listening skill Nowadays, with the development of the Internet, listeners can access any kinds of inputs To be more specific, the students can listen to English songs, watch English films with or without subtitles, or they even can listen to BBC news There is a great number of listening materials such as BBC news, CNN student news, ABC radio or esl-lab.com, VOA news Listening to different sources can make it more exciting because you can listen to various kinds of topics and accents Secondly, language is the most profound expression of a culture and cultural elements present in all aspects of language Language and culture are inseparable Each ethnic group has its own customs and rituals that are reflected in language, ethnic groups of different cultures will be even more difficult to understand when meeting words denoting specific things Understanding these cultural elements helps listeners as well as students to learn foreign languages effectively because the meaning of a word, the content of speech of any language can be changed according to the context Language perception does not just stop at knowing the meaning and knowing the content contained in words, but more importantly, grasping the profound meaning of those information contents To overcome the difficulty of cultural differences, we need to learn their culture or read related materials about their culture When we have knowledge of their culture, our listening will become easier Next one, lack of vocabulary is always an obstacle encountering listening from a good listener Therefore, we should read all related materials before starting to listen It is one of the most important steps when listening to professional texts, which we should consult to make our listening And understanding the meaning will help us listen accurately to the text To enlarge vocabulary, reading is the best effective way for students When we read, we can see lots of words being used in 54 certain contexts The students can try reading easier materials to form the good habit of reading When we are familiar with this habit, we should raise our level up by reading more difficult one from other sources but ensure that the source is appropriate for their own reading level Students should spend their time on reading news, books, and newspapers every day However, students should find and read the official sources such as Vietnam News, Saigon News, etc Students can note some new words which they don’t know in a notebook in order to listen to them again or they can give some examples for these words to deeply remember From that, students can not only widen their own vocabulary, structures in English but also enlarge their background knowledge in culture and specific fields For students, self-study is the best way to improve their listening skills quickly Therefore, students need to find learning methods that are appropriate with themselves and have a self-conscious attitude toward learning in order to improve their listening skills One of the best ways that helps students have stronger motivation is studying with groups Instead of learning by yourself, working in a group can create competitiveness during studying Students can learn more things from their friends They can share ideas as well as learning methods together In the class, students need to pay attention to the lecture in class and exercise regularly During the studying process, students should take note of some vocabulary as well as structures given by teachers Students can join the listening club at school to review and exchange together Last but not least, it is obvious that practice is the best way to improve students’ listening skills and to reduce listening difficulties Improving pronunciation, enlarging vocabulary and listening skill are not the matters of days or weeks but it takes a long time to be good at Thus, it is vital for students to practice day by day Through practice with feedback, students learn to solve difficulties and from that they can improve their listening skill The more time students spend on practicing, the better they will become It depends much on the students’ selfconsciousness 55 CONCLUSION The importance of English is undeniable in modern society Listening is vital not only in language learning but also in daily communication Through listening, we can learn advanced economy, politics, society - culture, health from countries around the world The aim of the study is to find out common difficulties in English listening skill and suggest some solutions for teachers and students in order to help students overcome barriers as well as improve their listening The research is divided into four chapters The first chapter is Overview of the study The chapter is a short description of the study providing general information about the study It includes seven parts: rationale, previous studies, aim of the study, research subjects, scope of the study, research methodology and organization of the study The second chapter is Literature review including definition of listening, the importance of listening skills in learning, listening strategies and difficulties in learning English listening skill The second chapter is theory of listening which orients for the graduation paper’s research The third chapter is Results and discussion After interviewing the second-year students of English faculty by a survey questionnaire, the researcher has collected the data and conducted an analysis Through the findings of the survey questionnaire, we can see the students’ attitude in studying listening subjects and practicing listening Besides, the survey also finds out the common difficulties influencing the students’ listening process There are four main difficult reasons for the learners to listen They are difficulties from the speakers, from the learners, from the materials and from the physical setting Learners are unable to keep up with the speaker’s rapid delivery speed, unable to apply effective listening strategies to facilitate comprehension, and lack of concentration Besides, bad pronunciation, limited vocabulary are also big obstacles to most students in listening skill And the last one is recommendation and suggestion In the chapter some solutions have been given to teachers and students to have proper and effective methods in teaching and learning listening and to improve the quality of English listening skills However, the study also had some limitations Shortcoming and mistakes were unavoidable, so the researcher looked forward to receiving positive comments and contributing ideas for the graduation paper Besides, the researcher also hopes that the study is able to help and be a reference for teachers and students of English faculty to improve teaching and learning English listening skill 56 REFERENCES Nguyen, T.T.T (2007) Some hindrances encountered by tenth form students in Hanoi in studying reading comprehension with the new English textbook 10-edition II Hanoi: Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies-Vietnam National University, Hanoi Phung Thi Tho, (2017) “A study on difficulties and solutions in English listening skill of the second-year students in the Faculty of Foreign Language at University of Technology and Education” Hung Yen University of Technology and Education Baker, L., & Brown, A L (1984) Metacognitive Skills and Reading In P David (Ed.), Handbook of reading research (pp 353-394) New York: Longman Buck, G (2001) Assessing Listening Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Chetchumlong, S (1987) Problems of Teaching English Listening of Teachers in Government Secondary School in Chon Buri Unpublished M.A.T Teaching of English, Thesis Kasetsart University Definition of listening -Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listening Derry, S J., & Murphy, D A (1986) Designing Systems That Train Learning Ability: From Theory to Practice Review of Educational Research, 56, 139 Dwi Raza Saraswaty, (2018) “Learners’ difficulties and strategies in listening comprehension” English Community Journa Hamouda, A (2012) Listening Comprehensible Problems- Language in India - Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow Voices from the Classroom, 12, 1-49 10 Henner Stanchina, C (1987) Autonomy as Metacognitive Awareness: Suggestions for Training Self-Monitoring of Listening Comprehension Mélanges Pedagogiques, 69-84 11 Krashen, S D (1982) Principle and Practice in Second Language Acquisition Oxford: Pergamon 1982 12 Madsen, H S., & Bowen, J D (1978) Adaptation in language teaching Rowley, MA: Newbury House 13 Mendelsohn, D.J (1994) Learning to Listen: A Strategy-based Approach for the Second Language Learner San Diego: Dominie Press 14 Mr Abbas Pourhossein Gilakjani and Mr Mohammad Reza Ahmadi, (2016) “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning”, Canadian Center of Science and Education 15 Nord, J.R (1980), Developing listening fluency before speaking: An alternative paradigm, System 16 O’Malley, J M., Chamot, A U., & Kupper, L (1987) Listening Comprehension Strategies in Second Language Acquisition Applied Linguistics, 29, 331-341 17 Rost, M (2002) Teaching and Researching Listening London, UK: Longman 18 Rubin, J (1988) Improving Foreign Language Listening Comprehension Washington DC: US Department of Education 19 Steinberg, S (2007) An Introduction to Communication Studies Juta and Company Ltd 20 Underwood, M (1989) Teaching Listening New York: Longman 21 Vandergrift, L (1997) The comprehension strategies of second language (French) listeners: A descriptive study Foreign Language Annals, 30 (3), 387-409 22 Yagang, F (1993) Listening Problems and Solutions English Teaching Forum, 31, (2), 16-33 Studying Questionnaire I am conducting a study with the topic “Difficulties in English listening skill by the second-year students of English faculty, Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions” The aim of the study is to find out difficulties of students English listening skill and suggest several solutions to improve students’ listening skills I hope you can help me fill the questionnaire which I can collect information to my graduation paper I will instruct you how to answer each question Your assistance contributes greatly to the success of my thesis Thank you very much The reason why students study English listening: (You can choose up to three answers) A It is a compulsory subject B Listening is my favorite subject C It is practical It helps me enlarge my vocabulary and grammar D It helps me to learn more cultures in other countries and broaden my knowledge E It is necessary for the future job F It helps to be more confident in communicating with foreigners G It is a money-making tool How you rate your English listening skill? A Poor B Normal C Good D Very good How often you self-study listening at home? (tick out the best answer) A Never B Rarely C Sometimes D Often The amount of time you usually spend on listening weekly: A Less than hour B - hours C – hours D More than hours How you self-study at home? (you can tick more than one) A Listen to English songs B Listen to tapes or disks of the syllabus in university C Listen to news in English D Listen to films or stories E Listen to dialogues, interviews, conversations, etc What you before listening? (you can tick more than one) A Go through the questions and guess what the topic is about B Nothing to just ready to listen C Guess the content of the listening D Ask about the new words E Read the task instruction What you while you are listening for the first time? A Listen to word by word B Listen for the detail information C Focus on the new words D Other What you if you cannot understand words or phrases while listening? A Ignore it and keep on listening B Try to guess its meaning C Feel depressed and cannot listen anymore What is the main reason making difficulties for the learners? A From speakers B From the learners C From the materials D From the physical setting 10 What are the listening problems from the speakers? (you can tick more than one) A The fast speed B The number of the speakers (more than speakers) C Ending sounds (/e, es, ed, k, t/, …) D Reduced forms (elision and assimilation) E Intonation and stress F The strange accents (e.g: Indian or French accents) G Noise and redundancy 11 What are the listening problems from the learners? (you can tick more than one) A Lack of vocabulary B Lack of social and background knowledge C Bad/ incorrect pronunciation D Inability to concentrate E Inability to predict about the content F Ineffective listening habits (e.g try to understand every single words) 12 What are the listening problems from the materials? (you can tick more than one) A Complex grammatical structures B The long listening C Too much information in the recording D Many unfamiliar words, jargons and idioms E Unfamiliar topics 13 What are listening problems from the physical setting? (you can tick more than one) A Poor quality equipment and facilities B Background noises C Using audio tapes (not video) D The crowded classes E The large classroom 14 What are the possible solutions for listening problems? (you can tick more than one) A Practicing listening everyday B Listening to different accents C Making prediction about what the speakers will talk about D Taking notes of the main ideas and key words E Underlining key words before listening F Broadening vocabulary by reading newspapers and books G Skipping the missing points H Listening to different topics I Improving pronunciation ... planning strategies, listeners clear the aims of a listening task and apply specific features of the aural language input that make easy the understanding of aural input In this strategy, students. .. messages of the conversations and the broken down communication is the outcome  The intonation and stress One of the outstanding features of English is stress and intonation The purpose of stress... understanding The students can play recorded materials again and again until getting the information  The accents Many foreign language learners are surprised and dismayed when listening to someone