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Listening skill is one of the most necessary skills to communicate in the real life. Everybody knows that in order to listen to a message is not as simple as hearing it, so the listener has to understand the message and respond in the right manner. The thesis will study the subjective and objective difficulties of the students in learning the listening skill. Then, it would like to find out the reasons for those problems and the solutions for students in learning the listening skill. Therefore, I applied the qualitative and quantitative methods to do the research. So the collecting data instruments like questionnaires, interviews were used to do the study. The results of the research will point out the difficulties that students meet when they learn the listening skill. More importantly, the study helps me find out the causes of those difficulties so that I can work out the right solutions to the problems. With the hope of improving students’ listening competence.
1 I DECLERATION I certify my authorship of the study report entitle “An investigation into the causes of difficulties English listening skills encountered by first year English majors at Faculty of English, Thuongmai University” This graduation paper is the result of my own research and the substance of this thesis has not been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution and that if this declaration is found to be false, disciplinary measures and penalties can be taken and imposed in accordance with university policies and rules Signature Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh II ACKNOWLEDGMENTS During the process of doing this graduation paper, I have received many necessary assistances, precious ideas and timely encouragements from my teachers, family and friends This paper could not have been completed without the help, encouragement and support from a number of people who all deserve my sincere gratitude and appreciation First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor – Ms Pham Thuy Giang, the English teacher of Faculty of English, who has always been willing to give me valuable advice and suggestions in order that I can complete successfully this study I also would like to take this opportunity to show my sincere thanks to all my teachers at the Faculty of English, Thuongmai University, who have handed me basic knowledge to complete this study I am so thankful to students of K53N at Faculty of English for their whole – heart participation in the study I would like to acknowledge my thanks to all the authors of the books, magazines, and other materials listed in the reference part for their ideas that have been reflected and developed in the study I am equally indebted to my classmates for their suggestions and encouragements in the process of my study Last but not least, my particular thanks are given to my parents for their encouragement and support which played an important role in my graduation paper III ABSTRACT Listening skill is one of the most necessary skills to communicate in the real life Everybody knows that in order to listen to a message is not as simple as hearing it, so the listener has to understand the message and respond in the right manner The thesis will study the subjective and objective difficulties of the students in learning the listening skill Then, it would like to find out the reasons for those problems and the solutions for students in learning the listening skill Therefore, I applied the qualitative and quantitative methods to the research So the collecting data instruments like questionnaires, interviews were used to the study The results of the research will point out the difficulties that students meet when they learn the listening skill More importantly, the study helps me find out the causes of those difficulties so that I can work out the right solutions to the problems With the hope of improving students’ listening competence IV TABLE OF CONTENTS V LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS FE: Faculty of English VI LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS TABLES CHARTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study Nowadays, listening plays a vital role in daily lives People 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 “An investigation into the causes of difficulties in English listening skills encountered by first year English majors at Faculty of English, Thuongmai University” for several reasons First of all, listening is the most important skill in communication in the real life Listening and speaking are two major parts of communication They are closely interdependent We are able to talk sensibly when we understand what is said to us If we fail to understand spoken language, we may miss important information and respond in a funny way 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 classroom helps students make transition from classroom English to real-life English more easily and effectively Therefore, I would like to this research to help the students 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 can not in most listening contexts such as TV programs, meetings, discussion, lectures or conversations Last but not least, the 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 long time That is the reason I would like to work out some suggestion so as to help students become more interested in learning listening skill After studying at Faculty of English, Thuongmai University for nearly four years, I realize that first year students of English major still have many difficulties in their listening skill In the hope of finding out the difficulties of listening that they normally get, a study entitled: “An investigation into the causes of difficulties in English listening skills encountered by first year English majors at Faculty of English, Thuongmai University” has been conducted because of all above mentioned reasons 1.2 Aims of the study The study is done with the following aims: Firstly, the study was carried out in order to survey the real state of learning English listening skill in Thuongmai University so that I could work out the reasons for those difficulties Secondly, most students find it difficult to learn listening skill so I would like to find the common difficulties that the students face when they learn English listening skill at Thuongmai University Finally, because of the difficulties, many students are not interested in learning and practicing this skill at the class, therefore the study would like to suggest some possible solutions to those difficulties These suggestions also wish to help the students catch up with the speed of a normal conversation in the real life so that they can improve their communication competence 1.3 Research questions What is the real situation of learning English listening skill for the first- year students in Faculty of English at Thuongmai University ? What are the difficulties of the first-year students in Faculty of English at Thuongmai University ? What are some solutions to improve in learning English listening ? 1.4 Scope of the study The study is about learning listening skill for first-year students in English faculty at Thuongmai University Because of the limitations of time and knowledge, the shortage of reference materials, this study cannot cover the whole issue of listening skill It only focus on exploring common difficulties students get in listening skill Moreover, the study could not touch upon all the students at Thuongmai University It is confined to first-years tudents in English faculty at Thuongmai University only 1.5 Methods of the study The study will be conducted using quantitative, qualitative methods The study includes survey questionnaires for both teachers and students, interview questions for students only of K53 at the FE After getting the results, the researcher will use the tables and charts for presenting the collect data 1.6 The organization of the study The study includes four main chapters, organized as follows: Chapter 1: introduction - Rationale of the study - Aims of the study - Research of the study - Scope of the study - Methods of the study - Organization of the study Chapter 2: Literature review Theories difficulties to be resolved in the study - Theoretical background related to English listening skill - Difficulties in English listening skill - Strategies of English listening skill Chapter 3: The study - Results of the study - Discussions about the result of the - Suggestions for learning Chapter 4: Conclusion - Summaries the study - Limitations of the study - Suggestions for further studies study 10 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Overview of listening 2.1.1 Definition of listening Listening is considered as one of the most important skills in acquiring both a native language and a second or foreign language It is being paid more and more attention to So far, there have been a number of definitions of listening by different linguists such as Howatt and Dakin (1974); Pearson (1983); Hirsch (1986); Scarcella and Oxford (1992); Bentley and Bacon (1996), Brown (2001), Gary Buck (2001), Scott Shelton (2008) Howatt and Dakin (1974) defined listening as the ability to identify and understand what others are saying This involves understanding a speaker’s accent or pronunciation, his grammar and his vocabulary, and grasping his meaning Wolvin and Coakley (1982) regarded listening as: “the process of receiving, attending to and assigning meaning to aural stimuli” Pearson (1983) stated “Listening involves the simultaneous organization and combination of skills in Phonology, Syntax, Semantics, and knowledge of the text structure, all of which seem to be controlled by the cognitive process Thus it can be said that though not fully realized, the listening skill is essential in acquiring language proficiency” Hirsch (1986) gave another definition: “Listening as an aspect of skills: involves neurological response and interpretations of sounds to understand and to give meaning by reacting, selecting meaning, remembering, attending, analyzing and including previous experience” Bentley and Bacon (1996) stated that listening, an important part of the second language learning process also has been defined as an active process during which the listener constructs meaning from oral input According to Brown (2001), listening is “not merely the process of unidirectional receiving of audible symbols” He supposed that one aspect of listening comprehension which is “the psychomotor process of receiving sound waves through the ear and transmitting nerve impulses to the brain” Hence, listening comprises of three elements: the sender, the message and the listener Gary Buck (2001), for example, pointed out that “listening comprehension is an active process of constructing meaning and this is done by applying knowledge to the 24 Chart 6: Students’ difficulties in listening 3% 9% 28% 22% Poor- quality CDs and CD players Unfamiliar content of listening text Limited practice time Fast speaking speed 40% Other factors The chart shows that the poor quality of CDs and CD players was not a big problem Only 3% of the learners think it made them difficult to listen There were 14 of 52 students (28%) chose the factor unfamiliar content of the listening text The most number of the students (40%) found that the main reason for the difficulties in listening was the limited time of practicing at class Besides, 22% of learners think that the speaking speed was very fast Except those factors, 9% of the learners also pointed some other factors affecting their listening They included teaching methods, their background knowledge, pronunciation practice 3.3.2.2 The factors have influence on the interested in English listening skill To find out the factors have influence on the interested in English listening skill, question of the questionnaire is mention about it The researcher give factors that influence in this skill, students and teachers give their opinion Chart 7: Factors motivating students’ learning the listening skill It is easy to see from the above chart that the most influential factor to the students’ motivation was good teaching methods 48% of the students affirmed that 24% of them think they were influential So teaching method was the first element that all the teachers should notice in teaching any skills, not only for the listening skill The next factor that many students found interested in listening activities 30% of the learners defined exciting activities motivate them a lot to learn better Furthermore, 42% suppose that they were influential A small number (6%) of the students thought activities did 25 not affect In the meanwhile, 10% of the students rank interesting listening topics the most influential factor, and 26% agree they were influential However, 32% insist that topics had a bit influence Also, 28% said the topics had no effects their listening The least influential factor of four was the equipment Adequate and modern equipment were assessed that it did not have any effect on the learners’ learning the listening skill by 56% of the learners The following question (question 11 for students) show the subjective factors that are the deep reasons which cause the learners difficult in learning the listening skill 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 40% 35% 21% 4% Listen toOnly listen toNeed to listenFeel tired and every word so canstressed wordsmore than threeunconcentrated not catch up thetimes towhen listening speed of theunderstandmore than three speechtimes Chart 8: The subjective factors affecting the students’ learning listening skill The above bar chart has shown the ways that the listeners often when they are learning the listening skill As it can be shown in the chart, the number of the learners who usually try to listen to every word so they cannot catch up with the speed of the speech take 40% However, 21% of the learners know to listen to the stressed words It is not easy for them to realize the stressed words in the utterance Most students need to listen to once listening item twice or three times 35% of them have to listen more than three times to get the understanding In the contrast, when listening more than three times, 4% of the students find tired and they cannot concentrate on the listening In conclusion, there are many factors affecting the students’ learning listening skill and students need to find out the method to repair 3.3.3 Activities for improving English listening skill 3.3.3.1 The activities students like most in listening English classes 26 The next question in the questionnaire for students is about the activities students like most in listening English class The collected data are shown in the below table: Assessment Most favorite Favorite Normal Uninterested Ticking (phrases, pictures) 33% 30% 21% 16% off Completing the Choosing the Answering the missing words correct answers comprehension questions 21% 27% 15% 35% 33% 11% 38% 28% 22% 6% 12% 52% Table 2: Students’ opinions about the activities that they like most in listening English classes 27 From the table, it can be seen that the most favorite listening activities were ticking off the items they hear (33%) and choosing the correct answers (27%) Most students (52%) felt uninterested in answering the comprehension questions Besides, only 15% of the learners confined comprehension questions were the most favorite activity And only 11% of them like answering comprehension questions Meanwhile, completing the missing words or information was supposed to be a normal activity 38% of the learners thought it was normal and 35% of them liked it Then, listening activities affected the students’ interest in learning this skill a lot According to the collected information of the interview, when asked “What kinds of activities in class you like most?”, two students like playing games which relate to the topic, choose the correct answers and ticking off Another student share: “I am interested in playing games and complete the missing words It is a useful way to improve vocabulary” In conclusion, the activities in listening English classes play an important roll in learning English It will bring students much interest 3.3.3.2 The activities students should before and while listening in class In the listening class, how they learned this skill The following charts would express the ways they should it 4% 16% A Should pre-taught some related new words Should predict the content of the listening texts by the activities that the teacher gives 12% Both a & b 68% D Do nothing Chart 9: What students should before listening The chart shows that most students (68%) in listening classes are taught new words relating to the listening texts and they often predict the contents of the listening text based on the activities given by the teacher But some of them only learn the new words (16%) 28 and the other learners (12%) guess the content before they start listening Have only 4% students not anything In conclusion, students should prepare things that relate to the text before listening So while listening, what students should The next chart will show this problem 4% A Listen and take notes 16% Listen and answer the questions Listen only 20% 60% D Other Chart 10: What students should while listening The chart shows that the majority of the learners (60%) know to take notes while listening It is a positive activity which helps students a lot in training the listening skill both in the English class as well as other real life situations 20% of them often try to answer the questions while they are listening The other 16% of them only listen These results reflect the method of teaching and learning the listening skill In conclusion, English listening skill is a difficult subject and what students before and while listening is important 3.4 Main finding and discussions 3.4.1 Opinions of students about English listening skill Generally, it is very clear from above the data analysis that students have plenty of difficulties in learning listening Most of first-year students in FE at Thuongmai University and their teachers say that English listening is difficult (68% of students) and very difficult (50% of teachers) Although, English listening skill was a difficult subject, most students (48%) still like it Besides, teachers (83%) say that their students were always have problems in English listening In class, listening to dialogues were the most favorite activity of 66% of the students 3.4.2 Current situation in learning English listening skill According to the first-year students in FE and their teachers, there are some main reasons (Poor –quality CDs and CD players, unfamiliar content listening text, limited practice time at class) affecting students a lot while they learn English listening skill In addition, 29 the subjective factor affecting the students’ learning English listening skill is that students try to listen to every words so they cannot catch up with the speed of the speech (40% of students) The most activities that students want to in class are ticking off the items they hear (33%) and choosing the correct answers (27%) Most students also agree that there are some activities to improve English listening skill, such as: before listening, students should be pre-taught some related new words and predict the content of the listening texts by the activities that the teacher gives; while listening, students should listen and take notes In conclusion, in order to get the maximum benefits of offered technique, some recommendations are proposed to the major first-year students at Faculty of English 3.4.3 Suggestions for improving English listening skill “Getting the right answer is not our only goal The main goal is the listening itself” (Lafi, 2001) How much listening that learners can understand all depends on how wellprepared teachers are and the use they can make of the listening texts? So activities are indeed crucial The writer would like to classify the suggested activities into three stages Pre-listening activities The pre-listening stage is very important because it is the base for the listening process Pre-listening activities are the things to before the students hear the passage to help them get the most out of what they are going to hear In order to understand a piece of spoken discourse, the listener has to have not only knowledge of the language but also some background knowledge of the world Pre- listening activities make it possible for all students to share common background knowledge before listening because it is impossible to expect all students to have the same level of knowledge about a particular world event While-listening activities While-listening stage is the time for students to listen to the text and understand it It is not necessary for students to understand all about the listening text They not need to memorize the exact words or sentences that are said They just need to catch the major ideas There are various kinds of techniques which can be used to lead the students to focus on the general idea and the subject matter of the text they are listening to Directed listening helps the students to extract the relevant information from the spoken discourse Thus, teacher should ask more global rather than partial comprehension questions Specific questions are asked only after the students have recognized the major ideas of the 30 listening texts Moreover, the teacher should prepare beforehand some forms or worksheets for the learners to fill in when they listen Post-listening activities As it has been introduced in the background, in this stage, students take the information they have gained from the listening text and use it for another purpose Some following activities can be applied for this stage • Summarizing: 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 • Recalling the story: it is another form of summarizing the story but in oral way Learners re-tell the story in the listening text in their own words They practice speaking in groups or in pairs • Role play: learners dramatize the listening text, taking the roles of the characters in the story they have just heard 3.5 Recommendations 3.5.1 For students 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 Today there are many ways to learn English, to improve your listening skills, every day you should spend to 10 minutes or more to listen to a short English news According to the survey, most students had habits of listening to every word in the recording so they soon got tired and frustrated of listening As a consequence, they answered the listening tasks mainly by guessing but not by understanding the text It is not necessary for learners to understand every word in order to understand the information they need from the recording Therefore, learners should learn to focus on the message When listening, the learners should summarize the ideas they listen to and take notes They had better not translate the listening text into the mother tongue, but try to understand it in the target language In addition, students also need to improve their vocabulary Try to focus on listening and capturing the key words of the dialogue as well as listening in class Moreover, outside the listening class, students have to practice regularly such as listening to English songs, listening in VOA, watching foreign channels (such as: HBO, CINEMAX, you can watch the American films to improve your English listening comprehension) so as to get acquainted with the native accent in normal speech In 31 addition, they must enrich themselves with general knowledge of the English speaking countries, English language, and social and cultural knowledge CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION This chapter will deal with a summary of the major findings, limitations of the study and some suggestions for further studies 4.1 Summary of the study To reach what the author aimed at this study; the study was divided into four chapters with their own purpose The first chapter briefly covers the theories related to the study The second chapter presented the overview on situation of learning English listening skill at FE, Thuongmai University The third chapter presented the research methodology and author’s findings of the approach to listening at FE through the questionnaires and interview This chapter also helps the author find the answers for three research questions that stated in the introduction The last chapter is some recommendations and suggestions to improve English listening skill at Thuongmai University As a senior student, he has experienced a difficult time listening to English He chose this topic to highlight the difficulties of the students at this stage and would like to collect the comments of the students to provide solutions I have collected the opinions of 52 children who are first-year students of the Faculty of Business English for the difficulties in learning and receiving the results as in the study Most of the children also said that listening comprehension is very difficult, this is a huge obstacle in learning English Since then, I have drawn a few lessons based on my own experience and this research 4.2 Limitations of the study Although the study has certain strong points such as collection methods, namely interviews, survey questionnaires for students, due to limited time, lack of sources, the researcher’s ability and other unexpected factors, it is obvious that the study has got a number of short-comings First of all, due to the limited of time, experience to some extent, the researcher could not conduct other methods such as classroom observation which can make the obtained results more reliable Secondly, due to the limitation of scope of the study, the researcher only focus on first-year students in Faculty of English which account for a small number of students at FFL, Thuongmai University Therefore, the result of the study cannot be generalized Besides, the researcher could not cover all the aspects of difficulties 32 In addition, the techniques suggested in this research are selected from different reliable but limited sources In spite of the mentioned limitations, I hope that this exploratory research will contribute to the better situation of learning English listening skill at FE, Thuongmai University 4.3 Suggestions for further study Because of the limitation, this study could not cover all of aspects of the study Besides, the study only focuses on difficulties for only first-year students at FE in order to help them improve their listening skill Moreover, for the further studies, to get better results, the researcher should invite more participants in other universities Together with using survey questionnaires and interviews, observation is also necessary to get more persuasive conclusions All in all, despite the study can avoid the limitation, the research has been completed under the guiding of the supervisor and self-effort Any comments and criticism will be highly appreciated for better further study REFERENCES Brown, H.D (2001), Teaching by Principles: 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 Goh, C (1998) How ESL Learners with Different Listening Abilities Use Comprehension Strategies and Tactics Language Teaching Research, 2, 124-147 Hutchinson T., Carol T., Jenny Q., and Kate E (2007), English for Life – Beginner Teacher’s book Oxford: Oxford University Press Harman, Willis W "Rationale for good choosing." Journal of Humanistic Psychology 21.1 (1981): 5-12 Howatt, A and J Dakin (1974), Language laboratory materials, ed J P B Allen, S P B Allen, and S P Corder Lafi, T (2001), Teaching Listening Comprehension Regional Board of Education- Monastir, Tunisia Munro, M & Derwing, T M (1999) Foreign Accents, Comprehensibility and Intelligibility in the Speech of Language Nation, I.S.P (1990), Language Learners Language Learning teaching techniques Victoria University of Wellington English Language Institute 10 Nord, J.R (1980), Developing listening fluency before speaking: An alternative paradigm, System 11 Nguyễn Thị Vân Lam & Ngơ Đình Phương (2006), English Teaching Methodology Vinh University Websites: http://www.academicinnovations.com/report.html#listen http://www.anglais.edunet.tn/tutorials/elt_train/pdf/teachinglistening.pdf http://www.ehow.com http://www.esl.about.com/od/englishlistening/a/listen_tips.htm APPENDIX Survey questionnaires for students This survey questionnaire is designed for my graduation paper namely: “ An investigation into the causes of difficulties in learning English listening skills encountered by first year English majors at Faculty of English ” 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 your personal information as well as your answers will be kept confident and not be used for the other purposes Thanks for your help! Personal information: Your gender: A Male B Female How old are you? ……………………………………………………………… How long have you been learning English? A About years B About years C About years D Over years I Your opinion about studying listening skill In your opinion, English listening skill is……………………………… A Very difficult B Difficult C Quite difficult D Not difficult E Others………………………………………………………………… Do you like English listening lessons at class? A I like very much B I like C I don’t mind D I don’t like What you think about the importance of English listening skill? A Very important B Important C Quite important D Not important E Others………………………………………………………………… How often you have problems in your listening skill? A Always B Often C Sometimes D Rarely E Others………………………………………………………………… What kinds of listening text you expect to practice more? (Put the tick (√) on your choice) Kinds of listening text Uninterested Normal Favorite Most favorite A Songs B Films or stories C News, speeches or lectures D Dialogues: conversations, interviews, etc II The causes affecting to listening English skill Which of the following reasons make you difficult to learn listening English? A Poor –quality CDs and CD players B Unfamiliar content listening text C Limited practice time at class D Fast speed speaking E Other:…………………………………………………………… 10 What makes you interested in learning English listening skill best? Items Most Influential influential A bit Not influential influential A Interesting topic B Exciting activities C Adequate modern equipment D Good teaching methods 11 In listening classes, you often A Try to listen to every words so you can’t catch up the speed of the speech B Only listen to stressed words C Need to listen more than three times to understand D Feel tired and unconcentrated when listening more …………………………………………………………… than three times E Others: III Activities for improving English listening skill 12 What listening activities you like best? A Tick off (phrases/ pictures/items) B Complete the missing words C Choose the correct answers D Answer comprehension questions E Others: ……………………………………………………… 13 What should you before listening? (more than one choice) A Should be pre-taught some related new words B Should predict the content of the listening texts by the activities that the teacher gives C Both A & B D Do nothing E Others: …………………………………………………………… 14 While listening, you should: A Listen and take notes B Listen and answer the questions C Listen only D Others: …………………………………………………………… Thank you very much for your cooperation! APPENDIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS What you think of the difficulty of English listening skill? What you think of the importance of English listening skill? What kinds of activities in class you like most? ... skill for the first- year students in Faculty of English at Thuongmai University ? What are the difficulties of the first- year students in Faculty of English at Thuongmai University ? What are some... graduation paper namely: “ An investigation into the causes of difficulties in learning English listening skills encountered by first year English majors at Faculty of English ” In completing these... In the hope of finding out the difficulties of listening that they normally get, a study entitled: ? ?An investigation into the causes of difficulties in English listening skills encountered by first