A research on linguistic factors affecting the performances of the freshmen who are non-major english students on toeic listening test at IUH

Title: A RESEARCH ON LINGUISTIC FACTORS AFFECTING THEPERFORMANCES OF THE FRESHMEN WHO ARE NON-MAJOR ENGLISH STUDENTS ON TOEIC LISTENING TEST AT IUH... Based on the findings, theresearche

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

- -GRADUATION THESIS

AFFECTING THE PERFORMANCES OF THE FRESHMEN WHO ARE NON-MAJOR ENGLISH STUDENTS ON TOEIC LISTENING TEST AT IUH

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

-

 -GRADUATION THESIS

AFFECTING THE PERFORMANCES OF THE FRESHMEN WHO ARE NON-MAJOR ENGLISH STUDENTS ON TOEIC LISTENING TEST AT IUH

MINISTRY OF INDUSTRIAL AND TRADE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES



Student’s name: NGUYỄN THỊ QUỲNH NHƯ

Student’s ID: 17032981

Class: DHAV13B

Supervisor: ĐINH THỊ HOA, M.A

Student’s declaration: I declare that this graduation report is entirely my own works and does notinvolve in plagiarism or collusion It also has not been accepted as part of a submission to anotherpurpose elsewhere I accept heavy penalty for any cheating or plagiarism

Date submitted: June 20th, 2021

Signed:

Word length: 7284 words

Title: A RESEARCH ON LINGUISTIC FACTORS AFFECTING THE

PERFORMANCES OF THE FRESHMEN WHO ARE NON-MAJOR ENGLISH STUDENTS ON TOEIC LISTENING TEST AT IUH

In the process of learning a foreign language in general, and the TOEIC learning test in particular,listening ability, especially listening comprehension is plays an extremely important role Inrecent years, research into learning and teaching English listening skills has piqued Vietnameseinterest However, there is still a lack of study on the key factors influencing the TOEIC listeningtest of non-major English students at IUH As a result, the aim of this research is to look into thelinguistic factors that influence the performance of the freshmen who are non-major in English atIUH Questionnaires are used as main instrument to collect data Based on the findings, theresearcher proposes some recommendations for teachers and students to help students developlistening skills and eventually improve TOEIC listening test scores as well as to help learners toovercome their listening problems

Keywords: Listening, Listening TOEIC test, Linguistic factors.

First of all, I would like to express thanks to the School Board of the Industrial University of HoChi Minh City and the Faculty of Foreign Languages for generating chances me to know how towork on the final proposal

Secondly, I would like to express my endless thanks and gratefulness to my supervisor Mrs DinhThi Hoa Her kind-hearted support and continuous advice went through the process of completion

of my graduation report Her encouragement and comments had significantly enriched andimproved my graduation report The graduation report would have been impossible to completewithout her enthusiasm and instructions

With deepest gratitude, allowing me to express my gratitude for their co-operation during thetime I collected data and information for my research

Furthermore, I would like to thank my group members and especially are Tang Thi Kha Phuongwho often shared my feelings and gave me timely advice during the internship And she is alsohelp me overcome all the difficulties to finish this internship report

In short, I really thank to all people helping me to finish this graduation thesis I would like toexpress my heartfelt gratitude to the teacher's guidance, my colleagues, and my family for theirunwavering help and encouragement over the past four years as I prepared for life

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 2

1.2 Research Objectives 3

1.3 Research question 3

1.4 Scope of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Definitions of key term/concepts 5

2.1.1 Listening 5

2.1.2 Listening comprehension 5

2.1.3 Listening TOEIC test 6

2.1.4 Linguistic factors 6

2.2 Results of previous studies 8

2.2.1 Listening Support in a Variety of Forms Reduces Listening Test Anxiety 8

2.1.2 A study of the major factors influencing the TOEIC listening test scores of freshmen who are not majoring in English 8

2.1.3 Factors affecting listening in L2 learning 9

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN 11

3.1 Research site/context 12

3.2 Participants/Objects 12

3.3 Research methodology and research methods 12

3.4 Procedures 13

3.5 Data analysis 14

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 15

4.1 Findings 16

4.1.1 The current state of students' listening abilities 16

4.1.2 How are IUH freshmen’s attitudes towards TOEIC listening test 16

4.1.3 The linguistic factors affecting IUH freshmen’s performance on TOEIC listening test 20

4.1.4 Improve TOEIC listening results for IUH freshmen 23

4.2 Discussion 28

4.2.1 How are IUH freshmen’s attitudes towards TOEIC listening test 28

4.2.2 The linguistic factors affecting IUH freshmen’s performance on TOEIC listening test 28

4.2.3 How to improve Toeic listening result for IUH freshmen 28

4.3 Recommendations 29

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 30

5.1 Summary of the research 31

5.2 Solutions to solving the cause of IUH's first-year students' who are non-major English difficulty listening to listening skills 31

5.3 Limitation of the study 33

5.4 Further study 33

REFERENCES

APPENDENCIES

TABLE OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1: The years that students have learned English 16

Figure 4.2: Student's opinion on the TOEIC 17

Figure 4.3: Student's opinion about the TOEIC listening test 17

Figure 4.4: Students' emotions when taking the Toeic listening exam 18

Figure 4.5: Students spend time practicing their listening skills on a daily basis 19

Figure 4.6: The most boring and difficult part of the TOEIC listening test 19

Figure 4.7: The factors that affected listening skills 21

Figure 4.8: Some activities students usually do to improve listening skills 23

Figure 4.9: Student's opinion the importance of need to have the strategies for listening test 24

Figure 4.10: Some activities students usually do before doing the TOEIC listening test 25

Figure 4.11: Activities students usually do while doing listening TOEIC test 26

Figure 4.12: Student's opinion about activities students usually do when they can not listen to the test 27

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

In today’s globalised economy, English is the universal language and it also has been widelyspoken language in the world, it is considered our primary source of communication as well as ithas long served as an international language of entertainment, science, business, informationtechnology, travelling and so on Moreover, Being able to communicate in a foreign language notonly helps you find jobs, but it also help you to interact with people and learn more aboutdifferent cultures, locations, and lifestyles The more professional you are, the more easily youcan express yourself Therefore, English is the most important foreign language that is mostabsolutely in the foreign language in Viet Nam With all going on in our lives these days,learning English is becoming easier We can study using the Internet, which also allows us tocommunicate with international friends and gather information We can go for a walk in the parkand talk with other tourists

Learning English is divided into several parts, each of which addresses a distinct need Formerly,the A, B, and C certificates were the most common in our country However, the standards forEnglish certificates have become more stringent in recent years as society has grown andinternational integration has increased As a result, an increasing number of degrees exist todetermine a person's English proficiency, such as TOEFL, IELTS, and TOEIC Depending on thegoals of each individual that choose different study programs Nowadays, many universities inVietnam use English certificates to direct offer in the university such as Foreign Trade University,University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, HoChi Minh University of Technology and Education, unclock thousands of doors for students.Thus, learning English becomes more and more important

There are many factors get to learning English well, and language learners consider listening skill

to be the most important factor in determining whether or not they know a language and it seemsthat the learner has had a lot of difficulty with this skill Students have not discovered the causesfor their difficulties in learning listening skills, as well as they have not found out methods thatsuitable for them Recognize the importance of listening skills Consequently, the study aims tofind out the factors affecting the performances of the freshmen who are non-major English

students on TOEIC listening test at IUH and then based on the needs of the learners, make somesuggestions for learning English language programs are suitable for them.

1.2 Research Objectives

This study aims to find out linguistic factors affecting the performance of the freshmen who arenon-major English students on TOEIC listening tests at IUH Based on the findings, theresearcher proposes some recommendations for students to help them improve their Toeiclistening test socres

1.3 Research question

1.3.1 How are IUH freshmen’s attitudes towards TOEIC listening test ?

1.3.2 What are the linguistic factors affecting IUH freshman’s performance on listening TOEIC ?1.3.3 What are solutions and methods to improve listening skills?

1.4 Scope of the study

The scope of study is major factors affecting the performances on TOEIC listening test of thefreshmen, the research occurred at Ho Chi Minh City's Industrial University The mainparticipants are non- majored English freshman who are studying at faculties and institutes Theresearch focused on non- majored English first-year because freshman must be have baseEnglish department and seem to they are facing with many difficulities in listeing skills,especically the listening skills of the TOEIC test that measures English incoming inspection atIUH The researcher will invite participants from each of class to complete the surveyquestionnaire and then know exactly situation that students have not understood or alarmed about

in listening skills The researcher hopes that this study will help first-year students in improvingtheir listening skills while also assisting future studies in avoiding flaws and limitations Andbased on the survey, give out solutions and methods to help students improve in listening skills,especially in TOEIC listening test

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Definitions of key term/concepts:

2.1.1 Listening:

According to Howatt and Dakin (1974) [1], simplified the definition of listening to “Listening

is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying This process involves understanding a speaker's accent or pronunciation, the speaker’s grammar and vocabulary, and comprehension of meaning ‘’An able listener is capable of doing these four things simultaneously’’ (Abbas Pourhossein Gilakjani & Mohammad Reza Ahmadi, 2011) [2]

According to Conaway (1982) [3], listening is the most extensively employed language skill inthe classroom, and it has a greater impact on academic success than reading ability or academicaptitude

Thomlison (1984) [4] defines listening as, listening includes "active listening," which goes beyond comprehending literally to an empathetic understanding of the speaker And “Active listening, which isvery important for effective communication” Listening can be also defined

as, “More than just hearing and to understand and interpret the meaning of a conversation” [5]

“Listening is the active process of receiving and responding to spoken (and sometimesunspoken) messages,” according to Richard Nordquist (2019) [6] It is a subject that is explored

in the field of language arts as well as in the discipline of conversation analysis Listeningentails more than just hearing what the other person has to say in a conversation.”

2.1.2 Listening comprehension:

According Gary Buck (2001) [7] “Listening comprehension is a process, a very complex process, and if we want to measure it, we must first understand how that process work, an understanding of what we are trying to measure is the starting point for the test construction”.

Listening comprehension is described by Rost (2002) [8] and Hamouda (2013) [9] as aninteractive process in which listeners participate in the creation of meaning, Listenerscomprehend the oral input through sound discrimination, previous knowledge, grammatical

According to Nadif (2013) [10], the process of learning and making sense of spoken languageare referred to as listening comprehension.

2.1.3 Listening TOEIC test

According Kenneth M Wilson (2014) [11] defined as: The TOEIC (Test of English forInternational Communication) is a test used by non-native English speakers to assess theirlistening and reading comprehension skills in English There are seven different kinds of testitems used in this test (four for assessing listening comprehension and three for assessingreading comprehension)

The Ministry of Education and the Education Testing Institute in the United States consideredthe use of TOEIC to assess students' English language proficiency in 2005 As a result, instead

of using the old program and testing for A, B, and C certificates, universities in Vietnam willuse the TOEIC program to educate and assess students' learning outcomes

Listening comprehension and reading comprehension are the two parts of the test On a scale of

10 to 990, the TOEIC test is graded Your score is based solely on correct responses Thesecorrect answers are added together and converted into a TOEIC score [12]

2.1.4 Linguistic factors:

Vocabulary

“Vocabulary is one of five core components of reading instruction that are essential to successfully teach children how to read These core components include phonemic awareness, phonics and word study, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension” (National Reading Panel, 2000) [13] “Vocabulary is the glue that holds stories, ideas and content together…” (Rupley,

Logan & Nichols, 1998/99) [14]

According to Hilde van Zeeland (2018) [15] said that "Learners' vocabulary knowledge can serve

as a predictor of their listening success and discusses how much word knowledge is required for adequate listening comprehension It also explains how to assess whether learners' vocabulary

Novikov (1968) [16] “ was the first who made the attempt to classify synonyms He in his paper wrote about the complete interchangeableness and partial interchangeableness, as well as the existence of perfect and partial synonyms”.

The Romanian linguist Bulgar (2000) [17] said that “synonyms are those words which have almost the same meaning and they can be used interchangeably context-wise and they don’t change the meaning of the context”.

Pronunciation

According to Larry M Lynch [18] said that “Everyone speaks in a specific way and employs numerous types of linked voice On an individual basis, factors such as elision, contraction, juncture, liaison, register, accommodation, aspect, intonation, and others influence pronunciation and speech patterns Listening comprehension can be greatly impacted when learners are unfamiliar with, or even unaware of, these elements”.

Regional or National Accents

Larry M Lynch said that “The same sentence may be substantially different when spoken by people of different first language (L1) backgrounds, geographic places, or ethnic backgrounds Lack of familiarity on the part of EFL learners can result in a definite lack of listening comprehension or "comprehensible input”.

According to Ur (1984), "many foreign-language learners who are used to their own teachers'accents are shocked and dismayed when they find themselves unable to understand anyone else."

In reality, students may come across a variety of accents while listening When it comes toEnglish, Australians pronounces English differently from American, and this is different againfrom British English (Buck, 2001)

Language Rhythms

According to Richard Nordquist (2019) defines that “ In phonetics, rhythm refers to the sense ofmovement in speech, which is described by syllable stress, timing, and quantity The recurringalternation of strong and weak elements in the flow of sound and silence in sentences or lines ofverse is known as rhythm in poetry ” [19]

One of the main distinctions between English and, say, Spanish is that one is based on syllableswhile the other is based on accents This explains why non-native speakers who speak a languageother than their mother tongue sound "funny."

2.2 Results of previous studies:

Previous research on learners' listening skills revealed the factors that influence their ability tolisten Furthermore, some authors provided techniques and listening strategies that aid learners inimproving and enhancing their listening abilities Furthermore, some authors have looked into thetechniques used by teachers to teach listening skills, as well as what happens when students listen.Each author discussed various aspects of listening skills, as well as techniques and strategies As

a result, it builds diversity and richness between the authors' various viewpoints on a researchsubject

2.2.1 Listening Support in a Variety of Forms Reduces Listening Test Anxiety.According to Anna Ching-Shyang Chang & John Read (2008) [20] This authors are find out thefour types of listening support (content and vocabulary pre-teaching, question preview, andrepeated input) influence the anxiety levels of Taiwanese college students taking a multiple-choice achievement test The research included 160 business majors who were enrolled in anEnglish listening course at a Taiwanese university They had spent an average of seven years inschool learning English as a foreign language and had little opportunities to practice it outside ofclass The reasearcher uesed a questionnaire includes 33 Likert-type items with the standard five-point response scale from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree"

2.1.2 A study of the major factors influencing the TOEIC listening test scores of freshmen who are not majoring in English.

According to Nguyen Thi Huyen Trang (2012) [21] also gave out two main factors: Linguisticand non-linguistic based on the theories collected from many differenr source Linguistic factorincluded the sound and pronunciation, the stress and intonation, speech, syntax and vocabulary,informal language , and accent while Non-linguistic factors considerd of fatigue, listener’sbackground, listener’s competence, message and physical setting The research used bothquantitative and qualitative approaches with the triangulation of questionnaire, observations, andsemi-structured interviews were utilized in the study Based on the findings, the reasearcherclaims that students had more difficulty with TOEIC listening due to linguistic factors than non-linguistic factors, according to the results The first barrier was "speakers' pronunciation," whichmost students thought was the reason they couldn't understand them Another issue that preventedstudents from effectively listening to the TOEIC test was "new vocabularies and structures." Inaddition, students were anxious and tense while listening because they couldn't keep up with thefast sound that was playing constantly, which had an effect on comprehension." Buck, 2001)The study also exist a number of limitations are: First and foremost, the small number ofparticipants (only 54) did not adequately reflect the entire Vimaru freshman class And besidethat, the students may come from a range of backgrounds and levels, as well as have faced withdifferent difficulty with TOEIC listening, so that the general conclusion's reliability and validitymay be impacted.

2.1.3 Factors affecting listening in L2 learning

According to Tatiana Rasskazova, Natalia Glukhanyuk (2018) [22] The aim of this research is tosummarize and present research on factors that influence listening comprehension in secondlanguage learners The authors also gave out some factors affecting listening in learning It isPhonological factors, Linguistic factors, Cognitive factors, Sociopsychological factors, and otherfactors Cognitive factors constitute the largest group of factor The study was based on a list ofabout 50 published papers in this area; the emphasis was primarily on linguistics, sociolinguistics,language teaching and learning, and psycholinguistics This article is critical for understandingwhere the field of research is at the moment, particularly in studies of adult L2 learners who arestruggling with listening as a critical skill for success

To summarize, all of above studies were chosen because the writers were interested in developinglistening skills through various approaches, techniques, or tools , just as the researcher was withthe current research The authors previously listed have used a variety of methods to betterunderstand the learning process of students and to assist them in overcoming some of thechallenges that they through face in this area As a result, the researcher chose these studies tohelp her study investigation because the researcher was curious about the factors that influencelistening skills and wanted to include methods that were suitable for each learner level.Furthermore, to learn more about how listening skills can be applied to other skills.

CHPATER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN

All of the survey participants were freshmen without an English major who studying in facultiesand institutes Students at the University of Industry in Ho Chi Minh City (IUH) come from allover the country and they were in the second semester of their academic year 2020-2021 atschool.

3.2 Participants/Objects:

The study was undertaken of 100 non-English majors freshmen who studying at the IndustrialUniversity of Ho Chi Minh City's faculties and institutes They were chosen at random for thestudy when they were in the second semester of their academic year 2020-2021 at school Theywere taking based -English class Their age are 19 years old They come from many differentdepartments and levels, and their attitudes and preferences toward listening skills in general, andlistening TOEIC in particular, are diverse Many of them have similar English backgroundsbecause they were influenced by English curriculum for high school students in the past, andstudents did not have many opportunities to practice English skills, particularly listening skills.Because most high school English teachers focus solely on grammar, students appear to be manystruggling with their listening skills Through this research, can find out solutions and methods tohelp them improve their English as well as find excited about learning English

3.3 Research methodology and research methods:

In the process of investigating on major factors affecting the performances of the freshmen whoare non-major English students on TOEIC listening test , researchers chose two approachescategorized such as research and questionnaires.

3.3.1 Research methodology

Pritha Bhandari (2020) [23] defines quantitative approach as follows: Quantitative research is theprocess of collecting and analyzing numerical data It can be used to look for trends and averages,make predictions, test causal relationships, and extrapolate findings to larger groups

Quantitative research is a method for collecting data that is based on inductive reasoning From

an insider's viewpoint, the issue In addition to assisting in the rapid discovery of usefulinformation, quantitative research is often faster and less expensive than qualitative research

3.3.2 Research methods

The research will be conducted using questionnaire included closed-ended questionnaires andopened-ended questionnaires

According Saul McLeod (2018) [24] defines as “A questionnaire is a research tool that consists

of a series of questions designed to collect data from respondents Questionnaires are similar towritten interviews in that they collect information They can be done in person, over the phone,

on the web, or by mail ” Quantitative research is often faster and less costly than qualitativeresearch, in addition to helping in the rapid discovery of useful information

Questionnaires can be a cost-effective and fast way to assess the behavior, attitudes, preferences,views, and intentions of a large number of people Furthermore, the use of closed-ended andopen-ended questionnaires is beneficial Respondents to closed-ended questionnaires are simpleand quick to respond to There will be almost no difficult-to-understand responses Furthermore,using open-ended questionnaires allows you to gain a better understanding of the subject underdiscussion Respondents may feel that they are receiving personal attention and that theproponent is interested in their opinion

Firstly, the researcher began to design a form of questionnaire (estimated 100 participants) Form

of questionnaire included 15 closed-ended questionnaire and 1 open-ended questionnaire based

on three research questions and a content of the thesis under the supervisor's instructions

Secondly, the researcher sent a letter asking for permission from the Board of Faculty of ForeignLanguage and the supervisor who was allowed to investigate online students on Facebook groupsfrom April 10th to 30th Those students took the Toeic listening test before This questionnairewas posted in several groups on Facebook page where the freshmen were participated it Whenthe researcher posted on Facebook, the researcher introduced name of group members and thepurpose of this study (if participants deal with difficult in this questionnaire, the researcher wouldexplain it) The participant would complete the student’s personal information such as: Gmail,Gender, and Major

Finally, the researcher did not forget to thank the respondents sincerely through Gmail after theycomplete the online survey Then, the researcher gathered all of the data and analyzed the results

accomplished, the data analysis was initiated Microsoft Excel was used in data analysis “Excel a software program created by Microsoft that uses spreadsheets to organize numbers and data with formulas and functions Excel analysis is ubiquitous around the world and used by businesses of all sizes to perform financial analysis’’ [25] The data are analyzed in this part of

the study in the pie, column and table chart which show the responses for questions in thequestionnaires

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Findings:

This data analysis was done in response to three research questions about linguistic factorsaffecting the performances of the freshmen who are non-major English students on TOEIClistening test at IUH And the possible difficulties students can face, as well as the effect thesefactors have on their communicative abilities

4.1.1 The current state of students' listening abilities:

The study focused on freshman students who are non major English students atIndustrial University of Ho Chi Minh City The important thing was the previous theyusually concentrate on grammar They seemed no concentrate on other skills aslistening or speaking

 T

FIGURE 4.1: THE YEARS THAT STUDENTS HAVE LEARNED ENGLISH

The graph depicted how long students had been learning English According to the pie map, themajority of students have studied English for more than seven years, accounting for 74 percent ofthe total 15 percent students gave another answer and beside that, the reasercher have 6% studiedEnglish five years and 5% studied three years

4.1.2 How are IUH freshmen’s attitudes towards TOEIC listening test

5%

6%

74%

15%

The number of years that a student

has spent studying English

More than 3 years More than 5 years More than 7 years Other

FIGURE 4.2: STUDENT’S OPINION ON THE TOEIC

Look at the pie chart, the result showed that 90% of student’s opinion on the Toeic is impportant.This is understandable because, as a result of globalization, most businesses now need TOEICcertification Applicants must have it, and you will have access to even more work opportunities.Besides, with 6% “neutral”, 3% “no idea” and a couple of people choose another answer

FIGURE 4.3: STUDENT’S OPINION ABOUT THE TOEIC LISTENING TEST

According to the chart above, it can be seen that 54 percent of student’s opinion feel Toeiclistening test is very difficult The student afraid Toeic and consider it is very difficult test (seeFigure 6) Beside that, “Difficult” with 28% and “Neither difficult nor easy” with 17% and just 1

6%

90%

3%

Not important Neutral Important

No idea Other

FIGURE 4.4: STUDENTS’ EMOTIONS WHEN TAKING THE TOEIC LISTENING EXAM

As you can see, the chart shows the percentage of students’ emotions when taking the TOEIClistening exam The chart category has six different feeling blocks It included tense, anxious,nervous, scary, unable to concentrate and other feelings According to the chart, when taking thelistening toeic exam, almost all students are nervous, accounting for almost 70 percent of the total.And more than 50 percent of students feel anxious, beside that a small minority of studentsfeeling tense, scary, unable to concentrate when do the TOEIC listening test, among these feeling

“tense” with 9%, “scary” with 16% and “ unable to concentrate” with 9% These were commonfeelings among students who saw listening as a barrier, and these feelings, of course, had animpact on their listening ability However, there are about 10% students can not define theirfeeling when taking the listening TOEIC test that they choose " other feelings" when being asked

Tense Anxious Nervous Scary Unable to

concentrate Other feelings

FIGURE 4.5: STUDENTS SPEND TIME PRACTICING THEIR LISTENING SKILLS ON A DAILY BASIS

This question pointed out the amount of time students spent practicing their listening skills on adaily basis It can be seen that 58 percent of the students suveyed claim that they spend less than

1 hour to learn listening skills while 15% students spent from 1 hour to learn listening skills.Besides, “more than 1 hours” with 14%, “more than 2 hours” with 8% According to this piechart, the majority of students spend very little time practicing their listening skills on a dailybasis Nearly 60 percent of students choose “less than 1 hours” and 5% for other answer

FIGURE 4.6: THE MOST BORING AND DIFFICULT PART OF THE TOEIC LISTENING TEST

12.7 21.6

70.6 35.3

Part I - Photographs Part II - Question and Response

Part III - Conversations Part IV - Short Talks

According to the bar chart, students were more afraid of parts III and part IV than of parts I andpart II in TOEIC listening test With 12,7% of students believing that descriptions were difficultbecause they could understand the pictures but can not listen to the answer The problem herewas that lack of vocabularies that they could not choose the correct options And “part II –question and response” with 21,6% , the students afraid this part because the limitation ofcommunication languages for not being able to find the right response And look at the bar chart,

it appears that more than 70% of students believe Part III of the TOEIC listening test is the mostboring and difficult They may be unable to understand the conversations, and they are alsounable to choose the most appropriate responses Beside Part III, Part IV also is the most boringand difficult of the TOEIC listening test with student’s voted 35,3% It is understandable thatnon-experienced students would struggle in this section IV, as it necessitates extensiveknowledge of a broad range of topics

4.1.3 The linguistic factors affecting IUH freshmen’s performance on TOEIC listening test

FIGURE 4.7: THE FACTORS THAT AFFECTED LISTENING SKILLS

The bar chart above gives information about the linguistic elements that influence IUHfreshmen's TOEIC listening exam performance Overall, almost students agree with fivelinguistic factors affecting their performance on TOEIC listening test, and percent of students

Listeners are unfamiliar with synonyms, which causes hard problems

in listening

Students can not understand the main ideas

of TOEIC listening test if the speakers speaks many different voices: English- English, British- American,etc

The sounding words

similar-in the TOEIC listening test that affect the students' listening comprehension ability and make them easy

to confuse in choosing the correct answers

Language rhythm is the cause of low listening test results because

it may be due to pronunciation based on the use of

"incorrect"

spoken language rhythms.

chose "agree" account for highest proportion However, a number of students who had totallydisagree about these problem.

According to first column, there are 64,4% students agree with “Listeners find it difficult to graspsince there are so many vocabularies” So it can be seen that lack of vaocabulary in learningforeign language that causes many learners of English to have difficulty Lack of vocabularywould make some students could not understand or there are some problem are misunderstandthe meaning of words or conversation in TOEIC listening test And there are some student’sopinion choose “totally agree” this problem with 10,6% “Neutral” with 19,2% , IUH’s freshmanwho still had neutral option about this “Disagree” and “totally disagree” accounts for aninsignificant ratio

Turning to second column “Listeners are unfamiliar with synonyms, which causes hard problems

in listening” With 67,3% student’s opinion choose “agree” in this problem But, there were stillsome of them who had “disagree”, approximately 4% and “totally disagree” just account for 1%.The participants thought that no causes hard problems in listening when they are unfamiliar withsynonyms Besides, followed by 16,3% of them still had neutral about this problem And “totallyagree” with 11,5% student’s opinion

Next, the third column, most of students concurred that students can not understand the mainideas of TOEIC listening test if the speakers speaks many different voice: English-English,British-American,etc account for the highest proportion in total, about 53% student’s opinion.And “totally agree” with 17,3% In this problem, no students have chosen "totally disagree".However, there were still 22,1 % of students had neutral option And 7,7% of students disagreethis problem

As for the fourth column, the majority of students concurred that the similar-sounding words inthe TOEIC listening test that affect the students’ listening comprehension ability and make themeasy to confuse in choosing the correct answers, with 68,3% of students chose “agree” and 14,4%chose “totally agree” And in this problem, no students have chosen “totally disagree” However,there were 11,5 % students have no idea, and chose “neutral” in this problem

And the last column “Language rhythm is the cause of low listening test results because it may bedue to pronunciation based on the use of “incorrect” spoken language rhythms The majority ofstudents who admitted and agree this problem The students chose “neutral” account for thehighest rate, with 57,7% “Agree” about 22,1 % and “totally agree” about 12,5% However,

“Disagree” and “totally disagree” accounts for an insignificant ratio

In conclusion, most students agree with five linguistic factors affecting performance on TOEIClistening test, through which they can improve their listening abilities by using the suitableapproaches and strategies as well as enhance their listening skill in TOEIC test

4.1.4 Improve TOEIC listening results for IUH freshmen?

FIGURE 4.8: SOME ACTIVITIES STUDENTS USUALLY DO TO IMPROVE LISTENING SKILLS

According to the chart, it can be seen that the thing that students chose to learn listening skillswas listening to English song almost 80% The number of learn more new words accounted for67% and became the second choice of students Both listening to English songs and learn morenew words were of greatest interest for language learners Because through it, you can learnvocabulary and grammar It is crucial to learn the correct pronunciations of similar nativespeakers When you pronounce it correctly, you will recognize the word when you hear it.Besides, buy references and practice listening at home with 24% It was suitable for those who

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Buy references and practice listening at home

Listen to music and watch movies in English

Going to English centers to revise for Toeic

Learn more new words

Other:

want to capture information and improve their listening skills Furthermore, the number ofstudents chose going to English centers to revise for TOEIC was 18,6% As you learn listeningskills by teachers, who have full of experience in teaching methods, teachers will be give studentsmany benifical lesson and thanks to it, students get a thorough grounding in grammar as well asstrategies in listening TOEIC test Beside, it not only improved your listening skills but alsohelped you to be confident in communication And the lastly, with 2% students choose anotheranswer, the remaining 2% of students seem to have discovered a great research method toimprove their listening skills.

FIGURE 4.9: STUDENT’S OPINION THE IMPORTANCE OF NEED TO HAVE THE STRATEGIES FOR TOEIC LISTENING TEST

This question pointed out the need of having TOEIC listening test strategies Almost 80% ofstudent's opinion chose “extremely necessary” Overall, students have recognized the importance

of strategies for listening test “extremely necessary” account for the highest proportion Because,the students believes that these things help them them do better on tests Besides, no studentschose “do not care” There are about 12% chose “partly necessary”, and “neutral” with 10%students

Partly necessary Not necessary

Do not care

FIGURE 4.10: SOME ACTIVITIES STUDENTS USUALLY DO BEFORE DOING THE TOEIC LISTENING TEST

The pie chart showed the activities before listening of students The largest activity have a lookbut do not read anything with 48% Almost all of the students do not know the steps or strategy totake the listening test For example; in Toeic listening test, with Part 1students have to “Analyzepictures before listening to TOEIC” Students only have 1 minute and 25 seconds to listen to theexam instructions During this short period of time, take a quick look at the pictures to visualizewhat they mean and shape what's on your mind Therefore, teachers should demonstrate how totake the listening test to students during class, and students can also conduct additional research

on the internet

The next was read through and underline the key words for 47% Beside the percent of student

“have a look but do not read anything” as we can see, it also have 47% “through and underlinethe key words” By taking effective notes, students are actively involved in the learning processthus giving it a purpose and increasing productivity Besides, reading the content of the listeningtext and determining the genre of the word were also some of the methods to help students dobetter

However, it was worth a thing that 4% of the students did nothing before listening It led to themmaybe not understand the requirements of the listening lesson as well as did not able tounderstand the content of the listening For that reason, many students became superficial withlistening skills and led to no longer paying attention to listening because they did not find theirlistening test methods And with 1% chose another answer