As a researcher, I would like to present the thesis “Find out factors affecting the listening skill by English major sophomore at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City” Listening is
REVIEW
OVERVIEW OF LISTENING
Listening is a fundamental skill that enables us to understand others and express what we want to say It acts as a bridge in communication, linking speakers and listeners across contexts and cultures In the view of many researchers and English learners, listening is a complex, active mental process that involves perception, attention, cognition, and memory Consequently, the term listening has been defined in several ways by different authors.
Howatt and Dakin (1974) describe listening as the ability to identify and understand what others are saying This skill requires recognizing a speaker’s accent or pronunciation, grasping their grammar and vocabulary, and ultimately extracting the speaker’s intended meaning Effective listening hinges on decoding linguistic form and content to achieve clear comprehension.
Postovsky (1975) argues that listening spans a range from simple sound discrimination to aural comprehension, reflecting its evolving meaning Pearson (1983) adds that listening requires the simultaneous organization and integration of skills in phonology, syntax, semantics, and knowledge of text structure, all guided by cognitive processes; even if not fully realized, listening is essential for acquiring language proficiency.
Listening is the process of understanding spoken language by decoding sounds into lexical elements and syntactic units and assigning meaning to them Goss’s definition frames listening as organizing what is heard so meaning can be allocated, while Bowen et al emphasize grasping the oral language itself—hearing speech, segmenting sounds, classifying them into lexical and syntactic units, and interpreting the message Listening also involves receiving the speaker’s words, constructing and negotiating meaning with the speaker, and creating meaning through participation, creativity, and empathy Hirsch adds a neurological dimension, describing listening as an activity that involves interpreting sounds to understand and respond by reacting, selecting meaning, remembering, attending, and analyzing, drawing on prior experience Bentley and Bacon describe listening in second language learning as an active process in which the listener constructs meaning from oral input Brown argues that listening is not merely passively receiving audible symbols but a psychomotor process that converts sound waves into neural impulses sent to the brain Together, these views frame listening as a three-part system consisting of the sender, the message, and the listener, with the listener playing a central role in constructing meaning from oral input.
Listening is a complex problem-solving skill that goes beyond merely perceiving sounds It involves the comprehension of fundamental language skills and serves as a primary medium through which children, young people, and adults gain information, understand the world and human affairs, and develop their ideals, values, and appreciation.
Effective listening is an active, demanding process in which you must manage diverse accents and pronunciations, grapple with unfamiliar vocabulary and syntax, contend with background noise, and maintain concentration—all at once—to identify and understand the meaning of any message.
Definitions of listening comprehension aim to clarify the nature of listening capacity required for learning both native and foreign languages While theories differ, listening comprehension is generally viewed as a complex, largely unconscious mental process that develops spontaneously within the language-learning journey Listening enables us to receive and identify information from others, and it supports global communication by connecting people It remains a multifaceted skill shaped by the listener's ability to interpret meaning from sound, including the challenge of understanding diverse accents Effective listening hinges on accurately determining the message conveyed by speech, making listening a foundational element of language learning and communication.
2.1.2 The importance of listening skill
Listening plays a crucial role in both daily life and academic contexts, serving as the foundation of effective communication As a primary receptive skill, it accounts for a large portion of our communicative exchange, and in real life people typically listen more than they speak We listen everywhere, from music and news to conversations and classroom lectures Listening is a vital means of expressing and interpreting the feelings within a conversation, and it is also the first language input children receive, laying the groundwork for all language and cognitive development and supporting lifelong communication Nord (1980) argues that listening is a primary way of acquiring language: learners absorb information through listening to build the knowledge needed to use the language, and once this knowledge is sufficient, they can begin to speak Listening also provides the observational data that underpins other skills such as speaking and writing, underscoring its central role in language learning and information exchange.
Research shows listening is a core communication skill Wilt (1950) found that people listen only about 45% of the time they spend communicating, illustrating a gap between speaking and listening Building on this, Coakley and Wolvin (1997) describe listening as the fundamental language skill central to students’ learning across all levels of educational development Listening serves as the primary channel through which we gain education, information, and understanding of the world and human affairs, shaping our ideals, values, and appreciation In an era of mass communication, teaching students to listen effectively and critically becomes a priority for successful learning.
According to second language acquisition theory, language input is the essential condition for acquiring a new language, and among input skills, listening plays a crucial role in learners' language development Krashen (1985) argues that language is acquired by understanding the linguistic information heard, so meaningful language input hinges on listening ability Oxford (1990) identifies four major, interconnected skills—reading, listening, speaking, and writing—that together drive English study, with effective communication relying on strong listening; without good listening, one cannot read or write well, and learners typically use a mix of skills to communicate Our aim is to foster learners' communicative competence, and when listening is weak, it negatively affects the other skills Therefore, teachers should prioritize strategies to improve students' listening proficiency.
Listening is a foundational skill in foreign language learning, serving as the primary means of language acquisition at all levels It helps learners understand what others are saying and also enables them to express themselves clearly when speaking with others.
2.1.3 Factors affecting the English listening
According to Yagang (1994), listening problems arise from four interrelated factors: the message, the speaker, the listener, and the physical setting Numerous studies have examined these issues, with Higgins (1995) attributing listening difficulties to speech rate, vocabulary, and pronunciation Building on this, Flowerdew and Miller (1996) argue that students’ listening problems also stem from the speed of delivery, unfamiliar terminology and concepts, difficulties in focusing, and the physical environment surrounding the listening situation.
Rubin (1994) synthesizes the existing research on factors influencing listening comprehension and identifies five major factors that researchers consider most influential One key factor is text characteristics, which influence listening comprehension through elements such as speech rate, pause phenomena and hesitation, level of perception, perception of stress and rhythmic patterning, L1/L2 differences, syntactic modifications, redundancy, morphological complexity, word order, discourse markers, and visual support for texts.
2) interlocutor characteristics such as gender and language proficiency; 3) task characteristics such as task type; 4) listener characteristics such as language proficiency level, memory, attention, affect, age, gender, learning disability in L1, and background knowledge; and 5) process characteristics such as top-down, bottom-up, and parallel processing, listening strategies, and negotiation of comprehensible input.
Hamouda (2013) investigated Saudi students’ problems in listening comprehension and identified seven factors, some of which are similar to Underwood (1989) He notes that unclear pronunciation, the inability to apply listening strategies, poor grammar knowledge, lack of familiarity with the topic, and the length and difficulty of listening materials are among the factors that hinder listening comprehension most.
RESULT OF PREVIOUS STUDIES
2.2.1 The research “FACTORS AFFECTING ENGLISH LISTENING COMPREHENSION:
Nguyen Thi Xuyen’s study, “Perceptions of English-Major Students at HUFI,” examines the role of listening, especially listening comprehension, in foreign language learning and notes growing interest in English listening skills research in Vietnam, while highlighting that factors affecting HUFI English majors’ listening comprehension remain underexplored The study aims to identify the listening comprehension problems faced by first-year English majors at HUFI, using questionnaires and focus-group interviews as the main data-collection tools It finds that students understand the importance of listening comprehension but view it as the most challenging language skill, with problems tied to English linguistic features, listening materials, the speaker, the listener, and HUFI’s learning environment The main causes include the speaker’s fast rate of speech, the listener’s limited knowledge of features such as pronunciation, contractions, accents, and discourse markers, a lack of listening strategies and concentration, and noisy, poorly equipped classrooms The study proposes recommendations for teachers and students to develop more effective learning strategies and improve English listening comprehension.
2.2.2 The research “LISTENING COMPREHENSION: FIRST YEAR ENGLISH-MAJOR
Nguyen Ngoc Quyen and Thai Cong Dan conducted a study titled “Students’ Perceptions and Problems” to examine first-year English-major students’ views on the importance of listening-skill development and to identify the main problems they face in learning listening comprehension The sample comprised 115 first-year English-major students from several universities in the Mekong Delta, with data collected through questionnaires, interviews, and classroom observations Findings indicate that most students have a positive perception of listening-skill development, while the major listening-comprehension problems reported include accents and pronunciation, speech rate, insufficient vocabulary, diverse speaker accents, lack of concentration, anxiety, and poor recording quality.
2.2.3 The research “AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CAUSES OF DIFFICULTIES
ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS ENCOUTERED BY FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS
At the Faculty of English, Thuong Mai University, this study by Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh investigates listening skills as a key component of real-life communication The researcher notes that listening entails more than hearing: a listener must understand the message and respond appropriately The thesis examines both subjective and objective difficulties students face in learning listening skills, identifies the causes behind those difficulties, and proposes practical solutions A mixed-methods approach—combining qualitative and quantitative methods—was used, with data collected through questionnaires and interviews The results highlight the specific difficulties students encounter and reveal underlying causes, informing targeted strategies to enhance learners' listening competence.
2.2.4 The research “ A STUDY ON SECOND YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENT’S
This study, "Difficulties in Listening Comprehension Skills at HPU," conducted by Bui Thi Thuy Trang, examines listening problems and proficiency among thirty second-year English majors at Hai Phong Private University (HPU) Data were collected via questionnaires and interviews and analyzed with SPSS Findings reveal that the listening texts themselves are the main source of difficulty, with lack of practice and limited exposure to diverse listening materials identified as the most significant contributing factors The results offer teachers practical insights into students' listening problems and provide direction for deeper investigation and for material developers to design more effective university-level listening materials.
RESEARCH DESIGN
RESEARCH SITE
This study was conducted at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City I have studied there for more than three years and completed three courses in listening skills, which gives me a solid understanding of the curriculum and the challenges I encounter while studying Therefore, I chose this institution as the research site to examine how the listening-skills curriculum affects learner difficulties and to explore ways to address them.
I can contribute to finding out factors that affect listening skills and offering methods to help students improve listening skills.
PARTICIPANTS
The participants of this study are 85 second years English major students from K15 in Faculty of Foreign Languages at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City They age from
The study was conducted at the end of the second semester after the students had completed two listening skills courses, Listening 1 and Listening 2 I chose them as participants because they had just finished these two listening courses, ensuring they had recent exposure to the subject matter.
2, they have recognized the difficulties that they have encountered during their listening courses, thus suggesting the methods to improve those difficulties.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH METHODP
In the light of the nature of the research questions,quantitative research was applied in this study and data were collected through the questionnaire.
Methodology: this study adopts a quantitative research design Quantitative research is chosen to obtain factual evidence about the dissertation’s aims, rather than abstract concepts It involves collecting structured data that can be represented numerically and analyzed scientifically, often aligned with a positivist epistemology As the primary research strategy, quantitative methods generate statistics through large-scale surveys using instruments such as questionnaires or structured interviews Examples include on-street intercepts or postal/online questionnaires, which illustrate how quantitative research can reach a broad audience quickly, yielding extensive data faster than qualitative approaches.
To explore IUH students’ perceptions of the difficulties they face when studying foreign language listening (FFL listening) and to identify strategies for improving listening skills, this study relies on a questionnaire as its primary data-collection instrument Questionnaires are a widely used method for gathering data from many respondents with relatively little effort, which helps enhance result reliability while raising questions about data validity The survey includes both closed-ended and open-ended items, enabling quantitative analysis as well as rich qualitative insight Selecting a questionnaire as the main instrument makes it possible to survey a large number of subjects quickly, efficiently capturing information about aspects that are not easily observed In addition, respondents can complete the questionnaire comfortably and promptly, facilitating straightforward analysis and clear presentation of results.
The questionnaire consists of three sections which are specified in the research question. The first part are designed for collecting general information of students, questions of part
II aim at finding out the student’s difficulty in learning listening skill, questions from partIII mainly seek for giving solutions to improve students' listening skills.
PROCEDURES
Data for this study were collected from second-year English majors at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City (IUH) The aim was to gather information on the challenges of learning English listening skills among these students The data collection process unfolded in two stages First, 85 survey questionnaires were distributed to the students After data collection was completed, data analysis was conducted, and the survey findings were incorporated into the analysis.
DATA ANALYSIS
The data collected through the questionnaire It is organized and analyzed using
Microsoft Excel lets you manipulate, manage, and analyze data to support decision-making and create efficiencies that impact your bottom line Whether you’re using it for business analytics or managing personal databases and expenses, Excel provides the right tools to meet your needs It analyzes large data sets to uncover trends and patterns that influence decisions, and its graphing capabilities summarize data to help you organize and structure information With powerful filtering, sorting, and search tools, you can quickly narrow down criteria to guide decisions Combine these features with tables, pivot tables, and charts, and you can find the information you want quickly—even with hundreds of thousands of data items.
Questionnaires were analyzed using statistical measures—means, modes, medians, and standard deviations—to reveal the listening-skills challenges perceived by foreign language learners (FFL) at IUH The data, generated through various statistical calculations, were processed by software that provides an overall view, tallies responses for each option, and converts these counts into percentages, yielding a clear, percent-based picture of the distribution.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
RESEARCH FINDINGS
This study involved 85 sophomore English-major students at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City Questionnaires were randomly distributed among the participants Descriptive statistics were used to examine the perceptions of these students regarding factors affecting listening skills and the listening problems they encounter during the process of developing their listening abilities.
The first question in the questionare for students is that how long they have been studyingEnglish.
Chart 1: Number of years students have been studying English
Chart 1 shows that the majority of students have studied English for more than nine years (57%), reflecting English’s role as a compulsory subject in Vietnamese schools or through extra classes before formal schooling This extended exposure likely fosters a developed listening proficiency and a strong awareness of English in daily use By contrast, 29% have studied English for seven years, and 14% report nine years of study, illustrating the distribution of English-learning durations among the students.
Speaking Reading Wri琀椀ng
Chart 2: Which skills do you focus on most?
According to the chart, 46% of students identify listening as the skill they focus on most When asked why, the majority point to the role of listening in developing strong communication skills, hoping that improved listening proficiency will boost their confidence in communicating with foreigners They also note that listening can complement pronunciation and widen their vocabulary resources While only a few respondents focus on other skills, these findings underscore the central importance of listening in their language-learning goals.
31% of them chose speaking as the skill they focused most on The next two skill that students focus on most including reading and writing, at 16% and 7%, respectively.
However, most of students consider listening the most challenging skill to acquire The following pie chart illustrates student’s opinion of listening skill.
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Chart 3: Student’s opinion of the importance of listening
As the pie chart present, over 50% students considered that listening is very important.
Listening plays a crucial role in both daily life and classroom settings, especially in language learning, where it provides essential input for learners Without input at the right level, language acquisition cannot begin effectively Survey results show that 4% of students consider listening to be rather important, while 40% view it as important A small portion underestimate its value, with 3% thinking it’s not very important, including 2% who consider listening only a little important and 1% who see it as completely unimportant These findings highlight the importance of listening in language education and the need to provide appropriately leveled listening materials to support learner comprehension and progress.
Di昀 cult Very di昀 cult Easy
Chart 4: The students’ assessment of learning listening skill.
According to the pie chart, only 2% of students find listening skills easy to learn, while a clear majority struggle: 55% say that listening is difficult to learn When asked why, students point to the rapid pace of speech, noting that sounds pass by quickly and are hard to pick up; after listening several times they get headaches and frustration from not understanding In conversations they may hear only one or two words, causing most information to be missed This leads to impatience with listening and reinforces the perception that it is really difficult, with 33% of students rating listening skills as extremely difficult to learn.
Finally, 10% students considered learning listening to be normal.
Chart 5: How much time do you spend listening skill in everyday?
According to the pie chart, nearly 40% of students spend one hour per day on English listening practice They say that an hour feels sufficient because it keeps the routine relaxed and avoids the pressure of active, intensive listening About 33% gave other reasons for how they spend their listening time, while 20% practice for three hours and 10% for two hours For daily listening, most students mainly use English songs, YouTube channels, or apps, since music and visuals make the activity less boring and stressful than formal academic listening lessons.
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Summary comple琀椀on
Mul琀椀ple choice
Chart 6: What types of exercises do you usually encounter when learning listening skill?
According to the chart, 46.4% of students report multiple-choice questions as their main type of exercise in IELTS listening, largely because this format appears in Part 1 and is considered the easiest, leading to the highest incidence Meanwhile, 42.9% say short-answer questions are commonly encountered, and 38.1% note that summary completion is a typical exercise they face By contrast, 33.3% of participants identify map questions as the most difficult type, typically appearing in Part 2 or Part 3 of the IELTS listening test.
4.1.2 Factors affecting listening skill by English major sophomore at IUH
This section presents the findings on factors affecting listening skills among English major sophomores at IUH A detailed comparison is drawn between the factors that influence students' listening abilities and the students' own assumptions about these factors, shedding light on where perceived influences align with or diverge from observed effects.
Limited cultural and social knowledge 33.3
Chart 7: Factors affecting listening skill
According to Chart 6, the primary listening difficulty for second-year English majors is limited vocabulary, with 59.5% of participants reporting that a poor vocabulary source interferes most with their listening ability, and they explain that encountering many new words makes it hard to grasp spoken content The second major factor is linguistic challenges (54.8%), as learners describe how classroom pronunciation by teachers and peers, with separate and clear enunciation and flat intonation, limits exposure to natural spoken English that often includes reduced forms and colloquial expressions, making comprehension of real-life speech more difficult Limited cultural and social knowledge accounts for 33.3% Other factors, such as noise, poor tape quality, long materials, and equipment issues, contribute 21.4% and 17.9%, respectively, with participants noting that lengthy recordings on unfamiliar topics can hinder concentration and understanding, and that complex grammatical structures add to the difficulty Overall, questionnaire and interview results indicate that the listening text itself is the main source of comprehension difficulties, with unfamiliar words, complex grammar, and lengthy spoken texts on unfamiliar topics impeding understanding, and external noise sometimes acting as a major obstacle to listening.
IUH are not sound-insulated, so usually while they are focusing on listening, the sudden noise disturbs them and as a result, they fail to concentrate on the listening Moreover, large class is referred by many students as a hindrance to their listening skill.
4.1.3 Method and strategies in learning listening skill.
This part present about method and strategies in learning listening skill by English major sophomore at IUH.
English song movies English directly syllabus
Watch new in foreigners the
Listen to to disks of
Listen to or tapes to Listen
Chart 8: How do you self- study listening?
It is clear from the chart that listen to English song is the leading method that students self- study listening skill, at 66.7% When asked why, they said that there are several different types of music that they interesting Watch movies accounting for 50% ranked as the second common method The next two method including listen to new in English and listen to foreigners directly as the thirth and the fourth positions, at 29.8% and 27.4% respectively Lastly, the proportions of listen to tapes or disks of the syllabus accounted for
11.9% In conclusion, most of the students like listening to English song , watching English movie and listening foreigners directly.
VOA channel BBC channel CNN channel Testalk channel
Chart 9: Which youtube channel you usually use to listen English?
Chart 10: Which application do you usually use to listen English?
Chart 9 and chart 10 demonstrate youtube channel and application that sudents usually learn listening skill through From the chart 8, it is obvious that 56% participants often learning listening English through VOA channel While, only 21.40% of them choose CNN channel As presented in chart 10, the participants’ lowest regarding the application that they usually use to practice listening skill to Memrise is 8.30% , while the participants’ highest to Duolingo accounting for 27.4%.
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Iden琀椀fy genre of words 33.3
Read all the content listening 45.2
Chart 11: What do you usually do before you listening?
Chart results show that 58.3% of participants do not treat keywords as the main pre-listening activity; they see keyword focus as the initial and deciding step in the listening task, with reading all the content before listening following as the next step.
(45.2%) 33.3% students indicated that they usually identify genre of words before they listen Finally, only 14.3% of them asserted that they do notthing before they listen
So while listening, what students should do? The next chart will show this question.
Listen to word by word Focus on the new words Listen to key points Other ways
Chart 12: What do you do while you are listening?
Questionnaire statement chart 12 shows that about 70.2% of students believe they should listen for key points during listening tasks, a response that signals a positive approach and can ease the development of listening skills Over 30% of participants prefer a word-for-word listening style Meanwhile, 20.2% focus on new vocabulary and 10.7% rely on other strategies.
Strategies Very Dissatisfied Neutral Satisfied Very
Do not 12% 16% 30% 20% 6% translate into your native language.
Listen for the 18% 18% 15% 25% 8% gist (or general idea) of the conversation.
Don't concentrate on detail until you have understood the main idea(s).
Predicting 8% 18% 14% 26% 18% what the speaker will say.
Teachers must 17% 19% 16% 23% 9% develop students’ micro skills of listening comprehensio n
Table 1: The strategies in learning listening skill
The table on listening strategies used by second-year English majors at IUH shows that 30% of students avoid translating into their native language The largest group, 26%, prefers guessing the meaning About 25% listen for the gist and focus on the main idea before dwelling on details Another 26% are satisfied with predicting what the speaker will say Finally, 23% are satisfied with teachers who develop students’ micro-skills in listening comprehension.
RESEARCH DISCUSSION
Based on the survey findings, this article outlines the current state of English listening skills among English-major sophomores at IUH, identifies the factors that affect their listening proficiency, and proposes practical strategies for improving listening ability.
4.2.1 The real state of learning listening skill by English major sophomore at
Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City.
Findings from a study of English major sophomores at the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City show that most students have studied English for more than nine years (44%), and a majority recognize the importance of listening skills (53%) They view listening as the most challenging language skill and value its role in developing effective communication The survey identifies four common types of listening exercises learners encounter: multiple-choice questions, short-answer questions, summary completion, and map-based tasks On average, students spend about an hour daily practicing listening, with songs, news broadcasts, and YouTube channels serving as the primary learning sources.
4.2.2 Factors that affected on listening skill
This study investigates the factors affecting listening skills, with limited vocabulary identified as the primary factor (59.9%), since a poor vocabulary makes it hard to grasp spoken content when many words are unfamiliar Linguistic challenges follow (54.8%), as natural spoken English frequently uses reduced forms and colloquialisms that listeners struggle to interpret Two additional factors are limited cultural and social knowledge and the inability to concentrate Finally, other factors such as noise, poor equipment, and health issues also affect listening.
4.2.3 The strategies in learning listening skill
Effective listening relies on deliberate methods and strategies Findings show that most participants (58.3%) do not note keywords before listening, which can make it easier to capture the main information by focusing on the points they've underlined Daily practice strengthens listening skills, with learners turning to YouTube channels like VOA (56%), BBC (31%), TED Talks (22.6%), and CNN (21.4%) Several strategies contribute to student satisfaction and effectiveness: avoid translating into the native language, guess meaning from context, listen for the gist, and refrain from dwelling on details until the main idea is clear Additionally, predicting what the speaker will say and teachers developing students' micro-skills of listening comprehension are key to improving overall listening performance.
Based on the findings, the research would like to propose some suggestions for learning listening skill affectively.
This study shows that insufficient vocabulary is a key factor behind listening skill problems among second-year English major students at IUH To address this, teachers should pre-teach essential vocabulary and guide students to infer the meanings of new words from the listening context, while also activating background knowledge about the topic before listening They should encourage students to discuss what they already know about the topic and to predict what kinds of information they might hear in the listening text, so learners become more familiar with the topic and improve listening comprehension.
This study concludes that English linguistic knowledge—including pronunciation, connected speech, accents, discourse markers, slang and idiomatic expressions, and grammatical structures—is the primary factor in developing listening skills, so learners should be exposed to authentic English as much as possible by listening to native voices through songs, news, films, plays, daily conversations, or level-appropriate stories In addition, teachers can support listening development by introducing linguistic features such as transition words, colloquial expressions, and key grammatical structures at convenient moments during listening sessions.
This final chapter provides a concise summary of the study’s key findings on listening learning and offers practical recommendations for students to enhance their listening skills It also presents the study’s limitations and discusses how they may influence the results, and it proposes directions for future research to further advance knowledge in listening comprehension.
This study is organized into five sequentially connected chapters that work together to achieve the author’s goals The first chapter provides a concise overview of the study’s hypotheses The second chapter critically analyzes published information by summarizing, classifying, and comparing prior research studies, literature reviews, and theoretical articles, arranged either chronologically or thematically The third chapter outlines the research design and methodology, detailing the steps of the testing process and the analytical methods used to interpret the data The subsequent chapter analyzes data from an online questionnaire, presents the findings, and compares them to previous research to address the three research questions introduced at the outset The final chapter offers recommendations for improving English listening skills and also presents the study’s limitations and suggestions for future research.
5.2 Suggest solution for improving listening skill.
Latest survey findings show that English listening capacity is shaped by three main factors: limited vocabulary, linguistic challenges, and an inability to concentrate during listening tasks To overcome limited vocabulary, learners should focus on targeted vocabulary development, contextual exposure through reading and listening, and spaced repetition to reinforce word knowledge For linguistic challenges, strategies such as phonemic awareness, exposure to diverse accents, active listening practice, and effective note-taking can improve decoding and comprehension To combat concentration issues, structuring practice into shorter sessions, setting clear listening goals, minimizing distractions, and using engagement prompts helps sustain attention and boost overall listening performance.
Vocabulary size is the primary factor shaping the listening skills of IUH's third-year students A robust lexicon is fundamental to understanding spoken language, so expanding vocabulary directly improves listening comprehension Practical steps include daily exposure to English on topics that interest you, since interest boosts effective learning Reading widely in English also helps, and the more you read, the richer your vocabulary becomes While reading, pay attention to unfamiliar words, try to deduce their meaning from context first, and only consult a dictionary after making an educated guess Regular listening and reading together reinforce vocabulary growth and, in turn, enhance listening proficiency.
To address linguistic challenges—grammar, vocabulary, accents, discourse markers, slang and idioms, and diverse grammatical structures—learners need exposure to authentic English One of the most effective strategies is to listen to native voices through English songs, news, films, plays, everyday conversations, or stories that match their level While not every word or exchange is fully understood, consuming television and radio helps learners grasp real conversations, tone, and intonation, deepening their overall comprehension Additionally, teachers can introduce linguistic features such as transition words, colloquial expressions, and relevant grammatical structures at convenient points during listening sessions to reinforce understanding and fluency.
5.2.3 Factors related the failure to concentrate
Concentration often breaks when listening to spoken English due to new vocabulary, longer utterances, and the mental load of searching for answers while also thinking about the next question Many students report that hearing a phrase or word they don’t know makes them try to decode its meaning, pulling attention away from the recording A practical tip is to listen for keywords, identify the type of word needed to fill gaps, and try to predict the answer before you hear it Motivation is another key factor in English learning and in developing listening skills; without motivation, it’s hard to stay focused, especially when unfamiliar pronunciation makes words hard to distinguish or when the topic fails to capture interest To counter boredom and improve comprehension, learners should broaden their knowledge across diverse topics, because interest alone isn’t enough without effort Daily practice matters, so aim for at least an hour of listening each day, and make use of every moment to listen to English—whether you’re driving, commuting, exercising, or doing chores—so you can expand vocabulary and steadily enhance listening ability.