A survey on dificulties in learning english listening skill ò the third year english majored students at hong duc university and some suggested solutions

ii ABSTRACT Listening skill is one of the most important skills when learning English.. In relation to that reason, the researcher conducted a study about ““A survey on difficulties in

I am also grateful to my all teachers at Faculty of Foreign Languages of Hong Duc University who give me an opportunity and the best conditions to conduct this study

I am so thankful to students of K20 at the Faculty of Foreign Language for their whole – heart participation in the study

Last but not least, my special gratitude is for my family and my friends from whom I have received a lot of spiritual and material support

To everyone, thank you very much

Thanh Hoa, June 2020

Tran Thi Ly

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ABSTRACT

Listening skill is one of the most important skills when learning English Based on the information from the teacher as well as from the reality, the students still face many difficulties in speaking English, even though they study

in English major In relation to that reason, the researcher conducted

a study about ““A survey on difficulties in learning English listening skill of the third-year English majored students at Hong Duc University and some suggested solutions” This study aims to point out difficulties of the third-year English majors at Hong Duc University in learning listening skills and propose some solutions to improve their listening skill The study was carried out in third-year classes of Faculty of Foreign Languages at Hong Duc University The researcher took 56 first year students as the subject of the survey questionnaire and 20 students in the interview To collect the data, the researcher used questionnaire and interview method to find the data about the students‟ difficulty while listening English and also the students‟ solutions to overcome these difficulties After doing questionnaire and interview, the result of the research showed that the students had many difficulties while listening English such as lack of vocabulary, quality of the record, concentration, accents Moreover, that result also proposed some solutions such as established learning habits, practice English listening skill more

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 The aims of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 3

4 The method of the study 3

5 Research questions 3

6 The organization of the study 4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

1.1 Definition of listening skill 5

1.2 The importance of listening skill 6

1.3 Types of listening 7

1.4 Difficulties in learning listening skill 8

1.5 Factors affect English listening skill 12

1.5.1 The classroom atmosphere 12

1.5.2 Students‟ motivation 13

1.5.3 Quality of recorded material 13

1.6 Listening stages 13

1.6.1 Pre listening stage 13

1.6.1.1 The definition and purposes of pre listening stage 13

1.6.1.2 Types of pre-listening activities 14

1.6.1.3 Factors affecting the choice of pre-listening activities 15

1.6.2 While-listening stage 15

1.6.2.1 The purpose of while-listening stage 15

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1.6.2.2 Characteristics of while-listening activities 16

1.6.3 Post-listening stage 17

1.6.3.1 Definition and purpose of post-listening activities 17

1.6.3.2 Factors affecting the choice of post-listening activities 18

1.7 Listening strategies 18

1.8 Summary 21

CHAPTER 2 : THE STUDY 22

2.1 The participants 22

2.2 Data collection instruments 22

2.2.1 The survey questionnaires 23

2.2.2 The interview 23

2.3 Data analysis and discussion 24

2.3.1 Students‟ real situation of learning English listening skill 24

2.3.1.1 The difficulties in learning English listening skill 24

2.3.1.2 Students‟ frequency of practicing listening skill 26

2.3.1.3 The importance of listening skill 27

2.3.1.4 The problems in learning listening skill 28

2.3.1.5 The kinds of listening text which students expect to practice more 29

2.3.1.6 The activities students do before listening 30

2.3.2 Factors affect English listening skill 30

2.3.2.1 Students‟ difficulties in learning English listening skill 30

2.2.2.2 Factors affecting students‟ interested in learning English listening skill 35

2.3.3 Activities for improving English listening skill 37

2.3.3.1 Listening activities students like most in class 37

2.3.3.2 The activities students should do before and while listening in class 38

2.4 Main finding and discussion 39

2.4.1 Opinions of students about English listening skill 39

2.4.2 Current situation in learning English listening skill 40

2.4.3 Suggestions for improving English listening skill 40

2.5 Recommendations 43

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2.5.1 For students 43

2.5.2 For teachers 44

PART 3: CONCLUSION 45

4.1 Summary of the study 45

4.2 Limitation of the study 46

4.3 Suggestions for the further study 47

REFERENCES 48

APPENDIX 50

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LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Chart 1: Data analysis of questionnaires about difficulties of learning English

listening skill 24

Chart 2: The students‟ interest in learning listening skill 26

Chart 3: Students‟ attitudes towards the importance of English listening skill 27

Chart 4: The frequency of students having problems in learning English listening skill 28

Chart 5: Students‟ interest in extra listening activities 29

Chart 6: Factors motivating students‟ learning the listening skill 35

Chart 7: What students should do before listening 38

Chart 8: What students should do while listening 39

Table 1: Data analysis of interview about difficulties of learning English listening skill 25

Table 2: Students‟ frequency of practicing English listening skill 27

Table 3: Activities students do before listening 30

Table 4: Difficulties in students‟ listening from listening materials 31

Table 5: Statistics about problems from the listeners 32

Table 6: Statistics about problems from physical setting 33

Table 7: The subjective factors affecting the students‟ learning listening skill 36

Table 8: Students‟ opinion about the activities that they like most in listening English class 37

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

HDU: Hong Duc University

FFL: Faculty of Foreign Languages

L2: Second Language

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

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PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

It cannot be denied that English is the international medium in the fields of science, technology, culture, education, economy and society It is also considered a means to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between Vietnam and other countries It is widely seen as the key language toll in the integrating process in the world With the rapid development and expansion of informational technologies, there needs to be a common language for people of all countries to exchange information with each other It is English that is used

as a means of international communication Therefore, there has been an explosion in the need of teaching and learning English all over the world In Vietnam in recent years the number of people who wish to know and master English has become more and more increasing Especially, since Vietnam adopted an open-door policy, teaching and learning English have been paid much attention to English has been a part of the general education It becomes

a compulsory subject at high schools in most towns and cities throughout the country

We all know that in order to learn a foreign language successfully, students have to develop four skills, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing These four skills are closely interrelated to one another and they are all necessary Of the four skills, listening is regarded as a prerequisite to understand what is being said and to pick up the general idea of what is being discussed In our professional and personal life there will be situations where we will hear and have to absorb a lot of details, facts and figures and then extract some points from them Thus, it is possible to give students the chance to practice what they have learnt in the way listening to spoken English To listen successfully, listeners need be able to work out what speakers mean when they use particular words in particular ways on particular occasion and not to simply understand the words themselves In addition, listening is the most important skill in communication in the real life If we fail to understand spoken language, we

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may miss important information and respond Moreover, listening is a useful means of providing students with comprehensible input, which is an essential component of the whole language learning process

After 4 years studying at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hong Duc University, for nearly four years, I realize that the third-year students of English majored still have many difficulties in their listening skill For the third-year English-majored students at Hong Duc University, they cannot avoid common problems related to listening When dealing with a listening lesson, they often experience a lack of background knowledge and cultural understanding, poor ability to understand spoken language, irrelevant teaching material, etc The percentage of students get low marks in listening exam is often the highest of all four skills

In the hope of finding out the difficulties of listening that they normally get

the study entitled “A survey on difficulties in learning English listening skill

of the third-year English majored students at Hong Duc University and some suggested solutions” has been conducted In addition, the thesis also aims

at giving some suggestions for problems encountered by participants of the study

2 The aims of the study

The purpose of this study is to investigate the difficulties in listening English which students at HDU encounter so that some solutions can be given to help them improve this skill

These are the specific aims:

- Investigating students‟ attitudes toward English listening skill

- Finding out the difficulties encountered by the third-year students in FLD, HDU and the reasons that lead to those problems

- Suggesting solutions with the hope of helping the students improve the ability of listening

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3 Scope of the study

The study focuses on difficulties and solutions in English listening skill encountered by third-year students in FLD at HDU and solutions for them Due

to the limitations of time and knowledge, the shortage of reference materials, this study cannot cover the whole issue of listening skill Moreover, the study could not touch upon all the students at HDU It is confined to the third-year students in FLD at HDU only

4 The method of the study

In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, researcher conducted a survey with the use of questionnaires and interviews for students In addition, quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods are used

First, the survey carried out Doing survey questionnaires on the learning English listening skill from 56 third-year students at FFL There are 13 questionnaires which aim at investigating students‟ attitudes toward English listening skill, their learning habits and their opinions about listening skill The questions from 1 to 7 is about real situations of learning English listening skill The questions from 8 to 10 is about factors affect English listening skill Question 11, 12 and 13 are about activities for improving English listening skill The interview for 20 students at FFL included four questioned designed in English It proposed is to investigate the attitudes of the students about English listening skill In addition, their ways and their problems when they learn English listening skill are asked

Next, collecting data for the analysis by using the tables and charts for presenting the collect data From the result collected, it will come to general conclusion and some comments and solutions will be given

5 Research questions

The survey research tries to answer the three research questions as follows:

1 What are the real states of learning English listening skill for the year students in FLD at HDU?

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2 What are the difficulties encountered by the third-year students in FLD

at HDU when learning English listening skill?

3 What are some solutions to improve their English listening skill?

6 The organization of the study

The study consists of three parts:

Part one “ Introduction” presents the rationale, the aims, the methods, the scope, research questions and design of the study It expresses the reason why the author decided to choose this study and the methods for the fulfillment of the study

Part two “ Development” is divided into two chapters:

 Chapter one: “Literature review” presents the concepts relevant to the research topic such as different point of views of English listening skill, the importance, the classification of listening, difficulties in English listening and strategies of English listening skill

 Chapter two “The study” deals with analysis on general learning situation in FLD, learning requirements, teachers and teaching methods, materials as well as material assessments It shows the result of the survey and a comprehensive analysis on the data collection

It also emphasizes the implication of the study in which certain solutions for improving English listening skill to the students at FLD are suggested

Part three “Conclusion” presents an overview of the study, suggestions for further research and limitations of the study

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PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Definition of listening skill

Listening is considered as one of the most important parts of the oral communication

To define listening, theoreticians distinguish listening and hearing Listening involves an active process, which requires an analysis of sounds in contrast to hearing that only perceives sounds in a passive way In the same way Harmer (1989 :16) expresses that listening is a “ receptive” skill where people obtain the main idea according to what they hear Besides, listening helps learners to be flexible listeners, to know how to listen in order to get general idea or the specific information needed to understand the message

Listening, as Howatt and Dakin (1974) define, is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying This involves understanding a speaker‟s accent and pronunciation, his grammar and his vocabulary and grasping his meaning

In addition, Lesley Barker(2001) states that “ Listening, however, is more than just being able to hear and understand what someone else says, listening skills involve etiquette, asking for clarification, showing empathy and providing

an appropriate response.”

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, listening skill is essential in acquiring language proficiency.”

According to Bulletin (1952), listening is one of the fundamental language skills It‟s a medium through which children, young people and adults gain a large portion of their education, their information, their understanding of the world and of human affairs, their ideas, sense of values, and their appreciation

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Wolvin and Coakley (1991) stated, ―Listening was regarded crucial for communication at work at any level for employment, job success, and general career competence and for effective relationship between supervisor and subordinates.”

Scott Shelton (2008) thinks that listening effectively is a demanding and involving process One must be able to deal with different accents or pronunciation, unfamiliar lexical items and syntactic structures, competing background noise, and also make a conscious effort to not switch off or become distracted while listening All of this must be achieved and deal with more or less simultaneously in order to identify and understand the meaning in any given message

To sum up, all of definitions are given with a view to clarifying the nature

of the listening skill which is necessary in the process of acquiring a native language or a foreign one

1.2 The importance of listening skill

It is now widely accepted that oral communication cannot take place without listening and listening plays a central and possibly predominant part in the whole process of language learning Listening, speaking, reading and writing are the four skills of parts of that “indivisible range called communication.” Listening is one of the necessary life skills which are defined as “skills” which can provide you with a better perspective on life, skills which can allow you to maintain a higher awareness of both yourself and the world around you.” It is one of the most vital ways that human beings feel the life and live Everyone, in the real life, often listeners more than speaks, reads or writes We listen everywhere and every time We listen to everything and everybody For instance, at home, we listen to the news, watch films or talk with others At school, students listen to the lectures teaching At a meeting, the staff listens to the new plan from the director, etc Without listening, the man becomes backward in each minute of their lives It is obvious that listening is really important in the real life

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Listening has an important role not only in daily life but also in classroom settings Anderson and Lynch (2003, p.13) state that “we only become aware of what remarkable feats of listening we achieve when we are in an unfamiliar listening environment, such as listening to a language in which we have limited proficiency” Most people think that being able to write and speak in a second language means that they know the language; however, if they do not have the efficient listening skills, it is not possible to communicate effectively As an integrative skill, listening plays an important role in the process of language learning or acquisition and facilitating the emergence of other language skill According to Nord (1980, p.17) listening is the way of learning the language “

It gives the learner information from which to build up the knowledge necessary for using the language When this knowledge is built up, the learner can begin to speak The listening – only period is a time of observation and learning, which provides the basic for the other language skills (Nation 1970, p.12) Most learner will spend more time listening to the foreign language than producing it themselves Failing to understand spoken language, people may miss important information presented to them or respond in a funny way So training in listening is really necessary It helps students make the transition from classroom English to the real life more easily and effectively

1.3 Types of listening

According to Adian (1995, p.18) there are two ways which people often listen in the real life They are “casual” listening and “focused” listening depending on the purpose of listening

One type of listening, casual listening (or appreciative listening), means listening without a particular purpose When we listen, we do not pay much or even any attention to the information unless there is something that interest us Therefore, we hardly remember the content of what we hear Normally, we do this kind of listening when we listen to music, or listen to the news on the radio

or TV while doing some housework or chatting to a friend

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Another type of listening is focused listening That is when we listen for a particular purpose to find out information we need to know In this case we often listen with much attention, but we do not listen to everything we hear with equal concentration For instance, when we want to know the answer to a question, we will ask and expect to hear a relevant response This leads to our

“listening out” for certain key phrases or words When we ask a question like

“What are you going to be?”, we then listen out for the expectation of the place

If the answer is, for example “I don‟t know, I haven‟t decided yet, it depends on what job I get, but I expect I shall end up in Boston” then we shall wait for or note the last two words If, however, the same answer is the response to the question “ Are you definitely going to Boston?” then the last two words of the answer are virtually redundant, and will pay more attention to the first part If

we listen to the news, it is from a desire to know what is happening in the world, and we share expect to hear about certain subjects or current interest in a certain kind of language Even when listening to entertainment such as plays, jokes or songs, we have definite purpose (enjoyment) we want to know what is coming next and we expect it to cohere with what went before There is an association between listener expectation and purpose and his comprehension

1.4 Difficulties in learning listening skill

It is undeniable that listening is considered to be the most difficult among the four skills Numerous learners have difficulties with different aspects of listening comprehension

According to Willis (1981, p.134), she lists a series of skills for listening dealing with problems, which she calls “enabling skills”

- Predict what people are going to talk about

- Guessing an unknown words or phrases without panicking

- Using one‟s own knowledge of the subject to help one understand

- Understanding inferred information

In Underwood‟s point of view (1994, p.16), there are seven potential difficulties in EFL listening comprehension: (1) lack of control over the speed at

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which speakers speak; (2) inability to get things repeated; (3) the listener's limited vocabulary; (4) failure to recognize the signals; (5) problems of interpretation; (6) inability to concentrate; (7) established learning habits Many language learners believe that the greatest difficulty with listening is that the listener cannot control how quickly a speaker speaks Rubin and Thompson (1994, p.87) identify three common problems in learning to listen to a foreign language The first problem is that the speaker talks too fast If the listener cannot follow the speaker, the listener can let the speaker know about it He/she can ask for repetition, clarification or rephrase The second problem is that the listener could not understand the foreign language, for example, in TV and movies It is advisable for the listener to guess or predict what he/she has to listen to by using visual clues, teachers‟ questions, warm up activities and his/her own background knowledge The third problem is that the listener tend

to stop listening when he/she hears a new word or phrase As a result, he/she can miss portions of the passage that might help clarify the unfamiliar word or segment The listener should concentrate on familiar parts and keep listening

- Inability to control over the speed of the speaker

Azmi Bingol, Celik, Yidliz, and Tugrul Mart (2014, p.15) stated that the level of students can have a significant role when they listen to long parts and keep all information in their mind It is very difficult for lower level students to listen more than three minutes long and complete the listening tasks Short listening passages make easy listening comprehension for learners and reduce their tiredness According to Underwood (1989, p.19), speed can make listening passage difficult If the speakers speak too fast students may have serious problems to understand L2 words In this situation, listeners are not able to control the speed of speakers and this can create critical problems with listening comprehension For people listening to a foreign language, an unknown word can be like a suddenly dropped barrier causing them to stop and think about the meaning of the word and thus making them miss the next part of the speech

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- Inability to get thing repeated

Another problem is that the listener is not always in the position to ask the speaker to repeat his utterance This is a case when learners join in conversation outside the classroom Repetition cannot be asked for when listening to the radio

or watching television Even in classroom, when listening to lectures, learners cannot frequently order the lectures to repeat the utterance as many times as they wish When doing listening work in listening lessons, it is the teacher, not the learners, who decide to stop or replay record and in many situations, the teacher does not replay the exact parts that the listeners wish to listen again Therefore, the teacher cannot judge if the learners can fully understand what they have heard This problem can be solved only when learners are given the opportunity

to control their own machines and proceed in whatever way they wish

- Problems in vocabulary limitation

When listening there are words or phrases that are not known to the listeners This causes the listeners a lot in getting the message of the passage and this may interrupt the listeners‟ concentration or thinking The listeners have to try to follow the speaker and sometimes they have to guess the meaning of a word, as a result they miss chances of learning to the following part of speech Teachers, therefor, should help the learners to know that there is not equal importance for every word and there is no need for learners to understand all the new words when listening Sometimes listeners understand only a part of what a speaker means but they are generally able to continue with the interaction and to respond to it

According to Oxford English Dictionary, there are 171,476 words in current use, 47,156 ancient words and may be added around 9,500 derivative words included as subentries Over half of these words are nouns, about a quarter adjectives, and about a seventh verbs; the rest is made up of exclamations, conjunctions, prepositions, suffixes And these figures don't take account of entries with senses for different word classes (such as noun and adjective) Because of the large and complicated number of English, learners

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need to deal not only with single word lexical items, but also with longer, word items, (Scrivener, 1994, p.75) so it is very difficult for learners to remember and use them

multi Unrecognizing the signals

English is stress-timed language so it is very important for learners to understand it prosodic features By stress, rhythm and intonation, listeners can interpret more subtle messages like sarcasm, endearment, insult, solicitation, praise, etc Listeners may fail to recognize the signals, which indicate that the speaker is moving from one point to another, giving an example, or repeating a point In informal situations or spontaneous conversations, signals are more vague as in pauses, gestures, increased loudness….These signals are not easy to be recognized at all And students need to learn to listen for the

„signals‟ in order to be able to connect the various utterances in the way the speaker intended them to be connected

- Problems of interpretation

Another problem is interpretation that is connecting the word to its meaning and understanding the concept of all of the words together Linking words becomes the most common obstruction for the students in listen the material They misunderstand the linking words so they have no idea about the meaning delivered Students who are unfamiliar with the context may have considerable difficulty in interpreting the words they hear even if they can understand their „surface‟ meaning

- Inability to concentrate

It is a major problem if learners lack concentration in listening work This can be caused by a number of things such as: the bad quality of machines, the poor quality of listening materials Other reason for loss of concentration is that the topic is not interesting or not familiar and learners find it difficult to understand Sometimes listeners easily lose their concentration, as they feel tired

of making a great effort to hear word by word The break in attention, even very short, can seriously impair the comprehension of the whole process of listening

In short, it is necessary for language learners to understand all of these characteristics of spoken language in order that they get more ease in interaction

in general and in listening in particular

1.5 Factors affect English listening skill

“Learners populations differ according to various parameters” (Ur, 1996, p.273) It depends on their motivation to listen language, their environment and the quality of recorded material

1.5.1 The classroom atmosphere

Sometimes inconvenience of classroom affects students listening comprehension In the large classrooms students who are sitting on the back rows may not hear the recording as students sit in front Students who prefer to say next to the windows also effected by the noise that come from outside As a teacher we have to take into account all these conditions in a body The size of the classroom also makes difficult for teacher to manage the all class in group activity or get feedback from students The temperature of class can be counted

as a factor that makes listening comprehension difficult The class that does not have air conditioner or heater may be too hot in summer or too cold in winter

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1.5.2 Students’ motivation

Students‟ motivation is one of the crucial factors that affect listening comprehension It can be difficult for students maintaining the concentration in a foreign language learning classroom In listening comprehension, even the smallest pause in attention may considerably spoil comprehension When the students find the topic of the listening text interesting, comprehending would be easier For all that, students find listening very boring even if they are interested

in the topic because it needs a huge amount of effort in order to not miss the meaning

1.5.3 Quality of recorded material

In some classes, teachers use some recorded materials that do not have high quality The quality of sound system can impact the comprehending of learners‟ listening

In conclusion, this chapter mainly summarizes the theories, ideas, opinions, related to the listening skills It has presented the relevant literature, which has helped to form the theoretical can conceptual framework for graduation paper The following chapter will display the methodology and finding of the research under the light of all above

1.6 Listening stages

There are often three main stages in the teaching of a listening text They are pre-listening stage, while listening stage and post listening stage Each stage has its own aims and activities

1.6.1 Pre listening stage

1.6.1.1 The definition and purposes of pre listening stage

It is true that learners will find it extremely difficult to do listening lesson when they have no idea of what they are going to hear Even if the sounds or the words which they hear are familiar, they may still be unable to understand because they lack certain kinds of knowledge of the topic, setting or the relationship between the speakers Thus the listeners‟ expectation and purposes should be taken into account These makes listeners feel as real life listening

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situation in their native language Teachers can help their students to arouse their expectations and see the purpose before a listening lesson This kind of work is described as “pre-listening activities”

“It would seem a good idea when presenting a listening passage in class to give students some information about the content, situation and speakers before they actually start listening.” (Penny Ur, 1992, P.4)

Another idea about pre-listening stage is said as following:

“Pre-listening work can be done in a variety of ways and often occurs quite naturally when listening forms part of an integrated skill course When planning lessons, time must be allocated for pre-listening activities and these activities should not be rushed.” (Mary Underwood, Teaching Listening, Longman 1989, P.31)

1.6.1.2 Types of pre-listening activities

Pre-listening work can be done in various ways and consists of several types of activities Therefore, teachers should select the most effective activities for each situation and teachers need to find the most suitable way to provide considerable pre-listening support for their students in order to help them to get the purposes that a listening lesson requires

- The teacher introducing the listening topic, giving background information

- The students reading something relevant

- Students looking at pictures, reading through the questions if asked

- The students discussing the topic situation

- The students following the instruction for the while listening activities

- The students considering how the while-listening activity

- The students considering how the while-listening activity will be done Each of the above activities will help the students focus on the main points

of the listening passage But it is very important to remember that the amount of pre-listening activities may vary according to each class, the level of difficulty

of the material and the students‟ language ability

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1.6.1.3 Factors affecting the choice of pre-listening activities

The choice of pre-listening activities depends on a number of factors:

- The time available

- The material available

- The interest of the class

- The interest of the teacher

- The place where the work is being carried out

- The nature and the content of the listening text itself

It is very necessary for the teacher to consider all the factors which are mentioned above when choosing an activity as each factors contributes an important part to a result of a listening lesson However, the last item on the list, the nature of the listening text, is very important when choosing pre-listening activities

1.6.2 While-listening stage

1.6.2.1 The purpose of while-listening stage

The while-listening stage involves activities that students are asked to do during the time that they are listening to the text The purpose of while-listening activities is to help learners develop the skill of eliciting messages from spoken language

There are, of course, other reasons why students need to listen to the language they are studying The main thing is that to learn to recognize how it sounds (the pronunciation of words, the stress, the rhythm, the intonation that they can use what they hear as a model for their own speech.)

When developing the skills of listening for comprehension, while listening activities must be chosen carefully They must vary at different levels in a different cases We do not test whether or not the listener has understood and producing “right/ wrong” answer will soon discourage the enthusiasm of the learners To help non-native listeners to improve their listening, teacher must have listening activities which give practice in prediction, matching and interpretation

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“Good while-listening activities helps learners find their way through the listening text and build upon the expectations raised by pre-listening activities.” (Underwood, Teaching Listening, 1990, P.46)

1.6.2.2 Characteristics of while-listening activities

 Interest

While-listening activities should be interesting, so that students feel they want to listen and carry out the activities Part of interest can stem from the topic and the content of what is said and the listening text should be chosen with the interest of the students in mind

Many learners enjoy material with a “local” flavor rather more than texts setting in some remote context For this reason, even quite mundane topics should be given some local relevance when possible in order to make them more familiar and motivating

Another kind of interest is generated by activities which are in themselves interesting and satisfying to do Most learners enjoy trying to complete puzzle or solve problems and this fact can be exploited in the design of the activities It is important, however, that this kind of activity is not too long and laborious and does not involve doing the same kind of thing over and over again For example, for most learners, three small crossword puzzles on different occasions are far more satisfying to do than one every large one which occupies a lot of time on just one occasion

 Levels of difficulty

While listening activities should be things most people can do Failure here very rapidly leads to demotivation, and activities with potential “sticking point”, where students are likely to get into difficulties, should be used sparingly in the early stages In time, of course, it will be necessary to include activities which present potential “sticking point”, so that students learn not to be put off and persevere in spite of the problems

According to Mary Underwood, the level of difficulty of a while-listening activity can be adjusted by giving support Some while-listening activities are

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successful with groups of varying levels of ability and provide a challenge for the more advanced students but not discouraging those who only gain little success

 Factors affecting the choice of while-listening activities

In addition to the factors which apply equally to while-listening activities, other points need to be considered when selecting while-listening activities They include:

- The possibilities for varying the level of difficulty if required

- The inconvenience of carrying out activities which require individuals to give their responses orally in the classroom This kind of work is best done in a language laboratory Classroom while-listening activities generally have to be limited to those which can be done without the need for each student to respond

by speaking

- Where the work to be done by the students with the teacher present or whether it is to be done as private study, either in the classroom or at home This will influence the teacher‟s choice of activity as he may want to give his students different work according to their levels of ability, to provide additional instructions, or to select activities which generate little or no marking

1.6.3 Post-listening stage

1.6.3.1 Definition and purpose of post-listening activities

Post-listening activities are the activities which are done after the listening

is completed Some post-listening activities are extensions of the work done at the pre-listening and the while-listening stages and some relate only loosely to the listening text itself

The purposes of post-listening activities are:

- To check whether the learners have understood what they need to or not

- To see why some students have missed parts of the message or fail to understand the message

- To give the students the opportunity to consider the attitude and manner

of the speakers of the listening text

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- To expand the topic on the topic or language of the message and to transfer learned things to another context

- To make introduction for the planned work

1.6.3.2 Factors affecting the choice of post-listening activities

Mary Underwood says that the attention should be given to the following factors in selecting post-listening activities:

- The amount of language work the teacher wish to do in realtion to the particular listening text

- The time is which allowed to do post-listening work

- The speaking, reading or writing skills should be included in the listening work

post The students should work in pairs or in groups

- The chosen activity should be made motivating

1.7 Listening strategies

Goh (2000) said that it is very important to teach listening strategies to students and before doing this, teachers should increase learners‟ knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, and phonology According to Vandergrift (1999), the development of strategy is significant for the training of listening and learners can guide and assess their own understanding and answers Many researchers such as Conrad (1985), O‟Mallay and Chamot (1990), and Rost and Ross (1991) and Azmi Bingol, Celik, Yidliz, and Tugrul Mart (2014) expressed that there are three types of strategies in listening comprehension They are cognitive, metacognitive, and socio-affective These strategies can change based on the level of learners

 Cognitive Strategies

Cognitive strategies are related to understanding and gathering input in short term memory or long-term memory for later use Comprehension begins with the received data that is examined as consecutive levels of formation and a process of decoding Cognitive strategy is a problem-solving method that learners apply to deal with the learning activity and facilitate the learning of

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knowledge (Azmi Bingol, Celik, Yidliz, & Tugrul Mart, 2014) Derry and Murphy (1986) defined cognitive strategies as problem-solving techniques that learners use for the acquisition of knowledge or skill Brown and Palincsar (1982) and O‟Malley and Chamot (1990) and Abdalhamid (2012) expressed that cognitive strategies are related to the learning activities and include direct utilization or change of the learning materials According to Goh (1998), learners utilize cognitive strategies to assist them process, keep, and remember new information There are two kinds of cognitive strategies in listening: bottom- up and top-down Bottom-up strategies are word-for-word translation, arranging the rate of speech, repeating the oral text, and concentrating on prosodic characteristics of the text Top-down strategies involve forecasting, guessing, explaining, and visualization Advanced learners use more top-down strategies than beginners (Conrad, 1985; Tsui & Fullilove, 1998; O‟Malley, Chamot, & Kupper, 1989; Abdalhamid, 2012) A think-aloud procedure was used to examine the listening strategies of university students learning Spanish The results of quantitative study showed that participants utilized more cognitive than metacognitive strategies and that females applied more metacognitive strategies than males The findings of qualitative study indicated that success in listening was related to factors like the application of many strategies, ability and flexibility in modifying strategies, stimulation, self-control, and sufficient use of prior knowledge (Abdalhamid, 2012)

 Metacognitive Strategies

According to Rubin (1988), metacognitive strategies are management techniques used by learners to control their learning through planning, checking, assessing, and changing For instance, for metacognitive planning strategies, listeners clear the aims of a listening task and apply specific features of the aural language input that make easy the understanding of aural input Holden (2004) and Azmi Bingol, Celik, Yidliz, and Tugrul Mart (2014) stated that in this strategy students are aware when listening to the text In this strategy, learners learn how to plan, monitor, and evaluate the collected information from the

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listening part According to Wenden (1998), learners who use metacognitive strategies can learn faster and integrate the knowledge outstandingly, can be constant receivers and deal with all situations, have self-confidence to get help from partners, teachers, or family, and can observe and assess themselves Salataci (2002) indicated that the use of metacognitive strategy in the listening process increases learners‟ self-confidence, motivation, and ability to complete the activities According to Baker and Brown (1984) and Abdalhamid (2012), there are two kinds of metacognitive skill: knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition Knowledge of cognition deals with the learners‟ consciousness of what is going on, and regulation of cognition deals with what learners should do to listen effectively Bacon (1992), O‟Malley and Chamot (1990), Goh (2000), Vandergrift (2003), and Abdalhamid (2012) indicated that the difference between skilled and less skilled listeners can be understood through their application of metacognitive strategies O‟Malley et al (1989) demonstrated that skilled listeners utilize more repair strategies to redirect their attention back to the activity when there is a comprehension failure, while less skilled listeners cease listening Vandergrift (2003) and Abdalhamid (2012) showed that skilled listeners applied twice as many metacognitive strategies as their less-skilled learners According to Henner Stanchina (1987), metacognitive strategies played an important role in listening comprehension She mentioned that skilled listeners can permanently explain and what they hear through (1) utilizing their prior knowledge and predictions to create theories on the text; (2) connecting new information with their continuing predictions; (3) making deductions to fill comprehension breaks; (4) assessing their predictions; (5) improving their theories Henner Stanchina (1987) continued skilled listeners can identify failure in understanding and activate their background knowledge to get better comprehension

 Socio-affective Strategies

Vandergrift (2003) and Abdalhamid (2012) expressed that socio-affective strategies are techniques that listeners use to cooperate with others, to check

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their comprehension, and to reduce their apprehension Gardner and MacIntyre (1993) said that affective strategies are very significant because the learning situation and learners‟ social-psychological factors are closely related to each other There is a significant relationship between low anxiety and high listening performance: that is, the use of affective strategies makes easy and improve listening (Aneiro, 1989) O‟Malley and Chamot (1987) represented that among the four strategies of listening comprehension, social and affective strategies had the most effect on the learning context Wilson (2003) said that socio-affective strategies are related to students‟ interaction with other speakers and their reactions towards learning Habte-Gabr (2006) said that in socio-affective strategy, students should know how to decrease anxiety, feel confident during

listening activities, and raise motivation in improving listening skill

1.8 Summary

In short, this chapter mainly summarizes the theories, ideas, opinions related to the listening skills First comes an overview on the different views of listening comprehension Then the importance and classification of listening are stated What is more in this chapter is the potential problems in learning listening Last comes in the chapter is three stages of the listening session It has presented relevant literature, which has helped to form the theoretical can conceptual framework for graduation paper The following chapter will display the methodology and finding of the research under the light of all above

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CHAPTER 2 : THE STUDY

This chapter, the researcher will give the full analysis of data collected through the survey questionnaires for students, interviews teachers and students

on the factors affecting English listening skill of the third-year students in FLD

at HDU It shows an attempt to answer the three research questions posed at the beginning of the study

2.2 Data collection instruments

The data collection in the study is derived from students who are in the major third-year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages To collect information about the issues of learning English listening skill of the third-year English major students at HDU First of all, 56 copies of survey questionnaires were handed out In addition, 20 students were also invited for the interview

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To have a good understanding of the issues under discussion, it is essential

to refer to an important source of data collection associated with the literature review All the questions in the survey were designed with a hope that the researcher can get the students‟ opinion about listening material they are using, the teachers they are contacting with , and the methods of the teaching listening they are adapting to These questions are close to the techniques that can be worked out to improve the current teaching and learning listening skill at HDU

by means of literature comparison and by cross-checking with information obtained from the responded questionnaire

2.2.1 The survey questionnaires

Questionnaires for students consists of 13 questions are specified Therefore, the survey questionnaires for students were delivered to 56 major- third year students of K20 at Faculty of Foreign Languages, HDU There are 13 questions from which I can find out the real situation of learning listening of the students, their attitudes towards learning listening skill and from which I can get students‟ opinion about the effectiveness of my suggested techniques for teaching and studying listening skill The questions from 1 to 7 is about real situations of learning English listening skill The questions from 8 to 10 is about factors affect English listening skill Question 11, 12 and 13 are about activities for improving English listening skill All of the students doing the survey have been learning English for 8 or 9 years, they are very good at grammar and doing exercises in writing, but it was only when they became the students of this school that they started to be taught listening skill However, the survey will surely be reliable as the students are well-aware of their mission, and have enough knowledge of English to answer the questions given

2.2.2 The interview

An interview was carried out with 20 students in 2 classes of K20 in Faculty of Foreign Languages at Hong Duc University The interview for 20 students at FFL included four questioned designed in English The aim is to