Difficulties in learning listening skils facing third year english language students at hanoi pedagogical university 2

ABSTRACT This study scrutinizes the challenges encountered while learning listening skills by third-year English Language students at Hanoi Pedagogical University 2.. According to Rost i

Table of Contents

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APPENDIX

References

ABSTRACT This study scrutinizes the challenges encountered while learning listening skills by third-year English Language students at Hanoi Pedagogical University 2 The objective of the study 1s to identify common problems and provide possible solutions Several methodologies, including questionnaires and interviews, were used to collect the data from a sample of students Findings revealed that students primarily struggle with understanding different accents, speed of speech, complex vocabulary, and colloquial phrases Additionally, the lack of immediate feedback during the learning phase compounds their difficulties in mastering listening skills Based on these findings, the study suggests incorporating diverse English accents in teaching material and utilizing technology to provide real-time feedback Further studies are recommended to explore additional areas of difficulty along with potential pedagogical strategies to overcoming them.

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Butler-Pascoe (2009) said that “Today, with English becoming the dominant language in our increasingly technological and international world, especially in nations trying to change the way that children learn and use English” For this reason, learning and using the English language is crucial in this day and age for everyone in the world

.1 Rationale of the study

Listening is an act of unconditional reflex because it is an instinctive human behavior You don't need to do anything, you can still accidentally hear a variety of sounds, but the skill of listening

to the target language is the opposite, it is a lot more difficult So

we need to practice listening every day to develop it For example, practicing listening to conversational English is necessary to master the skill In both everyday life and the workplace, our ability

to listen is what determines our success

According to Rost in Hamouda (2013), listening is a crucial skill to teach in language classrooms since it gives students input and aids

in their language development For effective and successful communication to develop, listening is a crucial skill Input from listening is critical to a student's language development As a result, receiving intelligible information is the primary method of language learning, and understanding input requires good listening skills There are many definitions of listening comprehension, but collectively, through the ability to distinguish sounds, pre-existing knowledge, grammatical structure, stress and intonation, and other verbal or non-verbal cues, the listener can understand the verbal input during the listening process

Each area will have its own tone and intonation, which creates problems for listeners In addition, speaking speed is also a decisive factor for the difficulty of the listening test Abbreviating vocabulary or using slang and local words can easily confuse listeners, causing them to misunderstand the speaker's meaning

.2 Aims of the study

Most of the studies and articles investigate the difficulty that students face in listening, and have some solutions to improve language skills Meanwhile, the conscious practice of improving listening skills is considered urgent

I propose this study to investigate the difficulties that 3rd year English majors at Hanoi Pedagogical University 2 (HPU2) face when listening At the same time, by introducing methods to improve listening skills, the article also hopes to help each individual find a suitable application for themselves

2 What approach is recommended to improve listening?

.4 Scope of the study

200 third-year English language students at Hanoi National University of Education 2 participated in this study Using questionnaires, interview questions and observations, the researchers collected the data by survey design

1.5 Significance of the study

This study is considered necessary for several reasons First, it can inspire students to practice listening skills Research can also help students develop new perspectives on the importance of developing

listening skills In addition, it can inspire students to practice listening both inside and outside the classroom

1.6 Structure of the study

This study is will be organized into five chapters as follows:

Chapter 1: Introduction - This chapter introduces the research problem, aims of the study, research questions, the scope of the study, and the significance of the study

Chapter 2: Literature Review - an overview of listening skills and listening strategies This chapter examines, in addition to previous studies on the subject, the difficulty of learning English listening skills

Chapter 3: Research Methodology - This chapter describes research design, research subjects, research instruments and data analysis to conduct the study

Chapter 4: Findings and Discussions - The results of the data are reported, described, analyzed and discussed in response to two research questions

Chapter 5: Conclusion - This chapter provides implications for further studies and makes conclusions for the thesis.

CHAPTER 2; LITERATURE REVIEW Listening plays an important role in second language instruction for several reasons (Rost, 1994) If you cannot hear it well you will find it hard to communicate or perhaps you cannot pass your listening examination for instance In fact, students often take the wrong way when listening and this leads them to poor results It should be noted that the learner’s perception of their listening problem and strategies can affect their comprehension both positively and negatively (Wenden, 1986) Thus, in order to help students improve their listening skill, it is needed to find out their listening problems which cause difficulties to them According to Yagang (1994), the problems in listening were accompanied by the four following factors: the message, the speaker, the listener and the physical setting Furthermore, a number of studies have been carried out to pick out the problem in listening The problems were believed to be caused by the speech rate, vocabulary and pronunciation (Higgins, 1995) Flowerdew & Miller (1996) assumed that the problems of the students were for the speed

of delivery, new terminology and concept, difficulty in focusing and the physical environment As Nguyen Ngoan stated in his article

“Listening to VOA: advantages, problems and solutions” the students have to face these three problems First of all, the students find it hard

to understand proper names as they have never heard about it before

In other words, they have no background knowledge about what they are listening to The second problem is believed to arise from the unfamiliar, uninteresting and too long listening which makes the students feel strange, discouraged and bored of what they are hearing The last one is assumed to be about the sound connections and intonation spoken by native speakers with different accents

The research available on second-language listening comprehension is insufficient Compared with other skills, Goh (1997:161) said that

“there are fewer insights about the process of listening and the way it

is learnt” Similarly, Richards (1985:189) stated that:” there is little direct research on second language listening comprehension” As for that, I am doing this research not only to help students in our university with better listening but also to contribute a small part to enrich the listening research which has been done so far

CHAPTER 3: BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH

I Aims of the study

This research attempts to explore ways employed by students while doing their own listening It also aims to find out difficulties as well as

to provide some recommendations for improvement

3.2 Data analysis

Interviews were transcribed, coded and reviewed for major themes through thematic analysis technique Braun & Clarke (2006) say that, “thematic analysis is a method used for identifying, analyzing and reporting patterns (themes) within the data” (p 97) Students were asked questions about their perspectives on listening, and listening problems

CHAPTER 4: FINDING AND DISCUSSION

I Students’ learning style

Fifty English majors from different classes in the faculty of foreign language in Ha Noi Pedagogical University 2 participated in this research To find out their listening

experience as well as the time students spend on self-study, students are asked to put a tick for their best answer

II Problems in learning listening

To identify problems, students are asked to put their answer on

a scale of frequency ranging from never to always Problems are classified into two different categories, namely problems from the listeners and listening materials and equipment

1 Problems from the listeners

talk about

Guessing 24% 46% 16% unknown words or

phrases

Recognizing main 24% 20% 26% 16%

Problems from the listeners

Table 1: Statistics about problems from the listeners

The first issue is students' ability to accurately predict what the speaker will say with 60% (often & always) In fact, the prediction benefits students in their listening comprehension According to Hasan (2000) asserts that word-by-word listening is thought to be a habit They pay no attention to any specific indicators that would assist them guess what will be talked about But in every listening assignment,

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cues are given subtly so that a skilled or knowledgeable listener can immediately notice them For instance, learners may be able to anticipate the following points based on the task's title Furthermore, predictions can be formed using images, maps, charts, or anything else presented when listening Additionally, asking questions about the listening topic would keep kids interested and advance their understanding

If the following few points in the listening task are not covered by these questions, there would be no cause for concern According to Berman (2003), making prediction questions might help students stay focused on their assignments In addition, the responses to these prepared pre-listening questions are the main idea of the listening task In this way, a prediction question is a great way for enhancing comprehension

The second issue is the lack of vocabulary 62% of the participants struggle with limited understanding Some listeners believed that since meaning is contained inside the unfamiliar words, a large vocabulary is required When presented with a new word, people prefer to learn its meaning than deduce it from the context (Hasan, 2000) The following are some methods for references: The first and most basic strategies utilize the clues, which are the words or phrases that come after the unknown words However, students must be careful not to spend too much time trying to guess the strange words or they risk missing the speaker's subsequent point Additionally, the speakers might explain the words with the help of synonyms, antonyms, or appositives

The third issue is recognizing the major points in listening comprehension Failure is given if students are unable to grasp any key ideas Because they focus too much on listening to each word, 62%

of students struggle to understand the key elements of a listening program As a result, they are unable to recognize the listening activities' keywords or content words However, Berman (2000) offers some hints for locating the key areas when listening

A discourse marker is viewed as the link connecting the points The speakers' frequent use of discourse markers to identify key points is a normal occurrence Different markers with specific expressions keep listeners up to speed on the task's turning points The addition marker (in addition, additionally, additionally, etc.) announces a change or addition to a notion, whereas the cause and sequence marker

(because, since, consequently, consequently) informs us of the cause and effect of a fact or an action

The purpose of repetition is to highlight key information The main points may be covered when a word or phrase appears multiple times The speech's pace provides additional indications for recognizing the major ideas Natural speech is actually fairly quick for second language learners, which can be challenging for non-native speakers However, while they listen, pupils will occasionally notice that the speaker is speaking a little more slowly and clearly than before This is mostly intended to achieve listening Students have the opportunity to record the important details in a listening text Speaking naturally involves emphasis, therefore the speaker uses emphasis to stress the most important points What students should do is focus on the speaker's speed and intonation while identifying the points As in his books “advance listening strategies” (Berman, 2003) assumed that: Pace is the speed of speech Unimportant points or small details are usually spoken more quickly Important points, such as main ideas, are usually spoken more slowly and clearly

2 Problems from the listening material