An investigation into the vietnamese efl learners attitudes towards the ielts listening test m a

Research question 2: What are the learners’ cognitive attitudes towards the challenges of taking the IELTS listening test?. Learners’ negative cognitive attitudes towards the challenges

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE VIETNAMESE EFL LEARNERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE

IELTS LISTENING TEST

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature

in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL

By

TRAN THI THAO

Supervised by

NGUYEN THU HUONG, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, OCTOBER 2018

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE VIETNAMESE EFL LEARNERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE

IELTS LISTENING TEST

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature

in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL

By

TRAN THI THAO

Supervised by

NGUYEN THU HUONG, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, OCTOBER 2018

Next, I would like to send my thanks to my teachers, Dr Nguyen Quang Tien,

Dr Le Xuan Quynh, and my colleague, Simon Reilly, for their substantial contributions to proofread my thesis

I would also like to thank all of the learners who joined in the study for their valuable time to complete the questionnaires I would like to send my thanks to the learners who voluntarily took part in the in-depth interviews Without their cooperation, my thesis would not have been completed

Last but not least, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to my parents, who has supported me and encouraged me a lot to complete my thesis

Statement of originality

I certify that my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled:

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE VIETNAMESE EFL LEARNERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE IELTS LISTENING TEST

in terms of the statement of the Requirements for the Theses in Master’s Program issued by the Higher Degree Committee This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institutions

Ho Chi Minh City, October 2018

TRAN THI THAO

Retention and use of the thesis

I hereby state that I, Tran Thi Thao, being the candidate for the degree of Master in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s theses deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited

in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of the thesis

Ho Chi Minh City, October 2018

Tran Thi Thao

Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS III STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY IV RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS V CONTENTS VI LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS X LIST OF TABLES XI LIST OF FIGURES XI ABSTRACT XIII

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background to the study 1

1.1.1 The importance of testing in language teaching and learning 1

1.1.2 The IELTS listening test 2

1.2 Aims of the study 4

1.3 Research questions 5

1.4 Scope of the study 5

1.5 Significance of the study 6

1.6 The organization of the thesis 7

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 8

2.1 Attitudes 8

2.1.1 Two approaches to language attitudes 8

2.1.2 Components of attitudes 9

2.1.3 Definition of attitudes 10

2.1.4 The role of attitudes in language tests 10

2.2 The IELTS Test 11

2.2.1 Overview of the IELTS test 11

2.2.2 Overview of the IELTS Listening section 11

2.3 Listening 12

2.3.1 Definitions of listening 12

2.3.2 Models of the listening process 12

2.3.3 Test-taking strategies 14

2.3.4 Learners’ perceptions of the challenges in the IELTS listening test 16

2.4 Relevant studies 32

2.4.1 Relevant studies on the IELTS listening test 32

2.4.2 Relevant studies on attitudes towards the IELTS test 35

2.5 Gaps from the previous studies 36

2.6 The conceptual framework of the study 37

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 40

3.1 Research design 40

3.2 Research setting 41

3.3 Sampling 43

3.4 Participants of the study 44

3.4.1 Selection 44

3.4.2 Description of the subjects 44

3.5 Research instruments 47

3.5.1 The pilot interview 47

3.5.2 The questionnaire 47

3.5.3 The follow-up interview 54

3.6 Data collection procedures 55

3.6.1 Piloting the questionnaire 56

3.6.2 Delivering the questionnaire 57

3.6.3 Conducting the follow-up interview 57

3.7 Data Analysis 58

3.8 Summary 58

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 59

4.1 Research question 1: What are the Vietnamese EFL learners’ affective attitudes towards the IELTS listening test within academic and non-academic contexts in Ho Chi Minh City? 59

4.2 Research question 2: What are the learners’ cognitive attitudes towards the challenges of taking the IELTS listening test? 62

4.2.1 Learners’ negative cognitive attitudes towards the challenges of taking the IELTS listening test 62

4.2.2 Learners’ negative cognitive attitudes towards the challenges related to task

characteristics 63

4.2.3 Learners’ negative cognitive attitudes towards the challenges related to bottom-up processing 68

4.2.4 Learners’ negative cognitive attitudes towards the challenges related to top-down processing 71

4.3 Research question 3: What are the learners’ behavioral attitudes towards the strategy practices in the IELTS listening test? 73

4.3.1 Pre-listening strategies 73

4.3.2 While-listening strategies 75

4.3.3 Post-listening strategies 79

4.4 Discussion of the results 80

4.4.1 Research question 1: What are the Vietnamese EFL learners’ affective attitudes towards the IELTS listening test within academic and non-academic contexts in Ho Chi Minh City? 81

4.4.2 Research question 2: What are the learners’ cognitive attitudes towards the challenges of taking the IELTS listening test? 83

4.4.3 Research question 3: What are the learners’ behavioral attitudes towards the strategy practices in the IELTS listening test? 93

4.5 Summary of the major findings 96

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 99

5.1 Conclusion 99

5.2 Implications of the study 99

5.3 Limitations of the study 105

5.4 Recommendations for further research 106

REFERENCES 107

APPENDIX 1: THE ENGLISH VERSION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE 116

APPENDIX 2: THE VIETNAMESE VERSION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE124 APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR LEARNERS (IN ENGLISH) 132

APPENDIX 4: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR LEARNERS (IN VIETNAMESE) 133

APPENDIX 5: RELIABILITY STATISTICS OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE ITEMS IN THE FIRST PILOT STUDY 134 APPENDIX 6: RELIABILITY STATISTICS OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE ITEMS IN THE SECOND PILOT STUDY 134 APPENDIX 7: RELIABILITY STATISTICS OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE ITEMS IN THE OFFICIAL QUESTIONNAIRE 134

List of abbreviations

The International English Language Testing System IELTS

Ho Chi Minh City University of Education HCMUE

List of Tables

Table 3.1: Information about the participants of the study 45 Table 3.2: Information about the participants of the study 46 Table 3.3: The organization of the questionnaire and its related categories 50 Table 3.4: Reliability statistics of question item in the questionnaire to theVietnamese EFL learners at three branches of FLC of UE, OISP of BKU, FFL of TDTU and AMA 51 Table 3.5: A summary of the questionnaire on the affective component of attitudes 52 Table 3.6: A summary of the questionnaire on the cognitive component of attitudes 53 Table 3.7: A summary of the questionnaire on the behavioral component of attitudes 54 Table 4.1: Result of learners’ enjoyment of the IELTS listening test 59 Table 4.2: Results of learners’ confidence towards performing four sections in the IELTS listening test 61 Table 4.3: Learners’ cognitive attitudes towards the challenges of taking the IELTS listening test 63 Table 4.4: Results of learners’ negative cognitive attitudes towards the challenges related to task characteristics 65 Table 4.5: Results of learners’ negative cognitive attitudes towards the challenges related to bottom-up processing 69 Table 4.6: Results of learners’ negative cognitive attitudes towards the challenges related to top-down processing 72 Table 4.7: Results of learners’ pre-listening strategies 74 Table 4.8: Results of learners’ while-listening strategies 76 Table 4.9: Results of learners’ word tackling strategies (while-listening strategies) 77Table 4.10: Results of learners’ inferring strategies (while-listening strategies) 77 Table 4.11: Results of learners’ post-listening strategies 80

List of figures

Figure 2.1: The conceptual framework of the study 39 Figure 3.1: Learners’ self-assessment of their listening comprehension 46 Figure 3.2: Data collection procedure at OISP of BKU, FFL of TDTU and AMA and three branches of FLC of UE 56

ABSTRACT

The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) has gained much currency in Vietnam during the past few years Vietnamese EFL learners who would like to study abroad have to achieve a certain band score required by an English-speaking institution - if they want to be eligible for being recruited into an academic program at a tertiary level The IELTS test assesses learners’ ability in four language areas namely listening, reading, writing, and speaking Of the four afore-mentioned skills, listening plays a central role in learners’ success in the IELTS test

The study adopted a mixed research method in which a questionnaire was used

to investigate the Vietnamese EFL learners’ affective, cognitive, and behavioral attitudes towards the IELTS listening test In addition, a follow-up interview was conducted to delve deeply into what the data from the questionnaire revealed

The results showed (a) that the Vietnamese EFL learners took negative affective and cognitive attitudes towards the test (b) that learners showed positive behavioral attitudes towards the employment of listening strategies in the test The study also examined the reasons for learners’ affective and cognitive attitudes towards the test and their employment of low-frequency test-taking strategies

Based on the results and findings of the study, the research suggests practical implications for teachers with regard to learning activities improving learners’ listening comprehension in the IELTS listening test

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter describes the setting of the study and analyzes theoretical aspects which are used to guide the current research In addition, this section also presents the reasons for conducting the present study, the aims of the study, the scope of the study, the significance of the study, and the organization of the thesis

1.1 Background to the study

1.1.1 The importance of testing in language teaching and learning

There is no doubt that testing has gained a great deal of attention from linguists and language teachers and its importance in language teaching and learning is undeniable According to Halliday (1966), testing techniques are intended for examining the progress of language learning, identifying learners’ problems in learning, and measuring learners’ knowledge of proficiency in English In addition, they not only facilitate the process of teaching by telling the teacher what is ineffective in their teaching but also assist the teacher

in identifying the obstacles that learners face in their language courses and assessing their proficiency level in English

Ingram (1974) also stated that a test invites candidates to demonstrate their knowledge or skills for the purpose of grading their results or making inferences based on their performance either at the time of the test or at some future time This notion is in congruence with Hughes (2003), who stated that information about learners’ ability is of paramount importance since British or American universities need it to receive students from overseas and organizations rely on it to recruit interpreters Furthermore, it is useful for teachers to make comparisons between one learner and another learner in the same group of learners The results of testing provide valuable and constructive suggestions for future course of action in the language teaching process as well

Tests are utilized for various objectives For example, proficiency tests are used for assessing learners’ ability in a language Hughes (2003) added that ‘proficient’ means having

enough command of language for a specific aim What test takers need to do is follow the specifications of a proficiency test in order to be regarded proficient as a proficiency test is not grounded on the content of language courses that learners had taken However, a proficiency test creates substantial impacts on the content and method of language courses Examples of English language proficiency tests would be TOEIC (the Test of English for International Communication), IELTS (the International English Language Test System), and TOEFL (The Test of English as a Foreign Language)

The general development of the Vietnamese society entails the increasing demand of learners who want to study overseas Along with TOEIC and TOEFL, IELTS is considered one of the most acknowledged tests to be considered qualified by overseas universities IELTS is grounded on the foundation of communicative language testing with an aim to assess learners’ ability to communicate in the target language use (Buck, 2001) It should be noted that IELTS has gained its popularity in both universities and workplaces Vietnamese EFL learners who would like to study in English-speaking institutions need to achieve a certain overall band score to be accepted into an academic program at a tertiary level For example, students taking pre-university courses at Bach Khoa University need to reach an IELTS score of at least 6.0 in order to have adequate knowledge of academic English and to

be accepted to study at international universities In addition, a number of Vietnamese universities and colleges encourage their students to get an IELTS certificate as a standard requirement for graduation Specifically, university students at Ton Duc Thang University (TDTU) are encouraged to achieve an IELTS score of 5.5 before graduating from the university In addition, an increasing number of companies see an IELTS proficiency certificate as an important criterion for selecting new candidates for job recruitment and promoting employees

1.1.2 The IELTS listening test

The IELTS test consists of two modules: general and academic training The general module is used for those who need to undergo work-related training or immigration purposes, while the academic module is for those who want to get academic training in universities The dissimilarities between the two versions lie in the aim, context, and content

of the tasks The other characteristics such as score reporting, time allocation, etc are the same The Listening and Speaking tests are the same for test-takers, while the Reading and Writing tests are different due to their choices of taking the General or Academic versions In both modules, four language skills namely listening, reading, writing, and speaking are tested

Of the four afore-mentioned skills, listening is of immense significance for the test takers’ success It is essential for students to be equipped with listening skills related to their normal circumstances as well as academic settings in the IELTS listening section In other words, the IELTS listening section is designed for the purpose of helping learners follow conversations or dialogues in everyday situations, and understand lectures in universities or colleges in English-speaking countries

However, as suggested by Lynch (2001), listening is the least examined skill in the foreign language assessment literature In line with Lynch (2001), Vandergrift and Goh (2012) claim that listening is “not only an area of great weakness for many students, but also the area which receives the least structured support and systematic attention from teachers in the L2 classroom” (p.20) Most test-takers considered listening one of the most complicated sections in the IELTS test since it is high-speed and complicated (Rasti, 2009) At the Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL), Ton Duc Thang Univeristy (TDTU), the IELTS listening section has not received a great deal of attention from teachers of IELTS courses The teachers here have drawn much attention to three other components of the IELTS test namely writing, speaking, and reading while the listening section has been neglected for a while

As has been observed by the researcher, teaching and learning listening at the Faculty

of Foreign Languages becomes a boring process In each lesson, learners learn vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, and answer listening comprehension questions In addition, listening instruction is given on the basis of the standardized test due to the fact that students are expected to get IELTS 5.5 to graduate from the university It is likely to assume that student do not enjoy the IELTS listening section since they are exposed to the repetitious

procedures of teaching listening and under the high pressure of the IELTS test, which can lead to a decrease in listening engagement and motivation in learning listening comprehension An interview was also conducted with twelve Vietnamese EFL learners to find out whether or not the researcher’s observations were precise The results of the interview showed that learners had negative affective attitudes towards the IELTS listening test

Given the fact that learners do not favor the listening section, it is necessary to carry out this study in order to investigate what challenges make learners have negative perceptions of the IELTS listening section In addition, few empirical studies have been undertaken to examine the employment of test-taking strategies in the listening module of IELTS even though the positive impact of test-taking strategies have been frequently researched Therefore, there should be a study that looks into learners’ feelings of self-efficacy for different sections in the test, their perceptions of challenges of taking the test, and their employment of test-taking strategies in the listening module of IELTS to figure out the causes of their unfavorable perceptions of the IELTS listening test It is worth noting that attitudes are of paramount importance since it is believed that learners’ success or failure in language learning is heavily influenced by their attitudes Learners who possess positive or negative attitudes towards a certain language can affect their performance on a language test (Abidin et al., 2012) To put it in another way, learners’ attitudes can hinder or facilitate their ability of taking the test As a consequence, it is essential that learners’ attitudes should be looked into in order to provide valuable information to teachers There is no doubt that investigating learners’ attitudes can help teachers to adjust their teaching methods, and apply appropriate methods of teaching test-taking strategies for the purpose of enhancing learners’ performance in a standardized test

1.2 Aims of the study

The study was aimed to investigate the Vietnamese EFL learners’ attitudes towards the IELTS listening test, taking the three inherent properties of attitudes namely affective, cognitive, and behavioral into account The affective component of attitudes explored learners’ feelings towards the test and the areas of the test The cognitive component of

attitudes dealt with learners’ perceptions of the challenges of taking the test The behavioral component of attitudes looked into learners’ employment of listening strategies in the IELTS listening test The study also examined the reasons for the learners’ affective attitudes towards the test, the areas of the test, their cognitive attitudes towards the difficulties in doing the test and their behavioral attitudes towards the employment of low-frequency strategies in the test The researcher also gives some recommendations for teachers so that they can make improvements in their teaching the IELTS listening test and make good preparations for their students who take the IELTS listening test

1.4 Scope of the study

The study was conducted at Branches 1, 2, and 4 of Foreign Language Center (FLC),

Ho Chi Minh City University of Education (UE), and The Office for International Study Programs- OISP is a subdivision of Bach Khoa University (BKU) – Vietnam National University, Ton Duc Thang University (TDTU), and The American Academy of Vietnam (AMA) It concentrates on discovering the participants’ attitudes towards the IELTS listening test at these afore-mentioned universities and foreign language centers by employing a mixed research method The researcher hopes that the study will provide the teachers and learners with deeper insight into the teaching and learning of the IELTS listening test

Recommendations were made to the teaching and learning of the IELTS test based on the results and findings of the study, the sampling procedure, and the nature of the research

1.5 Significance of the study

This study is of profound significance owing to the fact that it significantly contributes to learners’ attitude research towards the IELTS listening test in Vietnam The study can be regarded as a detailed one in foreign language centers and universities in Vietnam Before that, teachers of English in Vietnam investigated students’ attitudes towards other proficiency tests such as TOEIC or TOEFL or they looked into one or two aspects of attitudes in the IELTS listening test Aside from them, few teachers enquire into three aspects

of attitudes of the Vietnamese EFL learners towards the IELTS listening test To be more specific, few empirical studies examine learners’ affective attitudes towards the test, the areas of the test, their cognitive attitudes towards the challenges of doing the test and their behavioral attitudes towards the strategy practices in the test Their encouraging or discouraging responses were explored by analyzing detailed questionnaires and holding in-depth interviews

Learners’ emotion, thought, and behavior can be generally recognized through synthesizing the results of the study With respect to teachers of English, comprehending learners’ affections towards the test, the areas of the test, the reasons for their affections towards the test and different sections of the test will help teachers to provide learners with more entirely appropriate learning activities that considerably boost learners’ adoption of positive affective attitudes towards the test and the areas of the test In addition, the results of the study assist teachers in gaining a proper understanding of learners’ cognitive attitudes towards the challenges of taking the test and discovering the causes of obstacles to listening comprehension Therefore, they can make considerable changes to their listening instruction

so that their learners can reap the benefits of appropriate teaching methods The analysis of the results also gives the teacher a deeper insight into learners’ behavioral attitudes towards the employment of test-taking strategies It is apparently said that investigating test-taking strategies can help teachers to improve their teaching methods of test-taking strategies in the

listening module of IELTS More specifically, they can equip learners with suitable taking strategies and raise their awareness of improper test-taking strategies

test-Furthermore, this study makes a great contribution to the teaching and learning of the IELTS listening test by providing insight into the Vietnamese EFL learners’ attitudes towards the test Finally, the results of the study provide bright illumination for listening comprehension research

1.6 The organization of the thesis

The thesis consists of five chapters Chapter one gives a general understanding of the background of the study and presents the purpose of the study, its scope, significance and organization Literature review has been demonstrated in terms of the two approaches to language attitudes, components of attitudes, definitions of attitudes, and the role of attitudes language tests Then the researcher gives the general overview of the IELTS test, and the IELTS listening test The researcher proceeds with the definition of listening, models of the listening process, test-taking strategies, and learners’ perceptions of challenges

of taking the IELTS listening test Some previous studies related to this issue are clearly mentioned, particularly research in the field of the IELTS listening test and attitudes towards the IELTS test Then the gap from previous studies and the conceptual framework of the study are given The research questions, research setting, sampling, participants of the study, research design, research instrument, data collection procedure, and data analysis procedure are included in chapter three Chapter four shows the findings of the study with respect to three research questions In-depth discussions take place on the basis of the results Chapter five summarizes the key points of the thesis and brings up the implications of the study Furthermore, the limitations of this study are also given, and the recommendations for further research are offered

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the theoretical framework for the study is presented by firstly presenting two approaches of language attitudes, components of attitudes, definitions of attitudes, and the role of attitudes in language tests Then this chapter gives an overview of the IELTS test in general, the IELTS listening test in particular In addition, it provides definitions, models, test-taking strategies and learners’ perceived challenges in the IELTS listening test The study reviews some previous studies in terms of the IELTS listening test and attitudes towards the IELTS test Finally, the study sets a conceptual framework and shows the gaps found in the previous studies

2.1 Attitudes

2.1.1 Two approaches to language attitudes

According to McKenzie (2010), there are two psychological approaches to the study

of attitudes: the behaviorist and mentalist view of attitude

Regarding the behaviorist view, attitudes are found in the reactions people produce to their communal settings As can be seen in this theory, attitudes insinuate outer behavior which is observable, externalized by actions and easy to measure The behaviorist view of attitude implies that learners’ attitudes can be only inferred from their behaviors or actions Baker (1992) stated that the two essential components of language attitudes namely feelings and beliefs are not mentioned in the approach

Mentalists, on the other hand, view attitudes as “an internal state of readiness and it can also be inferred from past experience” (McKenzie, 2010, p.153) According to the mentalist view, attitudes are indivisible and are made up of one unit They consist of three components: cognitive (individual’s belief system knowledge and perceptions), affective (emotional reactions and feeling) and conative (behavioral) (condition to act, behavioral intentions and interest)

2.1.2 Components of attitudes

It is essential to explore the components of attitudes before giving their definitions due to the fact that the majority of definitions of attitudes are built up from their central components As suggested by McKenzie (2010), attitudes consist of three components: affection, behavior, and cognition The three components of attitude concept will briefly be described as follows:

2.1.2.1 Affective component of attitudes

The affective component refers to an individual’s feelings and influence towards the incentive (Feng & Chen, 2009) It is in line with McKenzie (2010), who stated that the affective component includes a person’s feelings of liking and disliking about the object He also suggested that affective reactions exert an enormous influence on the learning process of language learners due to the fact that not only learners but also teachers participate in diverse affective learning activities Abidin et al (2012) pointed out that language learners’ affection may have a profound impact on their viewpoints and attitudes towards language activities or learning situations

2.1.2.2 Behavioral component of attitudes

The behavioral component of attitudes incorporates the way people having a tendency to react in particular ways Favorable attitudes may be a reliable predictor of favorable behaviors towards the teaching and learning process of foreign language learners For language learners, they will have the motivation to study and engage in classroom activities and get good results for their efforts Moreover, they may have the ability to deal with issues, to acquire new knowledge as well as apply the knowledge and skills they learn

in the classroom to their real life (Kara, 2009) He also stated that attitudes allow individuals

to make decisions rapidly since attitudes supply information for making choices

2.1.2.3 Cognitive component of attitudes

The cognitive component of attitudes encompasses the reflections people have about specific matters involving facts, knowledge, and belief This component of attitudes is language learners’ beliefs about the knowledge they acquire and their comprehension during the learning process It may be divided into four steps as follows: linking prior knowledge to

the new knowledge, creating new knowledge, checking new knowledge, and applying the new knowledge in many situations (Abidin et al., 2012)

It can be seen that the afore-mentioned definitions of attitudes based on the mentalist view presented by a number of researchers in the field of social psychology This study also taken the definition of attitudes based on the mentalist view Attitudes have affective, cognitive, and behavioral components in the mentalist’s view in that they include an individual’s emotional response, perception, and predisposition to act in particular ways to the attitudinal object (McKenzie, 2010)

2.1.4 The role of attitudes in language tests

A lot of attention has been focused on attitudes towards language learning proposed

by social psychologists However, Murray et al (2012) asserted that learners’ attitudes towards a language test did not receive much attention from a great deal of researchers and scholars Malallaha (2000) conducted a study to investigate Arab learners’ attitudes towards English The results indicated that students had positive attitudes towards the English language and their performance in tests had a positive relation to their positive attitudes towards English It is an observable fact that learners with positive affections will get better results than those with negative responses in the test Understanding learners’ attitudes helps

to predict their learning behaviors Lavrakas (2008) asserted that learners’ behaviors can be

predicted through their attitudes That is to say attitudes stimulate and govern behavior Attitudes towards the test are outstanding predictors of learners’ behaviors in the test

To sum up, the fundamental role of attitudes in language tests is undeniable According to Abidin et al (2012), attitudes are one of the critical elements contributing to the success of language learners Learners' attitudes towards a certain language proficiency test may have a considerable effect on their performance on their test

2.2 The IELTS Test

2.2.1 Overview of the IELTS test

IELTS was originally known as ELTS, which stands for English Language Testing Service IELTS was created to take over a conventional multiple-choice test namely English Proficiency Test Battery aiming for global students who wanted to get permission to study at universities or colleges in the UK All candidates took the same papers for both academic and non-academic purposes in 1995 The two tests were similar in terms of time allocation, length of written purposes and score reporting IELTS Academic and IELTS general training test were dissimilar in terms of its aims, content, and context In addition, the IELTS speaking test was amended in 1998 by the UK test developers and then in 2001, it had a new format and rating scale The new assessment criteria were used to mark the writing papers four years later Some IELTS centers developed a computerized version of the IELTS in

2005 (IELTS, 2013)

2.2.2 Overview of the IELTS Listening section

The IELTS listening test takes approximately 30 minutes There are four sections with ten questions each The listening test is recorded on a CD and is played only one time Candidates should make use of time during the test to look through the questions, write down and check the answers At the end of the test, candidates will be given ten minutes to transfer their answers to the answer sheet

The first two sections deal with everyday social contexts In the first section, there is a conversation between two speakers, for example, a conversation about travel arrangements Then there is a monologue about student services on a university campus The final two

sections are related to situations set in educational training contexts In section three, there is

a conversation among up to four speakers: for example, a conversation between three students about a research project And there is a lecture or talk of academic interest in the final section A number of question types are employed in the listening test including multiple choice, short answer questions, sentence completion, note/ summary/ flow-chart, table completion, labeling a map/ plan/diagram, and matching

2.3 Listening

2.3.1 Definitions of listening

There is no doubt that listening is of great importance It lays the basic foundation for second language acquisition As suggested by Howatt and Dakin (1974), listening is the capacity to recognize and comprehend what others are expressing According to Nunan (1998), an average adult’s time spent on listening ranging from 40 to 50 percent However, listening is thought to be “the least understood and most overlooked of the four skills (Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing) in the language classroom” (Nation & Newton,

2009, p.37) It is true that many language learners faced with the problem of failing to conceive others’ ideas They find it is difficult to enhance their listening skills and considered it as the most difficult skill among the four skills

2.3.2 Models of the listening process

Like reading, listening has been regarded as a receptive skill which requires language processing input Different types of knowledge are used in the listening process Several authors suggested models of listening as follows:

2.3.2.1 The bottom-up model

The bottom-up model was the first model of listening to be expanded by a great deal

of researchers from the 1940s to the 1950s According to Flowerdew and Miller (2005), the listening process begins with the smallest levels of the acoustic input: phonemes Then the processing proceeds with individual words, phrases, clauses and sentences Various kinds of knowledge are employed in the listening process in a fixed order such as phonological knowledge, lexical knowledge, and syntactic knowledge Field (2009a) gave a clear

understanding of this model as “the processes learners use to assemble the message piece from the speech stream, going from the parts to the whole Bottom-up processing involves perceiving and parsing the speech stream at increasingly larger levels beginning with auditory-phonetic, phonemic, syllabic, lexical, syntactic, semantic, propositional, pragmatic, and interpretative” (p 132)

piece-by-2.3.2.2 The top-down model

The top-down model, on the other hand, points out the process that the learners pass through from the whole to the parts (Field, 2009a) According to Field (2009a), learners employ different types of knowledge in the process of interpretation of the message containing the knowledge about the content, the background knowledge, the knowledge about the context Vandergrift and Goh (2012) are in accordance with Field (2009a) in defining the top-down process as the application of knowledge of context and topic to understand the texts To illustrate, learners make inferences and predictions in what type of information they are going to listen to in the recording Brown & Yule (1983) stated that learners need to link what they hear with their previous knowledge about the topic and the context to interpret the message (as cited in Buck, 2001)

2.3.2.3 The interactive model

According to Hedge (2000), learners can interpret the message only when they depend on the background knowledge, knowledge about the context, topic and linguistic knowledge Rumelhart (1975) argued that the interactive model involves both the bottom-up model and the top-down model (as cited in Flowerdew and Miller, 2005) According to Rumelhart, the interactive model outdoes the two above-mentioned processes since it provides learners with a comprehensive approach which promotes group needs and individual learning styles Top-down skills of interpreting the message should be emphasized for advanced learners while bottom-up skills of decoding needed to be improved for beginners Moreover, learners employ one process more than another process relying on the listening purposes For example, learners get the general idea of what took place in a particular circumstance entailing the top-down skills compared to learners who want to identify driving directions in details (Vandergrift, 2002) It is advised that learners should

apply not only the bottom-up process for decoding the message but also the top-down process for interpreting the texts so that they can benefit from these processes (Hedge, 2000)

2.3.2.4 The systems model of listening

Along with the afore-mentioned models, Imhof and Janusik (2006) also provided a model of aural information processing and listening Three interdependent stages: person-, and contextual factors, process, and results are included in their model The interconnections can be found between person factors, listening contexts, and different processes Listening results and different processes are influenced by person factors and listening contexts and conversely, listening results can have an impact on person factors and listening contexts Person factors contain affective and cognitive aspects Affective factors involve anxiety, self-efficacy, and motivation It can be seen that listening comprehension is affected by many affective factors The ways learners tackle a listening task and their listening success are shaped by their emotions Cognitive factors incorporate linguistic knowledge (vocabulary, syntax and discourse), pragmatic knowledge, prior knowledge, metacognitive knowledge, sound discrimination ability, working memory capacity, L1 listening ability Linguistic knowledge, pragmatic knowledge, prior knowledge, metacognitive knowledge is enhanced during language learning process while the remaining factors are brought to learners’ language learning Listening context factors include informal listening, formal listening, interactive listening, formal listening classroom practice, listening assessment, and recreational listening Listening contexts affect cognitive and affective factors (as cited in Vandergrift and Goh, 2012)

2.3.3 Test-taking strategies

Test-taking strategies have been the main focus of a number of studies in the field of language testing research (Cohen & Upton, 2007) According to Rogers and Harley (1999), test-taking strategies are strategies that learners employ to tackle different types of tasks in a language test More specifically, the characteristics and format of a test are utilized in order

to help learners increase their scores in test-taking contexts A number of authors made attempts to aid learners in listening comprehension by equipping them with test-taking strategies By using appropriate test-taking strategies in the listening module of IELTS,

learners can avoid a great deal of problems preventing them from understanding the listening text and help them concentrate on making the most use of their knowledge to score points

It is worth mentioning a number of IELTS textbooks that equip learners with appropriate test-taking strategies such as Focus on Academic Skills for IELTS (Wilson, 2004), Get Ready for IELTS listening (Short, 2012), IELTS Advantage Speaking and Listening Skills (Marks, 2017), IELTS Preparation Practice: Speaking and Listening (Young

et al., 2013) It is necessary for learners to use appropriate test-taking strategies to tackle various types of tasks in the listening module of IELTS successfully As have been suggested

by these afore-mentioned authors, test-taking strategies were classified into three categories: pre-listening, while-listening, and post-listening strategies

sub-There is widespread agreement among authors that time should be spent on reading the instructions, previewing the questions, underlying the key words in the questions, trying

to think of synonyms of the key words in the questions, predicting the essential information

in the gaps, and trying to find out the context of a conversation or a talk before listening to the aural input (Wilson, 2004; Short, 2012; Marks, 2017 & Young et al., 2013) These strategies are of paramount importance in facilitating listening comprehension which help learners plan what messages they are going to listen for, anticipate the contents of a text, activate their background knowledge of the topics, hold up expectations in the listening situations, and prepare vital vocabulary for the comprehension of the text

In addition, it cannot deny that drawing attention to specific aspects of the linguistic input during listening get learners to understand the meaning of the message and reduce their anxiety in the test Therefore, a wide range of while-listening strategies are provided for learners to help them focus their interest on the characteristics of the text or specific pieces of information such as main ideas, specific details, key words, discourse markers, and synonyms (Short, 2012; Marks, 2017 & Young et al., 2013)

Goh (2002) explained that noticing the particular aspects of input mentioned above aims to help learners easily to follow the development of ideas, figure out the overall structure of the text, and comprehend the message of the listening put As suggested by Short

(2012), notes should be made based on the questions and similar answers in multiple-choice questions need to be analyzed so that learners can discover the right responses to the question items in the test In addition, guessing the meaning of new words is an essential strategy in the process of listening comprehension as suggested in Short (2012) In their books, Marks (2017) and Young et al (2013) provided the inferring strategy usage by which learners can seek the answers to questions by drawing their inferences on background knowledge, notes, and contextual clues This notion is supported by Vandergrift and Goh (2012) who stated that learners may rely on familiar content words, world knowledge, the target language or visual representations to arrive at the answers

Apart from pre-listening and while-listening strategies illustrated in the mentioned textbooks, post-listening strategies can be easily seen in these textbooks aiming to help learners check what they have heard in the text These post-listening strategies reflected

afore-in these textbooks afore-include checkafore-ing answers, guessafore-ing any missed answers, checkafore-ing spelling and grammar Vandergrift and Goh (2012) suggested that learners should check their interpretation against their prior knowledge, external sources, and the contextual clues after listening to achieve successful listening It should be noted that pre-, while-, and post-listening strategies demonstrated in the IELTS textbooks discussed above are the reflections

of theory suggested by a number of researchers in the field of listening comprehension (Goh,

2002 & Brown, 2001)

In general, it is of immense significance to discover learners’ test-taking strategies in the listening module of IELTS since strategic competence is regarded as a significant part of successful listening (Brown, 2001)

2.3.4 Learners’ perceptions of the challenges in the IELTS listening test

As suggested by Rubin (1994), a number of factors exert a considerable influence on second language listening comprehension whether it is in non-testing conditions or in testing conditions He mentioned the following factors affecting listening comprehension: text characteristics, interlocutor characteristics, listener characteristics, and process characteristics Buck (2001) suggested three major factors: text characteristics, and task

characteristics, the interaction between the task and the test-taker As can be seen in Rubin (1994) and Buck (2001)’s point of view of the factors influence listening comprehension, the interaction between the task and the test-taker is included in the process characteristic Vandergrift and Goh (2012) pointed out that the above-mentioned factors which influence listening comprehension can be clearly seen in the model of the listening process As a consequence, although a wide range of listening problems related to text, speaker, listener, task, the most widely accepted challenges were confined to bottom-up processing, top-down processing, and task characteristics

2.3.4.1 Bottom-up processing

A large number of studies have been conducted to look into the impact of bottom-up processing on listening comprehension (Buck, 2001; Brown, 2001; Lynch, 2001; Rubin, 2011& Rost, 2011) Bottom-up processing includes aspects such as vocabulary, grammar, and sounds, and bottom-up strategies

2.3.4.1.1 Writing correct spelling

There is widespread agreement among researchers that correct spelling should not be demanded for an answer to be marked right or wrong Hughes (2003) explained that “it’s not enough for candidates simply to attempt a representation of the sounds that they hear, without making sense of these sounds To be scored as correct, a response has to provide strong evidence of the candidate’s having heard and recognized the missing word, even if they cannot spell it It has to be admitted that this can cause scoring problems.” (p.169) Although correct spelling should not be required for a response to be scored as correct as suggested by Hughes (2003), it is actually tested in the IELTS listening test To be more specific, learners’ response to a question will be marked wrong if they make a spelling mistake In addition, it should be noted that the employment of two skills included in processing the information namely listening and writing may cause great confusion for learners since sometimes learners stop to write an answer to a question item and may miss the subsequent information of the listening text

2.3.4.1.2 Listening for specific details

Listening for specific details is one of the key skills as suggested in the specifications

of the IELTS listening test According to Sabet and Babaei (2017), the most common task in the IELTS listening test is gap-filling, which makes up to 50.2% of all question types This type of task puts an emphasis on testing learners’ ability to locate detailed information in the listening material In other words, this type of task requires learners to understand clearly stated information or the learners should be involved in the local level of the listening passage and locate the required information The question items ask learners to fill in the gaps with limited words or numbers As a result, learners should listen for words and phrases

in order to answer the questions Prediction skills should be employed before listening to anticipate the needed information in the gaps and figure out different ways of expressing the same idea In addition, learners should pay much attention to when the information is given

to catch the point that they need

2.3.4.1.3 Writing correct numbers

In the first section of the listening test, learners are usually asked for listening for numbers and writing down the correct numbers that they hear There may be the number of a year, price, telephone number, etc There are many problems that students have with numbers One of the common problems is certain numbers that sound similar, for example,

50 and 15, 31st and 33rd, 52 and 62, 22nd and 27th, etc These numbers may cause confusion for learners which should be taken into account and if possible, learners should be supplied with practice materials Similar to the task of using the correct spelling, the skills related to real life are also being tested in this test task It is indicated that the skills of listening and writing will be tested in this kind of test and the test takers will be required to combine many language elements in the completion of the task Being able to write down the numbers and practicing listening and writing the numbers are essential skills needed in the IELTS listening test

2.3.4.1.4 Recognizing the letters of the English alphabet

Learners are required to listen for the name of a person or place that is spelt out letter

by letter for them The letter may constitute a name or a word that learners are not able to

spell Spellings are very likely to occur in section one of the listening paper Therefore, it is

of profound significance to recognize the pronunciation of the letters of the English alphabet Items of this kind test the skills relevant to the real world Learners’ answers will be marked wrong if they make a spelling mistake Letters which are hard to differentiate should be taken into consideration in the teaching and learning activities such as: A and H, M and N, J and G,

E and I, S and X, B and P, etc It is essential that teachers should raise learners’ awareness of the existence of this task and practice materials should be provided to strengthen their performance More specifically, learning activities and practices should focus on alphabet sounds, particularly some similar sounding or commonly confused vowels and consonants

2.3.4.1.5 Writing correct grammar

Apart from having problems with writing correct spelling, learners find it difficult to write correct grammar in the IELTS listening section as well due to their lack of grammatical knowledge To illustrate, learners need to predict the necessary information in the gaps by using the grammatical knowledge, then locating words or phrases in the listening passage to fill in the gaps in the completion task Grammatical knowledge about verb-subject agreement, singular/plural nouns, articles, etc needs to be called on with an aim to completing the gaps It was consistent with a study conducted by Conrad (1985) which investigated the knowledge of structure of language and topic by requiring participants to complete a cloze test The study aimed at ascertaining the participants’ capability of making predictions about words in a cloze test Grammatical knowledge is applied for the purpose of supporting learners in guessing the type of information needed in the gaps Apart from the arguments mentioned above, grammatical knowledge also facilitates the process of inferring the meaning of utterances For example, when a skilled listener hear ‘I’m living in Paris’, she would know that the circumstance is non-permanent in contrast with the sentence - ‘I live in Paris’- a permanent situation

2.3.4.1.6 Understanding fast speech of the speakers

It is believed that the faster the speech, the more difficult it is to comprehend Most of learners seem to have experience of listening to something and not understanding it because

it is too fast A number of studies were carried out in order to figure out the relationship

between speech rate and listening comprehension Griffiths (2012) found that learners had difficulty of listening to the content with fast speech It got worse when the speech was faster, learners failed to recognize individual phonemes and even familiar words with them

He also noted that listening comprehension was worse at a higher speech rate and better at a slower speech rate when he compared the impacts of three various speech rates (127, 188,

250 wpm) on listening comprehension The decline of comprehension varies from listener to listener and is influenced by different factors namely learners’ language ability The other text variables which are vocabulary, syntax, topics, and the accent of the speaker have some specific patterns of interaction with speech rate as well

2.3.4.1.7 Understanding new words

Vocabulary is considered as one of the factors which most contributes to learners’ second language listening comprehension A study conducted by Rost (2011) showed that that listening comprehension is facilitated by lexical knowledge He added that the word recognition process can be promoted by the enhancement of the depth of vocabulary knowledge The breadth of vocabulary also makes a considerable impact on comprehending the spoken message (Bloomfield et al., 2010) Field (2009a) shared the same view with Rost (2011) that vocabulary limitations are one of the main causes leading to learners’ failure in second language listening comprehension In addition, the degree of difficulty may increase

if learners are faced with infrequent lexical phrases (Bloomfield et al., 2010) In the IELTS listening test, the listening texts consist of academic terms in many fields namely education, business, environment, etc The academic lexis usually appears in conversations and lectures

of section 3 and 4 of the test To illustrate, learners may be required to listen and label the parts of a machine or device in a diagram completion task Limited knowledge of vocabulary about machinery, learners will fail to understand the message

2.3.4.1.8 Understanding different accents

Listening to speakers with unfamiliar accents might be a challenging task for learners since various groups of language users have dissimilar ways of pronouncing language The most common accents pertain to geographical areas and social groups Americans pronounced English differently from British, Australians pronounced it differently from

Americans Considerable variation might take place even within a nation, for example, the pronunciation in the south of England is dissimilar from that in the north of England Native speakers might not understand a new accent when they hear it for the first time although they get used to hearing different accents The problem is getting worse for second language learners who have less familiarity with a variety of accents, especially when they hear an unfamiliar accent for the first time (Buck, 2001) Eisenstein & Berkowitz (1981) stated that among foreign-accented English, the local working-class accent of New York, and standard English, the standard English is the most intelligible accent for ESL learners (as cited in Buck, 2001) A new accent can lower the learners’ comprehension as well as disrupt the whole comprehension process It may be impossible for learners to hear an unfamiliar accent when they hear an Australian for the first time after studying with American teachers It is true for the IELTS listening test, the fact that a range of accents included in the test such as British, Australian, New Zealand, American, and Canadian (ielts.org) and understanding a variety of accents seems to be a big challenge for most Vietnamese learners

2.3.4.1.9 Understanding phonological modifications

Henricksen (1984) argued that the significant reductions in second language learners’ comprehension can be shown clearly due to the presence of phonological modifications, while little difficulty in understanding words in modified forms can be found in most native speakers (as cited in Buck, 2001) Even more skilled learners failed to identify language that they actually know very well Such modifications are regular and rule-governed The phonological system depends on a set of complicated rules which vary from one language to another Buck suggested some important phonological changes namely assimilation, elision, and intrusion In other words, in normal speech, some sounds are modified by the sounds next to them, for example, ‘won’t you’ is usually pronounced ‘wonchoo’ Some sounds are simply dropped, for example, ‘next day’ is usually pronounced ‘nexday’ Another phonological change is that a new sound is introduced between other sounds For example,

‘far away’, normally the final sound /r/ is not pronounced in British English, however, when

it is followed by a vowel, then it is inserted between the two words

2.3.4.1.10 Distinguishing similar sounds

According to Vandergrift and Goh (2012), learners encounter difficulties in distinguishing similar sounds Field (2009a) agreed that similar sounds often result in misunderstanding and learners should be taught to distinguish between single-syllable minimal pairs such as pack/back, ship/sheep, leaf/leave’ Underwood (1989) suggested that learners should make use of the context to figure out the word as shown in his example “I’m planning to travel by _” Learners employ their contextual knowledge and find out what the word is ‘ship’, not ‘sheep’ Brown (2001) added that discriminating between some vowels and consonants are difficult for learners It is hard to distinguish pull/ pool, cot/caught, where/ear, lock/loch He stated that “the effect of not being able to identify which vowel or which consonant is being used, obviously, that you will be unsure which word is being used unless there is enough contextual information to make this clear” (p.66) The idea

of utilizing background knowledge to compensate for failure to understand speech sounds is supported by Bloomfield et al (2010) as well It is recommended that teachers should focus

on the phoneme discrimination tasks so that they can promote students’ understanding of the recording (Field, 2009a)

2.3.4.1.11 Understanding paraphrases

Synonyms or paraphrasing are commonly used in the IELTS listening paper, in which words in the questions are used differently from those in the listening test Learners are expected to hear a word with a similar meaning or the same idea expressed in a different way Chaudron (1983) investigated the impacts of five types of redundancy on second language listening comprehension with three groups of participants namely lower-, medium-, and higher- proficiency group The result indicated that the most salient type of redundancy hindered listening comprehension was synonyms Higher-proficiency learners demonstrated greater understanding of the text than lower and medium-ones when listening to the most complex kind of redundancy (synonyms) Another popular form of redundancy directed a lot

of attention from researchers is paraphrasing For example, learners might see “pay is surprisingly good” in the question but the speaker will use different words to express this idea “earn a lot more than you imagine” in the listening paper To put it in another way, the

words learners hear to give them the correct answer may not be the same word on the listening test Chiang and Dunkel (1992) conducted a study to examine the effects of redundancy in the form of paraphrasing on learners’ comprehension “The food of the

Pennsylvania Dutch Country is very hearty and delicious Hearty and delicious food is nourishing and tasty” (p.354) They found out that paraphrasing is likely less

comprehensible to lower-proficiency learners than higher-proficiency participants This further strengthens the idea that two complicated forms of redundancy are synonyms and paraphrase which can be found less beneficial for lower-proficiency learners than higher-proficiency participants They suggested that paraphrasing is likely to benefit for higher-proficiency learners rather than lower- proficiency learners Consequently, understanding how to recognize paraphrasing is an incredibly crucial skill in the IELTS listening test

2.3.4.1.12 Identifying the relationship among ideas through discourse markers

Identifying the relationships among ideas in the listening text is fairly essential in the specifications of the IELTS listening test, which may be immensely complicated for the majority of learners The connections among ideas may exist in the form of cause and effect, comparison and contrast, problems and solutions, etc It is suggested that learners should rely

on discourse markers in order to identify the associations among ideas (Buck, 2001) In particular, a number of studies have been conducted into the effect of discourse markers on academic listening comprehension Discourse markers were classified into two categories: micro-markers (ok, well, now) and macro-markers (first, second, to begin with) Hron et al (1985) carried out an experimental study for the purpose of identifying the differences between two groups of German science students in terms of listening comprehension The control group listened to the passages with discourse markers while the experimental group heard the recording without discourse markers The result showed that learners who listen to the listening texts without discourse signaling cues failed to grasp the whole meaning of the passages in comparison with those who heard the texts with discourse markers Based on the characteristics of the IELTS listening test, learners are expected to listen to an academic lecture in section four It is obvious that the close connections between sentences in a lecture

can be shown clearly through discourse signals which contribute significantly to learners’ success in listening comprehension

2.3.4.2 Top-down processing

Top-down processing can be regarded as one of the most influential factors affecting listening comprehension Lots of aspects of top-down processing have a major influence on learners’ listening comprehension namely top-down strategies, unfamiliar topics, and text types

2.3.4.2.1 Listening for main ideas

Apart from listening for details, looking for main ideas is one of the salient skills assessed in the IELTS listening test as well The main idea is the most essential information

in the listening passage that the speakers make attempts to convey To put it simply, learners may base their understanding on the content words, phrases, and sentences to guess the general meaning of the listening text without understanding every word Locating the gist sometimes is simple since it can be found right at the beginning of the text However, sometimes learners should listen to the entire conversation to have a grasp of the overall meaning of the listening text It is worth noting that the main idea is usually repeated and learners can base their understanding on the discourse markers to figure out the general structure in lectures

2.3.4.2.2 Understanding unfamiliar topics

Learners have better understanding of the familiar topics than unfamiliar topics (Buck, 2001) Therefore, it is challenging for learners to listen to a talk which is not familiar

to them or contradicts with their expectations Hedge (2000) pointed out one of the most common problems, which leads to learners’ misunderstanding or mishearing is lack of motivation for the topic She also mentioned that interpretation of the message may vary from listener to listener due to the effect of familiarity with the topics To be more specific, native learners tend to have challenges of processing information while second language learners have to confront cultural unfamiliarity and linguistic challenges brought about by various topics It is true that the IELTS listening test has a wide range of topics pertaining to survival English and academic English The first two sections include general, everyday

topics and the two last sections consist of school or training-related topics As a result, learners find familiar with the topics in the first two sections of the test which are related to daily life with some common terminologies The idea is supported by Buck (2001), who suggested there is a significant relationship between the types of topics and difficulties He mentioned that academic topics are related to more difficult items compared to non-academic topics As a result, topics in section three and four may hamper learners’ listening comprehension as they may have some academic language as well as the more complexity of grammatical structures and sentences in comparison with section one and two of the listening test

2.3.4.2.3 Understanding different text types

It is agreed that most of the text types focus on monologue and conversation having their own distinctive features According to Flowerdew (1994), learners are asked to hear long stretches of interrupted speech with no opportunity to ask for clarifications Similarly, monologue is identified as transactional language and is specified by the speaker having long turns (Brown & Yule, 1983) Furthermore, they must have the ability of differentiating between relevant and irrelevant information Moreover, Tyler et al (1988) revealed that monologue has more complex syntax such as relative clauses, subordinate clauses, etc It is possible that unfamiliar rhetorical structures are more difficult to comprehend than familiar ones For example, items for text with problem/ solution or comparison are more complex than items for text with list structure (Freedle & Kostin, 1996) Monologue is less oral than conversation since it encompasses fewer qualities of spontaneous language, while conversation is less formal

Another important type of spoken text is conversation since most of text types take the form of conversation With respect to conversation, which is recognized as interactional,

it has a number of stages namely topic shifts, back-channeling, reformulation, repair, taking, negotiating meaning and exploiting ambiguity (Flowerdew & Miller, 2005) Learners should be aware of these stages to facilitate their second language listening comprehension For example, they should know when speakers move from one topic to another topic, how speakers take turns, how they correct their statements More importantly, learners should

turn-have knowledge of speech acts so that they can discover the meaning of the utterances and the actual intentions of speakers

Along with monologue and conversation, learners also listen to different text types such as narratives, descriptions, and reports (Richard, 2015) Of the three afore-mentioned kinds of texts, descriptive text may cause a big confusion for learners According to Rost (2002), descriptive text refers to descriptions of places, people, and events He pointed out that descriptive text is different from negative text as the former has more modifications in the overall structure and cultural dissimilarities in the way descriptions are developed He also added that

“oral descriptions of people, places, and things tend not to follow a fixed pattern, but often exhibit – somewhere in the text – characteristics of prototypical descriptions: features that are specific or peculiar or otherwise memorable, features that evoke a feeling or strong impression in the speaker, features that lead to a story or anecdote about the object or place or person being described, features that provide a link to other topic shared by the speaker and listener” (p.164)

This argument is supported by Linde and Labov (1975)’s study, which investigates apartment descriptions and discovered that spatially oriented walking trips were given to learners and they were required to uncover the speakers’ interest and disinterest with reference to decorations and arrangements of an apartment They also reported that only learners’ unfamiliarity with features of an apartment was involved in the descriptions while most of learners’ familiarity with descriptions of an apartment was not given It is expected that each type of genre has its own lexical, grammatical, and discourse attributes and descriptive text is no exception In descriptive test, learners are expected to “find copular statements (it’s unbelievably warm, it’s basically blue), relative clauses (it’s a narrow room that leads to the outside porch), presentatives (there’s a big oak door, you’ll notice two small windows in the black wall), as well as descriptive adjectives of size, shape, color and number” (Rost, 2002, p.165)

In the IELTS listening section, learners are required to hear a description of a place, a process, or label a map, a plan, or a diagram Understanding a description of a place or a location or following directions often causes a great difficulty for learners Prepositions of position that show where a place is, for example, next to, in the middle of, in front of, opposite, at the side of, behind, on the other side of, etc are included in the description In addition, expressions of giving directions such as turn left, go down, take the second road on the right, go along the main path, follow it round to the left, etc are given in the text (Short, 2012) In other words, various language input are involved in the description to help learners follow a route on a map or plan Additionally, learners have to listen to the listening passage, follow directions, understand the visual image, and write the answers at the same time Understanding visual representations may be a challenging task for most of learners since they have to rely on their imagination to visualize places on the map or plan It is difficult for learners to combine different skills at once and it is easy for them to make spelling mistakes Extra buildings on the map or extra options in a list of possible answers are common distractors in this kind of task Learners cope with challenges related to labelling parts of a machine or device with some complicated terminologies as well Comprehending a description of a process may be another source of difficulty for learners as learners need to follow the process step by step It is necessary for learners to be equipped with language for processes such as to begin with, the next stage, the end result, etc to go with the flow of the diagram description in the listening text In addition, Cullen et al (2014) stated that prepositions and adverbs are frequently used to explain movement in the process such as inside, through, along, upside down, around, beneath, and upwards

2.3.4.2.4 Identifying the attitudes or opinions of the speakers

It is common that learners are required to recognize the attitudes or opinions of the speakers in the third and fourth sections of the listening passage (Cullen et al., 2014) It is essential for learners to apprehend the hidden connotations as well as the uncovered messages of the spoken discourse to cope with this type of task successfully Additionally, it

is necessary for them to focus their attention to the rising or falling intonation patterns, high

or low voice pitch, uses of stress, pauses to identify the speakers’ attitudes or opinions in the