Students' English listening anxiety causes and solutions = Lo lắng của sinh viên trong giờ học nghe nguyên nhân và giải pháp

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES




LÊ THỊ THU HUYỀN



STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LISTENING ANXIETY:
CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS

(Lo lắng của sinh viên trong giờ học nghe:
nguyên nhân và giải pháp)



M.A. MINOR THESIS
Field: English Methodology
Code: 60 14 10
Course: K17
Supervisor: LÊ VĂN CANH


Hanoi, 2010



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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Declaration
Abstract
List of tables
Table of contents
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Research Justification
2. Purpose of the Study.
3. Research Questions
4. Significance of the Study.
5. Scope of the Study.
6. Structure of the Thesis
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Overview of Anxiety
1.1. Definition and Types of Anxiety
1.2. Foreign Language Anxiety
1.3 Components of Foreign Language Anxiety
1.3.1. Communication Apprehension:
1.3.2 Test Anxiety
1.3.3. Fear of Negative Evaluation
2. Overview of Listening Comprehension
2.1. Definition of Listening Comprehension
2.2. Significance of Listening Comprehension
2.3. The Listening Comprehension Process:
2.3.1. Two Levels View: Bottom-up and Top-down Processing
2.3.2. A Sequential Process of Listening
3. Listening Anxiety
3.1. Related Studies of Language Anxiety in Listening Skill

3.2. Causes of Listening Anxiety
3.2.1. Listening Anxiety associated with Listening Text Factors
a) Complexity and Difficulty of the Lexis and Syntax.
b) Uninterested or Unfamiliar Topic
c) Visual Support
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3.2.2. Listening Anxiety associated with Speakers factors
a) Fast Speech Rate
b) Phonological Modifications
c) Unfamiliar Accents
d) Hesitation and Pause Phenomena (usually grouped together)
3.2.3. Listening Anxiety associated with Listener Factors
a) Limited Vocabulary
b) Memory
c) Background knowledge
d) Application of Strategies
3.2.4. Listening Anxiety associated with Listening Environment
3.3. Instructional Approaches for Listening Anxiety Reduction.
CHAPTER II: THE STUDY
1. Participants
2. Data Gathering Instruments
3. Procedures
4. Techniques of Data Analysis
5. Data Analysis and Findings

5.1. Students’ Attitudes toward Listening Skills
5.2. Students’ General Listening Anxiety
a) Students’ feelings about their listening skills
b) Reasons for their feelings about listening skills
5.3 Listening anxiety associated with each listening factors
5.3.1. Listening Anxiety associated with Listening Text factors
5.3.2. Listening Anxiety associated with Speakers factors
5.3.3. Listening Anxiety associated with Listeners factors
5.3.4. Listening Anxiety associated with Listening Environment
PART C: CONCLUSION
1. Summary of the findings
2. Suggestions for classroom practice
2.1. Solutions related to Listening Text
2.2. Solutions related to Speakers
2.3. Solutions related to Listeners
2.4. Solutions related to Listening Environment
3. Limitations and suggestions for further research
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REFERENCES
Appendix 1: Questionnaire
Appendix 2: Informal Interview

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LIST OF TABLES

Tables
Titles
Pages
Table 1
Table 2
Table 3
Table 4
Table 5
Table 6
Table 7
Students’ attitudes toward listening skills
Students’ feelings about their listening skills
Reasons for their feelings about listening skills
Listening Anxiety associated with Listening Text Factors
Listening Anxiety associated with Speakers Factors
Listening Anxiety associated with Listeners Factors
Listening Anxiety associated with Listening Environment
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PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Research Justification

 Listening was taught, but very little at secondary school. I didn’t pay attention to
listening, but grammar because there’s no listening in University Entrance
Examination. However, listening is one of main major subjects at the university,
thus I feel very worried while learning it. (S12)
 I feel nervous in listening classes. I forget what I’ve heard (S19)
 I listen very badly (S5)
 I get nervous in listening class because I cannot completely comprehend.(21)
 I am really disappointed with my English ability…(S30)
(Quoted from the interview of this study)

Teachers and researchers of foreign language are too familiar with statements like the
ones above, which indicate a common problem that the majority of foreign language
students are faced with. It is well recognised that foreign language anxiety is a rather
pervasive phenomenon (Aida, 1994). Although language anxiety could be considered as
facilitating anxiety that motivates learners, many language teachers and researchers have
been concerned about the possibility that anxiety may function as an affective filter
(Krashen, 1982), preventing a learner from achieving a high level of proficiency in a
foreign language (Scovel 1991). Anxiety should be reduced because anxious students are
not able to develop their potential foreign language skills. Reducing anxiety is a key to
success in foreign or second language learning. It ―directly influences how often students
use second language learning strategies, how much students interact with native speakers,
how much input they receive in the language being learned (the target language), how well
they do on curriculum-related achievement tests, how high their general proficiency level
becomes, and how long they preserve and maintain second language skills after language
study is over ‖ (Oxford and Shearin, 1996, p.121-122).
According to a survey conducted in the author‘s classes of first-year English majors
at Hong Duc University, overwhelmingly 83% of the students thought listening was the
most difficult skill of the four basic language skills; 100% of them disagreed with the
statement ―I am completely satisfied with my current listening ability‖. This showed that
learner anxiety in listening is a great concern. . Hence, it is really valuable to think about

the causes of first year English major students at Hong Duc University in listening class
and at the same time the ways to minimize the harmful effect, so that the teaching and


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learning can be more effective and fruitful especially for those anxious learners. This is my
motivation in conducting this study.
2. Purpose of the Study.
The major purpose of the research is to find out why the first year English major
students at Hong Duc University feel anxious or embarrassed while listening to English. In
other words, this study seeks to identify the factors or causes that make students stressful
and nervous while listening to English in the language classroom setting. This includes
considering the factors that originate from listening text, listeners, speakers, and listening
environment. The second most important aim of this study is to find out and suggest some
solutions in order to alleviate English listening anxiety in the students.
3. Research Questions
The research is carried out with an attempt to address the following research
questions:
 What are the possible causes that make the first-year English major students at
Hong Duc University anxious and nervous while listening to English?
 What are possible solutions that may reduce listening anxiety of the students?
4. Significance of the Study.
Foreign language anxiety is a universal phenomenon that has a significant factor
adversely affecting the language learning process. This study could be of considerable
interest to teachers and students at Hong Duc University: (1) to improve the teachers‘
theoretical understanding of foreign language anxiety, especially causes of listening
anxiety; (2) to enhance the students‘ awareness of causes of listening anxiety they
encounter in foreign language, and from this they can manage their anxiety level in other
language skills. This study is also significant with respect to the understanding of the
students‘ anxiety and the causes of that anxiety, thereby solutions can be suggested to help

learners reduce their listening anxiety Hopefully, all given solutions will be more
motivating for the students to learn and make progress in listening.
1.5. Scope of the Study.
A study of the students‘ listening anxiety is such a broad issue investigated by
many authors. However, in my study, I will focus on the students‘ listening anxiety – its
causes and solutions: A study of the first year English majors in the Department of Foreign
Language, Hong Duc University, Thanh Hoa
1.6. Structure of the Thesis
The thesis is divided into three parts:


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Part 1 is the introduction, which presents the research justification, the purpose, the
research questions, scope and the structure of the thesis.
Part 2 is the development which includes two chapters. Chapter one review the
literature in terms of foreign language anxiety in general and listening anxiety in particular.
Chapter two presents the study.
Part 3 is the conclusion which presents a summary of the study and concluding
comments derived from the findings of the study. It also discusses the limitation of the
study and suggestions for further research. Finally, some solutions to reduce listening
anxiety are suggested.

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
The main aim of this chapter is to review the literature on second language anxiety
in general and listening anxiety in particular. The chapter starts with a literature review on
anxiety. This is followed by an overview of listening comprehension. The end of the
chapter is a discussion of listening comprehension anxiety
1. Overview of Anxiety
1.1. Definition and Types of Anxiety
―Anxiety is a psychological construct, commonly described by psychologists as a
state of apprehension, a vague fear that is only indirectly associated with an object‖

(Hilgard, Atkinson, & Atkinson, 1971 cited in Scovel, 1991: 18). In another definition,
Scovel (1978: 134) suggests that anxiety is associated with feelings of uneasiness,
frustration, self-doubt, apprehension, or worry. Spielberger (1983), as cited in Horwitz,
E.K., Horwitz, M.B, and Cope, J. (1986: 125), defines anxiety as ―the subjective feeling of
tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic
nervous system‖
According to many psychologists, anxiety can be experienced at three perspectives.
The first one is trait anxiety, which is defined as an individual‘s likelihood of
becoming anxious in any situation (Spielberger,1983 cited in MacIntyre et al 1991, p.87).
Some people are generally anxious about many things in a number of different situations.
Therefore, state anxiety is viewed as ―a steady personality feature‖ (Brown, 2007). Its
negative effects are thought to ―impair cognitive functioning, to disrupt memory, to lead to
avoidance behaviors, and to have several other effects‖ (Eysenck,1979, in MacIntyre et al
1991: 87).
The second perspective is state anxiety which is ―interested in the here-and-now
experience of anxiety as an emotional state‖ (MacIntyre et al 1991, p.87). State anxiety is
an apprehension experienced at a particular moment in time, for example, prior to taking
examinations (Spielberger, 1983, cited in MacIntyre et al 1991, p.90).
Finally, situation-specific anxiety is related to apprehension unique to specific
situations and events such as public speaking, examinations, or class participation (Ellis,
1994:480). The last one seems likely to be more closely related to attempts to learn a
foreign language and communicate in it.
1.2 Foreign Language Anxiety
Research on the affective factors in second language acquisition has been mounting
steadily for a number of decades because students are ―physical and cognitive, but


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primarily emotional, being‖ (Rogers, cited in Brown, 2007: 97). ―Among the affective
factors influencing language learning, anxiety ranks high‖ (Arnold, 1999: 59). The

construct of anxiety has been recognized as one of the most important predictors of foreign
language performance.
Foreign language anxiety is a universal phenomenon that has a significant factor
adversely affecting the language learning process. Gardner & MacIntyre (1993, cited in
Arnold 1999:59) refer to language anxiety as ―fear or apprehension occurring when a
learner is expected to perform in the second or foreign language."
Scholars have studied anxiety and its effect on foreign language learning for many
years. However, ―for all the work conducted in this area, many fundamental questions
remain unanswered‖ (Speilmann & Radnofsky, 2001). ―Teachers have long been aware of
the fact that many of their students experience discomfort in the course of language
learning [yet] researchers have been unable to establish a clear picture of how anxiety
affects language learning and performance. (Horwitz and Young, 1991, p. xiii). Alpert and
Haber (1966) determined that anxiety could have a beneficial or facilitative effect on
student performance (as cited in Elkhafaifi, 2005, p.208). In 1977, , Kleinmmann‘s (cited
in Aida, 1994) study of Spanish-speaking and Arabic-speaking ESL students found that
facilitating anxiety was correlated with students‘ oral production of linguistically difficult
(thus challenging) English structures (e.g., infinitive complements and passive sentences).
However, there was no evidence that debilitating anxiety negatively influenced oral
performance. Spielmann and Radnofsky (2001) concluded that anxiety has a detrimental
effect on language acquisition. Horwitz (2001) reiterated that the issue of understanding
the relationship between anxiety and achievement is unresolved.
Horwitz, E.K., Horwitz, M.B, and Cope, J. (1986) conceptualize foreign language
anxiety as ‗a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to
classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning
processes‖ (p.128).
1.3 Components of Foreign Language Anxiety
Horwitz et al. (1986) integrated three related anxieties to their conceptualization of
foreign language anxiety: communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative
evaluation. This conceptualization lay the foundations for the concept of second/ foreign
language anxiety, providing an insight to comprehend the sources or causes it can originate

from.




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1.3.1. Communication Apprehension:
Communication apprehension is one perspective dealing with general concern
about problems with communication avoidance and anxiety (McCroskey, 1984) and it has
been received substantial attention from communication researcher.
According to Brown (2007) communication apprehension refers to ―learners‘
inability to adequately express mature thoughts and ideas‖ when getting into
communication with others although they have mature thoughts and ideas, especially in the
language learning context. McGroskey (1984) defines communication apprehension as a
fear or anxiety about actual or anticipated communication with other individual, and is a
behavioral trait related to the psychological constructs of shyness and reticence. He also
points out that typical behavior patterns of communicatively apprehensive people are
communication avoidance and communication withdrawal. Communicatively
apprehensive people are more reluctant to get involved in conversations with others and to
seek social interactions than nonapprehensive ones. According to Lucas (1984), the unique
component of communication apprehension is the metacognitive awareness that, as a
speaker and a listener, full comprehension of foreign language message is impossible.
Therefore, the potential for frustrated or aborted communication is always present. Such
frustration may even be considered part of the learning process.
1.3.2 Test Anxiety
Sarason(1878: 214) defines test anxiety as ―the tendency to view with alarm the
consequences of inadequate performance in an evaluation situation‖. Aydin (2008, ….)
suggests that test anxiety could be ―a fear of failing in tests and an unpleasant experience
held either consciously or unconsciously by learners in many situations‖. Test anxiety
concerns apprehension towards academic evaluation which is based on a fear of failure

(Horwitz and Young, 1991). According to Young (1991), there are different variables that
can affect learners‘ anxiety in a test: the content of the test; particular types of test items or
formats; forms of test; students‘ learning or study skills; and students‘ experience of test
taking in the past. Test anxiety can bring on butterflies, a stomachache, or a tension
headache. Some people might feel shaky, sweaty, or feel their heart beating quickly during
the test situation because they don‘t know how to process or organize the information. A
student with really strong test anxiety may not be able to focus on what is going on in the
classroom and he can answer incorrectly even though he knows the correct answer.
1.3.3. Fear of Negative Evaluation
Among these components, fear of negative evaluation is more broadly based than
are the previous two. Evaluation, in this case, refers to both the academic and personal


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evaluations made of students on the basis of their performance and competence in the
target language (MacIntyre and Gardner, 1991,p.105) . Horwitz et al. (1986) define fear of
negative evaluation as ―apprehension about others‘ evaluation, avoidance of evaluative
situations, and the expectation that others would evaluate oneself negatively‖ (p.128).
They also point out that learners‘ fear of negative evaluation derives from ―the disparity
between the language learner‘s ―true-self and his/her more limited self‖ as reflected in
linguistic competence in foreign language class‖( p.128). The findings of the study
conducted by Aydin (2008) aiming to investigate the sources and levels of fear of negative
evaluation as well as language anxiety among Turkish students as EFL learners
demonstrated that fear of negative evaluation itself is a strong source of language anxiety.
Daly and Haily (1983) suggest that the student is more anxious if evaluation is occurring.
Horwitz et al. (1986) suggest that foreign language anxieties are a separate and
distinct process particular to second language acquisition. Foreign language anxieties are
related to communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation, and test anxiety. They
also believe that these factors have an adverse effect on the students‘ language learning
process.

2. Overview of Listening Comprehension
2.1. Definition of Listening Comprehension
Although listening is now well recognized as a crucial role in language learning
and communication, it has long been neglected by many FL teacher and researchers (Ur,
1884, Krashen, 1985; Underwood, 1989; Rost, 1994; Rubin, 1994, etc.). Before 1960s, the
teaching of listening used to be thought the most infertile and least understood aspect of
foreign language. However, over the last two decades, with a new wave of interest in the
development of communicative competence in language teaching, listening comprehension
skills have ever received much more attention in language teaching classrooms.
Chastain (1971) defines listening comprehension as the ability to understand native
speech at normal speed in unstructured situation.
According to Buck, G. (2002: 31), ―Listening comprehension is an active process
of constructing meaning and this is done by applying knowledge to the incoming sound‖.
Buck (2001: 247) provide a broader definition of listening comprehension:
―Listening is a complex process in which the listeners takes the incoming data, an acoustic
signals, and interprets it based on a wide variety of linguistic and non-linguistic
knowledge. The linguistic knowledge includes knowledge of phonology, lexis, syntax,
semantics, discourse structure, pragmatics and sociolinguistics. The non-linguistic


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knowledge includes knowledge of the topic, the context and general knowledge about the
world and how it works.‖
Thus, while scholars‘ definitions of these two terms are often worded differently,
they typically describe the same basic concept, listening comprehension are considered as
an activity in which listeners employ a variety of mental process in an effort to recognize
and master major FL patterns, as well as to activate all the schemata to make sense of the
incoming information.
According to Anderson and Lynch (1988), there are two influential views related to
listening comprehension: traditional view and alternative view. In the traditional view, the

teaching of listening comprehension centers on what teacher does, and ―student is a mere
by stander or recipient of input during the communication process‖ (Elkhafaifi, 2005: 505).
Students just need to receive passively the information provided in the listening materials
and it seems they are seldom required to use the language by themselves in listening
classes. Most listening lessons take the form of simply having the students listen and then
answer comprehension questions. This view is criticized as inappropriate and inadequate
(Anderson and Lynch, 1988; Elkhafaifi, 2005,… ). On the other hand, alternative view
considered the listener as an active model builder. Listener needs to get involve actively in
the interpretation of what they hear, bring his own background knowledge and linguistic
competence to reach full comprehension of what had been heard. Most scholars now agree
with this view.
In a word, listening comprehension involves to an active process of listening for
meaning, using both the linguistic and nonlinguistic knowledge. According to Buck
(2001:1-2), linguistic knowledge consists of different types such as phonology, lexis,
syntax, semantics and discourse structure. Nonlinguistic knowledge includes the
―knowledge about the topic, about the content, and general knowledge about the world and
how it works‖.
2.2. Significance of Listening Comprehension
Listening plays a very important role in student‘s academic success. This is true
according to Krashen (1980) providing a large amount of listening or comprehension input
that is the raw material necessary for the process to occur was the best way to learn a
second language because of its contribution to the development of the overall language
proficiency (Rost, 2002). Rost (1994) also pinpointed the importance of listening in the
language classroom as the supplier of supplied the input for students. Without
comprehension input at the right level, learning cannot work well. Students spend most of
their time listening to the teacher‘s lecture. Nichols and Stevens (see Elkhafaifi, 2005: 505)


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reported data on how students spend their communicative time among four language skills

in language learning: listening is the most frequently used skill, 45% is devoted to
listening, 30% to speaking, only 16% to reading and a mere 9% to writing. Therefore,
listening is a fundamental and vital skill in the acquisition of languages (Nunan, 2002).
Furthermore, listening skills help listeners develop their communicative
competence. ―Speaking does not of itself constitute communication unless what is being
said is comprehended by another person‖ (Rivers 1966: 196). As a result, listening in EFL
learning becomes a vital prerequisite of good speaking ability. A large amount of listening
practice before speaking and reading may help learner acquire a second language with a
greater efficiency. Through listening exercises, learners draw their attention to new forms
(vocabulary, grammar, interaction pattern), this provides the right conditions for language
acquisition and development of their language skills. The lack of listening comprehension
skill may lead to difficulties in discussion and communication. Therefore, listening has
been shown to play a key role in language learning
2.3. The Listening Comprehension Process:
2.3.1. Two Levels View: Bottom-up and Top-down Processing
The processing of listening comprehension has often been viewed as interactive
process taking place simultaneously between two levels: bottom-up processing and top-
down processing.
In bottom-up processing, listening processing is formed hierarchically, from the
lowest level of detail to the highest level. The new incoming data is first decoded into
phonemes (the smallest meaningful unit), and then phonemic units are connected together
to construct individual words. Next, a group of words are connected to form phrases,
which make up sentences. These sentences build a meaningful and complete text. The
meaning of the spoken text is derived as the last step in the process. ―The listener interprets
that literal meaning in terms of the communicative situation to understand what the speaker
means.‖ (Buck, 2001: 2)
On the other hand, top-down processing refers to utilizing schemata which was
known as a learner‘s background knowledge and global understanding to deduce the
meaning from and interpret the message (Nunan, 2002).
To become an effective listener, student should be very careful not to go overboard

with top-down at the expense of bottom-up. The reason for this is that listening
comprehension is the result of an interactive process of bottom-up processing and top-
down processing by employing both linguistic and non-linguistic information to make
sense of the incoming message. Brown (2006:2) explained more about this, ―students must


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hear some sounds (bottom-up processing), hold them in their working memory long
enough (a few seconds) to connect them to each other and then interpret what they‘ve just
heard before something new comes along. At that time, listeners are using their
background knowledge (top-down processing) to determine meaning with respect to prior
knowledge and schemata‖
2.3.2. A Sequential Process of Listening
From a cognitive view, listening comprehension is believed to follow a natural
order of acquisition, reflecting the process of first language acquisition. For instance, it is
recognized by Anderson (1983) that the listening comprehension process is divided into
three stages: the perceptual, parsing, and utilization. During the perceptional phase, listener
pays close attention to spoken message and preserves the sound in echoic memory.
Because the echoic memory is extremely limited, listener almost immediately starts to
process the sounds for meaning. In the next stage, the parsing phase, listener uses words
and phrases to construct meaningful mental representations. Listener decomposes the
information into a meaningful unit that could be stored in short-term memory. In the
utilization phase, the final stage, listener utilizes long-term memory in order to connect the
incoming message to their existing knowledge. If the new input and existing knowledge
matched, comprehension occurred.
Willis (1981:134) lists a series of micro-skills of listening, which she calls enabling
skills. They are:
- predicting what people are going to talk about
- guessing at unknown words or phrases without panicking
- using one‘s own knowledge of the subject to help one understand

- identifying relevant points; rejecting irrelevant information
- retaining relevant points (note-taking, summarizing)
- recognizing discourse markers, e.g., Well; Oh, another thing is; Now, finally; etc.
- recognizing cohesive devices, e.g., such as and which, including link words,
pronouns, references, etc.
- understanding different intonation patterns and uses of stress, etc., which give clues
to meaning and social setting
- understanding inferred information, e.g., speakers‘ attitude or intentions
3. Listening Anxiety
3.1. Related Studies of Language Anxiety in Listening Skill
Listening in a FL is a less thoroughly studied skill in general by researchers.
However, they come to a consensus that anxiety impedes listening comprehension


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(Elkhafaifi, 2005, p. 209). Quite a lot of attention has been paid to the anxiety suffered by
many learners when listening to the foreign language.
According to Horwitz et al. (1986: 127), listening was the ―primary process in the
development of a second language‖. In their study‘s (1986), many students were anxious
when listening to the L2, and had ―difficulties in discriminating the sounds and structures
of a target language message‖ (p. 126). One male student said that he heard ―only a loud
buzz‖ (p.126) when his instructor was speaking, and anxious students also told of problems
with comprehending the content of L2 messages and with understanding their teachers in
―extended target language utterances‖ (p. 126). Over one third (35%) of the participants
expressed their fear of not being able to ―understand what the teacher is saying in the
foreign language‖ (item 4), and over a quarter (27%) said they were nervous when they did
not ―understand every word‖ uttered by the teacher (item 29) (Horwitz et al., 1986, pp.
129-130). They suggested that instructors help students cope with anxiety-producing
situations and make the learning context less stressful.
Vogely (1998) looked at sources of listening anxiety among learners of Spanish at

an American university, as reported by the students themselves. With regard to student
responses about sources of anxiety, listening anxiety was associated with four principal
categories: characteristics of FL input (nature of the speech, level of difficulty, lack of
clarity, lack of visual support, and lack of repetition); process of foreign language learning;
instructional factors; and attributes of the teacher or learner‖. When asked to suggest how
their listening anxiety could be reduced, about a third of the students' responses focused on
input-related factors, such as making the input more informal and ungraded, selecting
familiar and meaningful topics, and using known vocabulary. Some students claimed that
they needed the help of some visual aid to help with the listening task. Students reported
feeling anxious if they could only listen to texts twice before having to respond.
Elkhafaifi (2005) made an investigation about listening anxiety involving 233
North American university learners of Arabic. The result showed that ―students with
higher levels of FL anxiety tended to have higher levels of listening anxiety and vice
versa‖ (p. 211). There was a ―reasonable amount of overlap‖ (p. 214) between the two
anxiety measures, as they shared about 44% of the variance, but about 56% of the variance
was not shared. This led him to assert that listening anxiety was a distinct phenomenon
from general foreign language anxiety. He also suggested that listening anxiety could be
reduced by providing learners comprehensible input, more listening practice and listening
strategies as well as a less stressful classroom environment.



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3.2. Causes of Listening Anxiety
There is growing support for the view that listening comprehension is not only an
essential skill but a prerequisite for oral proficiency as well. Most learners of English as a
foreign language experience considerable difficulties in listening comprehension, and these
difficulties appear to be main causes of anxiety which should be taken into consideration.
In order to help students facilitate their listening comprehension skills as well English
proficiency, it is crucial to identify problems which listeners face in understanding the

spoken language.
Over the last two decades, many foreign language studies have been conducted to
find out the specific factors on the relative success or failure of learner comprehension
during listening (Ur, 1984; Underwood, 1989; Rubin, 1994; …). According to Underwood
(1989: 16-19), seven problems learner may encounter when learning to listen: fast speed;
unrepeated thing; the listeners‘ limited vocabulary; failure to recognize the ―signals‖;
interpretation; concentrate; and learning habit. Underwood (1989) sees these problems as
being related to learners‘ different background such as their culture and education.
After reviewing over 130 studies, Rubin (1994) believes there are five factors that
affect listening comprehension: (1) text characteristics such as speech rate, pause
phenomena and hesitation, level of perception, sandhi, stress and rhythmic patterning
perception, L1/L2 difference, syntactic modifications, redundancy, morphological
complexity, word order, discourse markers, and visual support for texts, (2) interlocutor
characteristics such as gender and language proficiency, (3) task characteristics such as
task type, (4)listener characteristics such as language proficiency level, memory, attention,
affect, age, gender, learning disability in L1, and background knowledge; and (5) process
characteristics top-down, bottom-up, and parallel processing, listening strategies, and
negotiation of comprehensible input.
Brown and Yule (1983:74) propose four main groups of factors including the
speaker (speech rate, varied accent), the listener, the content (vocabulary, grammar,
background knowledge), and support (whether there are pictures, diagrams visual aids )
can cause difficulty in listening comprehension. Yagang (1994) attributes the difficulty of
listening comprehension to four sources: the message, the speaker, the listener and the
physical setting (or listening environment). The author of this study also believe that these
four sources could make the first year English major students at Hong Duc University
more nervous and anxious while listening to the target language. They will be discussed as
followed.

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3.2.1. Listening Anxiety associated with Listening Text Factors
a) Complexity and Difficulty of the Lexis and Syntax.
One of the most obvious sources of difficulty for learners of English is the
complexity and difficulty of the lexis and syntax. Meeting unknown sounds, lexis and
syntax, FL learners ―seem to work much harder than necessary aiming for accurate
perception and interpretation of every word they hear‖ (Ur, 1984, p.19). Thus, fatigue may
come from ―how hard the learner need to concentrate‖ (Ur, 1984, p.19). The listening texts
which do not match the students‘ current proficiency level may lead to failure in
understanding listeners‘ progress. For many learners, knowing the meaning of words in
the text is decisive for their comprehension; and ―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‖ (Underwood, 1989, p.17). ―Their
perceptions of their own listening ability are often directly affected by how well they think
they can understand content words in a text.‖ (Goh,….:24). As a result, they are probably
less successful than listeners who get the meaning from the listening text without focusing
much on the language
b) Uninterested or Unfamiliar Topic
A topic which is uninterested or unfamiliar often makes FL learners get tired and
feel discouraged from listening process, because they find it ―more difficult to make
inferences, and comprehension will be more dependent on interpreting the linguistic
information‖ (Buck, 2001, p.20). Uninterested or unfamiliar topic can interfere with the
learner‘s concentration which is a major problem in listening activity because even the
shortest break in attention can seriously affect listening comprehension process. According
to Underwood (1989), ―If students find the topic interesting, they will find concentration
easier.‖ Interesting topic makes listening activities enjoyable; students become engaged in
classroom activities, therefore it is a good way to minimize the harmful effect. In the study
of Schmidt-Rinehard (1994) on correlation between listener‘s comprehension and topic
familiarity, he suggested that all subjects score higher on familiar passage while the
unfamiliar topics, such as cultural or linguistic oral output, make comprehension difficult.

c) Visual Support
Another barrier associated with listening text is the lack of visual support. Visual
support can be not only a picture or video, diagrams, charts, but also gestures and facial
expressions,… ―A picture is a relatively primitive way of conveying information and
readily understood‖ (Ur, 1984, p.59). Through a video, learners ―will see whether the
speakers are young or old, happy or angry, requesting or complaining‖ (Underwood, 1989,


14
p.96). They also see the physical context, the speaker‘s reaction, facial expressions and
gestures.
Studies have suggested that visual support can enhance listening comprehension
and increase motivation and attention levels. Students get more involved in the listening
process, because they can predict what the speaker is going to talk about; they are given
some useful hints about the messages. ―Visual support can aid language learners,
especially less proficient learners, and it is particularly helpful with more difficult texts‖
(Rubin, 1995, cited in Buck, 2001, p.47).
3.2.2. Listening Anxiety associated with Speakers factors
a) Fast Speech Rate
Studies on listening comprehension agree that speech rate can affect listening
comprehension. ―Most research quotes a normal speech rate of 165 to 180 words per
minute for the native speakers of English‖ (Rubin, 1994: 200) and ―the speech faster than
two-hundred w.p.m is hard for lower-intermediate learners to understand… and students
performed best at 127 w.p.m.‖ (Griffiths, 1990 as cited in Rubin, 1994, p.200)
Most English language learners consider the rapid speech of native speaker to be a
major cause of their listening difficulties. This happens to the fact that many learners
always expect ―to hear every word, including words the speakers had deliberately not
emphasize‖ (Goh, ….:27). ―They are so busy working out the meaning of one part of what
they hear that they miss the next part. Or they simply ignore a whole chunk because they
fail to sort it all out quickly enough. Either way, they fail.‖ They could ―have further

compounded the students‘ difficulties‖.
Kelch (1985) examined speech rate under controlled conditions in an L2 situation.
He proposed that slower speech, with its features of clearer articulation, fewer vowel
reductions, and more easily identifiable word boundaries, may offer greater facility of
comprehension for L2 listeners. Hatch (1983) also suggested that the advantages of slower
speech to L2 listeners include more processing time and clearer segmentation of the
structures in the input. In a word, one of the factors affecting listening comprehension is
speech rate.
b) Phonological Modifications
―In rapid speech, adjacent sounds influence each other‖ (Buck, 2001, p.32).
Phonological modification, one language phenomenon which is observed in the informal
speech of native speakers, is believed to influence ESL learners‘ comprehension of input.
According to Buck (2001:33), the more informal situations is, the more modification the
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speakers will tend to have. Buck points out that the most important modifications include
the following:
Assimilation: when sounds influence the pronunciation of adjacent sounds. For
example, the reader may read the phrase, "gave her," but the listener may hear "gaver";
―What are you going to do?‖ will be ―wadjagonnado?‖
Elision: when sounds are dropped in fast speech. For example, For example, the
reader may read the phrase "kept talking," but the listener will hear "keptalking.", ―tomato‖
will be ―tmato‖
He further point out that infusion as well as a strong form and wea
k form also make phonology change. The modifications to pronunciation that take place
during fast speech, especially informal speech, are quite extensive. A missing word always

affects the learner‘s listening process and anxiety.
c) Unfamiliar Accents
The speaker‘s accent is unfamiliar to the learner when words are pronounced in
non-standard manner. It is clear that Vietnamese pronounce English differently from
Indians, and is different again British or Americans because of different places‘ different
accents. However, the problem arises popularly when FL learners are too accustomed to
their teacher‘ accent, come across the pronunciation of the native speakers characterized by
fast rate of delivery, unstructured language with incomplete sentences, and false starts, and
hesitations (Underwood, 1989). ―When listeners hear an unfamiliar accent This can
cause problems and may disrupt the whole comprehension process. An unfamiliar accent
can make comprehension almost impossible for the listener‖ (Buck, 2001, p. 35)
d) Hesitation and Pause Phenomena (usually grouped together)
According to Buck (2001, 41) ―hesitation phenomena can present a major
comprehension difficulty to non-native speakers who are listening to spontaneous speech‖.
He also further states that:
certain types of hesitation phenomena can aid comprehension. When one-second
pauses were introduced into a text at the juncture between clauses, comprehension
improved, while pauses inserted randomly into the text resulted in lower levels of
comprehension (Friedman and Johnson, 1971; Johnson and Friedman, 1971)
Listening message with pause and hesitation phenomena reduces the speaker‘s
speed slower. The listener, therefore, may decode the message more smoothly and be
easier to comprehend.




16
3.2.3. Listening Anxiety associated with Listener Factors
―Listener characteristics appear to have considerable impact on an individual‘s listening
comprehension‖ (Rubin, 1994, p.206)

a) Limited Vocabulary
Restriction of vocabulary is the common problem for the students. The words they
listened to perhaps are the new words that are unfamiliar. Just as Underwood (1989:17)
said, ―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‖.
b) Memory
There is ample theoretical evidence that memory is important in listening
comprehension. According to scholars, for example Buck (2001:26); Nagle and Sanders
(1986); Anderson (1985) memory has been characterized in three ways: Acoustic input is
held briefly in echoic memory, where it is retained and stored for further processing in
short-term memory. After simple processing, information is finally stored in long-term
memory as schema for future decoding and comprehending new information. Call (1985)
pointed out that short-term memory appears to be the most important in listening
comprehension. Call‘s (1985: 769) study on the relationship between short-term memory
and listening comprehension avers that:
memory span for target language input is shorter than for native language input, the
amount of target language input that can be successfully processed seems to
increase as proficiency in the language increases. A corollary of this finding is that
length of memory span for linguistic input is a good indicator of overall language
proficiency. Knowledge of target language syntax seems to be an important factor
in increasing the amount of linguistic material that can be retained in short-term
memory.
Rivers (1981) also had the same idea with Call, he stated that linguistic elements
are not sufficient for comprehending the spoken message. Listeners must retain these
elements in short-term memory long enough to interpret the utterance to which they are
attending.
c) Background knowledge
The lack of background knowledge, which is also called prior knowledge or
schemata, may impede student performance. It explained up to 81% of the variance in

posttest scores (Dochy, Segers & Buehl, 1999). ―To make sense of the rapid-fire noise that
comes from oral speech, learners often try to find an overall schema. Even at the word,


17
phrase, or sentence level students attempt to associate prior knowledge of the language
with the incoming noise‖ (Rubin, 1994, p.209). As suggested by Underwood (1989: 19),
students who are unfamiliar with the context may have considerable difficulty in
interpreting the words they hear even when they can understand their ‗surface‘
meaning… The meaning of non-verbal clues –facial expression, nods, gestures, tone of
voice – can easily be misinterpreted by listeners from other cultures. On the other hand, if
the incoming information is unfamiliar, it cannot evoke the listener‘s schemata and thus, he
must depend heavily on his linguistic ability in listening comprehension to interpret and
analyze the information.
d) Application of Strategies
Learning strategies can be defined as conscious ―steps taken by students to enhance
their own learning‖ (Oxford, 1990: 1). More particularly, they are ―specific actions taken
by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more
effective, and more transferable to new situations‖ (Oxford, 1990: 8).
Goh (1998) investigated the cognitive and metacognitive strategies and tactics used
by Chinese ESL learners in a university in Singapore and she compared the use of these
strategies and tactics by high- and low- ability listeners. The result revealed that high-
ability listeners used more strategies and tactics than low ability ones
3.2.4. Listening Anxiety associated with Listening Environment
There are some certain factors related to listening environment that can take the
listeners‘ mind off the content of the listening passage, and thus lead to frustration for
students and teachers alike. The barriers are listed as follow.
- large classroom,
- recordings played on poor quality machine,
- background noises such as other classmates, walking, talking, coughing,

shuffling books, entering and leaving the room, some neon lights having a low
buzz, dogs barking and traffic from public places, and so on.
- extreme temperatures, an uncomfortable sitting position,
According to Buck (2001, p.180), if the sound quality is poor, listeners ―will have
difficulty hearing and understanding. In such case their performance may not present their
actual ability.‖ It is no use making good recordings and then playing them on inadequate
equipment.(Buck, 2001, p.190)
3.3. Instructional Approaches for Listening Anxiety Reduction.
Some instructors who already recognize that many students experience anxiety in
their classes have proposed ways of reducing listening anxiety. For example, according to


18
Elkhafaifi (2005), providing comprehensible input, teaching listening strategies and letting
students have more practice; paying attention to the selection of listening passage,
especially when using authentic materials, etc can reduce the level of tension and anxiety
in the classroom. Besides, providing various forms of support for learners as preparatory
activities, question preview and repeated input (Chang & Read, 2008); making learning
context less stressful (Horwitz et al.,1986) also make the situation better. Horwitz (2010)
averred that some practices perceived as comfortable by one group of learners may prove
stressful for a group from a different background.
In short, the chapter reviews the literature on many issues related to anxiety and
listening anxiety. These include a definition of foreign language anxiety and its
components, definition of listening comprehension and its process, factors related to
listening comprehension and empirical evidence of listening comprehension anxiety that
has been reported by other researchers. This knowledge, therefore, serves as a basic for
further work in the later chapters.

19
CHAPTER II: THE STUDY
This chapter presents the study. It includes information about the participants, the
data collection instrument, the procedure, the data analysis and the findings.
1. Participants
Thirty students participated in this study. These participants were freshman
students of the 2009-2010 academic years. They were studying English as their major at
the university. All of them were in one group, and this was the only group who were in
their first year at the university. In fact, there were 32 students in this group, but two
students were absent on the day the questionnaire was administered. All of them were

female.
2. Data Gathering Instruments
The instrument used in this study were: (1) a questionnaire, (2) informal interviews
with the students
The questionnaire consists of three parts. First, the students responded about their
general listening anxiety. Second, the subjects were asked to identify their problems that
increase their anxiety in listening classes by responding to statements on the basis of the
five-point scale (never, seldom, sometimes, often, and always). Third, students give their
personal information about gender and attitudes toward listening skills. The questionnaire
was designed after a review of the literature (see references of this research) about factors
viewed as causing anxiety that influence listening comprehension. The data obtained from
the questionnaire was tabulated, presented, and frequencies and percentages were
calculated.
The informal interviews with the students were conducted in the form of electronic
interviews. The major concerns were their opinions of why each problem of listening
skills, which was shown in the second part of the questionnaire, made them nervous and
stressful in listening classes. The data obtained from the informal interviews was
transcribed and analyzed so that the author of this study could gain a deep understanding of
the problems, from those giving possible solutions to help students alleviate their anxiety.
In the analysis, a numerical system was applied to identify each data entry. Their answers
were translated into English. The code for each account indicated the learner ID which is
assigned by the researcher. For example, "S1‖, ―S2‖, ―S30" stand for the first, second and
thirtieth student, respectively.
3. Procedures
First, the questionnaire was administered in class when students were just
completing the second-term of the academic year of 2010. The entire procedure took about


20
10 minutes of their class time. After completing the questionnaire, students gave their

names and telephone numbers or their email address if they were willing to participate in
an interview. All of the students agreed to participate in an interview, so they gave the
author their email addresses.
Second, the questions of the interview were sent to all students electronically.
However, the monitor of this group printed the interview, made 30 copies, and delivered it
to all participants. The answers of the interview were given back to the author two days
later.
4. Techniques of Data Analysis
The data obtained through the questionnaire, the interview were organized and
analyzed. While the data obtained from the questionnaire were analyzed quantitatively and
qualitatively, the data obtained from the interview were analyzed qualitatively. And the
results of the instruments identified the listening factors viewed as causing anxiety that
affected the first-year English majors at Hong Duc University.
5. Data Analysis and Findings
5.1. Students’ Attitudes toward Listening Skills

2. Listening skill is….
the most difficult
skill
as difficult as
other skills
easier than other skills
easy

Students‘ No.
25
5
0
0
Students‘ %

83
17
0
0


3. How is listening skill important to you?
Very important
Rather important
Little important
Not important at
all
Students‘ No.
29
1
0
0
Students‘ %
97
3
0
0

4. How do you enjoy listening to English?
Very much
Not much
little
Not at all
Students‘ No.
8

15
7
0
Students‘ %
27
50
23
0
Table 1: Students’ attitudes toward listening skills
As it is indicated clearly in table 1, an overwhelming number of the students (83%)
viewed listening as the most difficult skill. The rest of the students (17%) reported that
listening skill is as difficult as other skills (reading, speaking, writing), and none of them
considered listening skill to be an easy one or easier than other language skills. The main