Factors causing challenges in learning listening skills faced by first-year non-English major students at Hanoi University of Industrykhó khăn khi học nghe hiểu

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABTRACT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF FIGURES

PART I: INTRODUCTION

i
ii
iii
iv
vi
vii
viii
1

1. Rationale

1

2. Aims of the study

2

3. Research questions

2

4. Significance of the study

2

5. Scope of the study

3

6. Design of the study

3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

4

1.1 The role of Listening in language Learning and Teaching

4

1.2 Previous studies in listening problems faced by language learners

6

1.2.1 In general

6

1.2.2 In Vietnamese context

7

1.3 Common potential problems in EFL listening comprehension

8

1.4 Summary

9

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY
2.1 The context of Hanoi University of Industry

10
10

2.1.1. Teachers

10

2.1.2. Students

10

2.1.3. Teaching and learning facilities

11

2.2. Research questions

11

2.3. Target population and sampling

11

2.4. Data Gathering Instruments

12

2.4.1. Student questionnaire

12


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2.4.2. Teacher interview

13

2.4.3. Classroom observation

13

2.4.4. Document analysis

13

2.5. Data Analysis
CHAPTER 3: RESULTS
3.1 Results of the document analysis

14
14
15

3.1.1 The English program for non-English major students at HaUI

15

3.1.2 The website />
16

3.1.3 The textbook of “New headway Elementary and Pre-intermediate”

16

3.1.4 The types and requirements of listening comprehension activities for nonEnglish major students at HaUI

17

3.2 Analysis of the Questionnaire Data

18

3.2.1 The listening text

18

3.2.2 Listener factors

21

3.2.3 Speaker factors

25

3.2.4 Environmental factors

26

3.2.5 Other factors that affect the learners‟ listening comprehension

28

3.2.6 The listening factor that poses the most difficulty for the learners

30

3.3 Analysis of Interview Data

31

3.4 Analysis of the data obtained from observation of the classroom listening
environment

34

3.5 Summary of the Results

34

PART III: CONCLUSIONS

36

1. Conclusions

36

2. Recommendations

37

3. Limitations and suggestions for further study

40

References

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APPENDIXES
Appendix A: Questionnaire

I

Appendix B: Instructor Interview

III

Appendix C: Observation check list

IV


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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL – English as a Foreign Language
ELT – English Language Teaching
HaUI – Hanoi University of Industry
L1 listening – Listening in a Native Language
L2 listening – Listening in English


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LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table-1: Factors related to listening texts........................................................................19

Table-1a: Learners‟ responses that refer to listening problems related to
unfamiliar words and difficult grammatical structures....................19
Table-1b: Learners‟ responses that refer to listening problems related to
long spoken text...............................................................................20
Table-1c: Learners‟ responses that refer to listening problems related to
unfamiliar topics.............................................................................. 21
Table 2: Factors related to listeners.................................................................................22
Table-2a: Learners‟ responses that refer to listening problems related to
the skills of predicting and getting general idea of a text.................22
Table-2b: Learners‟ responses that refer to listening problems related to
native speakers‟ pronunciations.........................................................23
Table-2c: Learners‟ responses that refer to listening problems related to
the ability of managing tasks............................................................24
Table-3: Learners‟ responses that refer to listening problems related to the natural
speech of native speakers..................................................................................25
Table-4: Learners‟ responses that refer to listening problems related to the
listening environment.....................................................................................27
Table-4a: Learners‟ responses that refer to listening problems related to the
listening recording material.............................................................27
Table-4b: Learners‟ responses that refer to listening problems related to
insufficient time to accomplish tasks.................................................27
Table-5: Other factors that affected learners‟ listening performance..............................30
Table-6: Learners‟ responses that refer to the listening problem that poses the most
difficulty for them..............................................................................................30
Table-7: Factors that influenced the learners' listening comprehension.........................35


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LIST OF FIGURES

Page
Chart 1: Learners‟ responses referring to listening problems related to native
speakers‟ Pronunciations.................................................................................24

Chart 2: Learners‟ responses referring to listening problems related to speech of
the native speakers........................................................................................... 26


1

PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
It cannot be denied that English has been taken up by people in all walks of life,
especially in companies, academic institutes and so on in Vietnam. People are eager to
learn English and wish to acquire it at an early age. Also, in order to speed up the country‟s
economy and to improve the living standards as soon as possible, it is necessary for
engineers, technicians, scientists, etc. to learn and acquire English to keep up to date with
the latest developments in technology in the world. To meet the requirements of these
people in learning English, now more and more teachers of English who have teaching
qualifications are needed in Vietnam. In brief, nowadays more and more Vietnamese
people want to learn English, and more and more teachers of English are needed to meet
the social requirements.
In learning and teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in Vietnam, the
macro skill of listening is of great importance and it draws the attention of both teachers
and learners as Brett (1997) states that “listening is a key language skill, it has a vital role
in the language acquisition process”(p.39). Compared to the other language skills, research
on listening suggests that on average people can expect to listen “twice as much as we
speak, four times more than what we read and five times more than we usually write”
(Morley, 2001, p.70).
As listening being a vital skill for oral interaction, it is, therefore; the most

important medium for input in learning a foreign language (Lewis, 1993) and by increasing
our students‟ ability to perceive speech, the amount of input they receive will increase and
thus aiding students‟ language acquisition; which is true to the students of Hanoi
University of Industry (HaUI). Hence, it is essential for them to acquire the ability to listen
to spoken English effectively. However, despite the teachers‟ and students‟ efforts, the
students, especially the first year non – English majors often have a lot of difficulties in
learning listening comprehension. Many students fail to take the listening input so they can
hardly understand the spoken messages. That is the reason why lots of them find it
challenging to learn listening well or they become stressful in listening lessons. Therefore,
as a teacher teaching English listening, it is necessary and motivating for the writer to carry
out a study on factors causing challenges to the first year non – English major students at


2

HaUI in learning English listening comprehension. Furthermore, this thesis is expected to
provide insights for teachers and students in learning and teaching English listening so that
even more successful ELT in Vietnam or elsewhere could be achieved.
2. Aims of the study
The general aim of this study is to seek useful information that can help to solve the
problems of non – English major students in learning English listening comprehension and
to suggest possible measures that could contribute to planning a lesson taking the learners‟
problems into consideration.
The specific aims of the study are:
1. To identify factors causing challenges for the first year non-English major students
at HaUI in learning English listening comprehension.
2. To find out which particular factor poses the most difficulty for the non-English
major freshmen at HaUI in learning English listening comprehension.
3. To give some pedagogical implications and suggestions to improve the teaching
and learning English listening comprehension of the non-English major students at

HaUI.
3. Research questions
The purpose of the study is to find out factors causing challenges in learning
English listening comprehension faced by the first year non-English major students at
HaUI. To this end, the researcher has formulated the following leading questions to be
answered in the course of the study:
1. What factors cause challenges for the first year non-English major students of HaUI
in learning English listening comprehension?
2. Which particular factor poses the most difficulty for the first year non-English
major students of HaUI in learning English listening comprehension?
3. What could be done to improve the teaching and learning of English listening
comprehension of the non-English major students at HaUI?
The study, therefore, tries to seek answers to the three above questions.
4. Significance of the study
Awareness of the factors causing problems that EFL learners encounter in
learning English listening would benefit both the learners and the instructors. After


3

this study is completed, the finding may help instructors to become aware of the
problematic areas of listening skill so that they can take necessary treatment measures,
which are suggested as an implication of the study. More specifically, the study derives
its importance from the context it explores, i.e., it tries to give an account of the
difficulties EFL learners of HaUI encounter in listening classes. These particular learners,
as the researcher observed them in the past, had listening problems when they engaged in
EFL listening activities. Understanding their listening difficulties will permit the
instructors to modify their teaching practices.
The study would also help learners to identify their difficulties of learning
English listening skill to ascertain what further learning strategies are necessary.

Learners need to be aware of the factors which contribute to their difficulties in listening;
when listeners know something about their own problems, they will be able to improve
their listening practices and become better listeners.
The finding would also encourage material designers (instructors) to conduct needs
analysis, and to revise modules or course contents in order to adjust the materials in such
a way that they address the learners‟ listening deficiencies, which are indicated as an
implication of the study. Hopefully, this information can probably be used as additional
evidence for sources of difficulties that Vietnamese college students have in learning
English listening.
5. Scope of the study
Dealing with all factors causing challenges in all aspects of learning English
listening of EFL learners is too broad for a study of this size. Therefore, this study focuses
on investigating the factors causing challenges in learning English listening
comprehension, especially with the course book series “New Headway”. Also, due to the
constraints of time, this study just involves a sample of non-English major freshmen at
HaUI.
6. Design of the study
The study is divided into 3 parts:
The first part, Introduction, presents the rationale, aims, research questions,
significance, scope and design of the study.


4

The second part, Development, is the main part of study, consisting of three
chapters.
Chapter 1 discusses the role of listening in language learning and teaching. Then, it
reviews previous studies on listening problems faced by language learners in general and
in Vietnamese context. Finally, it deals with theories on common potential problems in
EFL listening comprehension.

Chapter 2 introduces the context of Hanoi Univesity of Industry where the study is
conducted. It also describes the methodologies employed in the study in terms of the
research questions, target population and sampling, the data gathering instruments and data
analysis.
Chapter 3 presents the results, discussion of major findings on factors causing challenges
faced by the non-English major freshmen at HaUI and the particular factor posing the most
difficulty for them in learning English listening comprehension.
The third part, Conclusion, summarizes what are addressed in the study and makes
a brief summary of major findings as well as gives some recommendations. The limitations
and suggestions for further study are also included in the last section.

PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter comprises four sections. The first section discusses the role of
listening skills in language learning and teaching. The second section reviews the studies
conducted on listening problems faced by language learners in general and in Vietnamese
context. Then common potentials problems in EFL listening comprehension are presented in
the third section. Finally, a brief summary of the reviewed literature will be given.
1.1 The role of Listening in language Learning and Teaching
Language acquisition depends on listening since it provides the aural input that
serves as the basis for acquisition, and listening is the first language mode that
children acquire. At birth we know nothing about language, and yet we will complete
much of the first language acquisition process within our first five years, depending
almost exclusively on listening. As it is indicated in second language acquisition theory,


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language input is the most essential condition of language acquisition. As an input
skill (says Krashen) listening plays a crucial role in learners‟ language development

(1985).
Beginning in the early 70's, work by Duker, Carroll and others, and later by
Krashen, brought attention to the role of listening as a tool for understanding and
emphasized it as a key factor in facilitating language learning. As the studies on listening
increased, it became a centre of attention not only in the process of first language
acquisition but also in second language acquisition. As a result, it is recognized as an
important language skill for EFL learners especially for those students who learn English
for academic purposes.
Feyten (1991) points out that listening plays a very important role in a student's
academic success and it is a key component to successful learning. This is true according
to Dunkel (1986) in the sense that students spend most of their time listening to their
teachers‟ lecture. Duker (1971) is also among the writers who early noticed the
importance of listening. Duker reported data on how people spend their communicative
time: of the total time devoted to communication, 45% is spent on listening, 30% on
speaking, 16% on reading and 9% on writing. From the data given above, one can
understand that listening is the most frequently used language skill which plays a great
role in the process of communication.
Similarly, an article which appeared on the web page of International
Listening Association (Beard, 2005) indicated that listening is the fundamental language
skill, and it is the medium through which people gain a large portion of their education,
their information, their understanding of the world and of human affairs, their ideals,
sense of values, and their appreciation. In this day of mass communication, much of it
oral, listening is of vital importance and students should be taught to listen effectively and
critically.
Although listening has such significant roles in communication and second
language acquisition, it has long been the neglected skill in research, teaching, and
classroom assessment (Rubin, 1994; Richards and Renandaya, 2002). In recent years,
however, there has been an increased focus on developing foreign language
listening ability because of its perceived importance in language learning and acquisition.
Especially these days, there has been increasing emphasis on listening comprehension in

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second language pedagogy, and this is also reflected in several methodologies and in the
development of numerous listening materials such as textbooks, audiotapes, videotapes,
and CD-ROMs (Richards and Renandaya, 2002).
Assuming its great importance in foreign language classrooms and in language
acquisition, scholars have started giving greater attention to second/foreign language
listening comprehension (e.g., Ur, 1984; Krashen, 1985; Underwood, 1989; Rost,
1994). Some of the ideas that have been of focus in the insights are the factors that
affect learning and teaching English listening. In this context, therefore, this study aims to
explore the barriers that hinder EFL learners, especially the non-English major freshmen,
in learning English listening skill at the tertiary level listening classes of HaUI.
1.2 Previous studies in listening problems faced by language learners
1.2.1 In general
Research on second-language listening comprehension draws on studies done on
first-language learning (Anderson & Lynch, 1988; Duker, 1964; Dunkel, 1991; Keller,
1960). It can be said that much of the information we have about L2 listening
comprehension is rooted in the work of first-language researchers. The research available
on second-language listening comprehension is insufficient. There is little knowledge
about how listening takes place. Comparing it with other language skills, Goh (1997,
p.161) states that, “there are fewer insights about the process of listening and the way it is
learnt”. Similarly, Richards (1985, p.189) says that “there is little direct research on second
language listening comprehension”.
The literature available on L2 listening includes empirical research (Rubin, 1994;
Flowerdew, 1994) as well as theoretical and pedagogical studies (Ur, 1984; Mendelsohn &
Rubin, 1995). Research on second-language listening has also attempted to point out the
factors that may influence learners‟ comprehension (Dunkel, 1991; Lynch, 1988; Richards,
1985). Grant (1997) chooses four strategies which would help learners to listen to English:

activating/building schema, guessing/inferencing/predicting, listening selectively, and
negotiating meaning. Effective listeniners use background knowledge and relate this pior
knowledge or schemata to the new information contained in the spoken text and this will
help them to comprehend the text as they process it. As Faerch and Kasper (1986, p.264)


7

put it, “comprehension takes place when input and knowledge are matched against each
other.”
The difficulties encountered by EFL learners in listening comprehension have also
been pointed out (Hasan, 1993). Yagang (1994) attributes the difficulty of listening
comprehension to four sources: the massage, the speaker, the listener and the physical
setting. Higgins (1995) studied Omani students‟ problems in listening comprehension and
found that the factors which facilitate or hinder listening are speech rate, vocabulary, and
pronunciation. Flowerdew and Miller (1996) studied learners‟ strategies and difficulties in
listening to academic lectures. They found that students‟ problems were speed of delivery,
new terminology and concepts, difficulties in concentrating, and problems related to
physical environment. Rubin (1994) identified five factors which affect listening
comprehension: text characteristics, interlocutor characteristics, task characteristics,
listener characteristics and process characteristics. Further researches investigated the role
of temporal factors facilitating or inhibiting successful listening (Boyle, 1984; Higgins,
1997).
Theoretical explanations of listening comprehension provide us with clues about
the problems which learners face when they listen to a spoken text. These insights cannot,
however, accounts for exhaustive explanation of these problems. As Nunan (1991, p.38)
states “theories, ideas, and research are as good as teachers and textbook writers make
them. Interesting and unexpected things happen in the classroom, and in the final analysis,
principles and ideas need to be tested in practice.” Although much information has been
provided about listening comprehension, there is still a gap between research theory and

classroom practice. As Vogely (1995, p.41) states “we still need research that documents
empirically the relationship between what theory says and what learners actually know and
more importantly do.” To locate the sources of listening comprehension, we need to
consider the discourse itself in the context of the classroom.
1.2.2 In Vietnamese context
In Vietnam, some studies have been conducted on EFL listening although the
existing studies are not many as much as needed. Some of these studies have begun
to show that Vietnamese students have much difficulty of understanding foreign language
listening texts. Different scholars have different suggestions about the factors that affect


8

EFL listening. Researches on teaching listening have been carried out so far by some
candidates of the Department of Post-Graduate Studies at University of Languages and
International studies, VietNam National University, Hanoi. However, they focused on
rather different aspects of teaching listening: Do Thi Thu Thuy (2005) conducted a study
on the obstacles preventing the first year English-major in the Foreign Language
Department, Haiphong University from acquiring listening skills. Nguyen Minh Tuan
(2005) looked at how to exploit video in teaching listening and speaking skills to the nonEnglish major students at pre-intermediate level at his school of Education, National
University. Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet (2007) studied on how to improve the methods of
teaching listening skills to non-English major students at Haiphong foreign language
centre, Haiphong University. These studies are similar to the environment that the
investigator is doing so she would like to take the advantages of each study and avoid
deficiencies in order to supplement the research on “Factors causing challenges in
learning English listening skills faced by first year non – English major students at HaUI”
1.3 Common potential problems in EFL listening comprehension
This section began with a summary of those factors which were given most
emphasis in books and articles about listening comprehension, which base their ground
on insights derived from foreign language teaching experience of many years (Penny

Ur, Mary Underwood, Fan Yagang, and Joan Rubin), from the works on reading
comprehension (Long, 1989; Dunkel, 1991; Rubin, 1994) and from studies conducted on
native language listening comprehension (Carroll, 1977; Watson & Smeltzer, 1984;
Samuels, 1994).
Listening comprehension is a process in which the listener constructs meaning out
of the information provided by the speaker (Samuels, 1984). This involves understanding
a speaker‟s accent or pronunciation, his grammar and his vocabulary, and grasping his
meaning (Howatt & Dakin, 1974). Morely (1972) provides a broader definition of
listening comprehension which includes the process of reauditorizing, extracting vital
information, remembering it, and relating it to construct meaning, besides the basic
auditory discrimination and aural grammar. Considering various aspects of listening
comprehension, Underwood (1989) organizes the

major listening problems as

follows: (1) lack of control over the speed at which speakers speak, (2) not being able to


9

get things repeated, (3) the listener's limited vocabulary, (4) failure to recognize the
"signals," (5) problems of interpretation, (6) inability to concentrate, and (7) established
learning habits. Underwood sees these problems as being related to learners' different
backgrounds, such as their culture and education.
Further research by Samuels (1984) points out that the differences between the
spoken features of the learners‟ mother-tongue and the target language can be another
factor that hinders the students listening performance. He further points out that
sometimes the target language differs enough from the listener's language in
pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary, and the existence of such differences places
additional demands on the listener's processing which can severely interfere with

comprehension.
In addition, there are other scholars who forwarded factors that are thought to affect
foreign language listening comprehension. Rubin (1994) identified five factors which
affect listening comprehension: text characteristics, interlocutor characteristics,

task

characteristics, listener characteristics, and process characteristics. Yagang (1994)
attributes the difficulty of listening comprehension to four sources: the message, the
speaker, the listener and the physical setting.
1.4. Summary
In summary, the reviewed literature serves as a base of the problems that EFL
learners encounter in listening comprehension. The previous researchers have investigated
different categories of EFL learners in terms of the difficulties they may encounter in
listening comprehension. However, the researchers have not yet thoroughly studied what
problems HaUI first-year non-English majors face in listening comprehension.
Furthermore, their studies do not focus on the listening factors relating to specific context
of learning and teaching English listening at HaUI. It is, therefore, essential for the
researcher to fill in the gap by investigating what factors causing challenges to HaUI firstyear non-English majors in learning listening so that proper teaching treatments can be
adopted to help them overcome these difficulties to become better and effective listeners in
English.


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CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY
This chapter introduces the context of Hanoi University of Industry where the study
is conducted. Then it describes the methodologies employed in the study in terms of the
research questions, target population and sampling, the data gathering instruments and data
analysis.

2.1 The context of Hanoi University of Industry
Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) was officially established in December 2005
on the basis of Hanoi Industrial College, one of the leading vocational colleges in Vietnam
where thousands of skilled workers and engineers are trained every year.
HaUI is a big university which is in the process of developing to reach the aim of
being one of the great universities of Southeast Asia. Have awareness of the importance of
English, the university authorities have paid due attention to the matter of improving the
quality of teaching and learning English. The ultimate aims are specific with the hope to
enhance the training quality and increase the standard of graduate students with good job
opportunities.
2.1.1. Teachers
The English teaching staff in the Department of Foreign Languages consists of 58
teachers whose ages range from 23 to 45 years old. Most of the teachers are female, except
seven of them. All of the teachers hold B.A degrees from different universities in Vietnam.
At present, 72% have M.A degree or are doing an M.A course.
The academic background of the teachers shows that all of them have been
exposure to different teaching methods such as communicative method or learner-centred
approach, etc. However, most teachers usually employ the traditional method of teaching
listening. Classes are usually conducted in the form of lectures, with most of the time the
teachers play the key role in the classroom, being the main speakers working through the
text. The teachers explain new words, terms or structures and then guide students to answer
warm-up questions. Then, they play the tape and check answers from students or correct
them. Discussions are rarely held due to the limitation of time.
2.1.2. Students
In general, the students here are at the age of 18 -22. They are mostly male
students, coming from different provinces all over the country. The class size is about 50


11

students each. Most of students have studied English at high school; however, the problem
is that most of them do not consider English as their major, so they did not pay much
attention to study English at that time. This gives us-the teachers a number of work.
Besides, English is not their favourite subjects. Most of students are not really
interested in leaning English due to the fact that they find it difficult to learn and use
English skills, especially Listening and Speaking, Writing. For illustration, they are
familiar with the common teaching methods at secondary and high school with the focus is
on Grammar.
2.1.3. Teaching and learning facilities
As presented above, the class size for an English lesson is about 50 students each,
but the classrooms, though being well equipped with a projector, a computer, a cassette
player and two loudspeakers at the corner of the room, are designed for about 80 to 100
students classes which are actually too big for an English class of a much smaller size.
This causes certain problems such as the sounds and the tape or CD quality. It is often
very noisy and the sounds are unclear, too. Another problem is that all students and most
of the teachers who are teaching the course book “New headway Elementary & Preintermediate” have to use unclear, black and white photocopied books. This fact prevents
them from exploiting colour, photographs and pictures for learning and teaching.
2.2. Research questions
The purpose of the study is to find out factors causing challenges in learning
English listening faced by the first year non-English major students at HaUI. The study,
therefore, tries to seek answers to the following questions
1. What factors cause challenges for the first year non-English major students of HaUI
in learning English listening comprehension?
2. Which particular factor poses the most difficulty for the first year non-English
major students of HaUI in learning English listening comprehension?
3. What could be done to improve the teaching and learning of English listening
comprehension of the non-English major students at HaUI?
2.3. Target population and sampling
This study was carried out with the participation of 10 full-time teachers and 114

12

freshman students who were teaching and learning English as a foreign language at
Hanoi University of Industry. The 114 students under investigation were in their first
academic year. These students were randomly chosen from first year students during the
2009-2010 academic years, belongings to six classes. It was very difficult to select a
random sample of individuals since the students had already been arranged to different
classes. In this case, cluster random sampling – which means that instead of randomly
selecting the individuals, the investigator randomly selects the groups or classes for
investigation. Thus, the students chosen in this study could be representative for the whole
group of freshmen at HaUI.
2.4. Data Gathering Instruments
The instruments used in this study were: (1) student questionnaire, (2) structured
interviews with the EFL listening instructor of the subjects, (3) observation of the listening
environment, and (4) document analysis. These instruments are described in detail below.
2.4.1. Student questionnaire
The first instrument which was employed in this study was questionnaire. The
questionnaire was used to get information about the difficulties the students faced in EFL
listening while taking the English listening course at HaUI. The questionnaire was
designed after a review of the literature (Carroll, 1977; Watson & Smeltzer, 1984;
Samuels, 1994; Ur, 1984; Underwood, 1989; Rubin, 1994; Yagang, 1994; Long, 1989;
Dunkel, 1991; see also references of this research) about factors that influence
listening comprehension... Items of the questionnaire were 16 questions (i.e., 12 closeended and 4 open-ended questions). For the close-ended items in the questionnaire, the
researcher used a five-point scale where 1-represents the lowest and 5-represents the
highest experience of listening difficulties. Here, the numbers 1 to 5 were designated by
the adverbs of frequency: „Never‟, „Seldom‟, „Sometimes‟, „Often‟, and „Always‟
respectively. The open-ended questions, on the other hand, were designed in a way that
the students are able to express their feelings and to add supplementary listening
difficulties on the course if there were any that were different from those presented

in the close-ended questions.


13

2.4.2. Teacher interview
The second data gathering instrument which was employed in this study was
interview. The purpose of the interview was to confirm the information that was
obtained through the questionnaire; to obtain data on how the listening difficulties which
had been identified through the questionnaire affected the learners‟ listening skill; to
obtain information about the reasons behind the learners‟ difficulties of learning
English listening; and to find out if there are any other listening difficulties that
affect the learners‟ listening skill. On the other hand the instructor interview aimed to
provide information about her approach in the teaching of the listening course, about
the quality of the listening materials, about the support she provided while the learners
engaged in listening and the opportunity she gave for the students to practice in the
classroom.
2.4.3. Classroom observation
The third data gathering instrument which was employed in this study was
observation. The observation was used to get information about the current
physical appearance of the listening environment and the equipment in the
classroom. The researcher has been teaching in the target institution since 2006. She
observed the listening environment to see if any change has been made to the equipments
and the machines of the classroom in the past four years. In fact, it was important to
conduct classroom observation while the course was in progress in order to see how
the teaching-learning process of the EFL listening was going on. Furthermore, the
researcher also tried to find out this information with the interview of the course
instructors. Valuable information was obtained from the interviews regarding the
teaching-learning process. In addition, the researcher had observed similar students for
two years while she was offering the same listening section in the same listening

environment at HaUI. Her experiences add invaluable information about the teachinglearning context under investigation.
2.4.4. Document analysis
The fourth data gathering instrument which was employed in this study was
document analysis. According to the Instructional Assessment Resources (IAR) Website of
The University of Texas at Austin: Document analysis is the systematic examination of


14

instructional documents such as syllabi, assignments, lecture notes, and course evaluation
results in order to identify instructional needs and challenges and describe an instructional
activity. The focus of the analysis should be a critical examination, rather than a mere
description, of the documents. The analysis should include questions about the
instructional purpose of the document; how teachers and students are using it, and how it is
(or is not) contributing to learning.
Document analysis works best when the purpose is to gain insight into an
instructional activity or approach… Although, it may have some limitations such as:


Documents or materials may be incomplete or missing



Data is restricted to what already exists



Does not evaluate current student opinion, needs, or satisfaction
This tool was used with the current course syllabus, assignments, lecture notes, and

course evaluation results “to gain insight into” the factors that cause challenges for the first
year non-English major students of HaUI in learning English listening comprehension
from the perspective of teaching documents.
2.5. Data Analysis
The data obtained through the questionnaire, the interview, the observation and
the document analysis were organized and analyzed. While the data obtained from the
questionnaire and the document analyses were analyzed quantitatively (using percentage
and numbers) and qualitatively (using the three themes as posed in the three research
questions), the data obtained from the interview, the observation were analyzed
qualitatively with the help of a checklist cross tabulating cases and themes to identify the
listening problems that affected the EFL learners of Hanoi University of Industry, thus,
answering the three research questions.

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS
This chapter presents and discusses the results of the study. The first section
discusses the results of the document analysis. The second section presents the analysis
and the findings from questionnaire data. The third section discusses analysis of data
from the instructor interview. The forth section reports the data of the observation of the
listening environment. Finally, a brief summary of the results will be given.


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3.1 Results of the document analysis
3.1.1 The English program for non-English major students at HaUI
At HaUI, English is taught as a compulsory subject and has been considered as a
pre-requisite for graduation of non-English major students because it is considered to be
useful both for students‟ study at university and for their future jobs. The English training
program is divided into two main parts: General English and English for Specific Purposes.
Of the total 5 semesters with 375 periods of formal class instruction, the first 4 semesters

are designed as General English course to help students master English at pre-intermediate
level. The last semester is devoted to introduce English for Specific Purposes content with
45 periods of class instruction.
The aim of this General English course is that at the end of the course, students will
be able to acquire basic grammar and vocabulary items as well as the four language skills
to communicate well. To achieve the aim, the New Headway series (New Headway
Elementary and New Headway Pre-intermediate) by John and Soars (2000) are used as the
textbooks. Following the General English course, English for Specific Purpose courses
have been given to students of all faculties with the main aim to enable students to read
their subject matter materials in English effectively.
In the first semester of the academic year, the textbook New Headway Elementary
is used for the first year non-English major students having passed the placement test
before. Then comes New Headway Pre-intermediate in the second and third semester. Its
aims are to provide students with thorough coverage of basic grammatical and lexical
items and to develop all the four language skills in order to improve the communicative
skills. Also these four skills are integrated in simple daily conversations so as to engage
and motivate the students.
It is notable that the English program in the second semester of non-English major
freshmen at HaUI comprise two different sections: teaching English offline (at classroom)
and online (on the internet) at the same time. The first one consisting of 65 periods focuses
on teaching seven first units in New Headway Pre-intermediate. This involves the
participation of both the teacher and students‟ activities at the classroom. Whereas the
second section with 25 periods just involves the students‟ activities outside classroom. The