Factors causing listening comprehension difficulties for grade 10 students in tran dai nghia high school

CAN THO UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

FACTORS CAUSING LISTENING
COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES FOR
GRADE 10 STUDENTS IN TRAN DAI
NGHIA HIGH SCHOOL
B.A thesis

Supervisor: Trịnh Quốc Lập, Ph.D
Researcher: Trần Họa Mi
Student’s code: 7062907
Class: English Language Teaching 01
Course: 32

Can Tho, April 2010


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis would not have been completed without the help and support of
many people. During my process of carrying out the study paper, I have met lots of
difficulties but I have received the great support, guidance and encouragement from
my supervisor, teachers, my family and my friends.
Firstly, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Mr. Trinh
Quoc Lap for his valuable guidance, enthusiastic support, and helpful advice. He had
to spend much of his precious time with me.
Secondly, I would like to send my sincere thanks to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tung
and Mrs. Pham Thi Mai Duyen for their useful feedback.
Thirdly, I would like to send my gratitude to all teachers of English Department

for their dedication teaching me much vital knowledge during my student time and to
executive staff who gave me valued opportunity to conduct the study.
Fourthly, I am grateful to 100 grade 10 students in Tran Dai Nghia high school
for helping me fill the questionnaires.
Finally, I wish to express my thanks to my family and my friends, who offered
me supports and advice.
Thus, once again, I would like to express my great gratitude to all of you.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS..................................................................................................iv
LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................................v
ABSTRACT............................................................................................................................vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................ 1
1.1 General statement of the problem ................................................................. 1
1.2 Statement of the hypotheses, objectives, and research question..................... 3
1.2.1 Hypotheses..................................................................................... 3
1.2.2 Objectives ....................................................................................... 3
1.2.3 Research question ........................................................................... 3
1.3 Organization of the study............................................................................. 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.............................................................. 5
2.1 Listening comprehension .............................................................................. 5
2.2 The importance of comprehension ................................................................ 5
2.3 Potential factors causing listening comprehension difficulties in second
language learning............................................................................................... 6
2.3.1 The text.......................................................................................... 6

2.3.2 The listener ..................................................................................... 9
2.3.3 The speaker................................................................................... 13
2.3.4 The environment ............................................................................ 14
2.4 Justification of the present study ................................................................ 14

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHOD .............................................................. 16
3.1 Research design......................................................................................... 16
3.2 Subjects ..................................................................................................... 16
3.3 Data collection instrument.......................................................................... 16
3.4 Research procedure .................................................................................... 17

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CHAPTER 4: RESULTS .................................................................................. 18
4.1 The reliability of the questionnaire ............................................................ 18
4.2 Factors causing difficulties in listening comprehension ............................. 18
4.2.1 The speaker .................................................................................. 19
4.2.2 The listener................................................................................... 20
4.2.3 The text and the environment........................................................ 21

CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY AND DISCUSSIONS ........................................... 23
5.1 Discussions................................................................................................. 23
5.2 Implications................................................................................................ 25
5.3 Limitations.................................................................................................. 26
5.4 Recommendations....................................................................................... 27
5.5 Conclusions ................................................................................................ 27

REFERENCES .................................................................................................. 29
APPENDICES ................................................................................................... 31

Appendix 1: questionnaire (English) ........................................................................... 31
Appendix 2: questionnaire (Vietnamese) ..................................................................... 35

iii


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
EFL: English as a foreign language
ESL: English as a Second Language
IELTS: International English Language Testing System
L1: Native Language
L2: Foreign Language
M: Mean
MOET: Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam
SD: Standard Deviation
SLA: Second Language Acquisition
TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language

iv


LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Descriptive statistics of factors causing listening comprehension difficulties
Table 2: Descriptive statistics of each factor causing listening comprehension
difficulties
Table 3: The frequency of factors related to the speaker causing difficulties in
listening comprehension
Table 4: The frequency of factors related to the listener causing difficulties in
listening comprehension
Table 5: The frequency of factors related to the text causing difficulties in listening

comprehension
Table 6: The frequency of factors related to the environment causing difficulties in
listening comprehension

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ABSTRACT
In this study, an attempt was made to explore the factors which cause listening
comprehension difficulties for language learners. The subjects of the study were 100
grade 10 students in Tran Dai Nghia high school. They all come from basic classes; no
one studies in social classes which focus much more on teaching and learning English.
The required data for the study were collected by using one questionnaire. Then,
descriptive analysis was employed to analyze the responses given to each item in the
questionnaires. Finally, the study confirmed that 10th graders in Tran Dai Nghia high
school encountered lots of problems with their listening comprehension. The study at
last identified four major factors which cause difficulties in students’ listening
comprehension. These factors consisted of the text, the listener, the speaker and the
environment.

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FACTORS CAUSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES Trần Họa Mi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
The chapter firstly introduces the general statement of the problem. Besides, the
hypotheses, the objectives, and the research question are also included. At last, it provides the
organization of the present study.

1.1 General statement of the problem
Vietnam has recently joined in World Trade Organization (WTO) with many
opportunities as well as many challenges. The country as one of the most fascinating
destinations to tourists from all over the world has triggered an explosive interest in
English language learning and a severe demand for English studying. Being able to
communicate in English – the international language - in order to integrate Vietnam
into the world becomes more important to Vietnamese people, especially to
Vietnamese students - who play the influential role in how much the country will
develop.
Grasping the problem, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has
promulgated the renovation policy. The new English textbook, which focuses on
developing listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, but not just on vocabulary
and grammar as in the past, has been introduced into all schools’ curricula. Due to this
textbook, students are hoped to acquire English proficiency.
However, after many years of implementing the new curriculum, the
curriculum seems to be not effective as expected. In reality, many Vietnamese
students particularly encounter difficulties in using English to communicate because
among the four skills, the aural and oral are the most neglected skills. Evidence which
supports this claim is the dissatisfactory listening scores of Vietnamese students in
standardized tests such as TOEFL and IELTS. For instance, after at least 5 years of
studying English, many grade 10 students in Tran Dai Nghia high school, where I had
my apprenticeship, cannot understand even plain sentences that their English teachers
talk to them. Therefore, in English classes, the mother tongue is used more than the
target language; which demonstrates the weakness in listening ability of students.
Nevertheless, listening plays an important role in people’s life. A study by Wilt
(1950), found that 45 % of communication time was spent for listening, 30 % for
speaking, 16 % for reading, and 9 % for writing. According to Bulletin (1952),

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FACTORS CAUSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES Trần Họa Mi

listening, the fundamental language skill, is the medium through which people get a
large part of their education, their information, their understanding of the world and of
human affairs, their ideals, sense of values, and their appreciation.
Moreover, listening ability plays a significant role in the development of other
skills. By being able to understand people accurately, students are much more likely to
be able to reproduce accurately, refine their understanding of grammar and develop
their own vocabulary (Huang, 2009). Anderson and Lynch (1988) pointed out the
effect of listening skill on speaking skill as well. They asserted that for L2 learners,
effective speaking relies on successful listening. These two researchers also figured
out the influence of listening skill on reading skill and, at last, advised both native and
foreign learners that “explicit practice to improve listening skills would be advisable
and beneficial, both for its own sake and also as a support to reading skill
development” (p.18).
The globalization of the world economy and the crucial role of the listening
comprehension in communication require students to be good listeners since many of
them may need to use English for their further study or work. It is a big challenge for
language teachers to help their students do so. First of all, in my opinion, English
teachers need to ascertain the factors that cause difficulties in listening comprehension
for their students. Being aware of these factors, teachers can help their students
overcome and get success in listening comprehension in particular and in
communication in general. However, the real thing is, in Vietnam, very little attention
is paid to teaching listening lessons as well as finding students’ difficulties in listening
comprehension. Some teachers think that listening is the easiest skill to teach, whereas
most students think it is the most difficult skill to tackle.
The world context together with my individual desire to help high school
students improve their listening and contribute to enrich the listening research which
has been done so far, I am interested in doing a research on “factors causing listening

comprehension difficulties for grade 10 students in Tran Dai Nghia High School”.

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FACTORS CAUSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES Trần Họa Mi

1.2 Statement of the hypotheses, objectives, and research question
1.2.1 Hypotheses
I hypothesize that four factors: the text, the listener, the speaker, and the
environment are major causes to listening comprehension difficulties for 10th graders
in Tran Dai Nghia High School.

1.2.2 Objectives
The objective of the study is to identify the factors which cause listening
comprehension difficulties for grade 10 students in Tran Dai Nghia High School to
help students avoid encountering these difficulties so that they can get successful
listening comprehension.

1.2.3 Research question
The study is conducted to answer the question:
Which factors cause listening comprehension difficulties for grade 10
students in Tran Dai Nghia High School?

1.3 Organization of the thesis
This thesis consists of five chapters.
Chapter 1 is an introduction to general statement of the problem, the research
question, the objectives of the thesis, and some hypotheses of the researcher about the
factors causing listening comprehension difficulties for grade – 10 students in Tran
Dai Nghia High School. At last, it introduces the organization of the present study.

Chapter 2 is the theoretical research, literature review. It presents some key terms
related to the research question like listening comprehension. Besides, some findings
of previous researches related to the problem have also been presented.
Chapter 3 presents a description of research methodology which consists of the
research design, the procedure, the description of subjects, the instrument, and the
description of measures employed.
Chapter 4 shows the results of the study. In this chapter, data collected from the
instrument will be analyzed critically through charts and tables. Consequently, the

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FACTORS CAUSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES Trần Họa Mi

factors causing listening comprehension difficulties for grade 10 students in Tran Dai
Nghia High School will be revealed.
Chapter 5 summarizes the research problem, method, results. In this chapter, the
researcher discussed the results critically. Next, pedagogical implications, limitations
and recommendations are presented. Finally, the conclusion is also included.

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FACTORS CAUSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES Trần Họa Mi

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter reviews literature related to the concept of listening comprehension, the
significance of comprehension, and potential factors that are claimed to affect the learners’
listening comprehension. At the end of the chapter, justification of the present study is
presented.

2.1 Listening comprehension
Comprehending a spoken language is a complex process in which the listener
constructs a meaning out of the information provided by the speaker (Samuels, 1984).
In the listening comprehension process, the listener has an active role in activating
many kinds of knowledge, and applying what he knows to what he hears and trying to
understand what the speaker means (Anderson & Lynch, 1988). Specifically, the
listener has to “discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical
structures, interpret stress and intonation, retain what was gathered in all of the above
and interpret it within the immediate as well as the larger socio-cultural context of the
utterance” (Vandergrift, 1999, p.168). According to Buck (2001), the process of
listening comprehension begins with taking an acoustic signal and then processing
that in some ways to understand the text. He also claims that listening comprehension
is the result of an interaction between a number of information sources: the acoustic
input, different types of linguistic knowledge, details of the context, and general world
knowledge, etc.; and listeners use their available information, or whatever information
seems relevant to help them interpret what the speaker is saying.

2.2 The importance of comprehension
Krashen (1981, as cited in Anderson & Lynch, 1988) has claimed that
comprehension is central and possibly prominent in the whole process of language
learning; and it may be at the heart of the language acquisition process. Winitz (1981,
as cited in Byrnes, 1984) also believes that comprehension is important in both first
language and second language learning because of its function as the basic mechanism
through which the rules of language are internalized and its chronological production
precedence.

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FACTORS CAUSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES Trần Họa Mi

2.3 Potential factors causing listening comprehension difficulties in second
language learning
This section summarizes the four factors including the text, the listener, the
speaker and the environment (or sometimes called the physical setting) which are
emphasized in books of foreign language teaching experience of many years, articles
about listening comprehension, and studies conducted on listening comprehension.
Anderson and Lynch (1988) state that listening difficulty “can be a product of the
interaction between the text, the listener, and the context in which listening takes
place” (p.81).

2.3.1 The text
One of the main factors believed to affect listening comprehension is the text.
According to Anderson and Lynch (1988), some of characteristics of language input
which may cause difficulties for L2 learners are “the content of what is said may be
fairly unpredictable; it may be abstract in nature; it may deal with a range of complex
topics, and it will probably be expressed in quite involves linguistic form” (p.46).
 Texts containing unknown words
Underwood (1989) states that unknown words in listening texts cause
difficulties which listeners may encounter in their listening. For foreign language
learners, when encountering an unknown word – a suddenly drop barrier, they stop
and think about the meaning of the word; which makes them miss the next part of the
speech. As a result, if listeners pause too long over one word or phrase, the meaning
of the whole speech may be lost or misinterpreted (Lowe, 1984, as cited in Joiner,
1986).
 Texts containing anaphoric terms
Samuels (1984) defines an anaphoric term as “a word used as a
substitute for a preceding word or group of words” (p.24). According to Pearson and
Johnson (1978, as cited in Samuels, 1984), anaphoric terms create difficulties for

listeners to comprehend a message. The reason is to understand the anaphoric term;
one must locate and identify its referent. This is very difficult because, when listening,
one cannot go back in the text to locate the referent. Consequently, comprehension
will suffer.

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FACTORS CAUSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES Trần Họa Mi

 Texts containing referring expressions
Anderson and Lynch (1988) argue that texts containing a varied range
of referring expressions are potentially problematic, even for relatively mature native
listeners. To a foreign language listener, it is far more difficult to comprehend such
texts. Consequently, the speed of comprehension is reduced when listeners have to
make inferences (Haviland & Clark, 1974, as cited in Buck, 2001) or, much more
seriously, comprehension is lost.
 Length of texts
According to many researchers, the length of listening texts is a source
of difficulty. Call (1985) claims that listening to long texts may put an additional
burden on memory, and may cause lapses in concentration. As a result, listeners lose
information and comprehension. For example, listening to a fifty-minute lecture,
where physical tiredness can cause listeners’ attention to wander makes them miss
parts of the talk (Anderson and Lynch, 1988). And by the time speakers have finished
a ten - minute speech, an average person has already forgotten half of what was said
(McCutcheon, Schaffer, & Wycoff, 1994). If listeners listen to too long texts, their
comprehension will be reduced considerably because they may forget lots of the
information provided. To give the reason for a failure to understand long messages,
Anderson and Lynch (1988, p.9) state simply because “our mental recorder did not
have enough blank tape available to make the recording”.

 Texts containing long sentences
In Call’s (1985) research, subjects found them especially difficult to
digest long utterances with embedded due to the limitations of short-term memory.
 Unfamiliar – topic texts
Regarding the results of Chinese EFL students’ multiple - choice
comprehension test after they have listened to a lecture in Chiang and Dunkel’s (1992)
research, the subjects scored higher on the familiar-topic lectures than on the
unfamiliar-topic lectures.
 Difficulty of texts
Anderson and Lynch (1988) claims that if learners listen to listening
materials that are so difficult as to be incomprehensible, they may be dispirited; and
these materials encourage their passive and unsuccessful listening habits.
Accordingly, their comprehension suffers.

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FACTORS CAUSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES Trần Họa Mi

 Linguistic features in texts
Yagang (1994) indicates some linguistic features of oral texts which
cause difficulties for students to understand these texts. First of all, liaison (the linking
of words in speech when the second word begins with a vowel) and elision (leaving
out a sound or sounds in rapid speech) make students hard to distinguish or recognize
individual words in the stream of speech. Secondly, colloquial words, expressions and
slang raise comprehension problems for students those are familiar with formal or
bookish English. Thirdly, ungrammatical sentences which may be omitted some
elements or added some redundant ones are also a source of comprehension
difficulties. As Buck (2001) states that spoken language consists of short phrases or
clauses not connected by any formal grammatical relationship because these ones

strung together by the coherence of the ideas. Reduced and ungrammatical forms
which would be expected to hinder understanding are mentioned by Joiner (1986) as
well.
 Information organization in texts
Glenn (1978, as cited in Anderson & Lynch, 1988) claims that when
events in a story are described out of chronological sequence, then it is harder to
understand that story.
 Specific text types
Buck (1990) argues that students who are used to the spoken prose as in
news broadcasting and reading aloud written texts may sometimes find the natural
dialogues difficult to understand because the former one is characterized by an even
pace, volume, pitch, and intonation; meanwhile, the latter kind of listening material is
full of hesitations, pauses, and uneven intonation. In other words, there are some
specific text types causing certain difficulties for listeners to understand the meaning
of texts.
 Hesitation phenomena
Hesitation presents a major comprehension difficulty to non-native
listeners of spontaneous speech (Buck, 2001). In Voss’s (1979) research, 22 nonnative speakers of English were asked to listen to a 210 word passage of spontaneous
speech. The passage consisted of a variety of hesitation phenomena: repeats, false
starts, filled pauses and unfilled pauses. Results indicated that nearly one-third of all
perception errors were connected with hesitation phenomena.

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FACTORS CAUSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES Trần Họa Mi

 Disruption
Any disruption or flashback seems to make the information more
difficult to understand (Anderson & Lynch, 1988).

 The absence of signaling cues in texts
Jung (2003) examined the effects of discourse signaling cues on L2
learners' listening comprehension of high-level information and low-level information
in academic lectures. Of the 80 Korean EFL learners, 40 learners in signaled group
listened to the lecture with discourse signaling cues, and 40 remaining learners in
nonsignaled group listened to the lecture without such cues. The results indicated that
discourse signaling cues play an important role in L2 listening comprehension. In
comparison with the signaled group, the nonsignaled group recalled noticeably worse.

2.3.2 The listener
Listeners appear to have considerable impact on listening comprehension.
Anderson and Lynch (1988, p.6) argue that understanding is not something that
happens because of what a speaker says: “the listener has a crucial part to play in the
process, by activating various types of knowledge, and by applying what he knows to
what he hears and trying to understand what the speaker means.” Thus, whether or not
comprehension occurs depends much on the listener.
 Lack of nonverbal forms
Samuels (1984) states that when listeners do not see speakers’ body
language and facial expressions, they find it more difficult to understand what
speakers mean because the nonverbal forms of communication has an important
function as at least the verbal forms.
 Lack of background knowledge
Buck (1990, p.71) states that:
It is clear that background knowledge, whether conceived as frames, scripts or schema,
is obviously important in listening comprehension… In cases where the listener’s
background knowledge for a specific event is different from the speaker, not only may
helpful top-down constraints be lacking, but there is the possibility of the listener being
led down various garden paths in an attempt to understand events in terms of
inappropriate knowledge structures.

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FACTORS CAUSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES Trần Họa Mi

Background knowledge is very important in listening comprehension. If
listeners have no knowledge relevant to the particular events being described in the
text, then it will be more difficult to understand, or could cause listeners considerable
confusion even though the language may not be linguistically challenging (Buck,
2001). The effect of background knowledge on listening comprehension is also
demonstrated through Sadighi and Zare’s (2006) study. These two researchers
explored the effect of background knowledge on listening comprehension on 24
Iranian EFL learners studying in 2 TOEFL preparation classes. They are divided into
an experimental group (in Pouya Language Institute) and a control group (in Shiraz
University Language Center). The results of a 50 listening question TOEFL test of
language proficiency showed that the control group had a worse performance as
compared with the experimental group in the listening test. Finally, the two
researchers counseled that teachers need to recognize that students’ background
knowledge contributes significantly to students’ comprehension.
 Lack of language knowledge
Anderson and Lynch (1988) argue that although the L2 system may not
always be the principle cause of comprehension difficulty, the L2 learner will still
come up against problems that are primarily linguistic.
Firstly, if listeners’ knowledge of pronunciation is inadequate, their
ability to discriminate sounds will be weak and their comprehension will be impeded.
In a research study, Henricksen (1984, as cited in Buck, 2001) indicated that L2
listeners’ comprehension is reduced significantly by the presence of phonological
modification. Even higher – level L2 listeners can fail to recognize the language they
actually know very well. Therefore, according to Buck (2001), listeners need to know
the phonological system – the complex set of rules that determine the pronunciation of

connected speech – in order to be able to process natural speech in real time.
Secondly, any lack of grammatical knowledge can reduce L2 listeners’
listening comprehension. For example, if they cannot discriminate subordinate clauses
from main clauses, even though they understand all the words in the sentence,
understanding is unlikely to occur with accuracy. Moreover, if listeners are unable to
segment complex embedded sentences into more basic syntactic units – which may
result from their lack of the knowledge of grammar, their comprehension will suffer
(Samuels, 1984).

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FACTORS CAUSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES Trần Họa Mi

Lastly, Brindley (1997) claims that lack of the knowledge of key lexis
can lead to miscommunication or even breakdown. Stæhr (2009), in an empirical
study, investigates the role of vocabulary knowledge in listening comprehension with
115 advanced Danish EFL learners. This study thus provides empirical evidence that
vocabulary knowledge is an important factor for successful listening comprehension
in EFL. Furthermore, when foreign- language students’ knowledge of English clichés
and collocations – parts of lexis knowledge - is insufficient, they cannot predict a
missing word or phrase. This is a major problem for students (Yagang, 1994).
 Lack of sociocultural, factual, and contextual knowledge
According to Underwood (1989), even if listeners can understand the
surface meaning of the text, they may have considerable difficulties in comprehending
the whole meaning of the passage unless they are familiar with the context. Similarly,
students in Goh’s (2000) study expressed difficulties in understanding the intended
message though they were familiar with literal meaning of words. This may occur
because listeners lack sociocultural, factual, and contextual knowledge of the target
language. Any insufficiency of such knowledge or gaps in knowledge of the second

language culture, of the associations and references available to native users can
present an obstacle to comprehension because language is used to express its culture
(Anderson & Lynch, 1988).
 Having trouble with multiple meanings of words
It is a common phenomenon in EFL classes that listeners know only the
most common meaning of a word despite the fact that each word may have multiple
meanings. Therefore, when listeners encounter a word in one of its less common uses,
they are more likely to confuse (Samuels, 1984). Accordingly, listening
comprehension difficulties occur.
 Lack of motivation and attention
Both Samuels (1984) and Underwood (1989) affirm the importance of
motivation and attention of listeners in listening comprehension. Without motivation
and attention, learning does not occur and comprehension is impeded (Samuels,
1984). The inattention of listeners to speakers is one of the reasons for poor
comprehension because comprehension can be weakened seriously when there is even
the shortest break in attention (Underwood, 1989).

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FACTORS CAUSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES Trần Họa Mi

 Lack of interests
Different listeners often have different motives for listening due to
different interests and different needs (Buck, 2001). Thus when some specific
listening materials do not attract listeners, they may get out of these; which makes
comprehension impossible.
 Inability to recognize familiar words
It is essential for listeners to recognize words that they have already
learnt when they occur within the swift stream of speech. There are some reasons

recommended for not being able to identify known words. Firstly, Aiyun (2004)
points out that listeners cannot recognize familiar words because they are not familiar
with the pronunciation of certain words. In other words, if a listener pronounces the
sounds accurately himself, it will be much easier for him to hear the words correctly
when said by someone else. Secondly, Rixon (1986) argues that spoken words do not
stay still to be scrutinized and puzzled over as written words. Thus it is more difficult
for students to identify words in speeches than in writings. In speeches, sometimes
sounds are said quickly, in an unemphasized position in a sentence and juxtaposed
with other words which may affect its pronunciation. If listeners do not know these
changes, they “may simply not recognize it as the same word, or may even miss its
existence completely” (Ur, 1984, p.18). Finally, listeners do not have enough time to
search their memory for the meaning of some words immediately although they are
familiar with the words (Ur, 1984).
 Problems with distinguishing sounds
In English, the number of words which can be confused or
misunderstood by inaccurate perception is moderately large (Ur, 1984). Similarly,
Underwood (1989) affirms that there are different words seeming similar in sounds
but different in meanings in English (as ship/sheep, meat/meet, fit/feet, write/right,
sight/site, etc). When foreign listeners come across such words, they may fail to
distinguish one from the other. Therefore, listeners’ comprehension would be impeded
much when they encountered such annoying words, including English homonyms and
homophones.
 Psychological and physical factors
Both psychological and physical factors may affect listeners’ perception
and interpretation of listening material negatively. It is too tiring to listen to and

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interpret unfamiliar sounds, lexis and syntax for long stretches of time. In listening,
the pace is decided by someone else, and the breaks may or may not occur where
listeners need them (Ur, 1984). In a word, when listeners are too fatigue, they are
most likely to give up listening. As a result, their comprehension undergoes.
 Negative personal beliefs
According to Galvin and Cooper (1999), personal beliefs may keep
listeners from really hearing what other people are saying. Some people believe they
know everything about a certain topic; so they do not need to listen carefully to others.
This attitude creates closed minds and barriers to listening.

2.3.3 The speaker
Speakers who play a significant role in the listening process by providing input
are likely to be a considerable source of listening comprehension difficulties.
 Unfamiliar accents
Accent is a very important variable in listening comprehension. An
unfamiliar accent can cause problems, may disrupt the whole comprehension process
or can make comprehension almost unattainable for a listener (Buck, 2001). It may
occur because many foreign listeners are used to the accent of their own teachers
(Buck, 1990; Ur, 1984) or to the standard variety of British or American English
(Buck, 1990). Thus, when coping with unfamiliar accents, they feel dismayed; which
breaks down their comprehension.
 Fast rate of speech
It is hardly surprising people everywhere believe that many foreign
language learners have trouble with the fast stream of speech in native language.
When a speaker speaks more than 3 words per second, listeners have insufficient time
to process everything such as thinking about the precise meaning of each word, the
way relative clauses are constructed, and speculating on what the pronouns may refer
to. When the speech rate gets faster, listeners do not have enough time even to process
the lexical and grammatical information, and they will begin to miss parts of the text.

At the certain speed, their processing will tend to break down completely; and they
will fail to understand much at all (Buck, 2001). Galvin and Cooper (1999) affirm that
if speakers speak too quickly (i.e. more than 120 to 180 words a minute), the audience
will get confused.

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2.3.4 The environment
The environmental factor causing comprehension difficulties may comprise the
unintentional noises, the lack of visual clues supporting for interpreting what is being
said and the bad quality of sounds in the recordings resulted from poor-quality
equipment.
 Unintentional noises
Noises, including both background noises on the recording and
environmental noises, can get the content of the listening passage out of listeners’
mind (Samuels, 1984). Without the whole content of the passage or the important
information in mind, listeners have trouble with their listening comprehension.
 Lack of visual clues
Ur (1984) argues that visuals have an important function as aids to
learning because they attract students’ attention, help and encourage them to focus on
the subject in hand. In many instances of listening, visual cues may contribute as
much as 93% of the total meaning of the utterance (Coakley and Wolvin, 1982, as
cited in Joiner, 1986). Therefore, it’s fairly difficult to concentrate on a spoken
material that is heard “blind”. Without these visuals, students’ attraction may be
distracted and their comprehension will endure.
 Poor-quality equipment
In his book, Samuels (1984) claims that unclear sounds resulting from

poor-quality equipment can interfere with listeners’ comprehension.

In short, as can be seen in the literature review, efforts have been made by
numerous researchers, scholars and teachers to identify the listening comprehension
difficulties experienced by language listeners as well as the factors causing the
difficulties. Of all, the text, the listener, the speaker and the environment are four
major factors believed to cause difficulties hindering language listeners from
comprehending what is heard.

2.4 Justification of the present study
The present study, depriving from students’ unsatisfactory listening results in
tests and inability to understand English spoken speeches, leading to inability to
communicate in English, is conducted basing on these sound foundations. The
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FACTORS CAUSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES Trần Họa Mi

findings of this study would hopefully be a preliminary study on factors causing
listening comprehension difficulties for grade 10 students in a high school in the
Mekong Delta.
In the system of education in Vietnam, English is a requisite subject in the
curriculum. However, students in high schools encounter various problems in
comprehending listening texts because this skill is emphasized by neither teachers nor
materials and the aural skill is also neglected at the lower educational levels. By
investigating the factors causing difficulties in listening comprehension for high
school students, English teachers can suggest appropriate methods to develop
learners’ listening skills. It is an urgent demand for English teachers, as for me.
Awareness of these factors would also benefit students themselves. When students
recognize their problems, they will be able to improve their listening and become

better listeners. It is hoped that what the present research tried to demonstrate profit
language trainers and learners in some ways.
To grasp the objectives of the study, the researcher of the present study has
adapted the questionnaire of Tesfaye Tilahun (2008), Addis Ababa University,
Ethiopia. This is the data collection instrument in his graduate thesis for the degree of
masters of Arts in teaching English as a foreign language. However, the researcher of
the current study has added some subjective ideas, some ideas related that she found
in numerous sources and literature, and revised the questionnaire so that it is suitable
for the real situation in Tran Dai Nghia high school, Vietnam and her objectives of
conducting the project.

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FACTORS CAUSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES Trần Họa Mi

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHOD
This chapter devotes to provide information on the research method used in the study.
Design, subjects, data collection instrument and research procedure are also presented.

3.1 Research design
The study follows a descriptive approach. The researcher investigates factors
causing difficulties in listening comprehension in English for learners.

3.2 Subjects
100 students of grade 10 in Tran Dai Nghia high school were involved in this
research. Participants, aged from 16 to 18, had Vietnamese as their first language and
came mostly (99%) from districts of Can Tho city. Most of them have studied English
for five years; some of them, for six or seven years; it depends on whether they live in
the centre or in the suburbs of the city. Participants were selected on the basis that

they are grade 10 students whose basis knowledge of listening is rather clear to
analyze because they finished at least five years of studying English and practiced
listening in their secondary schools.

3.3 Data collection instrument
Questionnaire, the only data gathering instrument, was used to get students’
opinions about factors causing difficulties for their listening comprehension in
English.
The questionnaire, which was designed in both English and Vietnamese,
comprises 3 parts. In part 1, students are required to provide information about their
class, age, gender, hometown, year of studying English and first language. The second
part, with 2 multiple choice questions, intents to get students’ points of view about
listening. The last part, the core of the questionnaire, is divided into 2 sections. In the
first section, section A, there are 34 statements about difficulties in English listening
comprehension caused by 4 factors: the text, the listener, the speaker and the
environment for students to decide whether they never, seldom, sometimes, often or
always face when listening to English texts. The researcher use five-scale where 1
represents the lowest (never) and 5 represents the highest (always) experience of
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FACTORS CAUSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES Trần Họa Mi

listening difficulties. At last, one open – ended question is included in section B to get
students’ supplementary listening comprehension difficulties that are not mentioned in
section A. (See appendix 1)
* Administration of the questionnaire:
Questionnaires were distributed to 100 participants at my research school.
Participants had 3 days to complete the questionnaires. This amount of time is
supposed to be enough for students to remind their experiences in listening. Before

answering the questionnaire, students were explained all of unfamiliar words and
complicated terms to ensure that they feel comfortable and confident to complete the
questionnaires. The researcher also explained to participants that the information will
be kept confidentially, which may make them feel safe and willing to help.

3.4 Research procedure
- Piloting the questionnaire
- Administering the questionnaire
- Analyzing data
- Reporting the results
The descriptive research was conducted during 3 months. For the first month, I
designed the questionnaire, the only data collection instrument used in my study. The
next 2 weeks were time for me to pilot and revise the questionnaire. Then, I contacted
and distributed the questionnaire to subjects in order to get data during the following 2
weeks. At last, the last month was for analyzing data and reporting the results.

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FACTORS CAUSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES Trần Họa Mi

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS
This chapter reports the results of the study. My research question is “Which factors cause
listening comprehension difficulties for grade 10 students in Tran Dai Nghia High School?”
and my research aim is to identify the factors that generate the listening comprehension
difficulties for the informants.

4.1 The reliability of the questionnaire
The questionnaire was piloted to define its reliability before it was dispensed
broadly to the participants. 25 questionnaires were distributed randomly to 25

participants. The reliability of the questionnaire was analyzed by the SPSS software
and tested by using the scale test. The alpha of the test .89 indicated a very strong
internal consistency of the items in the questionnaire, which means that it is a good
instrument to collect the data. The researcher could thus confidently use it to gather
the actual data from the remaining 75 respondents. After gathering data from 100
participants, the researcher analyzed the reliability of the questionnaire again. The
alpha .90 enforces the high reliability of the questionnaire.

4.2 Factors causing difficulties in listening comprehension
Results gained from the questionnaires were subjected to SPSS. Descriptive
statistic tests were run to check for the mean scores of factors. The results of the test
are presented in table 1.

Factors causing listening

N

Mean

Std. Deviation

Minimum

Maximum

100

3.4365

.53348

1.85

4.56

comprehension difficulties
Table 1: Descriptive statistics of factors causing listening comprehension difficulties

It can be seen in table 1 that students often have trouble with understanding
listening texts (M = 3.43). Among 100 participants, the difficulties that each
participant has are various (SD = .53).

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