Problem facing english majored freshmen at tay do university when learning english listening subject

TAY DO UNIVERSITY
FACULTY of LINGUISTICS and LITERATURE

PROBLEMS FACING ENGLISH

MAJORBD FRESHMEN AT TAY DO
UNIVERSITY WHEN LEARNING
ENGLISH LISTENING SUBJECT

Supervisor:
Dang Thi Bao Dung,

MA

Student's name: Thai Fham Anh Duy
Student's code: 1157010011
Class: English 6

,rUdlto:oHtAvoo
L.003728

May 2015


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
My research could not be finished without the help of a lot of people. I would like
to give my profound gratitude to all those who helped me to complete this research.

First of all,

I would like to send my sincere thanks to the University of Tay Do,

especially, the teachers of Faculty of Linguistics and Literature for bringing me
opportunities to study and conduct the research.
Secondly,

I want to express my honest gratitude to my

supervisor, Ms. Dang Thi

Bao Dung, for her precious comments and important instructions. She was always

willing to help me correct every mistake in my research, provide me many useful
references and timely give me directions

to lead my

research

to the right path.

Besides, during the years leaming at University, she was a good and enthusiastic

teacher who encouraged students by giving her valuable advice, understood and

wholeheartedly created the best conditions

for her

students

to

study better.

Truthfully, my research could not be completed successfully without her dedicated
assistance.

In addition, I would like to thank the students of English 9 class for spending their
time joining in the questionnaire and the interview questions. Their cooperation was
a

very meaningful contribution to my research.

Finally, I want to give my deep gratefulness to my family for supporting me the best
condition and encouraging me throughout the years of studying. They absolutely

trust me and love me with all their heart. This is the motivation that helps me
accomplish this study.


COMMENTS

ll


TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT...........
CoMMENTS............
TABLE OF CONTENTS...........

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
ABSTRACT """"""'

............
.............

Rationale

L.2.

Research aims and research

.....vi

"""""'vii
..................

question...

ii

...........iii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.............................. ...........

1.1.

i

1

1

......3

....""""""' 3
study
.............." 3
1.2.2. Research question
........."""""" 3
1.3. The significance of the study
....."""""""' 3
1.4. The organizationof the study
...".""" 4
CILAPTER 2: LIIERATURE REVIEW
................4
2.1. Definitions of listening ..............
""" 6
2.2. The importance of listening
"""'7
2.3. Problems in learning listening subject
..."""""""" 8
2.3.1. Problems related to linguistics............
2.3.1.1. Pronunciation, intonation and accent problems.. """"""' 8
..............."' 10
2.3.1.2. Vocabulary problems.
""' 11
2.3.1.3. GrammarProblems
1.2.1. Aims of the

2.3.2. Problems related to background

knowledge.........

........'."""

12

subject..... ..... 13
.................... 13
2.3.3.1. Psychological obstacles............
.................. 14
2.3.3.2. The speech rate..........
........ 15
2.3.3.3. Unfamiliar topics
............. 17
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY..
2.3.3. Elements affecting learning English listening

111


5:

CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS

CHAPTER

1V

l?

v


LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

LIST OT'F'IGURES
Figure 1. Students' living

environment...................

........................20

Figure 2. The subjects that students learned in high school.....................................21
Figure 3. The amount of years in learning English of students................................22

Eng1ish...................
Figure 5. The importance of listening......
Figure 4. The importance of leaming

..............23
..............25

Figure 6. Students' self-evaluation on their listening ability .............. .....................27

LIST OF'TABLES

time............

..........................22
Table2. Students'purposes of leaming English.................. ...........24
Table

l.

Student's weekly practicing

of

statements about participants' opinion towards the

listening

.................26

Table 3. The findings
importance of

Table 4. Students' daily practicing

time.................

.........................27

Table 5. The participants' difficulties in pronunciation, intonation and accent.......28
Table 6. Problems in vocabulary of the respondents................................................30
Table 7. Students' difficulties in grammatical points in leaming listening .............31

knowledge

Table 9. Respondents' psychological obstacles in listening
Table 8. Difficulties caused by background

llll

1l"l* ":::"

:

::"*:

.:
::::: ::

vl

:::::: :":

.................32
...........32

.":**lI' "';;


ABSTRACT
Listening is said to be an indispensable subject which partly contributes to the
suocess

of leaming English and daily communications. It is also the subject that

many students usually face diffrculties in leaming. Therefore, this survey research

entitled "Problems facing English majored freshmen at Tay Do University when
learning English listening subject" was conducted to figure out common problems

in studying listening of students majoring in English. Statistical data were collected
from fifty Engiish majored freshmen course 9 at Tay Do Univers ity. The two main
instruments of the study were questionnaire and interview. The findings of the study

would point out the students' difficulties in linguistics (pronunciation, vocabulary,
grammar) background knowledge, the rate of speech, psychological obstacles, etc.

Thanks

to the results, some solutions would be suggested for the students'

improvement.

vll


CHAPTER

1

INTRODUCTION
Chapter

1

presents rationale, aims oJ'the study, research question, significance

:

of

the study and organization.

Nowadays, Vietnam is in the process of integrating with other countries around the

world, so this brings people many opportunities to cooperate and work with foreign
partners both inside and outside the country. Therefore, being able to use a foreign

language proficiently

is quite essential

because

it

can help people work more

effectively. Actually, the language which has been considered as an international
language is English.

It is used widely in every life aspect and becomes

a decisive

factor of employers in recruiting staff. In other words, it is compulsory for people
who want to get a good job with high salary to speak English well. For that reason,
many people nowadays, especially students, want English to become their second or

foreign language so that they can be successful in work.
Nevertheless, learning English seems to be a difficult process of many students. To
study English effectively, students must improve four basic skills including reading,

writing, speaking and listening. These four skills have

a mutual relation.

If listening

and reading are the language input, then writing and speaking are said to be the
language output. Among these skills, listening is a prominent skill which is hard to
be mastered and plays a significant role in communication. According to Epictetus,

"nafure has given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice
as much as we speak". Listening directly affects daily conversation because "the

most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen.
Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention" (Rachel

Naomi Remen). In fact,

if

there is no listening, people find

thoughts, feelings or ideas with others. Gradually, there

it

hard to share their

will be an existence of

an


invisible distance between person and person.

In

contrast,

understand clearly what was said, no reply to the speakers
conversation

if

will be sent and the

will be intem.rpted. That is why listening is a subject which

neglected for English learning students. Nunan (1988,

p.l)

asserts that

the basic skill in language learning. Without listening skill, learners

to

people do not

communicate effectively.

In

fact, over 50%

cannot be

"Listening is

will never learn

of time that students spend

functioning in a foreign language will be devoted to listening". However, it appears
as a challenge

in the process of learning English. "Listening is far more difficult

than many people can image" (Mee, 1990) because it "involves a:r active process

of

deciphering and constructing meaning from both verbal and non-verbal messages"
(Nunan, 1998). Listening is a complex and long-term process. It is not as easy as we
eat an apple or learn by heart a song in a short period of time. To improve listening

skill, students should spend much time practicing. Many of them may think that
listening is less important than grammar or other skills, so they do not frequently
practice their listening. It results in the failure in English learning process.

Similarly, students at Tay Do University especially the English majored freshmen,

usually encounter many problems when studying listening subject.

It

is

hypothesized that students have a passive way in learning. They commonly wait for
the information from the iecturers instead of actively finding their own materials for

learning. Yet, it is not easy for them to recognize their weak points when accessing
to English listening subject. Their drawback leads to a series of problems relatecl to

linguistic knowledge, including vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation, accent and
grammar, background knowledge and some other elements as well.

Consequently,

this research was conducted to figure out the problems facing

English majored freshmen at Tay Do University when learning listening subject.
Since then, students can realize their difficulties. Moreover, basing on the problerns
stated in this study, students can overcome their problems in listening and improve

their listening skill.

2


1.2.

Research aims and research question

1.2.7. Aims of the study
The research aimed at investigating the problems facing English majored freshmen

at Tay Do University when learning English listening subject to help them
recognize their own problems. Besides, this study was expected that students could

restrict their difficulties and improve their listening skill positively.

1.2.2. Research question
The research was conducted to deal with the research

question:
:

'oWhat are common problems in listening process of English majored freshmen at

Tay Do University?"

1.3.

The significance of the study

This study was expected to help learners realize their difficulties in learning English

listening subject, grarticularly the English majored freshmen at Tay Do University.

In addition, basing on the problems mentioned in this study, sorte useful solutions

would be recommended to solve the problems to help learners study listening
subject well.

1.4.

The organaation of the study

Chapter 1 : Introduction
Chapter

2:

Liter atrtre revi ew

Chapter 3: Research Methodology
Chapter 4: Results and Discussion
Chapter 5: Conclusion, Implications, Limitations and Recommendations

J

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW
Chapter 2 presents the definitions of listening and its importance; dfficulties in

learning listening subject (inguistics elements: pronunciation, intonation, accent,
vocabulary, grammar; background knowledge) and elements affecting learning
English listening subject (psychological obstacles, the rate of speech and unfamiliar
topics).

2.1. Definitions of listening
In daily conversation, there is an interaction between the speakers and the listeners.
In fact, many people think that the conversation will be successful if they use a lot
of words to communicate. However, speaking is just one of the components leading

to achievement in communication. Actually, communication will fail without the
existence

of listening. It helps people

understand what was said so that they can

have an appropriate reply to each other. The term of listeningaarr be defined by
several ways. According to the

ILA (International Listening Association,

1996),

listening is "the process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to
spoken and/or nonverbal messages". "Listening is the ability to accurately receive

and interpret messages

the

communication process."
( In addition, "listening is
in

the conscious processing of the auditory stimuli that have been perceived through

hearing" (west, Richard; Turner, Lynn (2010), Understanding Interpersonal
Communication. p. 186 ISBN 9780495908753). Listening is not an easy process

of

communication because "listening in any language requires focus and attention. It is

a skill that some people need to work at harder than
( />
others".

Furttrermore, Howatt and Dakin

(1974) define that "listening is the ability to identiff and understand what others are

saying. This involves understanding

grarnmar and his vocabulary,

a

speaker's accent

or pronunciation,

ffid grasping his meaning". Wipf (1984) also

4

his

states


that "listening is an invisible mental process, making it difficult to

describe.

Listeners must discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and
grammatical structures, interpret stress and intention, retain and interpret this within
the immediate as well as the larger socio-cultural context of the utterance"

(Wipi

(1984) Strategies for

Listening

Teaching Second Language

J.

Comprehension.Foreign Language AnnalslT:345-48). However, according to

Bulletin (1952: paru.6), "listening is one of the fundamental language skills. It is

a

medium through which children, young people and adults gain a large portion of

their education-their information, their understanding of the wcrld and of human
affairs, their ideals, sense of values, and their appreciation."

Although listening plays an important role in learning English as well as in daily

life, people cannot distinguish listening from hearing. They sometimes think that
listening is hearing. Nevertheless, "there are a lot of differences between listening
and hearing." (G.K. Chesterton). Semiotician Roland Barthes (1985) claimed that

"Hearing is a physiological phenomenon; listening is a psychological act". In his
opinion, "hearing is always occurring, most of the time subconsciously. In contrast,
listening is the interpretative action taken by the listener in order to understand and

potentially make meaning out of the sound waves. Listening can be understood on

three levels: alerting, deciphering, and an understanding

of how the sound

is

produced and how the sound affects the listener". (Barthes, Roland (1935)- In the

Responsibility of Forms- New York

Hill

and Wang). Brownell also assumes that

"hearing, essentially a physiological process, involves three interconnected stages:

reception

of

sound waves, perception

of

sound

in the brain, and auditory

association" (Brownell, 2006, 77). On the other hand, "listening comprehension
means the process of understanding speech in a second or foreign language. It was

the perception of information and stimuli received through the ears". (Richards,

Platt

& Platt, 1992) Grey Buck (2001:31)

comprehension is an active process

provides a definition that "listening

of constructing meaning and this is done by

applying knowledge to the incoming sounds'o in rvhich "number of different types

5


of

knowledge are involved: both linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic

knowledge". A long with the above defrnitions, Rost (2002) considered listening as

"a process of receiving what the speaker actually says (receirtive orientation);
constructing and representing meaning (constructive orientation); negotiating
meaning with the speaker and responding (collaborative orientation); and, creating

meaning through involvement, imagination and empathy (transformative
orientation)." (Rost, M. (2002), Teaching and Researching Listening. London, UK:
Longman).

In short, through years, a lot of ways to define listening has been observed. Among
these definitions, Wolvin and Coakley (1985) share the idea that listening is "the
process of receiving, attending

to and assigning meaning to aural stimuli; that is,

message transmitted through the medium

of sound". This is the one that can be

considered as a highly acceptable definition.

2.2.

The importance of listening

We cannot deny the fact that listening is vital not only in daily life aspects but also

in language learning. In fact, people spend nearly half of the time listening, at about
45%o

while they spend 30Yo on speaking,

16%o

on reading and 9% on writing (Wilt

1950). Similarly, according to t}re research of Adler, "adults spend an average
70%,'

of

of their time engaging in some sort of communication, of this an average of

45% is spent on listening compared to

30%o

on speaking, 16% on reading and

9%o

on

writing" (Adler, R. et al. 2001).

In real life, listening also has a strong impact on many fields. In other words, it
plays a crucial role which can determine the success or failure of every life aspect
such as communication, negotiation, business, etc...This skill "establishes us in our

real life situation and enables us to maintain meaningful rela:ions with family,
friends and professional associates" (Michael P and Deborah B, 1997).

6

If

people

have a good listening skill, they can avoid misunderstanding in communication.

It

will make the relationship among people better.

In language leaning, listening skill is an indispensable skill that learners
ignore. If they listen well, they

will feel confident

cannot

and get motivation when learning

speaking subject. Actually, they can imitate native speakers' pronunciation,

intonation and accent.
understanding

a

It is

recognized

speaker's accent

vocabulary, and comprehension

that "listening process involves

or pronunciation, the speaker's grammar

of

and

meaning" (Howatt and Dakin (1974)).

"Beginning in the early 70's, work by Asher, Postovsky, Winitz and, later, Krashen,
brought attention to the role of listening as a tool for understanding and a key factor

in facilitating language learning". Hence, "listening has emerged as an important
component

in the process of

second language acquisition" (Feyten, 1991).

"Listening can also help students build vocabulary, develop language proficiency,
and improve language usage" (Barker

l97l). In addition, Rost (1994) points out

that "listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides input for the
learners. Without understanding input at the right level, any leaming simply cannot

begin. Listening is thus fundamental to speaking". Being able to listen well, learners
can pass the examinations on listening subject easily and get good results as they

expected.

To sum up, listening is a key factor to the success of learning another language,
especially in studying English. That is the reason why students majoring in English
have to pay attention to this skill.

2.3.

Problems in learning listening subject

In the process of learning language, listening is not an easy subject. Therefore, it
causes many obstacles for many freshmen who do not spend time studying listening

subject. Being unable

to listen well

leads

to the lack of

confidence in

communication. This is also the problem that English majored fi'eshmen at Tay Do

7


University face when learning this subject. In this study, there are three common
reasons affecting students' ability of listening.

2.3.1. Problems related to linguistics
One of the most important parts assisting students to access to listening subject

is linguistic knowledge. It

efficiently

consists

of lots of

elements such

as

pronunciation, accent, vocabulary, gralnmar, etc...

2,3.L.1.

Pronunciation, intonation and accent problems

Pronunciation plays an indispensable role for students who want to master in both

speaking and listening. This means that

if

students care much about their

pronunciation, they will be proficient in listening. It cannot be derried that "Learners

with good English pronunciation are likely to be understood even if they make
effors

in

other areas, whereas learners with bad pronunciation

understood, even

if

will not be

their grammar is perfect" (Gilakjani, 2Al2). As a result,

pronouncing words incorrectly may cause

a

serious consequence- that is

misunderstanding among people. Furthermore, students cannot recognize some

familiar words when listening if they have mispronunciation of those words.
listeners learn to pronounce the sound accurately himself it

will

"If the

be much easier for

him to hear them correctly when being said by someone else." (Ur, 1984, p.14)
Gilbert (1984) agrees that "the skills of listening comprehension and pronunciation
are interdependent:

'If

they cannot hear English well, they are cut off from the

language...If they cannot

be understood easily, they are cut off from the

conversation with native speakers."'. Indeed, pronunciation is a cofirmon problem

of English majored students in learning listening because it directly affects their
listening ability. According

to Cook (1996), "learning to

pronounce

a

second

language means building up new pronunciation habits and overcoming the bias

of

the first language". When students learn how to pronounce an English word, their
mother tongue sometimes has an effect on the way they pronounce. Hence, their

8


pronunciation has a big difference from the native speakers'. That is the reason why
they usually face difficulties in listening subject.
Besides, intonation and accent are not less important than pronunciation. Intonation
is believed to be "the rises and falls in tone that make the 'tune' o I an utterance, it is

an important aspect of pronunciation of English, often making a difference to

&

meaning or implication" (Chen, 1983:143).Brazil, Coulthard

Johns (1980) also

argue that "Intonation in English might also convey a speaker's involvement

conversation as

well as a desire to take turn of talk or leave the

in

a

conversation.

Intonation is a significant feature in English". When learning English, intonation
usually makes students confused in communication because different intonations
can make the same sentence have various meanings.

in a conversation, "the

reason lies often

If there is a misunderstanding

in differences of

strt:ss and intonation

sufficiently large to spoil comprehension." (Boyle, 1984:37) It is worth noting that
accent is another vital element in linguistic knowledge which has a strong influence

on studying English listening.

All of us know that English language has many

dialects in different countries such as British English, American English, Australian

English, and etc. It is not surprised that "...someone from the south of England may
have problems understanding a speaker from the north; a New Zealandermay fail to

follow the speech of an American." (Underwood, 1989). Theretbre, students find it
hard to distinguish which word the speakers are mentioning when hearing a new
accent for the first time. In addition, another problem is that, according to Yagang
(1994), "the listeners have tendency

mostly listen.

If

to get familiar with the

accents which they

listeners are exposed to standard British or American accents, they

will face problems in understanding

other accents". There are many differences

between the way a Japanese person speaks English and a native speaker from
England because Japanese tend to speak English in their native accent, for instance.

In

class, students

will imitate the pronunciation

as well as the accent

of their

teachers who are non-native English speakers and gradually they are accustomed to

that accent. This becomes a big trouble in learning listening subject.

9


2.3.1.2.

Vocabulary problems

When learning a new language as a foreign or a second language, people must start

to learn the vocabulary of that language. Stahl and Fairbanks (1986) point out tliat
"vocabulary knowledge has been identified as the most important indicator or oral
language proficiency, which is particularly important for the comprehension of both
spoken and written language".

It is one of the most important parts in the process of

learning language in common and English in particular because "without grammar

very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed"
(Thornbury, 2002, p.33). Richard and Renandya (2002, p.252) assurne that
'Vocabulary is a core component of language proficiency and prc,vides much of the
basic for how well language learners speak, listen, read and write".

In learning listening subject, lack of vocabulary knowledge is a huge obstacle for

students. A word does not merely have a meaning, but it probably has many
different meanings

in a particular context. Therefore, students usually have

problems in identifuing the suitable words when they listen. "Knowledge of the
vocabulary used by the speaker is another quality for good listening comprehension;
some words have many meaning when they are used

in different contexts. Most

students can only identiff the most common meaning of a word. In order to become
an effective learner, one must understand a broader range of vocabulary" (Samuels,
1984). Underwood (1989:17) says that "for people listening to a'foreign language,
an unknown word can be like a suddenly dropped barier causing them to stop and

think about the meaning of the word and thus making them miss rhe next part of the
speech". In addition, students do not use the words they learn regularly, so they are

to forget those words. This causes a problem that they cannot recogni ze the
words they learned before when facing a text of listening. 'Iherefore, students
easy

should learn vocabularies as much as they can by putting new words to the
particular context and combining it with others in its context. "students should be

l0


active in creating semantic connections between familiar words and new vocabulary

in contextual situations".(Nagy & Anderson, 1984)

2.3.1.3.
Grammar

Grammar problems

is

"the whole system and structure

usually

general,

of a

language

taken

of syntax and morphology (including inflections)

as

or of

languages in

consisting
and sometimes also

phonology and semantics" (Oxford Dictionary). In other words, grammar is rules

of

words and how words combine together in a language. For that reason, grammar are
said to be the skeleton

of a language. It is the essential part of studying English

because "English grammar

is the body of rules that describe the structure

of expressions in the English language" (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).
Therefore, when approaching to a new language like English, learners must start to

study grammar.

If learners have good knowledge of grammar, they will

study

English well by using different and appropriate structures in forming sentences. It
also helps them recognize sentence structures and understand easily what speakers
are saying during the process of listening.

In

addition, the grammatical rules

Vietnamese grarnmar,

of English language are not the same as
so it is difficult for students to use English grarnmir

proficiently. Students frequently make mistakes when speaking or writing English
sentences because

of the fact that their mother tongue's grarnmar has a

strong

influence on learning another new language. This leads to the ir.tervention of their
mother tongue's grammar to foreign language's strucfures. Nguyen (2013) assulnes
that "the grammar of their mother tongue seems to be deeply rooted in their rnind so

to inference their mother tongue structure to the structure of the
foreign language". As a result, they will fail in learning listening subject.
students tend

Sometimes, the words in some sentences are the same; however the arrangement

those words

is obviously dissimilar. The differences of

sentence structures

of
will

result in the variety of meanings and implications. Hence, misinterpretation of the

11


meaning that the speakers actually convey due to the lack of gramrnar knowledge is
also. a common

problem occurring very often when students learn English listening.

In short, grammar is the element that cannot be neglected if
master in listening skill. However,

will

students want to be

students be good at listening subject

if they

oniy have good apprehension of linguistic fietd? Will they get success in this skill
without background knowledge?

2.3.2. Problems related to background knowledge
In reality, language and culture have a mufual relation. In fact, "Language cannot

exist without culture...Culture can be explained as what the society thinks and does,

and language is the expression of the ideas of the society" (the American linguist
Sapir, l92l:60-90). For that reason, it is necessary for students to have knowledge

of cultural background of the language they are learning. Provr:rb (1990) affirms
that "background knowledge includes knowledge of target culture, knowledge

of

current affairs, arts, politics and literature". Therefore, busfuress report, daily
conversation, economic report, technology, political issues, science, etc...are the
topics that can be found easily in the listening materials. 'oln terrns of listening, the

listener actively constructs (or reconstructs) the original meaning of the speaker
employing new input as clues. In this reconstruct process, the listener employs prior

knowledge

of the context and situation within which the listener occurs to

understand what he/she hears. Context and situation involve such things

a.s

knowledge of the text at hand, the speaker or speakers, and their correlation with the

situation, as well as with each other and previous event" (Pourhossein and Reza,

20ll:979). It is required

that students have variety knowledge on many fields to

apply their knowledge to the listening text. However, when facing the listening texts

including these topics, students seem to lack knowledge to understand what they
heard because these topics may consist of many new words and phrases that are

entirely strange to them. Anderson

& Lynch (2000) state that "lack of socio-

t2


cultural, factual and contextual knowledge of the target language can also present an
obstacle to comprehension because language is used to express culfure"

To sum up, background knowledge plays a significant role in students' learning
English listening. "Learning is effective when

it is possessed with meaningful

material related to knowledge that learners already possess" (Ausubel, 1968).

2.3.3. Elements affecting learning English listening subject
Besides the problems related to linguistic knowledge and background knowledge,

there are some elements that have effects on students' listening learning process.
They are psychological obstacles, the rate of speech and unfamiliar topics.

2.3.3.1.

Psychological obstacles

Psychological obstacle is the most complicated factor causing many difficulties in

both listening and speaking English of many students. Psychological obstacles
sometimes debilitate the ability of receiving the language input. It is stated by Dulay
(1982, p.4) that

'khen a student is exposed to a new language, his first internal

hurdles are posed by the individual's emotional barriers". Indeed, listeners with bad
mood find it difficult to concentrate on listening text. Besides, lack of attention is a
psychological barrier in studying listening. Brand (2010, p.ll) states that listening
is "the skill needed by a learner to focus on the lesson for a period of time without

allowing one's thought to be distracted".

If

students do not focus on the listening

will fail in getting the important information from the text and
will not deal with it well. Nevertheless, "it can be diflicult for listeners to
assignments, they

concentrate on
shortest break

a foreign language. In listening comprehension process, even

in affention

a

can seriously impair comprehension. Conversation is

easier when the students find the topic of the listening passage interesting; however,

students sometimes feel listening very tiring even

if

they are interested because it

requires an enormous amount of effort to follow the meaning" (Pourhossein, 2011,

13


p.982). This means that it is necessary for the activities provided by the lectures to
be interesting in order to attract the student's attention.

In addition, anxietv can be considered as an obstacle in students' psychology. It is
o'the

fear of misinterpreting, inadequately processing or not being able to adjust

psychologically to message sent by others" (Wheeless

,

1975, p.26,3). Moreover,

said by Brown (1994) that "anxiety is almost impossible to define
senterice.

it is

in a simple

It is associated with feelings of uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt,

apprehension or wolry". This kind of psychology restricts studenl.s' listening ability

since

it causes palpitation

students is the length

and breaks their concentration. Another barrier of

of the spoken texts. Actually, when they listen to the texts

which are long like lectures, they usually feel stressful and ernbarrassed. Hasan
(2000, 143) claims that

" the length of time students listen may cause memory

problems or even fatigue and this would distract listeners' attention from grasping

the meaning of the text when there is a lapse in concentration". As the lecture is

usually long and

it

to listen, students cannot remember all the
details and take note all the information in the lecture because there is a huge

amount

of

takes much time

information conveyed

in it. Taking note information will not be

successful as the speed of speaking and writing is different. For this reason, students
should have some techniques when taking note information during the long lectures.

In brief, psychological

obstacle

is the drawback of almost students in learning

English listening subject. Therefore, they need to overcome it in order to study well.

2.3.3.2. The speech rate
In leaming English, it is hard for the students to catch the speaker's rate of speech
because speech rate of a speaker is slightly different from other's. Rubin (1994:24)
claims that "the

rlte at which a speaker produces words in

depending on the'speaker and the particularities

-

conversation varies

such as register and subject

matter- of the occasion for speaking". Besides, in real conversation, speakers tend to

t4


speak fast.

In fact, to make the

speech smooth and sound natural, the speakers

frequently link the final consonant with the adjacent words'beginning with a vowel.

This makes the speed of their speech faster; therefore, students will get obstacle in
recognizing familiar words in conversation. That is why students usually encounter

difficulties

in

learning English listening. Underwood (1989, p.16) agrees that

"Many English language learners believe that the greatest difficulty with listening
comprehension is that the listener cannot control how quickly a speaker speaks".

Also, Flowerdew & Miller (1996) believe that "the problems of the students were
for the speed of delivery, new terminology and concept, difficulty in focusing and
the physical environment". On the other hand, students themselves should prepare
some tips to identiff which are the main points among the information given in the

conversation. Usually, the crucial ideas are spoken clearly with stress whereas the
supporting details are spoken rapidly with a lower voice. Thus, there is no need to
catch all the information in the text except the main ideas.

If they lose orientation in

determining the core information when listening, they probably feel ambiguous and
discouraged in learning. Being master in English listening is then, entirely out

of

their reach. One suggested solution for this problem is that, students should pay
attention to the connecting words. It

will help them very much in catching the gist

in communication and they gradually

overcome the barrier from speech rate

of

native speakers.

2.3.3.3. Unfamitiar topics
When studying listening in class, students are accustomed to the topics related to
acad.emic field. Indeed, the majority of flre materials used for listening tasks belong

to this aspect, so there is no astonishment that sometimes students feel strange when
encountering some unfamiliar topics. These familiar topics are sometimes brought

to listening course as challenge for students. They include social

issues such as

political reports, military issues or foreign affairs, etc. During the text, there will be
many words, terms and terminology which are unknown to the students. Hence,

15

understanding all the messages of these reports is a big difficulty. This makes the
students feel bored and discouraged. However, to be acquainted with the strange

topics, students should use various materials in many fields of social life to listen.

"Familiarity with the text makes listening easier for the listener as he is able to
relate to his own background knowledge" (Gebhard, 2000). This is a useful way to

enlarge knowledge

of different

aspects and help them get success

listening.

t6

in

studying


CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Chapter

3

presents the design, participants, instruments and procedures of the

research.

3.1.

Design

The survey research was conducted to answer the research question stated in
chapter

l. It was carried out at Tay Do University in Can Tho City. The main key of

the research was participants. They were

fifty English majored freshmen who would

be delivered questionnaire so that tlre information about their problems in studying

English listening subject could be collected. Moreover, to make the research more
specific and more objective, ten students were randomly selected in order to answer

the interview questions. This study was the combination of quantitative research
and qualitative research because its instruments were questionnaire and interview.

3.2.

Participants

The participants of this study were 50 freshmen from the English majored class,

IX at Tay Do university. Actually, there were 56 students; however, only 50

students participated in the questionnaire because 6 students were absent. They
course

were 13 males and 37 females. Their ages ranged from
Vietnamese as their mother tongue and English

is

lg to 22. They speak

considered as their foreign

language. They have been learning English from 4 to 12 years. The main material

English listening at university was the book of lnteraction

l,

of

silver edition (cheryl

Pavlik; Margaret Keenan Segal; published by McGraw-Hill ESL/ELT, a business
unit of the McGraw-Hill companies). In addition, the participants practiced some
extensive topics given by their teachers in class.

3.3.

Instruments

Questionnaire and interview questions were the instruments

of this research.

Questionnaire was used to find out the problems of students in leaming English

listening subject because

of its high reliability. Along with the questionnaire,

T RIJ di.tc:

DuilyDol

T HU vrEN

I