A study on how to improve English listening and speaking skills of the Customer Service Staff at Golden Forwarding Transport Joint Stock Company (GOLDTRANS)

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
------

GRADUATION PAPER
A STUDY ON HOW TO IMPROVE ENGLISH LISTENING AND
SPEAKING SKILLS OF THE CUSTOMER SERVICE STAFF AT GOLDEN
FORWARDING TRANSPORT JOINT STOCK COMPANY (GOLDTRANS)”

Hanoi, 2020

HÀ NỘI - 2015


DECLARATION
I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “A STUDY ON HOW TO IMPROVE
ENGLISH LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF THE CUSTOMER
SERVICE STAFF AT GOLDEN FORWARDING TRANSPORT JOINT
STOCK COMPANY (GOLDTRANS)” is the result of my own research at
Thuongmai University and the material in this research has not been submitted for
any degree at any other university or tertiary institution.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This graduation paper would not have been accomplished without the
guidance and help of some people, who in one way or another, contributed and
extended their valuable assistance in the preparation and completion of this study.
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my beloved
supervisor, M.A. Pham Thi Xuan Ha, one of the lecturers at the Faculty of Business
English in Thuong Mai University, for the invaluable support, guidance, and timely
encouragement she gave me throughout my research. I am truly grateful to her
advice and suggestions right from the beginning when this study was only in its
formative stage.

Secondly, I would also like to send my sincere thanks to my colleagues in
Golden Forwarding Transport Joint Stock Company (GOLDTRANS) who have
helped me in answering the survey questionnaire and making constructive and
perceptive judgments as well as suggestions for this paper.
Last but not least, I owe my loving parents and my friends for their continuous
support for me to contribute totally my time on this research. I would like to
acknowledge my special debt to them for their concern, sacrifice and massive love.
Regardless of my hardest attempt, this report certainly contains numerous
mistakes due to the limitation of information resources and other documents as well
as the inexperience of the writer in this issue. All of the feedbacks and
recommendations from readers are warmly welcome and will be considered in order
to improve the practicality of this graduation paper.
To everyone, thank you so much!


Hanoi, 19th April, 2020
Nguyen Ha Anh
ABSTRACT
Nowadays, due to the globalization, English has become a truly global
language crossing many international boundaries, the common language spoken by
people of different language backgrounds. There has been an increasing demand of
international communication, especially in the business communities where the
customers’ national languages are extremely diverse.
In Vietnam, English plays a significant role in many businesses. Mastering a
language is not only a vital requirement for high-level employees to apply new
technology processes but also an essential skill for modern Vietnamese. Therefore,
English has become the first requirement for employer to recruit their employees in
a number of fields, occupations and professions. Especially, logistic companies'
staff need to use English on everyday basis for communication on several levels. As
one of the leading logistics companies in the field of freight forwarding in Vietnam,

Golden Forwarding Transport Joint Stock Company (hereinafter referred to as
GOLDTRANS) has made an impressive foothold in the industry. However, as for
the employees in GOLDTRANS, they feel that learning English is difficult,
especially communication skills. Specifically, GOLDTRANS' customer service
staffs have difficulty in two skills: listening and speaking in their working process.
This study is researched on the importance of English listening and speaking
skills of the customer support staff. In addition, the researcher also analyses and
finds out the difficulties of English communication skills that employees in this
department have to face based on reasoning and practical expression. Then, the
survey will be conducted to collect survey data.
From above difficulties, the study has given some useful solutions to improve
English communication skills of customer support staff at GOLDTRANS to help


them feel more confident and professional when communicate with foreign
customers from many countries around the world.
Due to limited time, awareness and practical experience, the study could not
avoid shotcomings and errors. Therefore, I look forward to receiving comments and
suggestions from my supervisor and friends in order to perfect the study.
TABLES OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION……………………………..…………………………………….i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT............................................................................................................ iii
TABLES OF CONTENTS.....................................................................................iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.................................................................................vi
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES.....................................................................vii
CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY......................................................1
1.1. Rationale of the study.......................................................................................1
1.2. Previous studies.................................................................................................3
1.3. Aims of the study...............................................................................................5

1.4. Scope of the study.............................................................................................5
1.5. Research methodology......................................................................................6
1.5.1. Method...........................................................................................................6
1.5.2. Data collection procedures............................................................................7
1.5.3. Data analysis methods...................................................................................7
1.6. Organization of the study.................................................................................8
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW...............................................................9
2.1. Overview of listening skill................................................................................9
2.1.1. Definition........................................................................................................9
2.1.2. Types of listening..........................................................................................10
2.1.3. Characteristics of listening skill...................................................................13
2.1.4. The importance of listening skill..................................................................15
2.1.5. Listening problems of the English learners in general and the customer
support staff in GOLDTRANS in particular..........................................................16
2.1.6. Factors affecting listening skill....................................................................18
2.2. Overview of speaking skill.............................................................................20


2.2.1. Definition......................................................................................................20
2.2.2. Types of speaking..........................................................................................21
2.2.3. Characteristics of speaking skill...................................................................22
2.2.4. The importance of speaking skill.................................................................24
2.2.5. Speaking problems of the English learners in general and the customer
support staff in GOLDTRANS in particular..........................................................25
2.2.6. Factors affecting speaking skill....................................................................27
2.3. Conclusion.......................................................................................................29
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS.............................................................30
3.1. The research hypothesis.................................................................................30
3.2. Procedure of data collection...........................................................................30
3.2.1. Questionnaire survey....................................................................................30

3.2.2 Interviews.......................................................................................................31
3.2.3 Data analysis..................................................................................................31
3.3. Results and discussion....................................................................................31
3.3.1. Results...........................................................................................................31
3.3.2. Discussion....................................................................................................45
3.4. Conclusion.......................................................................................................52
CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS.......................53
4.1. Solution to improve speaking skill.................................................................53
4.2. Solution to improve listening skill.................................................................58
CONCLUSION......................................................................................................61
REFERENCES......................................................................................................63
APPENDIX...........................................................................................................viii
SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES...........................................................................viii
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS.................................................................................xii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
No Abbreviations
.
1

GOLDTRANS

English meaning

Vietnamese meaning

Golden Forwarding Transport

Công ty Cổ phần giao

No.
TOEIC

Joint Stock Company
Number
Test of English for

nhận vận tải Vàng
Số
Bài kiểm tra tiếng Anh

IELTS

International Communication
International English Language

giao tiếp quốc tế
Hệ thống kiểm tra tiếng

5
6

Etc.
MA

Testing System
Et cetera
Master of Art

Anh quốc tế
Vân vân
Thạc sĩ văn chương/ xã

7

IPA

hội
International Phonetic Alphabet Bảng ký hiệu ngữ âm

2
3
4

8

MBL

Master Bill

quốc tế
Vận đơn chủ

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
No

Tables and figures

.

1
2

Table 3.1. Staff’s profile
Chart 3.1. Frequency of listening and speaking English of the

32
32

3

customer service staff at GOLDTRANS
Table 3.2. Staff’s attitude towards the importance of English listening

33

4
5

and speaking skill
Chart 3.2. Staff’s listening and speaking ability self – rated
Table 3.3. The proficiency in listening and speaking English of

34
35

6

customer service staff at GOLDTRANS
Table 3.4. Customer service staff’s expectation to improve their

36

7

English listening and speaking skill
Chart 3.3. Frequency of organizing activities related to English at

37

8
9
10
11
12

GOLDTRANS
Chart 3.4. Factors affecting English speaking process
Chart 3.5. Factors affecting English listening process
Chart 3.6. Staffs’ speaking problems
Chart 3.7. Staffs’ listening problems
Table 3.4. Suggested solutions to improve English speaking skill for

38
39
41
42
43

13

the staff at GOLDTRANS
Table 3.5. Suggested solutions to improve English listening skill for

44

the staff at GOLDTRANS

Pages



CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
1.1. Rationale of the study
English has become an accepted international language since the World War
II. One of the reasons for this is that the United States has become more powerful in
their politics, economy, technology, and culture. Additionally, its language, English,
has become the language for international communication. The main cause of this is
globalization. As a result of the increasing demand of international communication
in the academic and business communities, English has earned the status of a global
language, the common language spoken by people of different language
background. Vietnam is a developing country. With the joining of economic sectors
and strong integration trend, the emergence of foreign companies as well as the
global economic needs appear more and more. Knowing how to use another foreign
language besides the mother tongue, especially English, provides more
opportunities for application. In fact, nowadays, English certification is almost
required for office work.
Hutchinson and Walter (1987) stated that “The effect was to create a whole
new mass of people wanting to learn English, not for the pleasure or prestige of
knowing the language, but because English was the key to the international

currencies of technology and commerce.” They also suggested that people are
determined to learn English because they know why they want to learn it and what
they can do with it. As there was a growing amount of English language learning, a
revolution in linguistics also emerged. Widdowson, 1978 (as cited in Hutchinson
and Walter, 1987) suggested that the trend in linguistics has changed from studying
the grammar rules of the language to studying how the language is actually used in
the communication in real situations.
The company in this study (GOLDTRANS) is one of the leading logistics
companies in the field of freight forwarding in Vietnam with the scope and size of
service and the number of long-term customers. There has been an increasing
workforce demand recently, especially for English speaking employees to work as
customer service agents in order to serve and handle the growing numbers of
foreign customers. Following the Chief Executive Officer’s operating strategy

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“Because We Care” and "Yes, We Can Meet Your Need", one of the goals is to
maintain high standards and a reputation of good and caring services. The CEO also
wants the company to “Not only focus on providing information service, but also
make customers feel well taken care of whenever they need assistance”. Also, the
company has aimed to improve the level of customers’ satisfaction toward the
service provided by the company. It is believed by the company that improving the
customer service employees’ language could help in this situation.
For other Vietnamese – speaking customer service employees of other
departments, they are provided with the appropriate wordings, scripts, or guidelines
of responses. It is quite convenient for them to scan through the scripts and respond
to the customers almost immediately. Unfortunately, for English – speaking
customer service employees, there is no English version of those scripts provided.
Inevitably, regardless of their years of working experience, putting the customers on

hold to read the information provided in Vietnamese and translate that into English
based on their own understandings occurs quite frequently. However, some of these
translated versions of responses can be ambiguous and/or incorrect, which could
lead to misunderstandings and several other drawbacks. This directly affects the
employees’ performances. According to the previous studies of Friginal (2007) and
Lockwood (2011), it is implied that as non-native speakers of English, customer
service employees may need to have the knowledge of cultural awareness and
cultural sensitivity, alongside with the improvement of English pronunciation,
grammar and communication skills. Moreover, the majority of the customers are
non-native speakers of English, and therefore difficulties in communication often
arise. Because of the diversity of customers’ nationality, language and culture, it
would be helpful if the customer service employees had the communication skills as
well as the knowledge and awareness in terms of different varieties of the English
language.
During my experience as a trainee for one month in Customer Service
department of GOLDTRANS, I was able to access to the existing difficulties in
English communication skills problems in this company. Although English is
necessary for work, due to no specific requirements on language proficiency and

2


nature of each department, employees don’t give enough attention to their English
communication skills, especially listening and speaking skills. Because of the
reasons above, the researcher carries on the study with the title: “A study on how to
improve English listening and speaking skills of the Customer Service Staff at
Golden Forwarding Transport Joint Stock Company (GOLDTRANS)” with
expectation to help the staff, especially the customer service staffs in GOLDTRANS
to improve their English listening and speaking skills to work with foreign guests
more effectively.

1.2. Previous studies
We all know that there are millions of English speakers across the globe. They
are eager to learn English with high passion and enthusiasm. Knowing English
increases your chances of getting a good job in a multinational company within
your home country or for finding work abroad. It’s also the language of
international communication, the media and the internet, so learning English is
important for socializing and entertainment as well as work.
Therefore, there have been lots of international and domestic studies which
have been done in recently relating to the learning English in general and English
communication in particular. However, I was really impressed with the following
researches:
For example, Helen Fraser, University of New England, 2000 has studied the
topic: “Coordinating improvements in pronunciation teaching for adult learners of
English as a second language”. In this study, the researcher is concerned with the
situation of non-native speakers of English who have come to live in Australia as
adults and have difficulty learning to speak English in a way that makes them easily
intelligible to native speakers. One of the challenges for this group of learners is the
huge variableness in their backgrounds, not just in terms of their native language
but in terms of their life histories, culture and education. Human learning ability
develops at a young age and becomes more difficult as we grow up. Especially the
language ability develops most strongly from the time we were born to adolescence.
There are also difficulties in teaching ability and techniques to dealing with this
group of learners.

3


“Factors affecting the learning of English as a second language macroskills
among Tongan secondary students” by Mele F. Latu, Edith Cowan University
(Australia), 1994 showed us the factors which might have impact on the learning of

English as a second language macroskills (listening, speaking, reading and writing)
by Tongan secondary learners.
In “Difficulties in learning English as a Second Language” by Dr. R. Kannan,
2009, the researcher pointed out the significance of learning English and some
difficulties they have to encounter during learning as well as practicing in daily life.
Bilingual method helps only to slow learners to some extent. The fear of
impossibility to master English communication skills prevents students from
learning new languages. Students’ learning purpose is only to pass the exams but
not able to handle any real-life situations.
According to Hasan (2000), “Listening comprehension provides the right
conditions for language acquisition and development of other language skills”.
Thus, Listening is essential not only as a receptive skill but also to the development
of spoken language proficiency.
There was a research studied and compared speaking skills of Grade 11
students using three communicative activities. It is Thanyalak Oradee, Udon Thani
Rajabhat University (Thailand) with study on “Developing Speaking Skills Using
Three Communicative Activities (Discussion, Problem – Solving, and Role –
Playing)” in 2012. In this study, the researcher also examined the students’ attitude
towards teaching English speaking skills using three communicative activities.
These studies, however, have not gone deeply into giving solutions to support
them deal with these problems thoroughly.
Not only do foreign researchers care about this issue, but local researchers
have also done the research related to improvement of speaking English skill. In the
study “Factors Effecting English Language Teaching and Learning in Higher
Education” by Hong Thi Nguyen, RMIT University (Australia) gave factors
affecting the efficaciousness of non – major English teaching and learning in
Vietnamese higher education through an investigation of classroom practices. In
addition, the author also gave solutions to improve the quality of non – major

4

English teaching and learning at HUTECH University in particular, and in
Vietnamese higher education in general.
Another study of the researcher Nguyen Thi Le Nguyen, Hanoi Pedagogical
University 2, Vinh Phuc, Vietnam showed the importance of learning English for the
non – English major students with the research “How to motivate non – English
major students in Vietnamese university of education to learn English”. The
researcher confirmed the importance of learning English nowadays. It not only
supports study at university but also reaches the higher ladder in the job. Finding
the motivation to support student’s passion in learning English but the researcher
has not mentioned to the solution to improve English speaking skill.
Recognizing the importance of listening and speaking English to staff in
Vietnam, as well as the urgent problem in order to provide solutions to staff to help
them improve their English listening and speaking skill, the researcher decided to
study on the topic “A study on how to improve English listening and speaking skills
of the Customer Service Staff at Golden Forwarding Transport Joint Stock
Company (GOLDTRANS)”.
1.3. Aims of the study
The purpose of this study is to find out the reality of English listening and
speaking skills of the staff at GOLDTRANS where I worked for one month as an
intern. More specifically, this study attempts to clarify the difficulties the employees
have to face in learning English listening and speaking skills and give suggestion to
help them improve their English listening and speaking skills. Based on the
findings, I further seek to suggest for the solutions to enhance English listening and
speaking skills for the staff in GOLDTRANS, especially in Customer Service
department.
1.4. Scope of the study
There is a number of different material resources that require a lot of time and
effect while my personal experience is limited. Therefore, this study can only focus

on studying the reality of using English of the employees in GOLDTRANS, then
determine problems they had to encounter when listening and speaking English to
give solutions which could help them improve their English listening and speaking

5


skills. However, the study will focus mainly on the solutions. I hope that this study
is a good reference material for the employees in GOLDTRANS in particular and
all employees in general to get higher speaking level.
Research subjects: The subjects of this study consisted of 30 employees in
Customer Service department in GOLDTRANS. The age of employees is from 22
to 40, 30% were female and 70% were male. Some of them have learnt English over
6 years, the others for 3 years and fewer. Most of them were non- English major
students when they studied at college or university.
1.5. Research methodology
1.5.1. Method
In order to attain the primary aims, the researcher has consulted several ideas
from the supervisor and people who fully understand this topic. All the theories
have been carefully selected and gathered through reference books and documents
on the Internet websites.
Survey questionnaire is one of the most effective instruments for collecting
data. Advantages of using questionnaires are less pressure on respondent, practice,
validity and reliability. Like questionnaire, interviews can allow conducting
intensive individual interviews with a small number of respondents to explore their
perspectives on a particular idea, program or situation. The purpose of using
questionnaire and interview is collect information that we want to collect about our
study objects.
A survey questionnaire has been designed as the key data collection of the
study. Thus, this study is conducted with qualitative method. In addition, interview

is also applied to make sure that the data was more accurate and reliable.
A combination of different methods above will provide reliable data bases on
which the conclusions and suggestions were made in the following parts.
1.5.1.1. Questionnaire
Questionnaires will be delivered to 30 employees of the Customer Service
department in GOLDTRANS. This survey is conducted in 4 steps:
Step 1: The researcher identified the situation/reality of the English listening
and speaking skills of the staff in Customer Service department in GOLDTRANS.

6


Step 2: The researcher selected the data collection instrument for the study, in
this case, survey questionnaires were chosen for the main data collection. Then, the
researcher firstly tried to draft survey questionnaires and asked supervisor to check
or improve the survey, as a result, the actual questionnaires were developed.
Step 3: In the following step, the researcher identified the subjects of the
survey and delivered the questionnaires to them.
Step 4: Finally, questionnaires were collected by the researcher and collected
data was analyzed after that.
There are total 30 questionnaires delivered and all of them were collected,
which means the rate of collection was 100% as participants are the researcher’s
colleagues.
All the comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion provided in the
study were based on the data analysis of the study.
1.5.1.2. Interview
Another research tool which was used in this study was personal interview.
The interviews were carried out with the system of 5 opening items to allow the
interviewees more comfortable in expressing their idea, thoughts, feelings or
opinions.

1.5.2. Data collection procedures
30 employees at Customer Service department in GOLDTRANS will be
interviewed and delivered the questionnaires with the same questions. I will then
collect the results and system them, analyze and create data tables. Based on the
analysis of the data, I will draw conclusions about the research.
1.5.3. Data analysis methods
Data analysis is a process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming and modeling
data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions and
supporting decision-making.
In terms of the data collected in the interview and questionnaires, the results
were collected and analyzed by Microsoft Excel software in percentage. After that,
the data will be illustrated through charts and tables for a clear description of this
finding.

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1.6. Organization of the study
This study is divided into 4 chapters as follow:
Chapter 1: Providing an overview of the study and giving the reason for
choosing the study was focused. Also, it consists of the rationale, previous studies,
aims of the study, scope of the study, research methodology and organization of the
study.
Chapter 2: Literature review looks at some theoretical background relating to
the thesis of the study. This chapter focuses on the concept, characteristics, factors
affecting English listening and speaking skills, the importance of listening and
speaking skills, problems encountering and solutions to improve English listening
and speaking skill.
Chapter 3: Data analysis and research findings: provides the details of the
findings including survey results through the questionnaire given to participants.

Chapter 4: Recommendations and suggestions: includes a summary of the
study, discussions and conclusions before ending with recommendations for further
study.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Overview of listening skill
2.1.1. Definition
Listening is considered as one of the most important skills in acquiring both a
native language and a second or foreign language. It is being paid more and more
attention to. So far, there have been a number of definitions of listening by different
linguists such as Morley (1972); Howatt and Dakin (1974); Wolvin and Coakley
(1982); Pearson (1983); Hirsch (1986); Scarcella and Oxford (1992); Bentley and
Bacon (1996), Brown (2001), Gary Buck (2001), Scott Shelton (2008).
According to Morley (1972), listening consists of auditory discrimination,
aural grammar, selecting necessary information, remembering it, and connecting it
to the process between sound and form of meaning.

8


Howatt and Dakin (1974) defined listening as the ability to identify and
understand what others are saying. This involves understanding a speaker's accent
or pronunciation his grammar and his vocabulary, and grasping his meaning.
Wolvin and Coakley (1982) regarded listening as "the process of receiving,
attending to and assigning meaning to aural stimuli".
Pearson (1983) stated "Listening involves the simultaneous organization and
combination of skills in Phonology, Syntax, Semantics, and knowledge of the text
structure, all of which seem to be controlled by the cognitive process. Thus, it can
be said that though not fully realized, the listening skill is essential in acquiring
language proficiency".
Hirsch (1986) gave another definition: "Listening as an aspect of skills:

involves neurological response and interpretations of sounds to understand and to
give meaning by reacting, selecting meaning, remembering, attending, analyzing
and including previous experience".
Bentley and Bacon (1996) stated that listening, an important part of the second
language learning process has also been defined as an active process during which
the listener constructs meaning from oral input.
According to Brown (2001), listening is "not merely the process of
unidirectional receiving of audible symbols". He supposed that one aspect of
listening comprehension which is "the psychomotor process of receiving sound
waves through the ear and transmitting nerve impulses to the brain". Hence,
listening comprises of three elements: the sender, the message and the listener.
Gary Buck (2001), for example, points out that "listening comprehension is an
active process of constructing meaning and this is done by applying knowledge to
the incoming sound" in which "a number of different types of knowledge are
involved: both linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic knowledge".
Scott Shelton (2008) thinks that listening effectively is a demanding and
involving process. One must be able to deal with different accents or pronunciation,
unfamiliar lexical items and syntactic structures, competing background noise, and
also make a conscious effort to not switch off or become distracted while listening.

9


All of this must be achieved and dealt with more or less simultaneously in order to
identify and understand the meaning in any given message.
To sum up, all of definitions are given with a view to clarifying the nature of
the listening skill which is necessary in the process of acquiring a native language
or a foreign one.
2.1.2. Types of listening
About theory, there are many types of listening skill mentioned below:



Discriminative listening

Discriminative listening is the most basic type of listening, whereby we
identify the difference between difference sounds. We learn to discriminate between
sounds within our own language early, and then struggling to discriminate between
the phonemes of other languages. This is one reason why a person from one country
finds it difficult to speak another language perfectly, as they are unable distinguish
the subtle sounds that are required in that language.
Likewise, a person who cannot hear the subtleties of emotional variation in
another person’s voice will be less likely to be able to discern the emotions the other
person is experiencing.
Listening is a visual as well as auditory act, as we communicate much through
body language. We thus also need to be able to discriminate between muscle and
skeletal movements that signify different meanings.



Comprehension listening

To comprehend the meaning requires first having a lexicon of words and also
rules of grammar and by which we can understand what others are saying. In
communication, some words are more important and some less so, and
comprehension often benefits from extraction of key facts and items from a long
speech. Comprehension listening is also known as content listening, informative
listening and full listening.



Critical listening

Critical listening is listening in order to evaluate and judge, forming opinion
about what is being said. This form of listening requires significant real-time effort

10


as the listener analyzes what is being said, relating it to existing knowledge and
rules.



Biased listening

Biased listening happens when the person hears only what they want to hear,
typically misunderstanding what the other person says based on the stereotypes and
other biases that they have. Such biased listening is often very common.



Appreciative listening

In appreciative listening, we seek certain information which will appreciate,
such as things that can helps us meet our goals. We use appreciative listening when
we are listening to good music, poetry or maybe even the stirring words of a great
speaker.



Evaluative listening

In evaluative listening, or critical listening, we make judgments about what the
other person is saying. We seek to assess the truth of what is being said. We also
judge what they say against our values, assessing them as good or bad, worthy or
unworthy.
Evaluative listening is particularly pertinent when the other person is trying to
persuade us, perhaps to change our behavior and maybe even to change our beliefs.
Within this, we also discriminate between subtleties of language and comprehend
the inner meaning of what is said. Typically, also we weigh up the pros and cons of
an argument, determining whether it makes sense logically as well as whether it is
helpful to us. Evaluative listening is also called critical, judgmental or interpretive
listening.



Empathetic listening

When we listen empathetically, we go beyond sympathy to become the one
can understand how others are feeling. This requires excellent discrimination and
close attention to the aspects of emotional signals. When we are being truly
empathetic, we actually feel what they are feeling.
In order to get others to expose these deep parts of themselves to us, we also
need to demonstrate our empathy in our demeanor towards them, asking sensitively
and in a way that encourages self-disclosure.
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

Dialogic listening

Dialogic listening mean learning through conversation and an engaged
interchange of ideas and information in which we actively seek to learn more about
the person and how they think.



Relationship listening

Sometimes the most important factor in listening is in order to develop or
sustain a relationship. This is why lovers talk for hours and attend closely to what
each other has to say when the same words from someone else would seem to be
rather boring.
Relationship listening is also important in areas such as negotiation and sales,
where it is helpful if the other person likes and trust a speaker.
On the other hand, there are two ways of listening in the real life according to
some authors, namely Nguyen Thi Van Lam and Ngo Dinh Phuong (2006). They
are casual listening and focused listening depend on the purpose of listening.
One type of listening, casual listening, means listening without a particular
purpose. When we listen, we do not pay much or even any attention to the
information unless there is something that interests us. Therefore, we hardly
remember the content of what we hear. Normally, we do this kind of listening when
we listen to music, or listen to news on the radio or TV while doing some
housework or chatting to a friend.
Another type of listening is focused listening. That is when we listen for a
particular purpose to find out information we need to know. It happens quite
popularly in the real life. In here, we listen with much more concentration and try to
get as much information as possible. However, we do not listen to every word. We

know beforehand what we are going to listen so we only catch the most important
information from the speech or the lecture. In classroom, learners also use these
types of listening.
2.1.3. Characteristics of listening skill
2.1.3.1. The process of listening
Listening is a skill of critical significance in all aspects of our lives–from
maintaining our personal relationships, to getting our jobs done, to taking notes in
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class, to figuring out which bus to take to the airport. Regardless of how we’re
engaged with listening, it’s important to understand that listening involves more
than just hearing the words that are directed at us. Listening is an active process by
which we make sense of, assess, and respond to what we hear. For listening to be
effective and meaningful, the process of listening should involve the following
steps.



Hearing

Hearing is the first essential step in the listening process and relates to the
sensory perception of sound. The listener further processes the perceived sound. For
learning to be effective, hearing needs to be done with attention and concentration.


Filtering

The next step involves sensing and filtering of heard sounds. The heard
message is categorized as wanted or unwanted, useful or useless. The unwanted

message is discarded. In this step, the sense of judgement of the individual comes
into play, that is, the filtering process is subjective and a person chooses to retain
what makes sense to him.


Comprehending

The next level of listening consists of comprehending or understanding. The
listener understands or interprets what the speaker has tried to convey. This activity
can be described as absorbing, grasping or assimilating. In order to grasp the
meaning of the message, the listener uses his knowledge, experience, perception
and cognitive power. The verbal and auditory message is coupled with non-verbal
communication to understand it.


Remembering

Remembering relates to a process whereby the assimilated message is stored
in memory to facilitate future recall. Remembering assumes significance because
many times messages received are meant not for immediate consideration but for
future use.


Responding

For listening to be complete, a response is important. Responding to a message
may take place at the end of the communication, immediately after or later. When it
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is stored for future use, the response may take place later. However, if there is a
need to seek clarification or to empathize with the listener, it may take place earlier.
Responding may also take the form of prodding or prompting in order to show that
the message is being received and comprehended.
2.1.3.2. The characteristics of listening skill


Informal spoken discourse

Most of the language we listen is informal and spontaneous. The speaker is
making it up as he or she goes along rather than reading aloud or reciting from
memory.
Informal Speech has various interesting features:
-

Brevity of chunks: It is usually broken into short chunks. In conversation

for example, people take turns to speak, usually in short turns of a few seconds
each.
-

Pronunciation: The pronunciation is often slurred and noticeably different

from the phonological representation given in a dictionary. There are obvious
examples such as “can’t”. In English “cannot” which have made their way even into
the written language.
- Vocabulary: The vocabulary is often colloquial; in English you might for
example use “guy” where in writing you would use “man”, or “kid” for “child”.
- Grammar: Informal speech tends to be somewhat ungrammatical.
Utterances do not usually divide neatly into sentences; a grammatical structure may

change in mid – utterance or unfinished clauses are common.
- Noise: There will be certain amount of “noise”. Bit of the discourse that
are unintelligible to the hearer, and therefore as far as he or she is concerned are
meaningless “noise”.
- Redundancy: The speaker normally says a good deal more than strictly
necessary for the conveying of the message.
- Non-repetition: The discourse will not be repeated verbatim. Normally it
is only heard once.
 Listener expectation and purpose
The listener almost always knows in advance something about what is going
to be said. Who is speaking, for example, or the basic topic. We normally have

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some objective in listening beyond understanding for its own sake to find out
something, for example.



Looking as well as listening

Only a very small proportion of listening is done “blind” to the radio or
telephone, for example. Normally, we have something to look at that is linked to
what is being said.



Ongoing, purposeful listening response

The listener is usually responding at intervals as the discourse is going on. It is
relatively rare for us to listen to extend speech and respond only at the end.



Speaker attention

The speaker usually directs his or her speech at the listener, take the listener’s
character, intensions etc.
2.1.4. The importance of listening skill
Hutchinson, Carol, Jenny and Kate (2007) in English for Life affirmed that
listening is one of the necessary life skills which are defined as “Skills which can
provide you with a better perspective on life, skills which can allow you to maintain
a higher awareness of both yourself and the world around you”. Listening is indeed
one of the four skills which enable complete communication, help you both in your
work and your personal life. In fact, it is the first essential language skill because
learning a language usually begins when we learn to listen first, then to speak, then
to read, and finally to write.
It is obvious that listening is really important in the real life. Listening skills
are of great importance in the workplace, the family and in the society at large. It is
one of the most vital ways that human beings feel the life and live. Everyone, in the
real life, often listens more than speaks, reads or writes. We listen everywhere and
every time. We listen to everything and everybody. For instance, at home, we watch
films, listen to music or talk with your friends. At school, students listen to the
lecturers teaching.
Listening shows one’s level of manners or etiquettes. When one is listening to
another, he is being responsive and if required advising as per the conversations’
requirements.
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Good listening skills at workplace can make workers more productive. The
ability to listen carefully allows workers to better understand assignments they are
given. Careers in communications, management, planning, sales, and anything else
rely on good listening skills.
The ability to listen and to comprehend also allows workers to build a strong
rapport with colleagues, managers and clients. Employers and managers have
confidence in workers that can listen to instructions and then do what is expected
with minimal follow-up.
In conclusion, as we can see, listening skills are necessary to improve
communication, interpersonal relations, emotional intelligence and self-analysis.
Emphasizing the importance of listening, Anderson and Lynch (2003) state that
listening skills are as important as speaking skills because people cannot
communicate face-to-face unless both types of skills are developed together.
2.1.5. Listening problems of the English learners in general and the
customer support staff in GOLDTRANS in particular
Listening is becoming increasingly important in every fields of life, especially
in learning a foreign language such as English as well as putting it into practical
conditions. When learning and using English, the learners and the users found some
difficulties of Vietnamese students in general and some challenges of
GOLDTRANS customer service staff in particular that they have to face up with.
Listening is becoming increasingly important in every fields of life, especially
in learning a foreign language such as English. When learning English especially
learning listening English, the learners found some difficulties of Vietnamese
students in general and some problems of customer service staff at GOLDTRANS
in particular that they have to face up with.
Firstly, listeners found that they lack of vocabulary. In communication, when
the speakers speak to the listeners, they can choose what they say and they can
choose word to say, so maybe some words that listeners do not know, that lead to
they cannot understands what the speakers are talking about. Besides, sometimes

listeners must to face up with some scientific or specialized English words, or any

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fields that listener do not know, so they can miss the next part of speech of the
speakers.
Secondly, when communicate with another, listeners cannot ask speakers
repeat many times. Sometimes, the listeners cannot understand some word or they
cannot follow the speech of speakers, they can ask speakers to repeat it. However,
in some countries, it is impolite to ask them repeat continuously if listeners cannot
catch the information many times.
Besides, lack of knowledge about grammar will let students misunderstand
what the speakers are saying about. Although Vietnamese students in general and
customer service staff at GOLDTRANS in particular were studied English quite
early, at secondary school and high school, they were taught more about grammar of
English but they still are not good at grammar.
In addition, lack of control over the speed at which speakers speak is also a
difficulty of people when listening English. Some research of the author at
GOLDTRANS show that staffs find difficulty when listening English in fast speed
and normal speed. At fast speed and normal speed, they said they cannot
understand. It also can be a barrier that English learners as well as customer service
staff at GOLDTRANS have to face up with when listening foreign language.
Finally, listeners have difficulty when concentrating in a foreign language.
People can easily concentrate on something if they feel it interesting. Thus, for
example in a conference about science, listeners sometimes feel tired and bored
about the speech because it is hard for them to understand it because they do not
have any knowledge about it. Specifically, although working in a logistic company,
some employees of Customer Service department of GOLDTRANS are lack of
knowledge of their working field, leading to not understanding the specialized terms

and vocabulary of logistics industry.
2.1.6. Factors affecting listening skill



Personal bias

Bias can take on many forms. Personal prejudice can affect how well we listen
and how we perceive what the speaker is saying. Anger can also cause distortion of
the message. As good communicators, personal bias and anger must be put aside in

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order to interpret the message. Be willing to listen to new ideas. Make eye contact
with the speaker, use nonverbal communication, such as nodding your head or
smiling to show that you are interested. Even if you do not agree with the speaker's
message, showing acceptance will let the speaker know that you have received their
message.



Environment factors

Environmental factors such as noise, temperature and uncomfortable seating
can cause us to focus our attention on other factors besides what the speaker is
saying. Try to control environment factors whenever possible. Try adjusting the
thermostat, finding another seat, or moving to a quiet place to continue the
conversation. It is hard to focus attention when we are constantly distracted by
outside forces.



Short attention span

As we receive a message, we must attend to it or we will lose it. Some people
have trouble remembering points to discuss when the speaker is talking. Try taking
notes as the speaker talks, or use a cue to help you remember what you were going
to say. If you find your attention wondering, concentrate on what the speaker is
saying, and rehearse how you will answer, or what you are going to say to keep in
your mind on the task at hand. Ask questions to clarify and to become involved in
the conversation. Concentration helps you receive accurate information and
indicates that you are interested in what speaker is saying.



Rehearse a response

Many times, we catch the drift of what the speaker is saying and we begin to
rehearse a response, thereby missing parts of the message. Other times we may be
anticipating our turn to speak and will spend time mentally or physically reviewing
notes and will miss what the speaker has said.



Hot words

We all have certain words that we react to. Sometimes when a speaker uses a
hot word in his or her message we will concentrate more on the meaning or the
word, or its implications for us. Consequently, we tend to lose sight of what is being

said by the speaker.
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