The reality and solutions to improve english listening skills for english majored students of thu dau mot university

THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
*************

GRADUATE PAPER

TITLE: THE REALITY AND SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE ENGLISH
LISTENING SKILLS FOR ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS OF THU
DAU MOT UNIVERSITY.

Student name: LƯƠNG NGỌC YẾN
Student code: 1722202010408
Class: D17AVKD03
Course: 2017 – 2021
Major: ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Lecturer: M.A, HOANG HO TRANG

Binh Duong, December/2020

i


STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

LƯƠNG NGỌC YẾN

Student full name

Student ID

Title of paper:

1722202010408

THE REALITY AND SOLUTIONS TO
IMPROVE ENGLISH LISTENING
SKILLS FOR ENGLISH MAJORED
STUDENTS OF THU DAU MOT
UNIVERSITY

I hereby confirm that I am the sole author of the paper presented. Where the work
of others has been consulted, this is duly acknowledged in the paper’s
bibliography. I have also not consulted any other unnamed online sources. All
verbatim or referential use of the sources named in the bibliography has been
specifically indicated in the text.

Binh Duong, December 11th, 2020

Signature

ii


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To complete this graduation report, I would like to sincerely thank:
The management board of Thu Dau Mot University has facilitated the facilities
with a modern library system, diversified kinds of books and documents,
convenient for searching and researching information.
Thank you to the instructors - Ms. Hoang Ho Trang for her dedicated and
detailed teaching so that I have enough knowledge and apply them to this report.
Due to the lack of experience in doing talent as well as the limitations of

knowledge, the shortcomings in the report will inevitably be unavoidable. We
hope to receive comments, suggestions and criticisms from her to make the
report more complete.
Lastly, I would like to wish you good health, success and happiness.

iii


ABSTRACT
In the process of learning English, most students always have difficulty related
to four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. in which, listening and
understanding skills are considered one of the most difficult skills for students.
There are many reasons that make it difficult for students to learn to listen, one
of which is not focusing on learning English in middle school or high school.
Not only other students, but also the English language students of Thu Dau Mot
University face such a difficult situation. Through a small survey on the
comparison of scores between the four skills, listening comprehension skills
usually score significantly lower than the three skills of listening, reading and
writing. This article aims to present the current situation to provide appropriate
solutions in learning as well as training listening comprehension skills, to help
students majoring in English at Thu Dau Mot University achieve the best results.

iv


TABLE OF CONTENTS
SIDE COVER ....................................................................................................... i
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ................................................................... ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..............................................................................iii
ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................iv

LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................vii
LIST OF FIGURES.........................................................................................viii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION, MOTIVATION AND PURPOSE .......
Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.

Introduction ..........................................................................................
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2.

Research purposes ................................................................................
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3.

Research and discussion ......................................................................
Error! Bookmark not defined.
3.1. Objectives Of The Study .....................................................................
Error! Bookmark not defined.
3.2. Research Methods ...............................................................................
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3.2.1. Object................................................................................................3
3.2.3. Method..............................................................................................3
3.2.3. Survey ..............................................................................................
Error! Bookmark not defined.
CHAPTER 2: OVERVIEW OF PREVIOUS WORK ................................
Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.

Theoretical basis ...................................................................................
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1.1. Listening Concept ................................................................................4
v


1.2. Classification Listening
........................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
2. Overview and theoretical basis of functional assessment listening
English of University students ....................................................................
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2.1. Overview Of Related Studies ..............................................................
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2.1.1. Researches in our country .............................................................
Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.1.2. Research situation abroad ..............................................................7
CHAPTER 3: PRESENTATION AND DISCISSION
Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.
Current situation and learning difficulties - practice students'
listening comprehension skills ....................................................................
Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.1. Evaluate The Difficulty Level Of English Listening Skills Of Students
Majoring In English At Thu Dau Mot University ......................................
Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.2. English Listening Skills Of Students Majoring In English At Thu Dau
Mot University ...........................................................................................
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1.3. Students' Difficulties In Learning to Listen ........................................

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1.3.1. General difficulties .........................................................................
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1.3.2. Difficulties in learning to listen at home
.......................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
2. Some reasons lead to the reality of students with hearing loss skills
.........................................................................................................................Er
ror! Bookmark not defined.
3. Factors affecting listening skills of English majors Thu Dau Mot
University
......................................................................................................Error!
Bookmark not defined.
vi


4.

Solutions to develop English listening skills ......................................
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CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION ......................................................................
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APPENDIX AND REFERENCE
...................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
1. Appendix
................................................................................................Error!
Bookmark not defined.
2.

References .....................................................................................

Error! Bookmark not defined.

vii


LIST OF TABLES
Number of table
3.1

3.2

Table name
Listening ability
according to CEFR
standard

Student assessment of
the effectiveness of
using podcasts to
develop English
listening comprehension
skills.

viii

Page
18

21

LIST OF FIGURES
Number of charts

Chart name

Page

3.1

Assessment of difficulty
level of 4 English
Listening - Speaking Reading - Writing skills

10

3.2

English speaking ability
of the students of Thu
Dau Mot University

11

3.3

Allocating time for
English learning
activities of Thu Dau
Mot University students

14

ix


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION, MOTIVATION AND PURPOSE
1. Introduction
In today's era, the booming era of science, technology and information, it
is extremely necessary to grasp the most commonly used foreign language,
English, to communicate with other countries in the world. Strong
qualifications plus fluent English always make a good impression on
employers. Good English skills give candidates an edge over those with the
same expertise. Therefore, English is becoming the number one taught foreign
language in our country. In the past, the main goal of teaching and learning
foreign languages was reading comprehension to serve literature, science and
technology research. Nowadays, to serve the innovation path, open and
integrate with the region and the world, the goal of foreign language teaching
is communication. The outstanding result of the implementation of the policy
is that the students' foreign language ability is increasingly improved.
However, the effectiveness of teaching and learning foreign languages is still
limited, even in universities and colleges. Many university students, colleges,
even graduate students, after graduation, still speak English fluently, failing to
meet the needs of employers, leading to the quality of the labor force
declining Vietnam still has many limitations.
If in another subject, besides the limitations, there are still successes.
Learning a foreign language means understanding what foreigners want to
impart and converting their native language into another foreign language so
that foreigners can understand. However, in general, that target of foreign
language subject has not been achieved. Listening is one of the four important

skills of learning a foreign language. We cannot communicate without
understanding. Only when the listener responds, the listening process is
completed, the communication process can achieve the desired results.
Above are the reasons for me to choose the topic "Current situation and
solutions to improve English listening skills for English language students of
Thu Dau Mot University" as the subject of my graduation report. part
improving, improving students' English listening ability.
Expected results from the topic: In this topic, I intend to assess English
listening ability and find out the factors affecting the development of English
listening skills, thereby proposing solutions. methods to improve English
listening skills of students majoring in English from Thu Dau Mot University.
Practical significance of topic: Topic is a study to measure and evaluate
students' English listening ability. Knowing about the competency areas for
developing English listening skills will help students adjust their learning
1


methods, and at the same time help teachers change teaching methods to
support and facilitate students. maximize your ability in English listening
comprehension. In the past, there have been many domestic and foreign
studies on the assessment of competency (giving some specific sources),
however, the assessment of English listening ability with a specific
assessment tool is still It is also a subject that needs further research and
analysis. In particular, the application for students who are English language
students at Thu Dau Mot University has a great significance. The reality
shows that students majoring in English at Thu Dau Mot University face
many difficulties in learning English. They have not found the motivation to
study as well as the appropriate learning methods to improve their learning
capacity.
Refer to the previous studies, this topic focuses on the importance of

listening and understanding English in the learning process. Through the
research results of the topic, students can know what their English listening
ability is, need to try to change how to learn to listen more effectively. In
addition, the topic is expected to contribute to improving the quality of
teaching English listening skills of Thu Dau Mot University faculty members.
2. Research purposes
The topic is designed to study the theoretical basis to evaluate the
listening ability of English majoring students at TDM University, highlight
the existing difficulties and find suitable solutions for learning. listening to
students. Information and data collected in the survey will be analyzed and
thereby building listening learning methods for students. The empirical
research part of the topic aims to find out why students have difficulty
learning English listening and propose solutions to improve students' English
listening ability in the learning process in University. In order to help students
maximize their learning ability and apply listening skills in the learning
process as well as benefit the future work.
3. Research and discussion
3.1. Objectives Of The Study
The goal of this study is to understand the current situation of English
language listening comprehension level of students majoring in English from
TDM University, discover the factors that affect listening learning, and offer
some possible solutions. Exam helps students improve English listening
comprehension skills. To this end, I ask the following research questions:
1. What difficulties do English major students face when learning to listen?
2. What methods have they used in the process of improving listening skills?
2


This is also the basis for creating surveys and finding results about
students' problems and solutions while learning listening skills at school and

at home.
3.2. Research Methods
3.2.1. Object
- The subject of this study focuses on understanding of the primary
students' difficulties in learning Listening at home and the methods
students have used to improve listening learning. Besides, some reasons
why students' ineffective listening learning are also given in this study.
- Subjects participating in the study include 30 full-time English students
at TDM University.
3.2.2. Method
This study uses qualitative and quantitative methods. Publications,
documents and scientific studies of domestic and foreign scholars and
researchers help build theoretical frameworks for research. To ensure the
validity and reliability of the study, we used surveys, interviews and
observations to collect data.
3.2.3. Survey
This research paper uses questionnaires to gather information from 30
students. The survey questionnaire includes questions about the difficulty, the
difficulty, and the cause of that difficulty, followed by questions related to the
methods students have been using in listening and distributing learning.
practice. eliminating the effectiveness or efficiency of those methods.

3


CHAPTER 2: OVERVIEW OF PREVIOUS WORK
Listening is a process that allows listeners to understand a message,
engage them in conversation and succeed in communication. Without
listening skills, people engaged in communication will not receive the
message, and as a result, they cannot respond quickly and effectively. Many

researchers agree that in foreign language learning, Listening plays an
important role in the process of acquiring a language. Rubin & Thompson [1,
85] affirms: “Listening is most likely the most important language skill,
because people spend about 60% of their time listening… In addition,
listening gives you the opportunity to feel the language and comprehensively
improve your ability to use the language. ” Rost [2,141] also emphasizes that
Listening can be seen as an essential skill in the training of a foreign language
learner and can even be seen as a predictor of language success. of learners.
Thus, the listening skills can be seen closed a key role in the language
learning process.
1. Theoretical basis
1.1. Listening Concept:
According to Hasan [3,137], "listening" and "understanding" are two
separate processes, in which "listening" is a process by which the listener
receives information, and this process takes place one way, completely
without claim. ask for any interpretations or interactions with the audio text.
And listening comprehension is a process of two-way interaction between the
listener and the listening text, and this interaction helps the listener have a
general understanding of the listening text. This process of "listening" and
"understanding" is done when the listener selects and explains the information
received by the hearing organs and other visual cues (if any) in order to
understand the message. of the speaker.
This view of listening comprehension is also consistent with the second
hypothesis of language supported by Richards [4] and O'Malley & Chamot
[5]. This assumption assumes that listening to spoken language is a complex
activity and process, in which the listener focuses on the aspects selected for
listening. From the sounds they hear, they find out the meaning of the
message they hear, and relate what they hear to the knowledge they currently
have. Brette [6, 39] states that “listening comprehension is a decisive
language skill. It plays an important role in the process of language

acquisition ”. When comparing listening with other language skills, Morley
[7, 70] also points out that on average each of us hears “twice as much as
what we say, four times what we read and five times what we write ”.

4


Researchers distinguish between Listening and Hearing. Listening is an
active process, which involves analyzing sound, as opposed to Hearing, which
only passively receives sound. In the same way, Harmer [8, 16] says that
Listening is a "receptive skill" when students receive the main idea through
what they hear. Listeners receive messages from speakers through
understanding the voice (accent), pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary used
by the speaker and understanding the meaning of their message.
Richards & Schmidt [9] describes listening comprehension as the process
of understanding speech in the first or second language, and listening
comprehension in a second language includes both Top-down and Bottom-up
processes. Brown [10] also shares this point of view and argues that the "topdown" process occurs when learners use the background knowledge and
available vocabulary to capture the content of the listening lesson, and the
"bottom" process. -up ”is using the context of the listening lesson to predict
the meaning of a new word. According to Helgesen [11], listening is an active
and purposeful skill. During the listening process, listeners not only capture
what they are listening to, but also can relate the listening content with
information they already know to understand the listening lesson. In addition,
Helgesen also said that when listening, the listener not merely hears the words
but needs to understand the implications behind those words.
1.2.

Classification Listening:

According to Rubin & Thomson [1, 85], listening skills are divided into
two categories based on the types of situations in which the listening process
occurs. (i) Mutual listening: This process occurs when the listener is asked to
participate in the interactive process and take turns listening and speaking.
Situations that require interactive listening include direct conversations and
telephone conversations. In these situations, the listener has the opportunity to
ask the other person to speak clearly, repeat or speak slowly. (ii) Mutual
listening: This form of listening occurs when the listener participates in a
passive listening process of a monologue, a speech or a conversation.
Richards [4], Anderson [12], Wolvin & Coakley [13], Underwood [14]
and Buck [15] all said that listening comprehension is a complex and positive
process, determining the content and level of information. perceived. These
processes use speech as the basis for building meaning, based on the amount
of information released. This information is initially identified in short term
memory and stored in the long term memory of the listener.
When studying listening comprehension process, psychologists and
linguists rely on the interaction of two cognitive processes (cognitive
processes) that distinguish between bottom up and topdown processes.
5


According to Nunan [17, 17], during the bottom-up process, learners “split the
string of words into constituent sounds, connect these sounds together to form
words, connect words together to form words. syntax and sentence, and so
on”. In the process of processing information from above the listener
understands the meaning of the message exactly as the speaker intended
through the use of schemas or knowledge structures ( schemata or structures
of knowledge) in the brain This view emphasizes the importance of the
background knowledge that learners use to understand the information they
hear. receives listening information by linking familiar knowledge with new

knowledge, and a lack of background knowledge can damage the listener's
attempt to understand a particular statement by the speaker.
2. Overview and theoretical basis of functional assessment
listening English of University students.
2.1. Overview Of Related Studies
2.1.1. Researches in our country
Vietnam is one of the countries where English is one of the foreign
languages - the main communication tool, so the teaching of English is very
focused. This is reflected in the Law on Education of Vietnam, the Ministry
of Education and Training has enhanced the importance of learning English
by bringing English into teaching right from the elementary level. Teaching
and learning foreign languages in Vietnam has made great efforts but is not
really effective and has many limitations, so what is the cause? Maybe it is
due to the training program, the teaching method, or the assessment method is
not correct and does not reflect the essence, the assessment results do not
meet the requirements and purpose of the assessment. There have been many
studies aimed at renewing the curriculum of the Ministry of Education and
Training such as: changing textbooks, textbooks, fostering pedagogical and
professional qualifications for teachers, changing testing methods. assessment
of learners' learning results ... However, it is necessary to have support in our
teaching and learning about the student's learning outcomes assessment model
to re-influence the teaching process and learn foreign languages in general
and English in particular.
Vietnam has had many studies on methods to improve the quality of
foreign language teaching and learning, but studies in Vietnam are
incomplete, and there are no in-depth studies on foreign language learning
capacity based on evaluation frameworks. specific capacity. English is only a
tool to communicate, but how to teach and study effectively: innovating
teaching methods or adjusting current testing methods; In my opinion, these
are 2 closely related issues.

6


In general, studies show the purpose of teaching and learning foreign
languages, and mention the role of competencies in learning. However, it is
necessary to discover obstacles in learning in order to improve learning
outcomes. Scientific research by two authors Trinh Vinh Hien (2008) and Le
Thi Anh Tuyen (2012) surveyed the opinions of first-year British professional
students about listening skills, academic difficulties and non-academic
studies. techniques that English students encounter in listening practice,
thereby proposing solutions to overcome difficulties and improve efficiency
in English listening comprehension for students. In addition, the master's
thesis from University of Foreign Languages - Hanoi National University by
Le Thi Thu Huyen (2010), Nguyen Van Nam (2010) mentioned issues in
listening skills. tell the students, the causes and the solution. In which, the
author raises the problems that come from: the key lessons to listen to, the
speaker, the listener and the listening environment, then propose solutions to
these 4 problems. Using spelling methods to improve listening skills is a very
new method in teaching and learning English of Vietnamese students. Several
studies have proven that spelling method is one of the activities in improving
English listening ability for learners.
2.1.2. Research situation abroad
In the world there are many researches on learning foreign languages for a
long time, similar to studies in Vietnam that discuss the goal of teaching and
learning foreign languages, as well as emphasize the importance of testing
methods. Assess learning outcomes. The research paper titled “Are
communicative language classes being tested communicatively?” (Ireland
2000) emphasized the importance of learning objectives and how test methods
affect teaching methods. Furthermore, the learned content will have to be
applied right from the subject's learning method.

In a series of studies on competence and assessment is Bachman's (1990);
Boddy and Langham (2000). In which, the authors mentioned about the
competency components of the language, including: organizational capacity
to use grammatical and language structures; and pragmatic and linguistic
competence in social communication. More specifically, the author has
defined language proficiency as a cluster of elements used in communication
through language, while at the same time reaffirming the impact of
assessment on results. Results and learning process, the authors have
questioned whether the purpose of testing communication language is really
feasible? Communication language test is intended to provide testers with
information about the learner's ability to perform specific tasks in the target
language. Also with the topic of learning capacity, the author Ella A.Erway
(1984) mentioned factors affecting the listening comprehension process, from
7


the most important factors to the less important factors. At the same time, he
also eliminates factors that do not affect listening comprehension. From this
research paper, many authors then only focus on important factors such as:
the content of the course, the voice of the speaker, knowledge of the listening
topic and especially the listening environment ...

8


CHAPTER 3: PRESENTATION AND DISCISSION
1. Current situation and learning difficulties - practice students'
listening comprehension skills
In recent years, the communication-oriented foreign language teaching at
universities and colleges is the main method which is widely applied to all

classes according to the curriculum of the Ministry of Education and Training.
concentration. Training for students communication skills is considered a
fundamental goal in the teaching and learning process of English, in which all
four skills: Listening - Speaking - Reading - Writing are specially focused on
all lecturers in the Faculties, the Foreign Language Department. Listening
comprehension is no longer a passive language skill but becomes an active
skill in which learners play an active role of information participants to listen
to, process information, understand the content to ultimately reflect return that
information. Only when the listener can respond, the listening process is
completed, the communication process will achieve the desired results.
Communication can fail or fail due to poor hearing skills. Therefore, listening
and understanding skills are considered a basic factor in the communication
process.
However, learning as well as practicing English listening skills of students
majoring in English from Thu Dau Mot University still has many
difficulties:Most of the knowledge students accumulate is not commensurate
with the amount of English that students have learned in high school or
othermforeign language Center. The students 'knowledge gap is relatively
large (except for a few students with solid English knowledge), students'
language skills are still very limited, especially listening skills: The majority
of students' ability to listen to information is below average; Many students
do not even understand the teachers' simple and usual commands. We did a
small survey to study the listening comprehension skills of English major
students at Thu Dau Mot University, sending the survey to 30 students. The
content of the survey questions helps to clearly and accurately understand the
reality of practicing English listening skills of English majoring students at
Thu Dau Mot University. The questions are designed in detail and easy to
understand to help students give accurate answers about: the student's
assessment of listening skills, time to practice in and out of the classroom, and
activities. Teachers are often encouraged to organize during class hours to

give students the opportunity to practice; at the same time find out the causes
and factors that affect the development of students' listening skills. Survey
results show:

9


1.1. Evaluate The Difficulty Level Of English Listening Skills Of
Students Majoring In English At Thu Dau Mot University
According to the chart 1, 45% of students chose listening as the most
difficult skill in learning, followed by seaking (33%), writing (17%) and
50%

45%

45%
40%
33%

35%
30%
25%
20%

17%

15%
10%

5%

5%
0%
Listening skill

Speaking skill

Reading skill

Writing skill

reading (5 %).
Chart 3.1. Assessment of difficulty level of 4 English
Listening - Speaking - Reading - Writing skills
There are many reasons why students evaluate skills listening is the
hardest such as: the vocabulary is less, the practice is not yet focus and often.
Passively learn and depend too much on the tapescript before listening,
creating a bad habit, meeting the right requirements and purpose and wasting
time. Besides, the lovely psychologist wants to remember 100% of the
information and understand each word in Vietnamese without identifying the
main content, not capturing the core information during the listening process.
That is why students feel pressured and tired during listening lessons.
1.2. English Listening Skills Of Students Majoring In English At Thu
Dau Mot University
When answering assessment questions about the ability to practice
carefully English listening skills, up to 15% of students surveyed admit is
unable to hear English, 50% of students self-assess hearing ability is weak,
only 26% of students confident with hearing ability average and above and
9% of students can listen well and understand like a native (according to
chart 2).

10


60%
50%
50%
40%
30%
20%

26%
15%
9%

10%
0%
Poor listening skills

Weak listening skills Average litening skills Good listening skills

Chart 3.2. English speaking ability
of the students of Thu Dau Mot University
This is a worrying situation, because of listening skills English plays an
important role in learning. Moreover, good English listening skills will be
very helpful to students in communication continue daily and find good jobs
at these large companies, multinational corporations have been investing in
Vietnam. Once heard, it will quickly capture information, understand the
opinions of others and it will be easier to learn other skills.
1.3. Students' Difficulties In Learning to Listen

1.3.1. General difficulties
Through the survey, I found that among the listed difficulties include:
-

Do not understand the content of the audio
The quality of the tapes and recording equipment is not good
Not keeping up with the speed of the speaker in the listening lesson
There are many new words
Not receiving sounds in English
Other difficulties: Lack of background knowledge, not understanding
the requirements of the topic….

The biggest difficulty for students is not keeping up with the speed of the
listening lesson (25/30, 83.3%). Following that, 3 difficulties include not
understanding the content of the listening text, having many new words and
not receiving equal proportions of sounds in English (20/30, 66.67%). The
effect of tape quality is only a small percentage.
1.3.2. Difficulties in learning to listen at home
There are some difficulties mentioned in the research paper:
11


-

There is no motivation to learn to listen
Don't invest a lot of time in listening at home
Don't set the time to listen for each song yourself
There is no effective method to learn
No dynamics
Other difficulties

In which, the biggest difficulty that makes students ineffective listening is
not having motivation to listen (30/30 students, equivalent to 100%). The
second difficulty is that students have not invested time in listening like other
subjects. The third difficulty is the lack of effective methods when studying
(26/30 students, equivalent to 86.7%). This indicates that students need to be
more proactive in listening and invest more time in practice. In addition,
students also commented on the lack of materials and facilities for learning to
listen at home. Through exchanges, only 12/30 students (equivalent to 40%)
have computers or have speakers and radios to learn to listen to and most
students do not have reference materials for Listening.
2. Some reasons lead to the reality of students with hearing
loss skills:
- Habit of translating Vietnamese when listening to English: This is the
most common error. When listening, students try to translate to
understand each word, want to hear and remember 100% of the
information. This also makes many students unable to distinguish what
the focus content needs to capture, what is the extra information that
can be ignored during the listening process. Information coming from
listening is continuous, while translation requires a "delay" in receiving
- processing information - and returning results, which in turn leads to
an attempt to translate a sentence and tape. Read to the 10th sentence.
Misperceptions about the requirements of this subject make learners
tired and tend to be shy and confused in class listening lessons.
- Not recognizing English sounds: When asked about difficulty hearing
sounds in English, most students said they could not distinguish
English sounds, homonyms, especially words with ways pronunciation
is almost the same. In particular, the confusion between positive and
negative forms is the main reason, especially the failure to recognize
the main information to listen to is due to some features in connected

speech: elision , weak form in pronouncing some functional words
(weak form), assimilation phenomenon (assimilation), phenomenon of
shortening of words (contraction), phenomenon of linking sounds
(linking) ...
12


- Lack of concentration when listening: Due to inexperience, not practice
listening often, as well as too little vocabulary to be able to understand
the main content that the listening process aims at. Since then, it leads
to depression, the way of thinking no matter how many times we still
fail.
- Lack of understanding about cultures of many countries: Wardhaugh
(1986) asserted that language and culture have a close relationship that
cannot be understood and assessed outside of cultural factors.
Therefore, students impose their own culture and customs to decode the
contents and information of other countries in the lessons, leading to
misunderstanding of the main content to be conveyed.
- Failure to grasp the main idea of a listening song: This is the most
common cause of hearing loss. Students have difficulty understanding
the main points of the listening lessons because they do not know what
is the important information to listen to. In addition, students cannot
deduce the main content of the listening lesson from important
vocabulary.
- In terms of teaching, the application of traditional methods in foreign
language teaching including listening and understanding in some
teachers has made this situation worse. There is still the perception that
listening is to practice receptive skills. Students are asked to receive
information without being given a prior suggestion about the upcoming
listening situation or are not asked to respond clearly after listening.

Some teachers are also aware of the need to change teaching methods,
but due to limited time in class, it is impossible to apply many effective
methods to change the situation. In addition, the number of each class
is too crowded, making it impossible for teachers to fully control each
student's ability.
3. Factors affecting listening skills of English majors Thu Dau
Mot University:
Therefore, it can be asserted that there are many factors affecting students'
learning and listening skills training at TDM University. Many English
researchers and teachers have published many articles, studies, and books
addressing the difficulties and effects of learning foreign languages, as well as
English listening skills. From research papers as well as through surveys, I
give 2 factors that affect students' listening skills as follows:
13


- Learning motivation
Aftat believes that motivation is an important factor in the success of
teachers 'teaching and students' learning. Students who realize the importance
of speaking skills will make more effort in the learning and practicing
process, tend to overcome difficulties in learning; have more interest in
learning, be active in activities organized by tutors and will be able to
improve their foreign language ability in general, English listening ability in
particular.
However, the majority of students still do not pay attention to learning and
practicing listening, on the contrary, they often focus on learning grammar to
easily pass the exams during study, homework, and reading skills.
(accounting for 65% of class time); translation and learning vocabulary,
speaking skills (accounting for 38% of class time), while listening and writing
skills are focused only occasionally (only 14% and 9% of class time)

(according to chart 3).
45%
40%
40%
35%
30%
25%
25%
20%
20%

18%
14%

15%

9%

10%
5%
0%
Grammar

Reading

Vocabulary

Speaking

Listening

Writing

Chart 3.3. Allocating time for English learning
activities of Thu Dau Mot University students
According to the above survey results, only 14% of students spend their
time practicing English listening skills. However, the majority of students in
14% of these students only participate in class activities, or practice with
friends with simple listening lessons, but have not really invested in afterschool training. Thus, the majority of Thu Dau Mot University students often
focus on short-term goals, which are exams and exams, rather than targeting
long-term goals in the future such as hearing ability, understand and use
English at work, in learning at higher levels. This is one of the major
difficulties and challenges for the school.
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In addition, many students who do not have a rich vocabulary and do not
have effective methods of practice also gradually lose their passion for
learning English; Since then, often neglected in learning, passive when going
to class and not motivated to practice listening skills; They often have the
feeling of "bored" to learn English, especially listening skills is one of the
very important skills, it affects the understanding of dialogue in all
communication. This indifference and lack of consistency is caused by poor
motivation and from which students tend to self-assess “poor” foreign
language skills, and do not want to learn or improve their English listening
skills. of themselves, using foreign languages in learning and in daily life.
Therefore, the motivation to learn and practice listening skills with students of
Thu Dau Mot University is one of the important factors that need to be
considered and promoted not only for each student, but also for the caring for,
creating good motivation from teachers through the organization of lively,

useful, new and exciting student hours.
- Knowledge of language
The training process requires learners to have a rich vocabulary and apply
appropriate grammar structures. If students do not have a good vocabulary
foundation and a certain understanding of grammatical structures, the process
of learning and practicing listening skills will be much more difficult. English
vocabulary and grammar help listeners to correctly understand the thoughts
and contents of the listening lessons, avoid causing misunderstandings while
listening, leading to wrong results. Besides, listeners can also recognize
whether their English listening ability is good or not through accumulated
linguistic knowledge. These language knowledge includes: knowledge of
grammar, phonetics and phonology, word semantics, stressing, pronunciation,
sentence structure,etc. All relevant knowledge about Language affects the
practice and progress of students, because learning a foreign language is not
just about learning vocabulary and grammatical structures, but students must
also know how to use the language suitable with the context and purpose of
each activity. Thu Dau Mot University English language students, most of
them have a basic knowledge of English, but they did not expect that the
program will be faster and more difficult than what they learned in high
school. Because of this, it has led to being bored, no longer passionate,
interested in learning English, gradually lacking confidence and poor results.
4.

Solutions to develop English listening skills:

After learning about the causes and factors affecting the listening skills of
Thu Dau Mot University students, I have come up with solutions to overcome
and help students improve their English listening skills. These solutions I
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surveyed and applied it on 30 students. Since then, combining the most
effective solutions to help Thu Dau Mot University's students improve their
English listening skills.
- Listen to favorite topics, elicit emotions
Most students said that they have always loved watching, listening, and
learning about their favorite topics to the extent of forgetting time, and never
feeling tired. It could be watching a late night football match, watching
cooking shows, baking, flower arrangements, makeup, hair styling, cartoons,
comedy and blog videos, TV shows. actual, etc. However, when he said he
took a little time to open the book, turn on the tape to listen to English, the
inspiration dropped without braking, hearing 5 minutes started to yawn,
listening for 5 more minutes, even though the ear is listening but my mind is
it's going to travel somewhere. This is completely normal, must be "holy" in
order to have the patience and discipline to listen to the boring content in
English textbooks. The solution to doing things you love and listening to
English is to bring the two together.
Listening to English with favorite topics will make learning light and
easy, students' excitement and inspiration to study are always high, which is a
necessary condition for them to maintain. everyday English listening habits.
Students should spend some time searching for youtube videos on their
favorite topics in English and listen to it with all excitement such as: watching
a soccer match live with English commentary; instructions for cooking
Vietnamese dishes by 1 foreigner; instructions for flower arrangement in
Western, Chinese, Italian and Greek styles; makeup tutorial with Michelle
Phan; If you like to travel, please follow but the youtube channel specializes
in these travel channels. Basically, students can find everything they love to
watch and listen to on youtube and google, so don't blame it for nothing to
see. One of the very useful videos that most of the students often watch to
improve their English listening skills are the extremely attractive reality TV

shows from countries such as the US, UK, Australia. For music and
entertainment, there are: Got Talent, Next Top Model, So you think you can
dance; In cooking, there are Master Chief, Hell's Kitchen. In terms of
adventure, it is impossible not to mention Amazing Race, Regarding business,
the number 1 program is The Apprentice program - with this program,
students will learn a lot about business planning, teamwork, tournament
resolve conflict; If anyone likes to start a business, Shark Tank is a program
that will bring many unique ideas, presentation styles to sell ideas, and how to
convince investors.

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