difficulties while doing the TOEIC listening test that the thirdyear English major students

ABSTRACT
Currently, the TOEIC certificate is considered as the standard to evaluate the
English proficiency level of workers. According to ETS website, nearly 14,000
companies and organizations in 150 countries around the world, including Vietnam,
have recognized the TOEIC certificate. Stemming from that fact, in Vietnam, the
certificate has been used by almost all universities and colleges as English outcome
standard for graduates. In particular, listening skills in the TOEIC test is considered the
hardest part. Therefore, it is extremely necessary to practice listening comprehension
skills. Mastering the listening skills is not straightforward since it consumes time and
effort.
Recognizing the importance of listening comprehension skills in the TOEIC test,
the researcher conducted this study. This research is aimed at how to improve listening
skills of third-year English major students in TOEIC listening test to meet program
outcome standards at Thuongmai University. The study was carried out among 60
randomly selected third-year English majors at Thuongmai University. The data was
collected by both quantitative and qualitative methods from 2 sources: survey
questionnaires and interview questions. The main findings of the study are difficulties
while doing the TOEIC listening test that the third-year English major students may
encounter and feasible solutions to improve their listening skills in the TOEIC test.
The researcher hopes that, with this study, English-major students will be aware
of the vital skills for the TOEIC listening test and find new ways to overcome all the
difficulties in order to be confident to enter the TOEIC exam and meet program
outcome standards at Thuongmai University.

1


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
During the process of doing this graduation paper, I have received much
necessary assistance as well as precious ideas from my teachers, family, and friends.
Their kindly help and encouragement gave me strength and lift me to complete this

graduate paper.
First of all, I would like to send my sincere thanks to all teachers at the English
Faculty of Thuongmai University for creating a convenient and efficient learning
environment for all students, providing us favorable conditions to fulfill this
graduation paper. Especially, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my
supervisor Mrs. Luong Thi Minh Phuong, M.A. for her whole-hearted assistance,
thoughtful advice and comments. Her insightful guidance was very precious for me to
improve my understanding of this subject. Without her support and instructions, the
study would have never been done effectively.
Besides, this research could not be completed without the enthusiastic
cooperation of third-year English major students at Thuongmai University. Therefore, I
would like to present my deepest gratefulness to all of them for enthusiastic
cooperation and support in finishing the survey questionnaires and interview
questions.
Finally, I would love to express my special thanks to my family and friends for
their endless love and motivation. I am grateful to all of them who encouraged and
gave me much useful advice as well as enthusiastic support during the time I carried
out this graduation paper.
Hanoi, April 2nd 2021.
Student
Do Huyen Trang

2


TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT...........................................................................................ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................................iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS......................................................................................v

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES...........................................................................vi
CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY..........................................................1
1.1. Rationale................................................................................................................. 1
1.2. Previous studies......................................................................................................2
1.2.1. International studies............................................................................................2
1.2.2. Domestic studies..................................................................................................3
1.3. Aims of the study....................................................................................................4
1.4. Research subjects....................................................................................................5
1.5. Scope of the study...................................................................................................5
1.6. Research methodology............................................................................................5
1.7. Organization of the study........................................................................................5
CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND....................................................7
2.1. Listening skills........................................................................................................7
2.1.1. Definition of listening...........................................................................................7
2.1.2. Nature of listening comprehension.......................................................................7
2.1.3. Types of listening..................................................................................................8
2.2. The TOEIC test.......................................................................................................9
2.2.1. Overview of the TOEIC test.................................................................................9
2.2.2. Listening comprehension in the TOEIC test.......................................................10
2.3. Some problems of listening comprehension..........................................................11
2.3.1. Quickly forgetting what is heard........................................................................11
2.3.2. Not recognizing the words they know.................................................................11
2.3.3. Not understanding the intended message...........................................................12
2.3.4. Missing information of next parts while thinking about the current part...........12
2.4. Factors affecting English majors’ listening comprehension skills.........................12
2.4.1. Quality of recorded materials.............................................................................12
3


2.4.2. Length and speed of recorded materials.............................................................13

2.4.3. Accent................................................................................................................. 13
2.4.4. Cultural difference.............................................................................................13
2.4.5. Limited background knowledge: Grammar, Pronunciation, Vocabulary............14
2.4.6. Concentration....................................................................................................14
2.5. Program outcome standards..................................................................................15
2.5.1. Definition of program outcome standards..........................................................15
2.5.2. Program outcome standards of English-major students at Thuongmai University
..................................................................................................................................... 15
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH FINDINGS & DISCUSSION..................................16
3.1. Research methodologies........................................................................................16
3.1.1. Participants........................................................................................................16
3.1.2. Data collection instruments...............................................................................16
3.1.3. Data collection process......................................................................................17
3.2. Research findings..................................................................................................17
3.2.1. Results from survey questionnaires....................................................................18
3.2.2. Results from interview questions........................................................................29
3.2.3. Discussion..........................................................................................................30
CHAPTER IV: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS..........................34
4.1. Recommendations and suggestions to improve the third-year English majors’
listening skills in the TOEIC listening test...................................................................34
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................38
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................VII
APPENDIX ...............................................................................................................IX

4


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
No

Abbreviated

.

words

1

TOEIC

2

ETS

English meanings

Test of English for International Bài kiểm tra tiếng Anh
Communication
Educational Testing Service

dục
Bài kiểm tra năng lực

Language
International English Language

tiếng Anh quốc tế
Hệ thống kiểm tra tiếng

Test System

Anh quốc tế
Trường Đại học Thương

TOEFL

4

IELTS

5

TMU

Thuongmai University

6

EFL

English as a Foreign Language

TUEBA

mại
Tiếng anh như một ngoại

University Of Economics And

ngữ

Trường Đại học Kinh tế

Business Administration – Thai

và Quản trị Kinh Doanh

Nguyen University

– Đại học Thái Nguyên
Trường Đại học Dân Lập

8

HPU

Haiphong Private University

9

VOA

Voice of America

5

giao tiếp quốc tế
Dịch vụ khảo thí giáo

Test of English as a Foreign

3

7

Vietnamese meanings

Hải Phịng
Đài Tiếng nói Hoa Kỳ


LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

No.

Name

1

Chart 3.1

2

Chart 3.2

3

Chart 3.3

4

Chart 3.4

5

Chart 3.5

Content
Time to know about the TOEIC test of English majors
English majors’ perception of the importance of listening
skills in the TOEIC test
Practicing time the TOEIC listening test of English majors
English majors’ assessment on the difficulty of listening
skills in the TOEIC test
The English majors’ evaluation of the hardest part of the
TOEIC listening test

Page
18
19
20
21
22

The effect of the knowledge and skills that English majors
6

Chart 3.6

7

Table 3.1

8

Table 3.2

9

Table 3.3

10

Table 3.4

6

have learned on the results of the TOEIC listening tests
The problems that English majors encounter while doing
the TOEIC listening test
Students’ personal causes leading to difficulties while
listening to the TOEIC tests
Strategies applied by students while doing the TOEIC
listening tests
Effective ways to improve students’ listening skills in the
TOEIC listening test

23

24
25

26
27


CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
1.1. Rationale
English is a global language used by millions of people all over the world. It is
considered a bridge to connect countries around the world and has a positive impact on
exchanging and cooperating among countries. In the current international integration
situation, mastering English is the best way for us to have a great deal of opportunities
to strongly develop.
Facts have shown that English proficiency tests such as the Test of English for
International Communication (TOEIC), the Test of English as a Foreign Language
(TOEFL) and the International English Language Test System (IELTS) are currently
very common in both universities and companies as well as corporations, especially
the TOEIC test. The TOEIC certificate has been used by almost all universities as the
English outcome standard. Furthermore, the TOEIC certificate is a mandatory
admission requirement for many companies and used to periodically assess the English
proficiency of their employees. It is also a condition to consider salary increases for
their employees.
At Thuongmai University, program outcome standards for English-major
students are TOEIC 800 or IELTS 6.5. Students must achieve one of these two
standards to be eligible to graduate. Reality, the majority of English majors choose the
TOEIC certificate since it is similar to Business English major. Nevertheless, in fact,
many students are not good at TOEIC listening part. They encounter a lot of
difficulties while doing the TOEIC listening test and find it hard to conquer the TOEIC
listening test.
There have been plenty of researches in the field of improving the TOEIC
listening skills but there are still gaps in these researches. For all reasons, I decided to
conduct the topic: “A study on how to improve listening skills of third-year English

major students in TOEIC listening test to meet program outcome standards at
Thuongmai University”. I hope that this research would be useful for many students
and can partly help them improve their listening skills while doing the TOEIC
listening test to meet program outcome standards.

1


1.2. Previous studies
There have been many researches on how to improve listening skills in the
TOEIC listening tests. I quote some of the following researches and have my
comments:
1.2.1. International studies
Related to listening skills, Abbas Pourhosein Gilakjani & Narjes Banou Sabouri
(2016) implemented the study: “Learners’ listening comprehension difficulties in
English language learning”. The study analyzed aspects of listening and listening
comprehension, presented listening comprehension strategies including: cognitive
strategies, metacognitive strategies, socio-affective strategies. The research showed
major problems that learners faced with listening comprehension and offered some
useful suggestions for students to overcome difficulties. The above issues were
presented in great detail and complete by the researcher. However, in my opinion, with
a wide scope of research as learners, for each part of research, to make the study
clearer, the researcher should classify subjects by age such as high school students or
university students, etc. In addition, the researcher did not use research methods such
as interviews, questionnaires and express findings in percentages. This may prevent
the reader from fully understanding the problem when only gathering information
from previous studies to analyze this research.
Abbas Pourhossein Gilakjani & Mohammad Reza Ahmadi (2011) conducted the
study: “A study of factors affecting EFL Learners’ English listening comprehension
and the strategies for improvement”. The study explained the factors influencing

English listening comprehension and the strategies that might help students improve
their listening comprehension. Teaching methods, teaching activities and general
principles in teaching listening comprehension were fully discussed. Nevertheless, the
findings based on the review of the literature along with analysis of the data;
percentages were not performed. The researcher did not use quantitative and
qualitative methods to conduct the study. As a result, the research might lack
objectivity.
Another study titled “A study of English listening problems and listening
proficiency of business students at Bangkok University” (2011) by Asst. Prof. Watjana
Suriyatham. The study was conducted to investigate listening problems and listening
2


proficiency of business students at Bangkok University. The researcher used
questionnaire, IELTS Test and interview as tools to collect data. The result of the study
revealed that listening text was the main reason that caused some listening problems
for business students. In addition, lack of practicing listening skills and lack of
exposure to different kinds of listening materials were the factors that mostly caused
listening problems. However, this study focused mainly on solutions for teachers to
recognize listening problems of business students rather than providing solutions to
help business students improve their listening skills. According to me, the researcher
should recommend some practical solutions for business students to improve their
listening proficiency. Furthermore, the participants of this study were 30 fourth-year
students from the Business English program at Bangkok University. In my opinion, the
researcher should increase the number of participants to ensure the accuracy and
objectivity of the study.
1.2.2. Domestic studies
Duong Thanh Hao (2016) conducted the study entitled “Difficulties encountered
in TOEIC listening test by the second-year students at University of Economics and
Business Administration – Thai Nguyen University”. The study investigated

difficulties in TOEIC listening comprehension encountered by a group of 50
sophomore students of TUEBA. The data was gathered by 3 methods including:
listening test papers, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The results
showed that the major TOEIC listening comprehension difficulties faced by the
second-year students at TUEBA were general linguistic ability, background knowledge
and facilities. While doing the TOEIC test, the participants normally applied some
strategies such as: guessing or predicting, identifying types of questions in part 2, and
listening for details. In this study, findings provided data analysis in detail and a
thorough discussion was presented. In general, this is a complete and practical
research.
Nguyen Thi Trang (2010) implemented the study: “How to improve listening
skills in TOEIC test in the case of: Questions and Responses, Short conversations”.
The main goal of this research paper was to provide students suggested glossary
conference to improve listening skills, particularly for 2 parts: Questions-Responses
and Short conversations in TOEIC test level 2 for non-English major students. The
3


study provided the theory of listening comprehension, focusing on listening part 2 and
3 in the TOEIC test, structure of each part and some tips to do it. The study also
presented the reality of listening in the TOEIC test of non-English major students at
Haiphong Private University (HPU) with specific facts and figures. Moreover, the
researcher provided specific communicative situations to enhance communicative
skills as well as listening skills in the TOEIC test. The researcher used some research
methods such as: quantitative method, collected reference, books, websites and
documents but did not use qualitative method in this study.
Nhu Ha Phuong (2012) conducted the research entitled: “Common errors made
by pre-intermediate students in the TOEIC listening test and some suggested
solutions”. The study was implemented to explore the students’ perception of the
TOEIC listening test, research the errors that pre-intermediate students at Haiphong

Foreign Language Centre often make while taking the TOEIC listening test. In this
study, both quantitative and qualitative methods, including a survey questionnaire,
students’ TOEIC listening test papers and semi-structured interviews, were used to
collect data. The main method used in this study was the quantitative one. In general,
the organization and content of this research paper are quite clear, useful and easy to
understand.
1.3. Aims of the study
The research is carried out with the expectation of exploring the typical problems
as well as difficulties faced by the third-year English majors at Thuongmai University
while doing the TOEIC listening test. Furthermore, this study is implemented to find
out the reasons or factors for these difficulties. Some practical suggestions are
expressed to provide solutions for the third-year English majors to improve listening
skills. In general, this study is conducted to deal with three main questions:
- What is the attitude of the third-year English majors toward TOEIC listening
comprehension skills?
- What are the real-life difficulties faced by the third-year English majors while
doing the TOEIC listening test and reasons?
- What are some feasible solutions to improve the TOEIC listening
comprehension skills of the third-year English Faculty students?

4


1.4. Research subjects
The research subjects of the study are listening skills of the third-year English
major students in TOEIC listening test to meet program outcome standards at
Thuongmai University. Research shows the common problems, difficulties that the
third-year English majors may encounter when taking TOEIC listening tests, indicates
factors leading to the TOEIC listening comprehension difficulties and suggests
solutions to improve their listening skills.

1.5. Scope of the study
The study focuses on the TOEIC listening comprehension skills. Due to the
limitation of time, the study was carried out among 60 randomly selected third-year
English majors at Thuongmai University. The research focuses on difficulties while
doing the TOEIC listening test that the third-year English majors may encounter and
suggests feasible solutions to improve their listening skills in the TOEIC test. The
ground for investigation in this study is the need to meet program outcome standards
of the third-year English Faculty students.
1.6. Research methodology
- Data collection instruments: The data was collected by both quantitative and
qualitative methods from 2 sources: survey questionnaires and interview questions
with the participation of 60 third-year English majors at TMU. The main method in
this study is quantitative one. A combination of these two methods will provide
accurate data. In addition, to complete this study, collected references, websites,
documents related to the TOEIC test were analyzed in detail.
- Data analysis: The collected data from the questionnaires was analyzed by
using calculation and synthesis tools to convert results into percentages and then the
researcher displayed the analysis results in the form of tables, charts. Relating the
interview questions, the responses were analyzed qualitatively.
1.7. Organization of the study
The study consists of four chapters as below:
- Chapter 1: Overview of the study: This chapter provides a general overview of
the study and is divided into 7 sections that consist of: rationale, previous studies, aims
of the study, research subject, scope of the study, research methodology, and
organization of the study.
5


- Chapter 2: Theoretical background: In this second chapter, all the relevant
background of the research is presented. The chapter provides the most complete

knowledge base of listening skills in the TOEIC listening test, related problems and
difficulties, factors leading to the difficulties while doing the TOEIC listening test and
an overview of English Faculty program outcome standards.
- Chapter 3: Research findings & Discussion: This chapter focuses on analyzing
research results and it is also the major part of the study. Besides, chapter 3 will give a
general evaluation of research findings. The figures which were collected from the
study would be shown and analyzed in this chapter. This is the crucial part of all the
studies.
- Chapter 4: Recommendations and suggestions: There are several suggestions
and recommendations for improving the listening skills of the third-year English
majors that would be given.

6


CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.1. Listening skills
2.1.1. Definition of listening
Listening is one of the most vital language skills. There have been many
definitions of listening over the years. Howatt and Dakin (1974) defined that:
“Listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying. This process
involves understanding a speakers’ accent or pronunciation, the speakers’ grammar and
vocabulary, and comprehension of meaning.” Goodith (2001) pointed out a slightly
different definition: “Listening is not merely not talking…it means taking a vigorous
human interest in what is being told us. You can listen like the blank mall or like a
splendid auditorium where every sound comes back fuller and richer.” (Miller,
Goodith, 2001, 48). Scott Shelton (2008) gave a definition that is similar to the
meaning of Howatt and Dakin (1974) 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. 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, listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in
the communication process. Listening is key to all effective communication, without
the ability to listen effectively, messages are easily misunderstood. Listening is the part
in communication, through listening, we can share our ideas with other people.
Listening is the most frequently used language skill in everyday life.
2.1.2. Nature of listening comprehension
Various authors have described the word “listening comprehension”. Rost (2002)
and Hamouda (2013) believed that: “Listening comprehension is an interactive process
in which listeners are involved in constructing meaning. Listeners comprehend the oral
input through sound discrimination, previous knowledge, grammatical structures,
stress and intonation, and the other linguistic or non-linguistic clues”. According to
Nadig (2013), listening comprehension is the various processes of understanding and
making sense of spoken language. These involve knowing speech sounds,
7


comprehending the meaning of individual words, and understanding the syntax of
sentences. In short, listening comprehension is a cognitive, or rather an interactive
process of constructing meanings that the speaker intends, through the complete
involvement of the hearer.
2.1.3. Types of listening
According to Stephen, Lucas (1998), we can identify four types of listening:
- Empathetic listening: As stated by Stephen, Lucas (1998), listening
empathetically means that the listeners is trying to comprehend the beliefs and
emotions of others to convince them share their deeply personal aspects to us. So, we
need to demonstrate our empathy in our demeanor towards them, by asking them
sensitively to encourage self- disclosure. “Empathic listening provides emotional

support for the speaker, as when a psychiatrist listens to a patient or when we lend a
sympathetic ear to a friend in distress.” (Stephen, Lucas, 1998, 58)
- Comprehensive listening: As claimed by Stephen, Lucas (1998), after the stage
of discriminating between the different sounds of a message, come this type of
listening which is the comprehensive one; seeking to make sense of these sounds. To
comprehend, the meaning requires first having a lexicon of words, all rules of
grammar and syntax in addition to the visual components of communication. Stephen
and Lucas (1998) mentioned: “Comprehensive listening is devoted for understanding
the message of a speaker, as when we attend a classroom lecture.”
- Appreciative listening: In the view of Stephen, Lucas (1998), appreciative
listening includes listening to music for enjoyment to speakers because you like their
styles, to your choices in theatre, television, radio, or films. It is the response of the
listener not the source of the message that defines appreciative listening. Generally
speaking, we use appreciative listening when we seek information which we will
appreciate for example that which helps meet our needs and goals. Stephen and Lucas
(1998) defined appreciative listening: “Listening for pleasure or enjoyment, as when
we listen to music, to a comedy, or to an entertaining speech.”
- Critical listening: According to Stephen and Lucas (1998), the ability to listen
critically is essential everywhere, we use in different contexts: family, community, etc.
There is practically no place you can go where critical listening is unimportant. This

8


type of listening deserves much more attention; it is listening to evaluate a message for
purposes of accepting or rejecting it.
2.2. The TOEIC test
2.2.1. Overview of the TOEIC test
2.2.1.1. General definition about the TOEIC test
The TOEIC test (The Test of English for International Communication) is an

international standardized

test of English

language proficiency

for

non-native

speakers. It is intentionally designed to measure the everyday English skills of people
working in an international environment. There are different forms of the exam:
Traditionally, the TOEIC test is a two-hour paper-and-pencil test. It consists of
200 multiple choice questions which are divided into two sections: Listening and
Reading. Separate scaled scores are provided for each section, the part score scales
ranging from 5 to 495 and the total score scales ranging from 10 to 990. The Listening
section tests how well the test taker understands spoken English and the Reading
section written English.
There are also the TOEIC Speaking and Writing Tests. The TOEIC speaking test
is composed of tasks that assess pronunciation, intonation and stress, vocabulary,
grammar, cohesion, the relevance of content, and completeness of the content. The
TOEIC Writing test is composed of tasks that assess grammar, the relevance of
sentences to the pictures, quality and variety of sentences, vocabulary, organization,
and whether the opinion is supported with reason and/or examples. Both assessments
use a score scale of 0 - 200.
2.2.1.2. The importance of the TOEIC test
The purpose of the TOEIC test is to measure the ability to speak, read and
understand basic business English. For this reason, the TOEIC is the preferred exam
for corporations, companies, governmental agencies and many educational institutions.
The TOEIC test evaluates the ability to function in international business and realworld settings rather than in an academic setting. The TOEIC certificate is considered

as the standard to evaluate the English proficiency level of workers and used by almost
all universities and colleges in Vietnam as English outcome standard for graduates.
According to ETS website, nearly 14,000 companies and organizations in 150
countries around the world, including Vietnam, have recognized the TOEIC certificate.
9


2.2.1.3. Typical TOEIC topics
Here are the sorts of the typical topics that you may find in a TOEIC test: health,
housing, transportation, banking, offices, jobs, industry, entertainment, restaurants,
travel, etc.
2.2.1.4. TOEIC format
* The TOEIC Listening and Reading Test:
- Listening Section (45 minutes, 100 questions)
+ Part 1: Pictures description: 6 questions
+ Part 2: Questions and responses: 25 questions
+ Part 3: Short conversations: 39 questions
+ Part 4: Short talks: 30 questions
- Reading Section (75 minutes, 100 questions)
+ Part 5: Incomplete Sentences: 30 questions
+ Part 6: Text Completion: 16 questions
+ Part 7: Single Passages: 29 questions, Multiple Passages: 25 questions
2.2.2. Listening comprehension in the TOEIC test
2.2.2.1. Part one: Pictures description
In this part, you will listen to the description of six pictures. Four short
statements describing a photograph will be spoken only one time. The statements will
not be printed. You must select the one that best describes the photograph and then
mark your answer on the answer sheet. The pictures may include people, objects,
actions, and locations both general and specific. You will make assumptions as well,
you may not be able to determine whether something is actually happening, but from

the clues in the photo, you can assume that it is.
2.2.2.2. Part two: Questions and responses
This part consists of 25 questions. In this part, each question will have three
possible responses. Three responses to one question or statement will be spoken only
one time. They will not be printed. The question may ask about people, location, time,
an activity, an event, emotions, reasons or opinions, etc. You must choose the best
response for the question and mark your answer on the answer sheet.
2.2.2.3. Part three: Short conversations

10


This part includes 39 questions. There are three questions for each conversation.
Conversations between two or three people will be spoken only one time. They will
not be printed. You must listen to each conversation and read the questions printed in
the test book (the questions will also be spoken), then select the best response for the
question, and mark your answer on the answer sheet. Some questions may require
responses related to information found in diagrams, tables, etc. printed on the test book
as well as what you heard in the conversations.
2.2.2.4. Part four: Short talks
This part consists of 30 questions. Short talks such as announcements or
narrations will be spoken only one time. They will not be printed. Listen to each talk
and read the questions printed in the test book (the questions will also be spoken), then
select the best response for the question and mark your answer on the answer sheet.
Some questions may require responses related to information found in diagrams,
tables, etc. printed on the test book as well as what you heard in the talks. There are 3
questions for each talk.
2.3. Some problems of listening comprehension
2.3.1. Quickly forgetting what is heard
Goh (2000) stated that the most common problem is “quickly forget what is

heard”. Some students are unable to remember the content they just heard, despite the
fact that it is a very familiar word that they are perfectly capable of recognizing. In
fact, even some students with quite a high level can lose concentration if the questions
are too easy. Therefore, it is very crucial to spend time on developing your short term
memory of language as well as short term memory in general.
2.3.2. Not recognizing the words they know
This is probably a more typical problem than not knowing the vocabulary at all.
First, apart from just being too busy thinking about other things and missing a word,
common reasons why students might not recognize a word include not distinguishing
between different sounds in English (e.g. /l/ and /r/ in “led” and “red”), or conversely
trying to listen for differences that do not exist, e.g. not knowing words like “there”,
“their” and “they're” are homophones. (Alex Case, 2008). On the other hand, spoken
language also has many reduced forms such as: “you’re” instead of “you are”, “won’t”
instead of “will not”, or “can’t” instead of “cannot”. These reductions are really
significant difficulties to the learners. (Brown, 2001, p252). Moreover, poor audio
11


equipment, a strange voice, or simply being too subjective and not focusing may be the
cause of this problem. According to Alex Case (2008), other reasons are problems with
word stress, sentence stress, and sound changes when words are spoken together in
natural speech such as weak forms.
2.3.3. Not understanding the intended message
When students miss out some key elements that are really important to fully
understand the message, they often have a habit of guessing the word and content of
what they are listening to and the message they are receiving. The prediction can be
correct or incorrect. Students with a volatile mentality will lose morale, suspense, fear,
and affect the quality of the sequel if the content does not go as planned. The reason
may be due to lack of concentration or due to the speed and voice of the listening.
Therefore, they only hear a few words or sentences that are not the main idea of the

message and then use what they have just heard to guess the intended message.
2.3.4. Missing information of next parts while thinking about the current part
This is a typical mistake that many students encounter. Although they have time
to consider the answers to previous questions at times, such as when the audio is
explaining the next part’s instructions, many students continue to focus on the current
questions when they are unsure of the correct answers because they are unable to grasp
the intended message or information about the chart, table, etc. As a result, they may
miss the intended message when the next listening text begins. There is no way to go
back and listen to the message again. Please make sure you mark all of your answers
on your answer sheet before moving on to the next listening text by turning the page
and placing your pencil on the question you will be listening to, then listening to the
audio and marking your answers afterward to avoid missing the next listening text.
2.4. Factors affecting English majors’ listening comprehension skills
2.4.1. Quality of recorded materials
As Azmi Bingol, Celik, Yidliz, & Tugrul Mart (2014) confirmed that: “The
quality of the sound system can impact the comprehending of learners’ listening”. In
fact, the audio sources of the listening tests are not always of high technical quality.
This is one of the reasons why students are quite confused and lose focus on taking the
listening test effectively and successfully because they find it difficult to recognize
words, stresses and swallowed words. This affects the ability to understand the
intended message of the passage as well as the psychology of the listener.

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2.4.2. Length and speed of recorded materials
Regarding the length of recorded materials, Hasan (2000) claimed that: “The
length of time students listen may cause memory problems or even fatigue and this
would distract listeners’ attention from grasping the meaning of the text, and learners
may miss the rest of the text when there is a lapse in concentration. This may be

attributed to the short memory span for the target language”.
Regarding the speed of recorded materials, Underwood (1989) mentioned that:
“Speed can make listening passage difficult. If the speakers speak too fast, students
may have serious problems to understand L2 words. In this situation, listeners are not
able to control the speed of speakers and this can create critical problems with
listening comprehension”. Berman (2003) assumed that: “Pace is the speed of speech.
Unimportant points or small details are usually spoken more quickly. Important points,
such as main ideas, are usually spoken more slowly and clearly.” Therefore, learners
should pay attention to the speed, intonation of the speaker and identify main ideas,
information they need for the answers of the listening test.
2.4.3. Accent
Bloomfield et al. (2010) claimed that: “Regional accents can impact the spoken
message that is understood by the listeners and familiar accents are easier to
understand than unfamiliar accents”. Goh (1999) mentioned that: “66% of learners
mentioned a speaker’s accent as one of the most significant factors that affect listener
comprehension. Unfamiliar accents both native and non-native can cause serious
problems in listening comprehension and familiarity with an accent helps learners’
listening comprehension”. Yagang (1994) also stated that: “The listeners have a
tendency to get familiar with the accents which they mostly listen to. If listeners are
exposed to standard British or American accents, they will face problems in
understanding other accents”. Therefore, it is clear that practicing listening to various
accents is important for good test results.
2.4.4. Cultural difference
Azmi, Celik, Yidliz, & Tugrul (2014) stated that: “Learners should be familiar
with the cultural knowledge of language that has a significant effect on the learners’
understanding. If the listening task involves completely different cultural materials
then the learners may have critical problems in their comprehension. It is the
responsibility of teachers to give background knowledge about the listening activities
in advance”. Cultural difference is a major barrier to listening comprehension.
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Exposure to specific cultural-oriented materials such as English culture, American
culture, British-American culture, etc., language learners can develop their listening
comprehension abilities. Background knowledge, cultural familiarity, and linguistic
complexity are extremely important linguistic features for improving listening
comprehension. Therefore, exposure to linguistic materials, which have these three
characteristics, is believed to promote learners’ listening comprehension.
2.4.5. Limited background knowledge: Grammar, Pronunciation, Vocabulary
Regarding vocabulary, Hansan (2000) pointed out that: “89.4% of the
participants suffer from incomplete comprehension. Some listeners thought that
meaning resides within the unfamiliar words so they need a huge amount of
vocabulary. On facing a new word, they tend to find out the meaning rather than infer
it from the context”. It means that without a wide vocabulary, listeners often have to
guess the meaning of the word through context or without relying on the context.
Regarding pronunciation, students often have a problem with knowledge of how
sounds merge or get reduced. When speaking English, indigenous people sometimes
match and swallow words to create a natural communication. As a result, the tone of
words can be changed, making it hard to recognize. According to Brown (2001, p252),
spoken language also has many reduced forms such as: “won’t” instead of “will not”,
or “can’t” instead of “cannot”. These reductions are significant difficulties to the
learners. Therefore, to improve listening ability, listeners should practice
pronunciation.
Regarding grammar, lack of grammar can prevent the listener from recognizing
the word or meaning of the passage. According to Richards, John Platt, and Heidi Platt
(2000) and Pourhosein Gilakjani and Seyedeh Masoumeh Ahmadi (2011), listening
comprehension is the process of understanding speech and it concentrates on role of
linguistic units such as phonemes, words, and grammatical structures and the role of
listener’s anticipations, the situation and context, previous knowledge, and the subject.
Hasan, cited in (Vogely, 1994) agrees that difficulty in listening comprehension is

partly due to the structure component of the text. As a result, without grammar, you
will not be able to understand or misinterpret the meaning of the person talking.
2.4.6. Concentration
Stephen, Lucas (1998) stated that: “The brain is incredibly efficient. As it is
proved scientifically, any person talks at a rate of 120 to 150 words a minute and the
brain can process about 400 to 800 words a minute. From these statistics it may seem
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that listening should be very easy, but it is the opposite. So, in the listening process, the
learners can take in all the speaker's words and still have plenty of spare. That’s why
the learners or listeners interrupt their listening with thinking about other things”.
Anderson and Lynch (1988) presented the role of attention that: “A well listening
performance is affected by the degree of students’ attention towards the input”. They
explained that when experiencing listening, students often attempt to perceive speech
word by word instead of focusing their attention on the meaning.
2.5. Program outcome standards
2.5.1. Definition of program outcome standards
Program outcome standards are statements that describe significant and essential
requirements that learners have to achieve at the end of a program. Program outcome
standards clearly indicate the level and type of competence that is required for
graduates of a program.
The English outcome standards of universities across our country have been
strictly applied. Most universities require the outcome of TOEIC or IELTS. Over 127
universities across our country are now using the TOEIC certificate as a graduation
requirement. Some program outcome standards of universities in our country are as
follows: Hanoi Polytechnic University – TOEIC 500, Thang Long University – TOEIC
450, Academy Of Journalism And Communication – TOEIC 450, Foreign Trade
University – TOEIC 650, Thuongmai University – TOEIC 450, etc.
2.5.2. Program outcome standards of English-major students at Thuongmai

University
At Thuongmai University, program outcome standards for English-major
students are TOEIC 800 or IELTS 6.5. Students must achieve one of these two
standards to be eligible to graduate. Reality, the majority of students at the English
Faculty of Thuongmai University choose the TOEIC certificate since it is similar to the
Business English major.

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CHAPTER III: RESEARCH FINDINGS & DISCUSSION
3.1. Research methodologies
3.1.1. Participants
The study was carried out among 60 randomly selected third-year English majors
at Thuongmai University. Most of them are review for the TOEIC test. Of these, 54
students are female and 6 students are male. Although all of them have learned English
for many years, they have encountered some difficulties in listening comprehension.
Each person has difficulties because of different impact factors and personal causes.
They enthusiastically took part in the survey to share their difficulties and find feasible
solutions to improve their English listening skills, especially the listening skills in the
TOEIC listening test. All students totally agree to provide information in a voluntary,
comfortable, and accurate manner.
3.1.2. Data collection instruments
The data was collected by both quantitative and qualitative methods from 2
sources: survey questionnaires and interview questions with the participation of 60
third-year English majors at TMU.
The main method in this study is quantitative one. The time to conduct this
research is limited. The questionnaire is one of the most effective ways to collect
quantitative data because it can be surveyed on a large scale geographically with a
large number of people, especially students. Furthermore, using this method makes it

easy for the researcher to generalize the problem and be proactive. Besides, you can
choose different types of questions and formats. Collecting data quickly and accurately
is another advantage of the questionnaire.
Moreover, to reach the set goals, the researcher collected information based on
qualitative method to make sure that the research would be more accurate and reliable.
A combination of these two data collection instruments will provide accurate and
objective data.
- The survey questionnaire: The questionnaire was carefully designed with 10
questions. It was separated into three parts as follows:
Part 1: This part consists of the third-year English major students’ background
information and attitude toward TOEIC listening comprehension skills.
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Part 2: This part points out the real-life difficulties faced by the third-year
English majors while doing the TOEIC listening test and personal causes leading to
these difficulties.
Part 3: This part suggests some feasible solutions to improve the TOEIC listening
comprehension skills of the third-year English Faculty students.
- The interview questions: Face-to-face interviews were conducted in the form of
informal conversation among the researcher and the students. It took place at English
Faculty of Thuongmai University at break time.
There are 3 questions used to explore more personal ideas that cannot show
clearly in the questionnaire and get deeper point of view. The first question is to
identify the third-year English major students’ purpose of studying TOEIC. The second
question is to explore the students’ ideas about the hardest part in the TOEIC listening
test. The third question is to find out the impact of language practice subjects at
English Faculty toward the students’ TOEIC listening test results.
3.1.3. Data collection process
After collecting the data and information from the questionnaires and interview

questions, the researcher analyzed the collected data from the questionnaires by using
calculation and synthesis tools to convert results into percentages and then displayed
the analysis results in the form of tables and charts. Relating the interview questions,
the responses were analyzed qualitatively.
3.2. Research findings
The language proficiency of the students at English Faculty of Thuongmai
University is undeniable, as shown by their high university entrance exam scores.
However, since university exams do not include a listening comprehension test,
students’ listening comprehension abilities remain a big question mark. In fact,
students in urban areas have a quite excellent ability to hear and understand English,
whereas students in rural provinces find the English listening test very hard. Because
the students in the provinces are often exposed to the listening tests at a very lower
level, so their English listening skills are usually a major limitation.
During the training process, Thuongmai University always pays attention to
improving the quality of training, constantly improving the training program to ensure
that students always have favorable learning conditions and good results. At English
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Faculty, Thuongmai University always gives priority to training language practice
subjects, especially subjects related to listening comprehension such as listening skills,
interpretation, advanced interpretation, etc. Therefore, the students at English Faculty
of Thuongmai University often have quite good TOEIC test results, especially the
TOEIC listening part. The following analysis results in the next sections will show
fully results from survey questionnaires and interview questions related to the TOEIC
listening comprehension skills of Thuongmai University’s third-year English major
students.
3.2.1. Results from survey questionnaires
There were 60 questionnaires randomly distributed to 60 third-year students from
English Faculty - Thuongmai University. However, there are only 50 valid responses.

Thus, the researcher will show research results based on 50 valid responses as follows:
Part 1: Third-year English major students’ background and attitude toward
TOEIC listening comprehension skills

 Time to know about the TOEIC test of English majors
40
35

35
30
25
20
15

15
10
5
0

Less than
0 1 year

1-3 years

More than 3 years

Column2

Chart 3.1. Time to know about the TOEIC test of English majors
It can be seen that the TOEIC test is very popular today. In particular, one of the

program outcome standards at English Faculty of Thuongmai University is 800 TOEIC
points. Therefore, students learn about the TOEIC test very early. The above chart
shows that up to 35 students, equivalent to 70% students, have known about the
TOEIC test for more than 3 years. In addition, there are 15 students, equivalent to 30%
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of these 50 students who have known about the TOEIC test for 1-3 years. Especially, it
includes 0% of students who have known about the TOEIC test for less than 1 year.
 English majors’ perception of the importance of listening skills in the TOEIC
test
The students’ perception towards listening skills in the TOEIC test plays an
important role in conquering the TOEIC test. If students appreciate the role of listening
skills, they will definitely get motivation and positive attitudes. These will encourage
them to figure out where the difficulties are and find out some useful ways in order to
improve their listening skills in the TOEIC test effectively. The following chart shows
the English majors’ perception of the importance of listening skills in the TOEIC test.

4.00%
36.00%

60.00%

Extremely Important

Important

Less Important

Unimportant

Chart 3.2. English majors’ perception of the importance of listening skills in the
TOEIC test
As presented at the chart 3.2, the most popular perceived perception towards the
importance of listening skills in the TOEIC test are extremely important and important,
accounting for 60% and 36%, respectively. There are only 4% of participants thought
that listening skills in the TOEIC test are less important. The percentage of English
majors who denied the importance of listening skills in the TOEIC test is 0%. Through
the above statistics, we can see that most of the third-year English major students in
Thuongmai University are aware of the importance of listening skills in the TOEIC
test.
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