Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 11

CHAPTER I. AN OVERVIEW ON LISTENING COMPREHENSION AND ITS

IMPORTANCE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING

In this chapter one, there has been stated the meaning that involves listening

comprehension skills. The first point has two definitions of listening comprehension.

As second concepts, there are introduced the most relevant types of listening

comprehension such as appreciative listening, critical listening, discriminative

listening and empathic listening. As the third point, those processes through top down

and button down. At last, the importance of listening comprehension in the English

language learning is also presented.

A. Listening Comprehension Defined

According to Ahmadi (2016), “Listening comprehension refers to the understanding

of what the listener has heard and it is his/her ability to repeat the text despite the fact

that the listener may repeat the sounds without real comprehension”. In fact, it

indicates that listeners understand what they have heard. Although, this is given as

usual to students who learn the text through hearing it. This includes understanding

followed by their pronunciation, understanding the meaning of individual words, and

understanding the grammar of sentences.

Additionally, listening comprehension is the various processes of understanding and

making sense of spoken language. These involve knowing speech sounds,

comprehending the meaning of individual words, and understanding the syntax of

 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 12

sentence (as cited in Gilakjani and Saburi, 2011). Consequently, the goal is to

understand the message until it becomes automatic and learning is speeded.

B. Types of Listening Comprehension

There are six types of listening starting that contribute with the seeking for data,

judgements, distinguishing of sounds, understanding of feelings, interesting in one

theme and empathize with the interlocutor. This varies according to its content,

complexity, authenticity, scope, theme, quantity that the listener is most used to

(Gulam, 2020). However, it is possible to adapt listeners whose teaching purposes

are more adapted to their way of comprehension. If this practice is maintained, it will

be better understood what the speaker is saying. Otherwise, it will create benefits that

result an active and effective communication.

b.1 Appreciative Listening

Listeners enjoy along sources based on our personal preferences. It seeks certain

good music for gaining satisfaction or pleasure and helps meet our needs and goals

too. In particular, poetry, charismatic speaker even though entertainers are related to

this type of listening. Furthermore, it happens casually in activities as consuming

television that captive sensory impressions (Bunda College of Agriculture, 2012).

b.2 Critical Listening

Audience members analyze whether the speaker is reliable. Besides, the message is

the most reasonable than manipulated. Therefore, it makes judgments about what the

other person is saying. Additionally, it seeks to assess the truth of what is being said.
 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 13

Otherwise, it embraces when confronted an offer or sales pitch that requires a choice

from us (Dearington and Groom, 2004). Consequently, it is worthy or unworthy if

their message is a judgement against our values.

b.3 Discriminative Listening

Listeners can recognize and distinguish inferences or emotions by using the

speaker's pitch changes, using pauses. Some people are very sensitive, and the rest

are not very familiar with these evidences. However, listeners can be distracted by

specific machine noise, hear familiar laughter in a crowded cinema, or their sons cry

in a noisy playground (Romroma, 2015). In other words, this ability may be affected

by hearing impairment.

b.4 Empathic Listening

A place where the audience tends to listen rather than speak. Their nonverbal

behavior indicates that the audience is listening to what is being said. The point is to

understand the speaker’s feelings and maintain support and patience. Besides, the

remaining exercises and pairing activities are designed to demonstrate the

advantages of empathic listening and highlight (Guset, 2015). Additionally, we should

be aware of the various obstacles that may prevent us from becoming effective

listeners.

b.5 Selective listening

It refers to scanning certain information, but in a selective manner since it is planed

with a purpose in mind. However, it is used to attend only what we want to hear.

There is a point to know relatively, it is lengthier. So, it is based on anecdotes,

 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 14

speeches, stories where find a discourse (Maftoon and Azarnoosh, 2016). Similarly,

listeners pay attention more to details likewise if those are external. In point of fact,

the listener show interest above specific sentences in a conversation while ignore

others.

b.6 Therapeutic listening

Krebt (2013) stated that “it serves as a “sounding board” for a speaker and is the act

of discriminating and comprehending a message to provide necessary supportive

behaviors and responses to a speaker. The listener's purpose is not only to

empathize with the speaker”. Therefore, the of use this deep connection helps the

speaker understand, change or develop the topic in a certain way.

C. The Listening Comprehension Process

D.a model of the processes

involved in listening, most
would
E.agree that the act of
listening seems to be a
 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 15

combination of several
things operating
F. simultaneously. That is,
listening seems to be a
unified device where the
processes
G. involved do not take
place in separate
H. a model of the
processes involved in
listening, most would
I. agree that the act of
listening seems to be a
combination of several
things operating
 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 16

J. simultaneously. That is,

listening seems to be a
unified device where the
processes
K. involved do not take
place in separate
L.a model of the processes
involved in listening, most
would
M. agree that the act of
listening seems to be a
combination of several
things operating
N.simultaneously. That is,
listening seems to be a
 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 17

unified device where the

processes
O. involved do not take
place in separate
P. effective listening requires
both top-down and bottom-up
processing
Q. working in harmony.
Bottom-up processing
provides the foundations to
build meaning
R.terpretations of the
utterance. Top-down
processing facilitates
 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 18

S. interpretation by
contextualizing, guiding, and
enriching the input.
Wong (2015) stated that “effective listening requires both top-down and bottom up

processing working in harmony. Bottom-up processing provides the foundations to

build meaning and constrains listeners interpretations of the utterance. Top-down

processing facilitates interpretation by contextualizing, guiding, and enriching the

input”. Despite, the act of listening requires the operation interconnected processes

working in various combinations. Throughout this two process it should be included

the degree of comprehension during listening.

c.1 Top down

According to Segura (2012), “The top down process consists of understanding the

general meaning of a listening selection without paying attention to specific

structures, words and so on. It is like a general overview where the listener gets a

general view of the listening passage”. It means that listeners are understanding the

general idea. Therefore, listeners will consider the context without paying attention to

specific details.

c.2 Button up

Vargas and Gonzalez (2009) stated that “phonemic units are decoded and linked

together to form words, words are linked together to form phrases, phrases are linked

together to form utterances, and utterances are formed together to form complete
 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 19

meaningful texts”. In addition, listeners must pay attention to specific details of

individuals words and phrases with the purpose to build up the meaningful of the text.

D. Importance of Listening Comprehension in Language Learning

In regards to the importance of listening comprehension, Yildirim and Yildirim

(2016) said the following:

Most people think that being able to write and speak in a second language

means that they know the language; however, if they do not have the efficient

listening skills, it is not possible to communicate effectively. That is, listening is

the basic skill in language learning and over 50% of the students spent time on

it.

In order to start speaking fluently in English, it is necessary to practice listening. But it

seems that the students do not see this connection and that the teachers themselves

fail to let them know. However, it is no excuse for not practicing listening. Learning

English is not something that is only practiced in the classroom. One should always

practice listening outside of class and the teacher should make these resources

available. In sum, listening is a significant language skill to develop in second

language learning. Some types of listening contribute in the domain of the practice in

listening are appreciative, critical, discriminative, selective and empathic. The process

of those have as bias in two modes of focusing the practice through of button up and

top down and help to increase the attention. For instance, listening is very important

in language because it provides input for the learners and without comprehending
 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 20

input, they cannot learn anything if only is dictated in class, so the primordial is doing

more resources of it.

CHAPTER II. CAUSATIVE FACTORS CURRENTLY AFFECTING THE

DEVELOPMENT OF LISTENING COMPREHENSION IN EFL STUDENTS.

Some factors affecting success are largely beyond the control of learners. They can

be roughly divided into internal factors and external factors. Among the internal

factors there are included the following: high level of anxiety, failure of concentration

and inability to understand. Secondly, those external barriers include disable access

to native speakers, unfamiliar vocabulary and surrounding noises. Their complex

interaction determines the speed and facility of learning in a new language. Thus, the

most difficult to develop the listening comprehension skill is learning to identify which

barrier is avoiding our skill.

A. Internal Factors

This types of factors are related to the negative consequences that interrupt the

listener. Nevertheless, some of these factors are generated due to the personal

problems or uncontrollable emotions. Whereby, this prevents the development of

listening comprehension in learners. Moreover, these barriers are more difficult to

manage, as they reside inside the mind of the listener (Rojas, 2015). These are

usually barriers’ that affect to catching internally. Due to, the mind starts to wander

and avoid the full attention back to the speaker. Among those barriers we are going

to mention the ones below.

 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 21

A. for understanding language learners' listening problems because “it

pinpoints those places in
a.1 High levels of Anxiety

This negative feeling is involved when listeners get difficulties through the syntax on

the foreign language. Then, learners are affected when they are being challenged to

understand the target language. In addition, the psychological factor provokes certain

fear for giving wrong answers or being humiliated in public. Although, it happens in

tests and evaluation classes (Carrillo, 2016). On the other side, Prastiyowati (2019)

stated that “Anxiety frequently came from students’ background knowledge, such as

getting worry to miss important ideas, getting nervous if not understanding every

word, getting anxious because of unfamiliar words and topic, and guessing the

missing information”. Furthermore, the reasons of listening anxiety are attributed for

the feeling of tension, nervousness and worry for avoiding the language learning

process.

a.2 Failure of concentration

They did not have time to

think what the
correct answer. It shows that
the students were not able to
 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 22

concentrate because they

search
the answer, at the same time,
listen to the dialogue.
They did not have time to
think what the
correct answer. It shows that
the students were not able to
concentrate because they
search
the answer, at the same time,
listen to the dialogue.
They did not have time to
think what the
 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 23

correct answer. It shows that

the students were not able to
concentrate because they
search
the answer, at the same time,
listen to the dialogue.
According to Asmawati (2017), “Students do not have time to think what the correct

answer could be in some cases. It shows that the students are not able to

concentrate because they search the answer, at the same time, listen to the

dialogue”. Currently, this occur when the concentration is weak during the process of

interaction that involves to respond the answer and listen at the same time.

a.3 Inability to understand

Gilakjani and Ahmadi (2011) stated that “Students tend to become worried if they

fail to understand a particular word or phrase and they will be discouraged by the

failure. It is necessary for students to tolerate vagueness and incompleteness of

understanding”. In contrast, listeners are scared because they entail those words

which cannot understand from what they will hear before doing listening

comprehension because they have no much knowledge in practicing it. Unfortunately,

when they do not understand something, this create a conflict of emotions. For

instance, they will feel shy towards their friends. Apparently, teacher’s duty to
 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 24

stimulate students' interest, help them build confidence and ensure that they can

listen to success in limited English. This means that the lecturer must find good

strategies to make the class enjoyable and easy the comprehension in class.

B. External Factors

In general, these factors that influence students are related to cause problems

grounded to the speech rate of delivery. Consequently, this causes an impact in

listening comprehension because the lack of native interaction, practice of knowledge

or physical environment influence in a poor performance by students (Trismasari

and Rosnija, n.d.). Besides, there are some external factors which can reduce the

effectiveness of listening comprehension like the ones we will mention below.

b.1 Disable access to native speakers

Second or foreign language learners who have no extensive access to native

speakers are likely to make slower progress, particularly in the oral aspects of

language acquisition. There is evidence that, compared with the native language in

which students are learning the language, listeners whose own language status is

lower make progress and results more slowly (Rivera, 2014).

For many learners, the most difficult thing about the language are the many different

English accents. For example, one of the most common differences between

American English and other variants of the language is a phenomenon known as

rhoticity and other modification in the pronunciation. In addition, listeners struggle

because they do not distinguish between those accents that vary greatly across the

different regions of the nation.

 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 25

b.2 Unfamiliar vocabulary

In regards to the unfamiliar words of the listening comprehension, Saraswaty (2018)

said the following:

Known words it would be very easy for students to them. If students know the

meaning of words this can arouse their interest and motivation and can have a

positive impact on the students’ listening comprehension ability. A lot of words

have more than one meaning and contexts.

Listeners may encounter a strange word that can stop them from thinking about the

meaning of this word for a while and miss the next part of the speech. Many students

keep struggling because they lack more words which makes it impossible for them to

know what the speaker is saying. They need to clearly practice more listening to

unknown words with native recordings. Consequently, it is understood that these

students do not know how to infer the meaning because they do not know much

about listening and their English vocabulary is limited. For instance, students must

know how to infer meaning, because understanding spoken language is essentially a

process of inference based on perception.

b.3 Surrounding noises

According to Awad (2015), “Listening comprehension barriers are noises, whether

those noises that originated from the surrounding environment or the ones that

emerged from the listening equipment. Examples of these noises are phones ringing,

a knock on the door, poor-quality equipment”. Among others noises that cause

obstacles are the traffic car even though if the classroom are near ones and others.
 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 26

Sometimes the bothering voices of pupils of others classroom and of course, many

sounds disturbed the minds’ off from the content of the listening passage.

In sum, the factors that influence students' English listening comprehension skills are

a problem for improving their listening comprehension. Some inadequate feelings

such as anxiety, lack of concentration and misunderstanding can cause

disorganization or a poor performance in listening activities. In fact, other causes

have relationship with insufficient vocabulary, understanding of accents from native

ones which are reasons to feel some uncomfortable interference in the

comprehension process. The most recommendable is that those students who do not

have an innate understanding require more support from teachers in order to reduce

what impedes them from listening clearly.

CHAPTER III. PROPOSING THE TOEFL LISTENING APP TO HELP STUDENTS

REINFORCE THEIR LISTENING COMPREHENSION SKILLS IN THE SECOND

 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 27

YEAR IN THE BACHELOR DEGREE IN ENGLISH AT UNIVERSIDAD

TECNOLOGICA OTEIMA

In this third chapter, it is explained the proposed application “TOEFL Listening

Application” as a support for students who want to improve their listening skills but

also as a way to prepare themselves in case they want to apply for studies in a

foreign country. As second point show the details and functions present in the App’s

interface. Thirdly, it describes the classification of the content as listening about

conversation, reading essays, multiple choices among others. To end, it

demonstrates why the TOEFL Listening Application with the audios integrated

guarantees the teaching and learning of English in and out of the classroom.

A. What is the TOEFL Listening Application?

In regards to the definition of the TOEFL Listening App, Adhikari (2018) said the

following:

TOEFL, formerly known as “Teaching of English as a Foreign Language” is an

“English Language Proficiency Test” designed in the early 1960’s by The National

Council of the Testing of English as a Foreign Language basically for students

whose first language is not English and are intending to further their education in

a foreign country where English is the medium.

The purpose of this test called TOEFL was made for students who want to apply in

any university for studying out of their country where the native language is the

English. In spite of the first requirement for international students try to join.

Furthermore, it test is made through internet and evaluates the level of the four skills
 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 28

as listening, speaking, reading and writing. However, it has a period of time for each

skill. Consequently, the preparation can be gotten using the application to reinforce

one individual skill or all of them. There are many applications that allow the practice

of the same content of TOEFL. In this case, we will describe the use of the TOEFL

Listening Application which offers us a wide content of practices for listening, reading

and other skills.

Moreover, Bracke (2013) stated that “Mobile devices provide a “cost-efficient

alternative” to traditional e-learning tools such as desktop laboratories and pods of

laptops as they are becoming “more powerful, portable, affordable and accessible”.

As result an effective English learning tool with accessible media resources. For

instance, an app with download audio recording and scripts about TOEFL

incorporated into the system of the app results in an incredible learning potential

when the data is checked online. This also provides an alternative to conduct the

development of two or more specific skills such as vocabulary, listening

comprehension, reading comprehension, or speaking and listening.

Basically, the TOEFL Listening application is designed with the next functions

integrated such as:

 Listen & Read lesson with Audio and Transcripts

 Support interface Android (play store) and Apple (App store)

 Search a lesson.
 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 29

 Free Download

 Bookmark manager

 Download audio file.

 Size 14M

 Background Audio Mode.

 Two listen mode: Online or Offline.

 Released in August 7th, 2020

 Created by Đại Kim, Hoàng Mai, Hà Nội.

B. Sections of the TOEFL Listening Application

The sections of activities in the TOEFL Listening Application is divided in categories.

Furthermore, the section of listening connecting information with services and office

hours encounters with university staff. Next to it, there is a section where the

individual can listen to all the phonology alphabet of the English Language. On the

other side, the reading section contains enough essays, stories, paragraph, quizzes

and vocabulary with the purpose to practice. Also, an additional wide context of

American slangs, proverbs, common phrases words, grammar rules and irregular

verbs are included. Every section has its multiple choice options, so; this is designed

to foster the study and practice at the individual’s pace and level.

b.1 Listening Section

In the listening part there are found different conversations, lectures and informal

dialogues with audios next to a script. In particular, it can be based in any field in the
 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 30

academic subject class. Therefore, participants pay attention to the words spoken as

well as the script of each lecture. Each script of audio has an evaluation (Sada,

2021). Alike the evaluation, there are five questions related to the audio selected.

These are described as follows below.

b.1.1 Audios of conversations and dialogs

Several topics about an activity of conversation and lectures are shown in in the

listening section. It can be around of seven and eight paragraphs with 50 lessons and

quizzes. Some of them exemplify conversations between a student and a university

advisor and a student and an HR interviewer. One example has a lecture from an

American history class and a university lecture by a Drama professor. To end with the

dialogues, there are over 700 listening lessons as asking direction, ordering food and

many more.

b.1.2 Audios of fields

This application provides resources necessary for improving English listening. Also,

numerous preparation tests and materials that help the learner gets a high score in

the TOEFL exam in a future. Conversations and lectures are based on variety of

academic subjects in sciences or arts such as architecture, biochemistry, education,

history, geology, environment, anthropology, computer and so forth (E-Learning

Edus, 2020). On the other hand, it allows the learner to practice listening with some

contexts that are delivered in the interaction of single speaker the instructor or a

classroom discussion between instructor and student.

b.2 Reading Section

 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 31

Educational Testing Service (2019) stated that “The reading section measures

and/or evaluate our ability to comprehend academic passages written in English.

Basically, in the actual TOEFL test, you would have 20 minutes to read the passage

and answer the questions”. Within its contents in the application it includes essays,

stories, reading comprehension paragraphs and categories to evaluate their

grammar, similar synonyms, incorrect word using the choosing the best answer.

b.2.1 Common words and phrases of the TOEFL Vocabulary

Caro (2009) stated that “The use of idioms in daily speech for English speakers has

brought a necessity in the teaching field to implement the use of this tool in and

outside the classroom in order to help students be competitive and increase their

vocabulary”. In contrast, it contributes in a way of informal speaking. This is related to

the many expressions that are used in a controversial dialect that keep its origin in

grammatical rules and semantic meaning.

Moreover, Ali and Amir (2016) stated that “Vocabulary memorization may also be

improved with the use of mobile apps”. However, using an app to learn vocabulary

specifically in TOEFL helps learners in their preview and review while reading in order

to recognize the meaning of words, pronunciation, and spelling.

b.3 Multiple choice exercise section

In regards to an example of multiple choice exercises, Muslimin (2014) said the

following:

Multiple Choice Test (Vocabularies are presented in the context and the

synonym in choices). This feature gets the students to choose the synonyms or

words with closest meaning in text which the words have been typed in
 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 32

different color and match them with the multiple choices under the text. This

feature can teach the students more vocabulary in the text.

One of the samples of multiple choices in the TOEFL listening application is about

synonyms. In this part, it is checked the section of reading, so the multiple choices

are found into each category as TOEFL essays, TOEFL stories, reading

comprehension, sentence completion, incorrect word, synonyms and TOEFL quiz. In

addition, those multiple choices have three optional answers. Likewise, in the section

of listening whose questions are related to one conversation, a lecture or a dialogue

with their respective multiple choice. To end, the results obtained has as aims

increasing their listening and reading competence by understanding context.

C. The efficiency behind the adoption of the TOEFL Listening App for the

comprehension and practicing of audios

The most important aspect of EFL teaching is keeping EFL material relevant to

students. If they can relate to what teachers are presenting in their lesson, they will

remain interested in what they ultimately share with their classmates. Relevant lesson

plans are essential in EFL and teachers can only develop an exceptional, relevant

lesson if they take the time to do so. Moreover, many students are worried because

they want to apply for a chance to study in the target country. Others want to get a

high score. Hence, teachers face with students who want to practice in an extra

course and it is more deeply in their free time. But the face to face time is not enough.

So that the most recommendable is practice with a support as the TOEFL Listening

App as an extra resource to practice.

c.1 From the Teacher Perspective’s

 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 33

Nowadays, most of the application that foster the development of listening

comprehension skills have been designed in a way in which students merely listen to

a piece of information in the form of conversation. It makes faster to respond

questions. So, the speed of speaking is unable to catch a normal speed talk.

Therefore, some students learn in the minute (Umar, 2016). Meanwhile, others need

to practice listening task repeatedly. However, teaching is sometimes dependent to

the time of the class, so that students has the opportunity to receive an equal

learning. For instance, this is an app that allow them to evaluate themselves in terms

of their mistakes.

c.2 From the Learner’s Perspective

The TOEFL Listening App is an app that helps students access to assimilate the

class materials conveniently at anytime and anywhere. Basically, it aims to explore

their experience of the app and whether the app is beneficial for academic (Zou and

Li, 2015). Moreover, it provides many benefits because students can get involved

with English learning inside and outside the class. In other words, the sources offered

by the TOEFL Listening App result as a great support to practice English and become

what guarantees students’ positive attitude towards mobile learning. In fact, the

learning obtained through the TOEFL Listening App is very useful because it offers a

standardized refreshed data which is used in real TOEFL exam.

To sum up, the TOEFL Listening Application becomes one of the best resources for a

free preparation in improving our listening comprehension skill and practicing the

TOEFL exam. This is because it has the necessary characteristics in terms of its

functions that are very accessible to students. At the same time, it provides a content

similar to the original exam given as vocabulary, readings, and conversations.

 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 34

Together with all this integrated material, the application is very useful to implement it

in classes since it contributes to the adaptation of the required learning.

CHAPTER IV. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS.

The results received about the investigation were enough data as for seeing in what

the student need more help to improve their level of listening comprehension. This

diagnosis analyzed with details of the answers interpreted were applied in students of

second year at University Tecnologica Oteima. For the purpose based in the

proposing of the use about application to reinforce the listening comprehension with

useful for the TOEFL. On the other hand, it has been a research paper based on the

level of each student connected in fields whose need to approval their understanding

when is necessary. As sequence have the explanation of the following results

obtained under a study of analyzing answers based on the perspective of each

experience in students will be explained their election.

 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 35

Question #1. According to you, what would the definition of listening

comprehension?

According to this graph, the Listening comprehension refers to understanding of what

the listener has heard and it is his/her ability to repeat the text. In this selection, the

answer chose is the correct. Based on that, this analysis reveals that 50% of students

considered that listeners in the beginning heard and after repeat it. On the other

hand, the 20% of the students selected the option a, maybe because were basing

about of variation which have the types of listening comprehension as its content,

complexity, authenticity, scope, theme, quantity that the listener is most used to .

Additionally, the 30% assumed that the definition was with respect to various

processes of understanding and making sense of spoken language and it is

 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 36

considered as one second meaningful which it is right too. It shows us that the

majority of the students own some knowledge in listening skills.

Question #2. In your understanding, which would be the types of listening

comprehension?

According to this graph, the types of listening comprehension are appreciative,

critical, discriminative, empathic, selective and therapeutic listening. Based on that,

this analysis shows that 40% of students chose the correct answers of the option c.

Meanwhile, other 40% of the students selected the option a, but if it is referred to

contribute with the seeking for data, judgments, distinguishing, understanding of

feelings, interesting in one theme and empathize with the interlocutor, then they were

based in the general description about types of listening. In addition, a 20% of them

chose the option b, but it only the definition of selective listening. It indicates us that
 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 37

students know something about of types of listening comprehension, but need a more

in-depth sketch of their listening types.

Question #3. What is the importance of listening comprehension?

According to this graph, the importance of listening comprehension is the basic skill in

language learning and over 50% of the students spent time on it. Based on that, this

analysis reveals that 50% of students affirm the option a, as their favorite answer and

without doubt they were not wrong. Besides, the 20% of the students chose the option

b, but it is referred to a process called button up in listening comprehension. Finally,

the 30% of them considered the option c, but it is referred to the other top down

process too. In view of the results, the middle was confused in the importance of

listening comprehension and the other respond exactly.

 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 38

Question #4. In your understanding and experience, what would the internal

causative factors that affect the listening comprehension in EFL students?

According to this graph, the internal causative factors that affect the listening

comprehension are high levels of anxiety, failure of concentration and inability to

understand. Based on that, this analysis reveals that 60% of students considered the

option b, as their answer specificity was affirmative. On the other hand, the 10% of

the students chose the option a, it only tried of personal problems or uncontrollable

emotions, but it is given in a description general of internal factors. Additionally, the

30% of them were focused in the option c, searching the answer when listening a

dialogue; which it is provoked but failure of concentration. It shows us that some

 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 39

students have a total knowledge in those internal causative while than others have a

low background of all.

Question #5. How does the high level of anxiety affect your listening

comprehension process?

According to this graph, the high level of anxiety affects your listening comprehension

process because it is a negative feeling involved when listeners get difficulties

through the syntax on the foreign language. Based on that, this analysis reveals that

30% of students assert the correct option a. In contrast, the 50% of the students failed

with the option c, considering this feeling of tension, nervousness and worry makes

you avoid the language learning process; maybe, it is an opinion near, so the feel a

identification. Moreover, a 20% of them chose the option b, about do not have time to

process the correct answer, so it tries more of failure of concentration. It indicates us

 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 40

that one of each student feel to involve in some answers due to their election of

option.

Question #6. Which of the following external factors would affect students'

listening comprehension?

According to this graph, the external factors would affect students' listening

comprehension are disable access to native speakers, unfamiliar vocabulary and

physical noises. Based on that, this analysis reveals that 80% affirmed the option a,

which was the right. On the other hand, only 10% of the students chose the option b,

related to differences between American English and other variants of the language;
 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 41

perhaps, they do not have access to native speakers to different accents.

Additionally, other 10% of them chose option c, as bother of noises coming from

traffic, ringing phones o talking student of other classroom are only a motive of

obstruction to listen to. It shows us that many of the students tend to involve to this

factors because know of them.

Question #7. In your experience, how does unfamiliar vocabulary affect the

listening comprehension process?

According to this graph, the unfamiliar vocabulary is affect the listening

comprehension process because a lot of words have more than one meaning and if

students are not used appropriately in their appropriate contexts students will get

confused. Based on that, this analysis reveals that 80% of students evidenced the

option c, like the right answer. In contrast, only 10% of the students chose the option

b, that mention about students do not have enough competence to distinguish

between the variety of accents, it is probably that student who selected this, it
 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 42

presents an affectation with the sounds of different accents of some native speakers.

Additionally, other 10% of students answered the option a, it is referred to learners

who have no extensive access to native speakers are likely to make slower progress.

It shows us that many students have some knowledge in affectation that avoiding the

listening comprehension.

Question #8. According to the audio conversation above, why does the advisor

say this: “I was ready to pack it in after the first two weeks”?

According to this graph, tries about of an activity made of TOEFL application to the

students where they have that listening to an audio of an advisor and a student, after

that choose the best answer according to conversation. Based on that, this analysis

reveals that 60% of students the option c, whose mentioned to demonstrate how

brave he was for staying in school, but it was not the right answer. On the other hand,

a 20% of students affirmed the right option a. Additionally, other quantity of 20% of
 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 43

them failed with the option b. It shows us that great quantity of the students have

troubles of listening to comprehension.

Question #9. According to the audio dialogue above, how long is Sandra going

to stay there?

According to this graph, an activity of an audio dialogue of the TOEFL application was

applied to the students who have to answer and choose the question about how long

is Sandra going to stay there. Based on that, this analysis reveals that 30% of

students chose the correct option a, as their best answer related to about 2 weeks.

On the other hand, the 60% of the students were not agree with the options and

ended to choose the option c, none of these sentences. Finally, only a 10% chose the
 Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 44

option b, whose had not none in relation the dialogue. It shows us that many of the

students have very low level of understand and they need to practice more audios.

Question #10. For you, what is the most important benefit of an application with

learning resources as the TOEFL Listening Comprehension?

According to this graph, the most important benefit of an application with resources of

listening comprehension in TOEFL is that it provides conversations, lectures and

dialogs very similar to the original TOEFL test. Based on that, this analysis reveals

that 50% of agreed with correct option b. On the other hand, the 40% of the students

chose option a, because It helps to improve listening skills for preparing in TOEFL

test. In addition, only a 10% of them considered this app evaluates the learning with

quizzes, whose reason it is truth. It shows us that many of the students understand

the app and the enormous benefits that they can obtain of it.
Proposing the TOEFL Listening App to Help Students Reinforce their Listening Comprehension Skills | 45