STUDENTS’ CHALLENGES IN LISTENING IN VIRTUAL
CLASSROO; CASE STUDY IN ENGLISH EDUCATION
STUDY PROGRAM IN COVID-19
Mia Aldina Angga Taufan Dayu
Islamic University Of Kalimantan Islamic University Of Kalimantan
mia.aldina96ok@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Listening is one of the four skills in learning English. This
study aims to determine the difficulties faced by students in
learning listening in virtual learning. This research is a
qualitative research. Participants in this study were the forth
semester students who had studied listening in 2018/2019
majoring in English education at UNISKA Banjarmasin. In
collecting data, researchers used interviews which were
conducted virtually through the WhatsApp with the
respondent. The results showed that there were 2 factors,
namely Internal factors and External factors consisting of 6
difficulties faced by students in virtual learning. The
difficulties faced by these students are; Lack of vocabulary,
speed of speech, unclear pronunciation, lack of
concentration and motivation, condition of studying at
home, limitation of the Media.
Keyword: Listening, Listening difficulties, Virtual Learning
1. INTRODUCTION
In this pandemic of COVID-19, everyone applies
social distancing including the learning process, many
students of Indonesia learn from home using Zoom app.
The application of the concept of Virtual Learning in
distance learning systems is becoming technological trend
learning in this pandemic. Conceptually virtual learning has
potential which is not simple in improving the quality of
education including the potential in providing
communication opportunities between learning participants
and instructors as well communication between learning
participants, learning materials that are not bound by time
and space. Virtual learning can provide interesting learning
material so that participants are motivated to learn. But on
the other hand, there is Virtual Learning in the learning
process some disadvantages include the high cost that must
be issued. Therefore the application of Virtual Learning in
distance learning needs to be completed with the ability of
users of the distance learning program.
There are some problems using virtual learning, the
problem faced by students from external or internal factors.
The examples of external factor are problem signal,
problem audio, expensive internet data, and limited time.
The problem can also come from themselves (internal),
such as difficulty listening when learning English directly,
lack of vocabulary, less understanding and less
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Raudatul Haura
Islamic University Of Kalimantan
concentration in learning process. To face this problem, the
lecturer must give the material slowly and clearly to make it
easier for students to understand and students must focus
during virtual learning process.
Learning is one of important skill that student should
have learned in learning language such as learning English,
but learning to be good in listening is not easy as it seems.
This cannot be separated from the influences of listening in
constructing students’ vocabulary and enhancing language
usage. Listening has the potential to develop students’
pronunciation, word stress, and syntax acquisitions. It also
contributes for language expertise and proficiency.
Gilakjani (2016) found that the difficulties of
listening comprehension were the length of listening and
the quality of recorded materials. However, these earlier
studies only focus on external factors that occur during
listening. Other researchers also investigate about from
internal factors of the listener. Renukadevi (2014) finds that
listener’s concentration become the major problem in
listening. The lack of concentration is considered as a major
problem because the shortest break in attention can impair
the comprehension seriously. In addition, Hamouda (2013)
also finds that the listening comprehension problems are
related to the students’ concentration, and motivation.
Those problem show that the students have certain
difficulties in understanding when English speaker speaks.
This research try to investigate students’ challenges
in listening in virtual classroom, this research is different
from previous study 2016, 2014, 2013 because the previous
researchers only investigate listening problem in the
classroom. The researcher would like to do a research with
an entitled Students’ Challenges in Listening in Virtual
Classroom; Case Study in English Education Study
Program in COVID-19
2. METHOD
Research Design and Setting
The research of Students’ Challenges in Listening in Virtual
Classroom; Case Study in English Education Study Program
in COVID-19 used qualitative method.
Qualitative research is a research method
that is descriptive in nature, uses analysis, refers to data,
utilizes existing theories as supporting material, and produces
a theory. According to Sugiyono (2013: 15), the definition of
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qualitative research is research based on the philosophy of
post positivism, used to examine natural conditions of objects,
(as opposed to experiments) where researchers are as key
instruments, sampling the source data is done purposively, tri-
angulation (combined) collection techniques, data analysis is
inductive or qualitative, and qualitative research results
emphasize meaning rather than generalization.
Based on the statement above, the research was describe with
qualitative method which involve collecting data in order to
answer the research questions formulated in problem
statement.
Population and Sample
The population of this research was the Forth Semester
Students of English Education Department of UNISKA
Banjarmasin Year 2020. Subject of this research were
selected by the purposive sampling technique. The researcher
choose 4 students to find out about their problems and
strategies to overcome the challenges in listening in virtual
classroom. Qualitative research requires a particular social
location as a natural setting for problems in order to provide a
comprehensive understanding or depiction. Because of this
pandemic of Covid-19, which requires researcher not to able
to meet directly with sources so this research was conducted
by interviewing with informants in the platform WhatsApp.
The study was conducted because the writer wanted to know
the results of the answers about students’ challenges in
listening in virtual classroom.
Instrument
This research conducted by using interview to collecting data.
Interview adapted from Hamouda (2013) as supporting of
questions about students difficulties.
Interview chose to know deeply about students’ challenges in
listening in virtual classroom. It was consists of 8 questions.
Analysis Data
Data analysis techniques are the most decisive step in a study,
because data analysis serves to infer the results of research.
Data analysis can be done through the following stages:
a. Familiarizing and organizing, In this stage, the data
obtained was collected together. The researcher started the
process by reading, taking note, and reviewing the entire
data. Then the researcher organized relevant data to focus
on the problem of the study. The data were from
interview.
b. Interpreting and representing, The researcher interpreted
the findings, analyzed by using the expert theory and
represented the data result.
3. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The result of interview are;
(Student 1) says the difficulty is sometimes the
signal is not working and makes the voice of the lecturer
unclear so it makes it difficult for her to listen the
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explanation from the lecturer. There is also the problem of
the way the lecturer speaks, usually the lecturer is too quick
to explain it so that she can’t catch what the lecturer saying.
Besides, because she studying at home, her motivation to
take lecture is somewhat reduced so she does not focus on
listening to what lecturer teaches. Unfamiliar words also
make her does not understand with speaker, it caused by
lack of vocabulary. But she has a way to overcome her lack
of vocabulary, such as reading dictionary and memorizing
vocabulary every day, listen the music while reading the
lyrics, watch western movies. Because mastery of
vocabulary has an effect on improving listening.
(Student 2) He personally feels fine when the
virtual learning process takes place, it’s just that there are
problems with internet data which cost his quite a lot of his
money. Moreover, the way of learning is not effective and
makes the material sometimes difficult to understand. And
he had challenges in listening in virtual classroom when he
is at home, the environment around his house which is
sometimes noisy such as the sound of passing motorcycle,
the unstable signal makes the voice of lecturer unclear. Lack
of vocabulary, and speed of speech also makes him poor at
learning listening in virtual classroom.
(Student 3) this pandemic makes us obliged to
apply social distancing by the government, the campus was
closed and only took online class. Because she used to learn
face-to-face and now she learning in virtual classroom so
there are some difficulties; the material presented is unclear
caused by the unstable signal and less concentration because
she join the virtual classroom while she is at work place that
is because the online class schedule sometimes does not
match the real schedule on campus, when studying online in
the middle day he becomes sleepy especially when the
lecturers deliver the material is not enthusiastic. Besides,
pronunciation is one of the most common difficulties, when
lecturer speaks there are often words that have the same
word structure but are pronounced differently.
(Student 4) he feels not comfortable studying in
virtual classroom cause he used to learning directly, so the
problem when there is material that he doesn’t understand
he can’t ask the question to lecturer. Sometimes the lecturer
speaks to quick, which is affected him in listening caused by
the lack of vocabulary. Besides, his laptop and earphone
sometime does not work.
This concludes that there are two dominant factors
in students' challenges in listening in virtual classroom;
internal and external factors by forth semester students of
the English Education Study Program at the Islamic
University of Kalimantan
Internal Factors.
Internal factors are problem that comes from the
students themselves in listening in virtual classroom. Based
on the results of the interview during this research in this
pandemic, the internal problems in listening in virtual
classroom are as follows;
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 a. There is interference from the students’ hearing aid
so that when listening to the material being
discussed it becomes unclear and difficult to
understand.
b. Low intelligence or learning disability, which is the
limited memory or intelligence of students in
understanding the material they are listening to.
c. Lacks of vocabulary, their difficulties were related
to the limitation of voacabulary.
d. Low motivation, there is no motivation and spirit in
learning listening in virtual classroom.
e. Not concentrating when listening to the speaker.
External Factors.
External factors are problem that come from
outside of the students in listening in virtual classroom.
Based on the results of the interview during this research in
this pandemic, the external problems in listening in virtual
classroom are as follows;
a. The media or tools such as audio, laptop, earphone
used when listening process sometimes broke.
b. Home study facilities do not support learning
activities.
c. Condition of environmental that makes students
distracted during learning in virtual classroom.
d. Speed of speech, most of the students claimed that
the major factor of the listening problem was
caused by the speaking speed of the speaker.
e. Lack of interaction between lecturers and students
in listening process.
f. Problem of signal, when signal is not working,
sometimes the lecturer’s voice becomes unclear,
and the videos become blurry.
g. Expensive internet data, some students have limited
costs for buying internet data, sometimes they
sacrifice their money just to buy internet data so
they can take online class.
Discussion
This research was aimed at knowing the students’
challenges in listening in virtual classroom;
1. Vocabulary
Lack vocabulary become a main source of the
problem. All of the students said that their difficulties were
related to the limitation of vocabulary. They stated that there
was still unfamiliar word. They needed English dictionary to
help them in knowing the meaning of the words. Hamouda
(2013) said that limited English vocabulary hinder the
listeners’ understanding because the unfamiliar and limited
words.
2. Speed of Speech
The researcher found out the reason why the students
felt difficult was caused by speed of speech. Lecturer who
spoke quickly cause the students to be cannot understand
the material. Brown and Yule (1983) also explain that the
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listeners needed time to process the information they
received.
3. Unclear Pronunciation
The students acknowledge that sometimes some
words had similarities and also differences meaning. It was
supported by Jiang (2009) that the unfamiliar pronunciation
affected the students to have an inability of word recognition
with similar sound. The students did not only understand
the meaning of word by word, but were also required to
understand the material.
4. Lack of Concentration and Motivation
Some of them felt difficult to concentrate when they
were in certain circumstances. Hungry and less of energy
made them lose their concentration while listening. Besides,
lack of motivation came from the student self-caused by the
way of thinking, and physical condition of student during
listening. Some students stated that low motivation occurred
when they were sleepy and bored.
5. Condition of Studying at Home
Students’ difficulties during listening could come
from external factors. The researcher found that the
condition of home environment disturb the students in
concentrating during listening in virtual classroom. Some
students said disturbed by the sound of passing motorcycle
and noisy from their parents watching the TV during the
students listening the material in virtual classroom. Unstable
signal makes the voice of lecturer unclear, every region does
not necessarily have a stable signal. Moreover, a learning
system like this requires an extra quota. It could be seen that
the causes of difficulty experienced by the students during
listening were not only involved by the language elements,
but came from the external factors. It was condition and
situations in their home.
6. Limitation of The Media
Problems with laptops or devices when students in an
exam in virtual classroom or server error. Limited time,
there is no internet data and the limitations of the media
used an everyone’s financial adjustments is different to face
the situation of Covid-19.
CLOSING
Conclusion
1. The objectives of this study was to find out the
students’ challenges in listening in virtual classroom,
there are some problems in students’ listening that
were found in analyzing students’ difficulties : lack of
vocabulary, speed of speech, unclear pronunciation,
lack of concentration and motivation, condition of
studying at home, limitation of the media. The
problems in listening in virtual classroom faced by
students not only from the listener themselves but
from content material and environment of listening in
virtual classroom.
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Suggestions [11] Simonson (2003) Advantages and Disadvantages of
Considering the result of the research, the researcher would using the internet in learning.
like to some suggestions as follows; [12] Sugiyono. (2015). Memahami Peneliatian Kualitatif.
1. The students Bandung. Alfabeta
The students need to train their listening intensively [13] Walker, N. (2014) Listening: The most difficult skill to
in order to help them overcome their problems in listening. teach. Research in Science Teaching, 23, 167-175.
Listening to English song or watching movies with English Retrieved on October 6, 2016 from
subtitle and multiply read the English dictionary, it will help www.encuentrojournal.org/textos/Walker_LISTENIN
them to improve their vocabulary automatically. And stay G%20.pdf
enthusiastic to study wherever you are during this pandemic [14] Zezens Pratama (2018) Revealing Students’ Listening
of Covid-19. Comprehension Difficulties and Strategies in
2. The lecturers Intermediate Listening Class
Being a lecturer who teaches virtually is not easy.
The lecturer should awarer of the problems faced by their
students in learning listening in virtual classroom to find a
good strategy to teach in order to make the students become
a better listener.

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