Graduation project

Submitted by:
Abrar Abas Taher Abo Ariash

ID Number:
214015653

Department of English language, King Faisal University

June 2019

How to develop listening skills?

Supervisor: Majzoub Rahmatullah Alamer

Associate professor
Abstract

Listening is a forgettable skill because numerous researches has been

done in reading, writing and speaking skills and there are not enough
researches for listening skill although its great important role in learning
language process. lack of researches interest in listening is due to
consideration that speaking, reading and writing are described as
"valuable" skills to focus on in the classroom; on the contrary,
researchers and teachers consider listening as something which could
just be "picked up".

From these considerations above we can find too little attention to

listening skill and how poor it is presented in lectures and classrooms.

I am wondering how we can improve speaking and mastering the

language without listening much and very carful , every learner of any
language has to know that we can’t speak well without listening well
and we can’t speak naturally and fluently without practice listening as
much as we can .

When we were very young, we stayed may be one year without

speaking or writing and reading, we listen voices and sounds around us
only, after that we hardly say one word ‘papa’ , ‘mama’ , ‘hettah ‘ ,
‘ashrab’ , and etc..

The listening is not just a terminal skill, it is very important for

improving at least speaking skill, I am here in this research will try to
focus in some authentic material that if we use, we can improve
listening skills inside or outside classrooms.

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Acknowledgment

THANKS to Dr. Majzoub Rahmatullah Alamer for his guidance and sharing his
expertise during this research processes. I am also thankful for all those who have

given their hand in this venture.

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 Table of contents

Abstract………………………………………………….…... i

Acknowledgment ………………………………..……….…. ii

problem statement …………………………….………….…..1

Purpose statement ………………………………..….………..1

Literature Review ………………………………………….….2

Thesis statement …………………………………………..….3

Research Questions …………………………………....….…..3

Significant of the study ……………………………………….3

Research Methodology ……………………………………….4

Research results ……………………………………………….6

Conclusion ……………………………………………………6

References ………………………………………….………..7

Appendix ……………………………………………………..8

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problem Statement

listening is something if we deal with naturally, we will get the most

perfect results we need. so, I am here supposing that there is a poor
importance of this skill inside classrooms. in another words maybe there
is too much important but without giving the hopeful results which
improving listening which will exactly improve speaking because we can
only improve speaking by a base of listening to much. when we listen
that mean we will speak. the case of the deaf people is a clear example for
this as they were born with no hearing so in a result they will not speak
and become also mute.

Purpose statement

This research aims to focus on listening and how to improve this

important skill with a variety of real material and activities that if we use
them perfectly, we can improve the listening skill for new learners

Also I would like to transmit a process prepared by Lindsay Miller, an

associate professor of language education in the Department of English
and Communication at the City University of Hong Kong, to help new
learners improve their listening skills .

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Literature review

When listen with good ability means comprehending information during

listening activities. However, listening skill is still considered as one of
the most difficult skills for English language learners although they have
been learning English for few years.

Harmer (2007) states that listening can be helpful for students in running
successful communication. The students’ communicative competence
successfully runs together with good listening skill of students. Bulley-
Allen (1995) also stated that Listening is dominant activity in daily
communication (40%), 35 % for speaking, 16 % for reading, and 9 % on
writing. In other words, communication will not run well if it is not
supported by good ability in listening,

Any language especially English, needs its listeners to be aware of

knowledge and culture of the people they spoke it and to enrich
themselves with basic language knowledge, like vocabulary system,
grammar, pronunciation. As Buck (2001) stated there are two kinds of
knowledge used in listening; linguistics and non-linguistics knowledge.
Linguistics knowledge in listening comprehension relates to students’
abilities in understanding phonology, syntax, lexis, semantics, and
discourse structure. Then, the non- linguistics knowledge is knowledge
about topic, context, and general knowledge. Both are really needed in
the process of comprehending aural information because listening is a
complex process

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Thesis statement

The assumption of this research is based on language acquisition theories

especially developing listening skills of the new learners. Also using
metacognitive knowledge for successful listening comprehension which
deal with cognitive theories discourses.

Research questions

This research is going to ask some questions as following:

 Is listening skill complex skill?

 what is the relationship between listening and speaking?
 What authentic materials that can enhance listening skill?

Research Significance

The finding of this research will reform again the listening skill practices
and give more attention to this skill by envolving both new authentic
material and much time in classroom and will also block the lack of
listening activities and push teachers and instructors to focus on new
effective activities during listening classes .

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Research methodology

At most learners of English aren’t involved in listening practice. Because

of lack of sources, tools, some teachers try to skip listening activities in
the class. The students get familiar how to develop their reading, writing,
speaking skills, but they get harder problems in listening due to lack
exposure of the skill.

learners must practice a lot to improve their skill by listening to audios

and watching videos and to arrange skype groups to practise their
speaking and listening with native speakers to be involved in a real
situation and listen to pure language from its natives.

Lindsay Miller is an associate professor of language education in the

Department of English and Communication at the City University of
Hong Kong, suggests radio as the most authentic material to be used
inside classrooms as following:

1. Pre listening task: in this task students should be told to listen to a

travel program on radio for only ten minutes, the radio guide tells
us in that this program is about Egypt. What do you know about
Egypt? What would you like to know about Egypt? What kind of
information do you think the presenter will give us?
2. During listening task: While you listen to the program, try to listen
for the main things the presenter recommends doing while in
Egypt. Don’t try to write anything down, only listen to the program
and see how much you can understand
3. Post listening task: In groups of three have a short discussion about
what you heard from the program. Would you like to go to Egypt
based on what you just heard? Why or why not?

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Beside using radio as an authentic material also we can use cd or internet
material to enhance pure listening for students.

This will keep students aware of listening and they will recognize
knowledge as they are listening.

I have also done a questionnaire of 3 female students in king Faisal

university department of English I have asked them 2 questions and give
them the chance to listen to a thirty second conversation for native
speakers:

The questions are

 Do you practise listening enough at classroom?

 What are your difficulties of listening?

Student A answers:

 No, we rarely practise listening

 Native speakers speak very speed

Student B answers:

 Little listening at classrooms but I am trying to practise listening at

home
 The biggest difficulties of listening for me is speaker’s accent.

Students C answers:

 Listening at classroom is very boring and I got nervous at class

 Lack of my vocabulary affects my listening understanding

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All of them give negative comments about listening practise at class, this
refers to the problems which we here to search for and we are trying to
focus on more time during listening and using authentic material may
help in developing listening skill.

Research results

The finding of this research refers to something mostly common while

practicing listening if we present some solutions it will be solved
immediately but with using authentic materials and give much time inside
classroom also learners must practice freely at home on internet or with
friends from native countries to listen pure to the language and build a
systematic knowledge and vulture about English .

Also, all participants who were participated in the questionnaire indicate

that the listening classes are difficult for them as it is shown above.

conclusion

To conclude , learners need to listen to authentic material and much time

and efforts inside classrooms has to be given to help learners improve
their listening .type of material is very important and listening lessons
should be to allow learners to have great independence to listen to real
world and pure language .lack of practice , vocabulary mastery and native
speakers accent are the most factors which affects listening skill .

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References

1. Lindsay Miller (2003), Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials.

Department of English and Communication at the City University of Hong Kong.
2. Harmer, Jeremy. 2007. How to Teach English. Kuala Lumpur: Pearson Education
Limited.
3. Feyten, C. M. (1991). The Power of Listening Ability: An Overlooked Dimension in
Language Acquisition. The Modern Language Journal 75:173-80.

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Appendix

In order to reach objectives of this study, the following questions have

been prepared .so I hope you will answer them comfortably.

Please note that all your answers and information can be shared, if you
want your answer to be shared please write a comment in paper back.

Please be honest and precise when you tend to answer these questions to
ensure creditability of the research. thank you.

 Do you practise listening enough at classroom?

 What are your difficulties of listening?