DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS

Difficulties of Non-English Major Juniors at Sai Gon University

Encounter in Listening Skills

Tuyet T. A. Nguyen, Truc T. Nguyen., Vy Y. Tran, Thao D. Nguyen, & Phuong T. B. Truong

Faculty of Foreign Languages, Sai Gon University

813066: Writing Research

M.A. Tuyen Q. L. Tran

December 2022
 Abstract

Listening ability, which is essential for learning English, is a big issue for non-English majors.

As part of an effort to comprehend the obstacles associated with mastering this skill, the current

study was suggested by asking 140 non-English major students to complete a 20-question

questionnaire including two sections: Learner’s obstacles and the way of learning listening skills.

After two portions, all challenges and methods of learning were discussed. The results revealed

that the biggest issues they confront were a distraction when listening to long-spoken messages

and the inability to deal with another task while listening. Furthermore, it showed the viability

and appropriateness of learning methods. These findings may be recommended for detecting the

problems of non-English major learners when practicing listening skills so that learners can find

an acceptable manner as well as overcoming problems for themselves in learning this skill.
 Contents

ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................2

Introduction....................................................................................................................................3

The setting....................................................................................................................................3

Literature Review.........................................................................................................................3

Gap statement...............................................................................................................................4

Objectives of the study.................................................................................................................4

Value of the study........................................................................................................................4

Methods..........................................................................................................................................4

Results.............................................................................................................................................5

Discussion.....................................................................................................................................15

The main purpose.......................................................................................................................15

Findings and explanation of findings.........................................................................................15

Limitations.................................................................................................................................16

Implications................................................................................................................................16

Recommendations......................................................................................................................16

References.....................................................................................................................................17

APPENDIX A...............................................................................................................................19

APPENDIX B...............................................................................................................................24
DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS

4
Introduction

The setting

In this age of globalization, people who can speak at least one foreign language will stand

out as they have the ability to communicate internationally, especially English, which gives them

a competitive edge in the job market. In Vietnam, non-major English students, apart from those

who study the language with interest and enthusiasm, struggle greatly to master and practice

English listening skills. They frequently become confused when listening in English because

they lack professional knowledge, confidence, and an effective learning strategy. Additionally,

the monotonous teachings and lack of engaging extracurricular activities in the classroom restrict

them from practicing and honing their English. That is the main cause of their inability to

effectively learn English, particularly their listening skills.

Literature Review

Most individuals seem to agree that listening is the most difficult skill for most learners,

especially non-English majors. According to Abbas and Seyedeh (2011), listening

comprehension is the process in which people have to understand what others say. However, it is

difficult to comprehend speech (Hamouda, 2013) because listeners have to recall and figure out

the meaning from the information they got (Goh, 2014). Although listeners find pronunciation

familiar, they cannot recognize the word (Walker, 2014). In addition, according to Azmi Bingol,

Celik, Yildiz, and Tugrul Mart (2014), the level of students plays an important role when they

listen to long parts and keep the key information in their mind. It is challenging for the lower

level to listen more than three minutes long to complete the listening tasks. Another study

discussing problems in learning listening skills was carried out by Gilakjani and Sabouri (2016).

Too much accented speech can lead to an important reduction in listening. In addition, unfamiliar
DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS
5

accents which are from both native and non-native speakers can interrupt the whole process,

make the learners understand the information imperfectly such as Indian English. Similarly,

Hardiyanto, Tanjung, and Suharjono (2021) noted that the biggest challenges with this particular

skill are unfamiliar words, and speed of speech. Language is a vast source of vocabulary. When

learning language, leaners meet unknown words unavoidably. Those words make learners

worried because they cannot predict what the speakers say. For the speed of listening materials,

it is unable for students to comprehend the contexts deeply when the speakers speak too fast. A

communicative speech allows vocabulary items to be contextualized within different situations

(Joan, 2022). Therefore, the words will change their meaning actively. To know one meaning is

not sufficient for learners to connect the word with the meaningful context. Not only that, length

of listening materials brings a lot of problems to learners with listening comprehension because

learners do not have enough time to remember all information. Beside that, the texts have strange

topics that learners have little knowledge of or even they never have known before make learners

bored. Therefore, they do not pay attention to listening to a text carefully. The findings of this

study are expected to provide more popular difficulties that non-English major Vietnamese

students are confronted with in listening comprehension.

Gap statement

The majority of the studies have been done on learners’ listening comprehension

difficulties in general as well as in other foreign nations. However, there is a lack of research on

specific learners, especially in Vietnam. The purpose of the research reported here is to identify

factors that contribute to poor listening abilities in non-English major juniors together with

possible solutions that learners are very highly considered. 

Objectives of the study

DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS

A little research, however, addressed the difficulties and solutions associated with

learning listening skills. The main issue of the study were difficulties that non-English major

students in the third- year at Sai Gon university faced when acquiring one of the fundamental

skills-listening, and possible solutions they gave.

Value of the study

Through this research, non- English major juniors at Sai Gon university will further

realize the difficulties of learning language, especially listening comprehension as a crucial skill

in practical experiences. From this, teachers may also design lesson plans logically in order to

arouse the learner's interest.  Moreover, the analysis that is presented in this study will convey

valuable information for future research that will explore the various obstacles that students

encounter and other successful methods.

Methods

Overview

In Vietnam, teachers spend a lot of time teaching grammar and structures instead of

encouraging learners’ practical skills such as listening skills. It can be considered as one of the

most challenging abilities for learners, especially for non-English majors. Therefore, the study

team is working to understand the challenges that non-English majored learners face when

learning listening skills, with the hope of identifying these obstacles and the strategies each

participant used to enhance their abilities. The researchers conducted the survey by having 140

juniors from a non-language-major group who are presently enrolled in the required English

program in the first semester of the school year 2022-2023 at Sai Gon University. This is

because at the present time, students have to get international English certificates that include

listening skills in the tests to graduate from Sai Gon university. For them, listening is a very
DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS
7

difficult skill so they are afraid to practice. The researchers' belief that they were not provided

with an ideal environment for improving their listening skills and had little opportunity to

approach various methods that are recommended in terms of developing listening skills is the

primary motivation for selecting a group of non-English major juniors as the study's subjects.

They were asked to respond to a questionnaire related to the process of gaining listening skills.

Specifically, the questionnaire, which was used to gather data for the research project, contained

20 multiple-choice questions that were simple and understandable in order to ensure that students

comprehended the purpose of the study and were motivated to complete the survey honestly. 

Materials

In general, the questionnaire utilized in this study was designed to examine a number of

frequent issues that third-year non-English major students had to deal with in order to improve

their listening skills, as well as the most often adopted solutions that learners from this group had

applied. The questionnaire was designed with two main sections. Section 1 was about the

learners' difficulties in English listening comprehension. Section 2 explored the way how

learners learn English listening skills.

Section 1

  Juniors who are not English majors at Sai Gon university may find it challenging to hone

their listening abilities; therefore, the first 14 statements were designed to address this issue. For

each statement, participants would tick one of three available options to what extent participants

agree with. Statement 1 to 7 was to collect statistics of the difficulties related to listening

materials. Next, participants performed statements from 8 to 14 in the same way. From this, the

authors could analyze the difficulties related to the listener from the data they had got.

Section 2
DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS

Additionally, finding the problems is a crucial step since it will lay the groundwork for a

subsequent discussion of the solutions that the participants directly used. The remaining 6

questions were created with the objective of evaluating the actions they took during the three

main phases of performing a listening task and recognizing certain strategies they personally

employed to effectively improve their abilities. Participants could choose more than one answer

for question 16 to 20, and they were asked to provide additional information if they had any

other thoughts besides those that were listed. 

Procedure 

Firstly, the questionnaire was started to create on a google form on November 30, 2022 in

the afternoon and completed on November 8, 2022 at 22.33 pm. Next day, to conduct the survey,

the team posted the form publicly to the Sai Gon student group on Facebook with an invitation

for third-year non-English majors. Simultaneously, the link of the form was sent to Group 7 of

Ho Chi Minh's Ideology class on Zalo because this class has more than two- thirds students who

do not belong to English area in third year. Beside that, our team also created QR code to collect

data more quickly. When we met any students at Sai Gon university, we asked them to complete

the questionnaire by scanning the QR code if they were suitable subjects for the survey. Each

respondent was anticipated to spend between 10 and 15 minutes completing the questionnaire in

the survey. They followed the provided link to fill out a form with 20 multiple-choice questions

and replied within ten days. Furthermore, it is likely that the replies from 140 students from

different majors may vary. This makes sense given that the questionnaire's questions were

created considering their individual learning experiences. The form was closed when the survey

had a sufficient number of students. Afterwards, based on the data, the team drew seven bar
DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS
9

charts and 1 pie chart. Following this, the author would identify several common problems that

the students had encountered, along with the popular solutions that they had come up with. 

Results

The research would analyze difficulties of the learners and the ways they practiced in

English listening skills.

Figure 1

Learner's difficulties related to listening materials

Number of students

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Based on Figure 1 above, it can be concluded that most of the students found several

difficulties related to the listening material in listening comprehension. The first difficulty that

third-year students face the most is listening to long-spoken texts. The majority of students (82

participants) felt distracted when listening to a long-spoken text, and there were also 70 students
DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS

who found that spoken texts interfered with their listening comprehension. In addition, there

were a large number of students (73 participants) who agreed that it was difficult to understand

the listening text when the topic was unfamiliar. According to Diora and Rosa (2020), the

students struggled with an unfamiliar topic because it contained words of which meanings they

did not understand. Besides, a large number of non-English major juniors (67 participants) found

listening difficult because it was hard to understand many unfamiliar words, including jargon,

idioms, and reduced forms. Meanwhile, less than 30 participants who did not struggle with these

challenges. It is likely that this figure shows the most significant challenges that non-English

major students encountered are long- listening texts as well as unfamiliar words and reduced

forms in the listening materials.

Figure 2

The difficulties related of the listener

Number of students

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DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS
11

Figure 2 shows data about the non-English major juniors' difficulties related to

themselves as the listener in listening comprehension. The first difficulty is being unable to

concentrate. The majority of students (77 participants) stated that they were unable to complete

another task while listening because they had to listen to the text and search for the answers at

the same. According to the survey, 76 non-English major juniors agreed that they needed to hear

the recording more than once. It was challenging for many learners to remember everything after

listening to the audio once. They were not able to answer the questions in the listening text when

they could not recall the information they just heard. Similarly, a large number of students (73

participants) felt disappointed if they missed the information. Students did not understand the

information of the audio because they did not know the meaning of unfamiliar words. Besides,

under 43 participants could not predict what the speaker would say. To sum up, the most obvious

challenges that students encounter are their difficulty to recall information and their inability to

pay attention while they are listening.

Figure 3

Time for practicing English Listening skills

22.143%
40.741%

37.143%

More than 4 hours About 2-3 hours Less than 1 hour

Figure 3 shows the comparison of time that participants spent on practicing their English

listening skills each week. Overall, it is obvious that the percentage of the students spent less
DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS

than one hour on practicing English listening skills had the largest proportion while the

percentage of the students who spent more than 4 hours received the lowest percentage. 40,7% of

the students who spent less than one hour accounted for the highest proportion while 22,1% of

the students who had more 4 hours in improving English listening skills was the lowest figure.

The percentage of the participants spent from two to three hours were slightly lower, at 37,1%.

Clearly, it is likely that students who do not spend a lot of time are not getting along with their

listening skills in English.

Figure 4

The methods of practicing English listening skills

Youtube game play

0.7%
0.7%
Friends
0.7%
17.9%
Joining English clubs 14.3%
29.3%
TV shows ( Master Chef, Little Big Shots, The Ellen 47.1%
Show,...)
35.7%
English speeches (TED talks, BBC news,...) 45.0%
70.7%
Songs 73.6%
0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0%
Percentage of students

Figure 4 shows the percentage of various methods that the third-year students use to

practice their listening skills in English. Overall, songs experienced the most enormous option

for the majority of students while friends, all kinds of videos on the Youtube platform, and

Youtube gameplay possessed the lowest statistics. With 73.6% of the students, songs were

chosen as the most preferred method option. About 70,7% of juniors at Sai Gon university
DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS
13

preferred movies, nearly five times as much as that of joining English clubs (14.3%). The

percentage of the students using podcasts was 35.7%, nearly two times as much as that of using

course materials (17.9%). About 45% of students chose English speeches and about 47.1% of the

students watched TV shows. In contrast, there was just roughly 0.7% of the students who wanted

to talk to Friends or watch Youtube gameplay. It appears that there are considerable differences

in exercising listening skills in English.

Figure 5

Activities of Pre – listening stage

when I listen for recreation, the rest is for intensive listening 0.7%
Do nothing 17.1%
Read instructions 50.0%
Check for new words 42.1%
Underline keywords 55.7%
Predict answers 65.7%
Percentage of students 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0%

The components that directly influence how well listening abilities are developed are

listening strategies. Therefore, the next three questions were designed to find out what actions

students frequently took at each stage of the listening process, which are pre-listening, while-

listening, and post-listening activities. The main goal is to determine whether juniors who do not

major in English utilized the proper listening technique.

The outcome in Figure 5 displays the percentage of the students who often had activities

at pre- listening stage. Predicting the answers and underlining keywords, which were chosen by

65,7% and 55,7% of participants respectively, were the most popular alternatives. Reading the
DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS

instructions in advance was a different decision that was made by many individuals ( 50%) . In

addition, a significant portion of the juniors (42,1%) also put an emphasis on vocabulary. Not

making any preparations for the task, which was selected by 17,1% of the participants, was the

option that was least likely to be picked. One said that while engaging in leisure listening, he or

she did nothing, but when engaging in intensive listening, he or she was involved in all of the

first three alternatives. The findings presented here are in line with previous research

demonstrating that most listeners are unlikely to be unaware of what they are listening to. This

indicates that most juniors at Saigon University who are not English majors typically have a

basic understanding of the topic they are about to listen to and are aware of what they need to do

to listen more effectively. Engaging in activities prior to actually hearing about a topic assists

them to establish the context, intrigues their interest in the topic, stimulates their background

knowledge and relevant vocabulary, and eventually benefits them to complete the task more

effectively. Typically, most juniors at Saigon University, with the exception of those majoring in

English, apply the fundamental techniques for pre-listening activity appropriately.

Figure 6

The way to deal with unknown words or phrases at while – listening stage

Read all sentences, predict the family word of the questioned word and
0.7%
when listening, focus on the word beside it.
Give up listening 17.9%

Ignore 34.3%

Try to guess the meaning 72.1%

WhatPercentage
do you of if you do not understand a word0.0%
dostudents or 10.0% 20.0% while
a phrase 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0%
listening? (it 70.0%
is 80.0%

possible to select many options). The participants' responses are displayed in great detail in

Figure 6.
 DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS
15

During the listening process, the second phase, known as while listening, is undoubtedly

the most challenging. Vocabulary is believed to have the biggest influence on how they listen out

of all the factors. One typical scenario is when listeners hear a plethora of new words and phrases

that sound familiar but take a while to recognize their meaning in the context. To those who do

not have a wide range of vocabulary beforehand related to multifarious topics, particularly non-

English major students, this is apparently an obstacle. That clarified why it took many

participants, specifically 72,1% of them, a brief length of time to silence their minds and focus

just on the word until they discovered what it was. Aside from the fact that over half of the

responses sticking with the first option, 48 respondents chose to skip over that unfamiliar term

and move on to the next one whenever they were unable to think of it all at once. By adopting

this strategy, they could keep track of the recording and better comprehend the main points

without having to interpret every word. Additionally, 17,9% of the participants may experience a

sense of discouragement and eventually give up trying because they felt like they were missing

so much crucial information while attempting to interpret all the unfamiliar words and phrases.

One recommended that reading the entire sentences and trying to figure out the family word of

the missing word would be helpful before listening to the recording. If this were done, the while-

listening activity would be easier.

Figure 7

Activities of Post – listening stage

Check the results and write the transcript

0.7%

Check the results

0.7%
choose the answers, check answer keys, read transcripts.
0.7%
Afterwards, try to learn important and related words
Do nothing 14.3%

Learn vocabulary 57.9%

Read transcript 57.9%

Listen again 64.3%

0.0% 20.0% 40.0% 60.0% 80.0%

 DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS

Figure 7 depicts the percentage of some common things that non-English major students

often do when finishing a listening task.

As can be seen from Figure 7, listening to the task again was the most popular way that

students often did after they finished the task while the percentage of students who had different

opinions apart from available options had the lowest level.

The percentage of students selecting to listen again reached the highest point, at 64.3%

among the seven available techniques, nearly four times as much as that of doing nothing

(14.3%) after completing a listening task. Meanwhile, the percentage of students choosing other

methods not mentioned such as checking the results had the lowest (0.7%). Furthermore, the

percentage of the students who learned vocabulary and read transcripts was very similar, at

57.9%. It seems that post-listening which is considered as a necessary stage allows students to

gain extra experience for the next listening tasks.

Figure 8

The effective methods for improving learner’s Eglish listening comprehension

0.7%
All of them
0.7%
0.7%
Watching all kinds of video  on Youtube platform
0.7%
0.7%
Listening to a variety of topics by many accents 34.3%
25.7%
Mimicking words 23.6%
18.6%
Joining English clubs 24.3%
25.0%
Watching TV shows ( Master Chef, Little Big Shots, The 42.1%
Ellen Show,...)
 Watching English speeches (TED talks, BBC news,...) 49.3%
59.3%
Listening to music (English songs) 63.6%
DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING
0.0% 10.0% 20.0%SKILLS
30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0%
17

Percentage of students

Figure 8 illustrates the proportion of non -English majors who selected the learning

method they believe to be most effective in listening skills.

It is noteworthy that more students chose to listen to music as the most successful

approach while the lowest level was achieved by the proportion of students who had other

alternative techniques. The majority of students chose to listen to music as their most preferred

approach with the highest percentage, at 63.6% while the percentage of students talking to

friends or foreigners, viewing films on the YouTube platform, reading books, and doing all of

the available methods had the lowest point, at 0.7%. The proportion of students who took notes

and wrote a summary about the listening topic, and joined English clubs was slightly more than

the percentage of students who watched Vlogs and mimicked words. It was followed by

watching movies, watching movies, and watching TV shows with a total of 59.3%, 49.3%, and

42.1%, respectively. It seems that learners prefer listening to music as the most widely used

strategy for improving listening skills.

Discussion

The main purpose

The main aim of this study pointed out that each junior had several difficulties in English

listening comprehension. From this, they found the most effective methods for themselves.

Findings and explanation of findings

DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS

Those results seem all similar with the previous findings such as Hardiyanto, Tanjung,

and Suharjono (2021), and Gilakjani and Sabouri (2016). However, the aspect of poor equipment

and accented speech was not mentioned in our study. 

First of all, more than a half of students agreed with difficulties related to the listening

materials in our study. In detail, they lacked knowledge of grammatical structure, vocabulary,

and unfamiliar topics. Knowing that their teacher provided them with a lot of vocabulary and

structures. However, if they did not enrich knowledge by practicing, they would definitely be

confused when they face it.

Secondly, the learners felt distracted because of the long- spoken text. When they listened

to the text, learners wanted to hear the information or keywords that overlap with the available

answer. If the text provides a lot of information, learners' attention will decrease because they do

not find what they want. 

Similarly, difficulties related to listeners received a large number of participants with four

factors. As can be seen from the data, learners could not deal simultaneously with another task

while listening. From this, our team realized that learners can only focus on doing one thing.

This is because it is easy for learners to forget to compelete the task while listening the text.

Beside that, in spite of familiar pronunciation, learners could not recognize the word. The

principal reason is that leaners focused on writing too much. They ignored how to say the word.

Many words has same pronuciation but different spelling. Consequently, they did not know

exactly the word they heard.

The third difficulty is that learners felt disappointed if they missed the information

because of unfamiliar words. A lot of unknown words made them confused. They did not

understand what they heard. Therefore, they could not predict the answer.
DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS
19

Not only that, it is hard for learners to catch the speed of the audio and understand natural

native-sounding speech. This is because they got used to listening to the teacher's voice. It means

that listening to the teacher is easier than listening to a listening text. Therefore, learners need to

hear the text more than once to understand over 90% of a listening text. 

There were unexpected results. Firstly, learners spent a limited amount of time on

practice their English listening skills. Under 4 hours per week are not enough for listening

comprehension. To improve it, they need more time. Apart from the limitation of hours for

improving listening skills, techniques at each listening phase are also crucial in order to complete

the listening text perfectly. Interestingly, over 20% of participants did nothing at three stages. It

proves that their teachers did not introduce what they needed to do with the listening text to

them. Not to have the steps to identify the listening text, they cannot level up their listening skills

effectively. Lastly, as can be seen from the findings, there were an enormous number of

participants who considered listening to songs and watching movies as the most effective

methods for practicing English listening skills. They could listen to songs again and again

without getting bored.  Thanks to it, they could hear words and phrases many times. In addition,

movies contain most of the English words and conversations in real life. It allows students to

experience different voices and enrich words are taken on a daily basis. However, they enjoy

interesting senses and melodies rather than concentrate on the details because songs and films

just help learners relax. Meanwhile, English speeches that provide a lot of academic items and

course materials that have various tasks that check how learners understand the listening texts

were not taken seriouly.

Limitations
DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS

The conduct of this study would be impossible without some limitations. First and

foremost, the study primarily relied on a broad hypothesis regarding the topic of listening

challenges in higher education settings before conducting a practical and in-depth survey of a

subgroup of juniors only at Sai Gon University. Second, due to several technical difficulties that

arose during the questionnaire preparation process, the number of juniors who could participate

in the study was limited. In addition, because of the severe lack of time constraints, the research

did not cover all levels of non-English major students at Sai Gon University in order to establish

statistical differences in the data analysis. Finally, it would be preferable if the study's findings

were supported by methods other than only questionnaires, such as interviews with subject-

matter experts and observation.

Implications

The study focused on better understanding learners' difficulties and the way they learn

English listening skills. It analyzed several difficulties related to listening materials and listeners

in order to realize the relations among elements that interfere with learners. We found that

learners would easily feel distracted with a long- spoken text. This finding suggests the listening

text should ensure that learner’ attention will not go away during listening. In addition, although

learners have been learning English for a long time from years in high school to time in

university, there is a big gap in their background knowledge about vocabulary and structures.

Last but not least, the data pointed out that the time they practice English listening skills is very

restricted. It means that they do not appreciate the importance of listening comprehension in

learning English. The research also identified the most effective methods that learners used to

practice listening skills. Based on the finding, learners are interested in music and movies.
DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS
21

Therefore, they take advantage of them to improve their listening skill because songs and films

are more exciting than listening texts

Recommendations

However, professionals in the field interviews for methodologies and continuous

observations should support the validity and value of the study. Future research could further

examine the suggested solutions from experts by using interviews because our study just focuses

on solutions from students. With the assistance of specialists in the field of English listening,

students who are not English majors may have a solid foundation to gradually improve their

abilities, and the continual observations enable researchers to give those students the right and

proper assistance. Thanks to the study, teachers will create lesson plans and choose listening

materials that have suitable tasks for students. Beside that, teachers will have preparation steps

for each stage so that learners can complete the listening texts perfectly.
DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS

References

Diora, L., & Rosa, R. N. (2020) An Analysis of Students’ Difficulties in Listening

Comprehension: A Descriptive Study at English Language and Literature Department

FBS UNP. Journal of English Language Teaching, 9(1), 87-98.

http://dx.doi.org/10.24036/jelt.v9i1.107957

Gilakjani, A. P., & Sabouri, N. B. (2016). Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in

English Language Learning: A Literature Review. English Language Teaching, 9(6),

123-133. DOI: 10.5539/elt. v9n6p123

Kavaliauskienė, G., & Anusienė, L. (2009). English for specific purposes: Podcasts for listening

skills. Santalka, 17(2), 28-37. DOI: 10.3846/1822-430X.2009.17.2.28-37

Hardiyanto, A., Tanjung, M., & Suharjono, S. (2021). Listening comprehension difficulties; A

case study of EFL students in listening class, Eternal, 7(1), 168-179. Retrieved from

https://doi.org/10.24252/Eternal.V71.2021.A12

Hamouda, A. (2013). An Investigation of Listening Comprehension Problems Encountered by

Saudi Students in the EL Listening Classroom. International Journal of Academic

Research in Progressive Education and Development, 2(2), 113-15. Retrieved from

https://pdf4pro.com/cdn/an-investigation-of-listening-comprehension-problems-

4e7c91.pdf

Hayati, A., & Mohmedi, F. (2011). The effect of films with and without subtitles on listening

comprehension of EFL learners. British Journal of Educational Technology, 42(1), 181-

192. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2009. 01004.x

DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS
23

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2004). Significant Findings from

Full-Scale Accelerated Pavement Testing. Washington, DC: The National Academies

Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/23380

Nguyen, T.H & Nguyen, N.N.L (2019). Difficulties in Learning Listening Skill of Non-English

Major Students at Sai Gon University and Suggested Solutions to Develop their Listening

Autonomy. Proceedings of ELT upgrades 2019: A focus on methodology, Ho Chi Minh

city, 2019 (pp. 166-179). Ha Noi: Science and Technics Publishing House. DOI:

10.5281/zenodo.3590585

Siregar, N. (2017) An Investigation of Classroom Practices in Teaching Listening

Comprehension at English Education Program. Advances in Language and Literary

Studies, 8(6), 105-111. http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.8n.6p.105

Suryana, I., Asrianto., & Murwantono, D. (2020). Artificial Intelligence to Master English

Listening Skills for Non-English Major Students. Journal of Languages and Language

Teaching, 8(1), 48-59. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.33394/jollt.v8i1.2221

Tilwani, S. A., Vadivel, B., Uribe-Hernández, Y. C., Wekke, I. S., & Haidari, M. M. F. (2022).

The Impact of Using TED Talks as a Learning Instrument on Enhancing Indonesian EFL

Learners' Listening Skill. Education Research International, 2022, 9 pages. Retrieved

from https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/8036363

Walker, N. (2014). Listening: The Most Difficult Skill to Teach. Encuentro, 23, 167-175.

Retrieved from https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/58911108.pdf

DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS

APPENDIX A

Survey Questionnaire

DOCUMENTATION

We are inviting you to participate in this survey by completing the following

questionnaire. The goal of this study is to identify the main issues non-English major juniors face

when learning one of the essential skills—listening—and to propose solutions. The questionnaire

consists of two sections. Please carefully read our instructions before marking your response to

each question.

This survey might not take more than 10 minutes to complete, and you will receive a small gift at

the end of the survey. Finally, your survey responses will be kept completely confidential and

only used for research purposes. Your participation is entirely voluntary.

We really appreciate your time and cooperation!

QUESTIONNAIRES INSTRUCTION

To view the full questionnaire, click on

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfreG5GTTGAAM-1SPFO8iD_n-

kIGLwXzRRRcEvgBaFfVBaEzQ/viewform

To continue the next section, please answer all questions in the previous section.

To submit the survey, click on “Submit” on the last page.

DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS
25

SECTION 1: LEARNER’S DIFFICULTIES

Questions 1 - 7:

To what extent do you agree with the following statements about the difficulties related to

listening materials?

For each statement, please tick one of the options below:

Agree Neutral Disagree

1. I understand many unfamiliar words including jargon and idioms
in the listening text.
2. I find that listening comprehension has grammatical structures.
3. I feel long-spoken text interferes with my listening comprehension.
4. I find it difficult to interpret the meaning of a long-spoken text.
5. I feel distracted when listening to a long-spoken text.
6. I find it difficult to understand listening to text when the topic is
unfamiliar.
7. I find it difficult to understand the reduced form.

Questions 8 - 14:

To what extent do you agree with the following statements about the difficulties related to the

listener?

For each statement, please tick one of the options below:

Agree Neutral Disagree

8. I have trouble catching the speed of the audio.
9. I find the pronunciation familiar, but I cannot recognize the word.
10. I cannot understand fast and natural native-sounding speech.
11. I cannot predict what the speaker will say.
DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS

12. I feel disappointed if I missed the information because of

unfamiliar vocabulary.
13. I need to hear things more than once to understand all the
information.
14. I cannot deal simultaneously with another task while listening.

SECTION 2: HOW DO YOU LEARN LISTENING SKILLS?

You may be asked about how often and in what ways you practice English listening skills.

15. How much time do you spend on practicing English listening skills each week?

◻ more than 4 hours

◻ about 2-3 hours

◻ less than 1 hour

16. What sources/ methods do you use to practice English listening skills?

(You can choose more than one option. If you tick “Other”, please give us a specific answer.)

◻ Songs

◻ Movies (with and without subtitles)

◻ English speeches (TED talks, BBC news...)

◻ Podcasts

◻ TV shows (Master Chef, Little Big Shots, The Ellen Show...)

◻ Vlog

◻ Joining English clubs

◻ Course materials (Jetstream…)

◻ Other (please write):

17. What do you often do before you start a listening task?

DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS
27

◻ Predict answers

◻ Underline keywords

◻ Check for new words

◻ Read instructions

◻ Do nothing

◻ Other (please write):

18. What do you do if you do not understand a word or a phrase while listening?

◻ Try to guess the meaning

◻ Ignore

◻ Give up listening

◻ Other (please write):

19. What do you often do after you complete a listening task?

◻ Listen again

◻ Read transcript

◻ Learn vocabulary

◻ Do nothing

◻ Other (please write):

20. Which of the following methods could you find most effective for improving your

listening comprehension?

(You can choose more than one option. If you tick "Other", please give us a specific answer)

◻ Listening to music (English songs)

◻ Watching movies (with and without subtitles)

◻ Watching English speeches (TED talks, BBC news...)

DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS

◻ Listening to podcasts

◻ Watching TV shows (Master Chef, Little Big Shots, The Ellen Show)

◻ Watching Vlog

◻ Joining English clubs

◻ Using course materials (Jetstream…)

◻ Mimicking words

◻ Taking notes and writing a summary about a listening topic

◻ Listening to a variety of topics by many accents

◻ Other (please write):

Thank you

Thank you for taking our survey. Your response is very important to us.

To thank you for your contribution, we have small gifts to help you improve your listening skills.

1. E-book of Basic Tactics for Listening.

2. E-book of Skills for the TOEIC Test Listening and Reading.

APPENDIX B
DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS
29

Response Analysis

Section 1: Leaner’s difficulties

Table 1

Learner's difficulties related to listening materials

Value Agree Neutral Disagree

Count % Count % Count %
I understand many unfamiliar words including 43 30.7% 67 47.9% 30 21.4%
jargon and idioms in the listening text.
I find that listening comprehension has 61 43.6% 59 42.1% 20 14.3%
grammatical structures.
I feel long-spoken text interferes with my 70 50% 46 32.9% 24 17.1%
listening comprehension.
I find it difficult to interpret the meaning of a 57 40.7% 56 40% 27 19.3%
long-spoken text.
I feel distracted when listening to a long-spoken 82 58.6% 42 30% 16 11.4%
text.
I find it difficult to understand listening to text 73 52.1% 44 31.4% 23 16.4%
when the topic is unfamiliar.
I find it difficult to understand the reduced form. 44 31.4% 67 47.9% 29 20.7%

Value Agree Neutral Disagree

Count % Count % Count %
DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS

I have trouble catching the speed of the audio. 60 42.9% 63 45% 17 12.1%

I find the pronunciation familiar, but I cannot 67 47.9% 48 34.3% 25 17.9%

recognize the word.
I cannot understand fast and natural native- 62 44.3% 56 40% 22 15.7%
sounding speech.
I cannot predict what the speaker will say. 43 30.7% 59 42.1% 38 27.1%
I feel disappointed if I missed the information 73 52.1% 46 32.9% 21 15%
because of unfamiliar vocabulary.
I need to hear things more than once to 76 54.3% 44 31.4% 20 14.3%
understand all the information.
I cannot deal simultaneously with another task 77 55% 42 30% 21 15%
while listening.
Table 2

The difficulties related of the listener

Section 2: How you learn listening skills

Table 3

Time for practicing English Listening skill

Value Count Percent

More than 4 hours 31 22.143%
About 2-3 hours 52 37.143%
Less than 1 hour 57 40.714%

Table 4

The methods of practicing English Listening skills

Value Count Percent

Songs 103 73.6%
DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS
31

Movies (with and without subtitles) 99 70.7%

English speeches (TED talks, BBC news, …) 63 45%
Podcasts 50 35.7%
TV shows (Master Chef, Little Big Shots, The Ellen 66 47.1%
Vlog 41 29.3%
Joining English clubs 20 14.3%
Course materials (Jetstream, …) 25 17.9%
Friends 1 0.7%
All kinds of videos on the Youtube platform 1 0.7%
Youtube gameplay 1 0.7%

Table 5

Activities of Pre – listening stage

Value Count Percent

Predict answers 92 65.7%
Underline keywords 78 55.7%
Check for new words 59 42.1%
Read instructions 70 50%
Do nothing 24 17.1%
Do nothing when I listen for recreation, the rest is for intensive 1 0.7%
listening
Table 6

The way to deal with unknown words or phrases at while – listening stage

Value Count Percent

Try to guess the meaning 101 72.1%
Ignore 48 34.3%
Give up listening 25 17.9%
Read all sentences, predict the family word of the questioned 1 0.7%
word and when listening, focus on the word beside it.
DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS

Table 7

Activities of Post – listening stage

Value Count Percent

Listen again 90 64.3%
Read Transcript 81 57.9%
Learn vocabulary 81 57.9%
Do nothing 20 14.3%
The process would be like this: choose the answers, check
answer keys, read transcripts only for those that are incorrect, 1 0.7%
and listen only to those parts. Afterward, if necessary, I’ll try
to learn new vocabulary (important and related words)

Check the results 1 0.7%

Check the results and write the transcript 1 0.7%

Table 8

The effective methods for improving learner’s English listening comprehension

Value Count Percent

Listening to music (English songs) 89 63.6%
Watching movies (with and without subtitles) 83 59.3%
Watching English speeches (TED talks, BBC news, …) 69 49.3%
Listening to podcasts 54 38.6%
Watching TV shows (Master Chef, Little Big Shots, The 59 42.1%
Watching Vlog 35 25%
Ellen Show, ...)
Joining English clubs 34 24.3%
Using course materials (Jetstream, …) 26 18.6%
DIFFICULTIES OF NON-ENGLISH MAJORS IN LISTENING SKILLS
33

Mimicking words 33 23.6%

Taking notes and writing a summary about listening topics 36 25.7%
Listening to a variety of topics by many accents 48 34.3%
Friends 1 0.7%
Watching all kinds of videos on the Youtube platform 1 0.7%
Talking to foreigners 1 0.7%
All of them 1 0.7%
Reading book 1 0.7%