‘Research on the difficulties in the

listening 1 faced by the sophomore

English-majored students at IUH”
Chapter III:RESEARCH DESIGN

In this chapter, the writer must concentrate on the details of design

research.It begins with a description of the study site after discussion of the
participants, research methodology, research methods, procedures, and
data analysis.

3.1 Research site

 This study was implemented at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Ho
Chi Minh's Industrial University, a large-scale and high-quality university
associated with the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Modifying and renewing
one's priorities, learning more about teaching methods, and then
developing teacher personnel to meet the demands of improving training
efficiency to become a national key university that plays a pioneering role in
the development of schools under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and is
among the top 10 universities in Vietnam in terms of application, on par
with advanced countries in the area of high-quality human resources
training.
 To train and enhance human resources with sufficient foreign language
ability and life skills, to raise students' awareness of learning and research
in order to meet the increasing demands of society in the recent trend of
international integration and cooperation; to contribute to IUH's
development as well as the city's, country's, and regional economic, social,
and cultural development.
3.2 Participants
The survey's participants are mostly sophomore English majors from Ho
Chi Minh City's Industrial University's Faculty of Foreign Languages. 118
students in grades DHAV17 completed the questionnaire. Futhermore, it
was discovered that the majority of them had more than ten years to study
English. The table below summarizes the individual participant information.

Total number of participants Age Year of learning English

 20 <3 4-6 7-9 >10
116 116
These students were chosen as a substantial component of the study due
to the following characteristics.
Firstly, the investigation may be relied for precision and dependability
because we sent questionnaires to 116 sophomore English majors at
Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City's Faculty of Foreign Languages.
Secondly, the vast majority of them have a basic command of the English
language. Their command of the English language, however, has not yet
been polished. They have only recently begun a year of university studies
and students experience a variety of difficulties when learning and
mastering new English abilities. As a result, the author thought they'd be an
excellent resource for the research. They are more likely to give the finest
advice on learning the language, especially in terms of listening skills.
Finally, they were happy when they completed the questionnaire.They
shared interest in the subject and completed it sincerely and meticulously.
As a result, the writer decides to include the DHAV17 classes in her data
collection.

3.3 Research methodology and research methods

3.3.1 Research methodology
The study will be conducted in a quantitative manner. "Quantitative
research is the process of collecting and interpreting numerical data," said
Pritha Bhandari. It can be used to look for patterns and averages, make
predictions, evaluate causal linkages, and extrapolate results to larger
groups." This method was chosen by the author since data collection is
reasonably simple. Furthermore, data processing takes only a brief period
(using statistical software). We surveyed approximately 116 sophomore
English majors at the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Industrial University
of Ho Chi Minh City for this study. As a result, we may obtain quantitative
and numerical data that is accurate, dependable, and consistent.The writter
will present the data using tables and charts after obtaining the findings.
3.3.2 Research methods
This study concentrates on the widely used questionnaire-based methods.
The questionnaire, according to the Longman Dictionary, is a data
collecting query that the writer delivers to a large number of people. The
surveys were distributed to sophomore English majors at Ho Chi Minh
City's Industrial University's Faculty of Foreign Languages. Before
surveying, the writer double-checked and modified the contents of the
literature review to ensure that the report is correct and dependable. The
questionnaires were provided to 115 students from DHAV16 classes in
order to better understand the aspects that influence listening
comprehension and make recommendations for improvement. There are
14 questions in all, separated into four sections.
The study's first section looked at the personal information of IUH second-
year English majors. There are five multiple-choice questions in total (from
questions 1 to 5).
The gender of the student is the first question. The second question
inquires about the length of time students have been studying English. The
last three questions are about students' perceptions of listening in general
and their self-evaluation of their listening ability.
In the second section, students are asked how students study listening at
home (question 6). The questions focus on how students use self-study to
improve their listening skills. The writer suggested some  chooses  to
answer this question.
The third section focuses on the problems, aspects, and difficulties that
second-year students majoring in Languages at the Industrial University of
Ho Chi Minh City have when listening to English. Part 3 contains seven
questions (questions 7 to 13). Question 7 inquires about the issues that
pupils come up with after learning listening 1. In this question, the Likert
scale of the degree (always, usually, sometimes, rarely, never) of the
components is utilized in this question to determine the students' problems
after studying the listening 1.
The six questions cover problems, aspects, and difficulties that students
often face. Question 8 is an open-ended question regarding aspects that
students encountered during their listening session. Question 9 asks about
what difficulties students often face in relation to the content of
conversations while listening. Sentence 10 relates to students' difficulties in
language factors. Students can choose their answers according to the
given suggestions or can write their own ideas. Sentences 11,12,13
respectively relate to environmental issues and physical factors, problems
about listeners and speakers in the listening passages, . In these
questions, the answers are designed in the form of open-ended questions
to know the student's elements of listening 1.
The final part - part 4, offers some solutions to improve listening skills of
second-year English majors after studying listening 1 to help students
improve their listening skills. The researcher can suggest some practical
options to improve listening skills of second year English majors based on
student feedback.

Part I Part II Part III Part IV

Conten Student’s Self-study Specific Some
t information listening factors suggestions for
(5 through affecting helping students
sentences) media students’ improve their
(1 listening 1 (7 listening 1(1
sentence) sentences) sentence)

3.4 Procedures
The questionnaire is crucial in this investigation. Hence, the writter spent a
large amount of time developing the questionnaire. The draft questionnaire
was revised before being sent to the academic instructor for evaluation and
feedback. It was then distributed to the object that would be surveyed. The
whole questionnaire helped writers collect all of the data and information
needed to answer research inquiries. On April 18th, 2022, this survey will
be posted in the group DHAV16 at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of the
Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City. It was administered to 116 pupils
in DHAV16 classrooms. These classes were chosen to take part in the
survey, and completed for about four days.Students actively aided the
researcher in gathering the most objective data possible for the study. The
writters wrote captions describing how to survey and the key content of the
questions to guarantee that participants could select responses accurately.
3.5 Data analysis
Before establishing quantitative analysis, writers must think carefully about
how they will collect and evaluate data. The researcher used a quantitative
approach, collecting survey questionnaires from second-year English
majors at the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City's Faculty of Foreign
Languages. To understand about the problems that second-year students
have when learning listening 1. After gathering the replies from the
students, the writer continues to synthesis and evaluate the data in order to
answer the research questions. The author prepares a survey using
Google Forms so that data may be collected and processed promptly.
Because of the enormous number of participants, this application is
particularly accurate and convenient to use for research operations. Tables
and charts are generated as a result, and charts in the shape of bar,
column, and pie charts can assist readers better grasp the study's results.
These charts are made with the specific goals of each situation in mind.
After transforming the data into charts and tables, the writer studied the
numbers and contrasted the details shown. Finally, each dataset's
comments, observations, and conclusions were pre-written.

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The researcher will report the findings of data collection through student
survey responses about problems in learning  listening 1 of first-year
English majors at the University's Faculty of Foreign Languages. City
Business. City of Ho Chi Minh. It's an attempt to respond to the research
question posed at the start of the investigation.
1. What are the common problems faced by the sophomore English
majored students in the Faculty of Foreign Languages at the Industrial
University of Ho Chi Minh City when they study listening 1?
4.1 Findings
  4.1.1 Overview
4.1.1.1 Students’ gender

                                    Chart 1: Students’ gender

The pie chart shows information about the student's gender. Looking at the
diagram through the displayed graph, the subjects are more female than
male. Out of 100%, 69.9% are female. Of course, the rest will be the male
gender (30.4%).
4.1.1.2 Students’ time for learning English up to now
Chart 2: Students’ time for learning English up to now
The pie chart provides information about how long students spend learning
English. The graph shows that students who have studied English for more
than ten years account for 43.1%. 31.9% of learners take 7 to 9 years to
learn English. Besides, 18.1% of students study English from 4 to 6 years.
However, the percentage of students learning English for less than 3 years
accounts for 6.9%. In summary, students spend years learning English.
4.1.1.3 Student's average score of listening 1

Chart 3: Student's average score of listening 1

The pie chart depicts the ability as well as the average score of students
from the Faculty of Foreign Languages at the Industrial University of Ho Chi
Minh City in listening 1. It's also worth noting that student results aren't all
the same.The percentage of students scoring below 4 is quite high with
12.1%. More than half of the students (52.6%) stated that students were
average with a score between 4 and 6.4. The number of students who got
good grades from 6.5 to 7.9 points accounted for 28.4%. Meanwhile, with
scores above 8 only 6.9% of students got good grades.In conclusion, there
are considerable disparities in student levels.
4.1.1.4 Students’ time on per week listening practice

Chart 4: Students’ time on per week listening practice

The pie chart illustrates how much time students spend on listening
practice each week. Students spend less than an hour and from 1 to 3
hours to learn English, accounting for a dizzyingly high rate of 31.9% and
49.1% respectively. However, only 9.5% of students said that they spend 3
to 5 hours listening practice. Besides, 9.5% of students spend more than 5
hours a week listening practice. In summary, there is a significant
difference between the time it takes to learn English. The percentage of
students who spend less time practicing listening is higher than the
percentage of students who spend a lot of time practicing listening.
4.1.1.5 Students' opinions on listening 1

Chart 5: Students' opinions on listening 1

The pie chart shows the thinking of sophomore students of the Faculty of
Foreign Languages at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh city about
listening 1. It is noteworthy that 4.3% and 8.6% of students agree that
listening 1 is a very easy and easy skill. Meanwhile, the number of learners
who think that listening 1 is difficult and very difficult is 35.3% and 12.1%,
respectively. In contrast, 39.7% of students chose listening 1 at a neutral
level. In short, listening 1 is quite a difficult skill in absorbing the English
language.
4.1.1.6 Self-study listening method of students at home

The chart shows students using methods to self-study listening at home. It

is noteworthy that 68.1% of students listen to English songs and podcasts.
However, students' choice of watching movies or foreign channels and
listening to audio recordings or CDs of university courses was 65.5% and
40.5% respectively. students who choose to listen to news in English and
choose to talk with foreign friends are 36.2%% and 18.1% respectively.
Meanwhile, the number of students who agree to learn listening by listening
to many listening tests in ILETS, TOEIC and only taking the test is 33.6%
and 18.1%. In addition, students using the method to learn to listen at
home accounted for 9.5%. In short, there are many ways to learn listening
well.
4.1.1.7 Problems after learning to listen 1 that students often encounter
The bar graph shows the number of students expressing different opinions
on common problems after learning to listen 1. Noise problem has 69
students choose sometimes, 20 students choose usually. Meanwhile, there
are 11 and 9 students who choose to always and rarely have problems,
respectively. Only 1 student who chose the idea never had a problem. The
problem of the faculty is not enthusiastic, there are 48 students who choose
sometimes, 30 students choose usually, 25 students choose rarely, 5
students choose always and 5 students choose never. Notably, the
problem of textbooks is too difficult, 60 students choose sometimes, 32
students choose usually, 11 students choose always, 11 students choose
rarely and 1 student choose never. Meanwhile, the problem of poor
equipment, 63 students choose sometimes, 25 choose usually, 12 choose
rarely, 7 choose always and 5 choose never have this problem. Besides,
the problem that students are not familiar with the teacher's teaching
method, there are 55 people who choose sometimes, 22 people choose
usually, 20 people agree to choose rarely and 9 people choose always
have this problem and 8 students choose never to meet. As for the
question about the structure of the exam, which is different from what the
teacher taught in class, there are 51 students who choose sometimes, 32
students who choose usually, 20 students who choose rarely, and 11
students who choose always and only one student choose never had this
problem. In summary, there is a significant difference between opinions on
common problems after learning listening 1.
4.1.1.8 Aspects that students often have problems with during listening
sessions

The chart shows that 63 students (54.3%) chose the aspect of the
conversation's content that had difficulty. Notably, 56 students (48.2%)
agreed that linguistic elements were the aspect that caused them
difficulties and 47 students (40.5%) chose physical surroudings.
Meanwhile, the number of learners who think that the problem is about
listeners and speakers accounted for 34 people (29.3%) and 60 people
(51.7%). In short, there are many problems that make it difficult for learners
in listening lessons.
4.1.1.9 Students' difficulties related to the content of the conversation

The graph shows that 65.5% of students lack of vocabulary and 56% of
students do not understand jargon, idioms and slang expressions.
Meanwhile, 44% and 48.3% of students, respectively, have difficulty with
grammatical constructions that are compkicated and being unable to
concentrate when the dialogue is too long. Furthermore, students failed to
keep up with the speaker's speed and do not understand every single word
of every diogue at 44.8% and 28.4%. In addition, 25% and 6.9% of
students face not understanding the whole conversation and other reasons.
In summary, there are many problems students face related to the content
of the conversation. 
4.1.1.10 Students' language difficulties
The bar graph shows the number of students expressing different opinions
about difficulties in language factor. 35.7% of students unable to identify
words and 47% cannot recognize the signals when the speaker was
moving from one point to another. The highest percentage is 54.8% of
students when meeting an unknown word, they stop listening and start
thinking about its meaning. Furthermore, students cannot infer the meaning
of an unknown word while listening and cannot follow the sequence of the
dialogue when the sentences were too long and complicated, accounting
for 41.7% and 50.4%. In general, students have a lot of difficulties in terms
of language factors.
4.1.1.11 Environmental problems when listening

The graph illustrates the number of sophomore English majors affected by

physical surroundings. It is also important to note that four problems affect
their listening comprehension. The problem of “disturbing sounds such as
talking, noisy around” strongly affects students' listening comprehension,
accounting for 61.1% of them. In contrast, the factors “use of some low-
quality recorded materials” and “limited the number of listening time”
slightly affect their hearing accounted for 46.9% and 46%. Besides, other
issues that affect the listeners insignificantly account for 16.8%. In
summary, there is a significant difference in the students' answers.
4.4.1.12 Listener problems

The graph provides information on how many problems second-year

English majors are affected. It was also clear that thirteen problems
significantly affected their hearing. The highest percentage, 45.7% of
students agreed that “unable to focus when the dialogue gets too lenght”
strongly influenced their progress, but 44.8% of them chose the problem of
"unable to concentrate since I'm looking for solutions and listening to the
discourse at the same time". focus because they are looking for a solution
and listening to the presentation at the same time." Furthermore, the
number of learners who reported that their listening comprehension was
significantly affected by “ lose the flow of the dialogue because being so
focused on understanding every word or phrase heard”, “do not understand
dialogues because of your poor pronunciation”. dialogues because of poor
pronunciation”, “do not understand dialogues because of poor vocabulary
and grammar”, “do not understand dialogues because of your low English
proficiency level ”, “cannot predict what would come next in a dialogue", "
feel nervous when listening", "guess slowly the meaning of words in a
dialogue", " cannot follow a dialogue when I am not interested", "cannot
follow a dialogue because of my poor listening skill", " limited culture and
social knowledge", "cannot hear words spoken by the speaker in brief,
linking sounds".The problems of listeners accounted for 44%, 36.2%,
39.7% ,34.5%, 25.9%, 28.4%, 29.3%, 30.2%, 34.5% and 39.7%. In
conclusion, there is a significant difference between the student
respondents.
4.1.1.13 Speaker problems

The bar graph depicts the speaker's problems with students' listening
comprehension. Overall, the number of students agreeing that the factor
"don't understand the meaning of words that are not clearly pronounced"
significantly affects the listening process accounts for 56.9%. Most students
admitted that " donot understand the dialogue without seeing the speaker's
dialogue body language" and " it is hard to understand speakers because
there are various accents" significantly affected their listening skills,
accounting for 38,8% and 56% of the total. Other students said that they
cannot understand because speakers speak too fast slightly affects their
listening comprehension accounting for 46.6%. On the other hand, a small
number of students (only 29.3%) think that problem "donot understand the
dialogue when the speaker does not pause long enough" affects their
listening comprehension. In summary, there were significant differences in
student responses.
4.1.1.14 Some suggestions from students to overcome problems
encountered in listening 1
Most of the second-year students gave some suggestions to overcome the
problems encountered in listening 1. Many students agree that listeners
should practice listening more at home, which can be heard on the website,
listen to ielts books, textbooks to guess unknown words or phrases without
panic. Make listening to English your daily activity whether it is short or
long, study hard to add more vocabulary related to the content of that
listening, learn to pronounce correctly. Don't try to hear every word. Before
you start recording, read the questions and answers carefully, then try to
imagine and predict what the record will contain. while there is an opinion
that "the listener needs to have a specific plan in listening practice, know
clearly about the methods to improve the skill. If it is difficult to apply the
methods, just cut them out. and try other methods. Finally, it makes sense
to stick to this plan every day when I want to be good at listening 1. Even
though I didn't get good marks in this subject, I still wanted to give the
above information. ". In addition, there were a few students who could not
or did not know any suggestions.
     CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION
This chapter highlights the research's main findings and offers
recommendations for enhancing the listening 1 abilities of sophomore
English majors at the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City's Faculty of
Foreign Languages.
5.1 Conclusion
Based on the results of the questionnaire, the author comes to the following
conclusion.
Firstly, most students majoring in English are fully aware of the importance
of listening 1. According to the poll results, the majority of students think
that listening 1 is difficult. However, they only practice their listening skills
for 1 to 3 hours per week. They have not yet determined where they are
and how they need to be heard.
Futhermore, the author mentions that some pupils do not employ listening
skills or procedures. When they receive the paper test, a couple of them do
nothing. They don't even read the test directions, guess the meaning of
words, or underline keywords. They must comprehend the significance of
listening methods in order to complete jobs more quickly.
In addition, the researcher explores the challenges faced by second-year
English majors. Speaker language variables have an impact on students'
listening comprehension. Use some low-quality recorded material, limited
the number of listening times, disturbing sounds such as talking, noise
around. Another problem is listening for information. Cannot recognize the
signals when speaker is moving from one point to another, cannot infer the
meaning of an unknown word while listening and vocabulary are just a few
of the problems that greatly affect hearing ability. Furthermore,
environmental and physical problems affect students' hearing.
Finally, the reseacher offers some suggestions for improving the listening 1
of sophomore English majors at the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh
City's Faculty of Foreign Languages. The majority of students agreed that
using strategies such as "donot try to listen to every single words." "Before
starting, read carefully the questions and answers then try to imagine and
predict the contents of the conversation", "learn vocabulary and practice
pronunciation," "concrete plan in practicing listening and know about the
methods to improve the skill". "If it is hard to apply methods, just mitting
them and try to other measures" can help them improve their English
listening 1. Therefore mentioned findings are based on the writer's research
while working on their thesis. They also contributed significantly to
providing practical tips on how to improve the listening 1 of sophomore
English majors.
5.2 Recommendation 
5.2.1 Recommendations for Faculty of Foreign Languages Teachers
Teachers have a vital role in developing listening skills in students studying
English. Teachers should teach students how to arrange their studies, keep
track of their chores, and get them started working efficiently. Lectures
should instruct students on how to improve their listening skills by teaching
them how to listen to the main idea, predict the material, detect keywords,
and summarize the content. Teachers also urge students to listen to and
speak English during school hours, minimize writing while listening, and
encourage pupils to recall ideas in order to build confidence
5.2.2 Recommendations for Faculty of Foreign Languages sophomore
English majors 
To enhance their listening 1, students must devote a significant amount of
time, effort, and perseverance. Additionally, students are encouraged to
listen to online news, videos, and podcasts on interesting topics to expand
their vocabulary and enhance their listening 1 skills.
Additionally, several websites, such as ESL Lab (https://www.esl-
lab.com),Spotlight radio (https://www.spotlightenglish.com),  British Council
(https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org), provide excellent opportunities for
students to practice listening skills. They are free English listening websites
for persons at all levels, from beginner to advanced. It includes a
transcription and a number of short movies on a variety of interesting
topics. Learners can use these websites to practice listening, reading,
pronunciation, and grammar. It also includes word games to assist students
improve their vocabulary. Students can gradually increase their listening
ability and vocabulary by practicing listening skills on the websites
indicated. Finally, but certainly not least, it is beneficial to employ excellent
listening tactics.
5.3 The study's limitations
Despite  the above study is full ,the fact that there are still flaws such as
data collection methods and student survey questionnaires, time
constraints, a lack of documentation, the researcher's abilities, and other
unforeseen issues.
First of all, survey results are based on questionnaires, with some students
not cooperatively participating, resulting in data that is not completely
objective. Another factor is that because of the online survey, the
researcher cannot conduct other procedures such as observing the class or
interviewing the participants due to lack of time and skills, which will
improve the reliability of the data.
Secondly, due to the study's limited sample size, the researcher
concentrates on sophomore English-majoring students at the Faculty of
Foreign Languages, who make up a small percentage of the total student
population. As a result, the study's findings cannot be generalized. 
Furthermore, the researcher was unable to cover every facet of the issue.
Despite the restrictions, the author hopes that this study will aid the Faculty
of Foreign Languages at the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in
improving their English listening 1.
REFERENCES