TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................................. i

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS......................................................................................... iv

LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... v

LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ vi

ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................vii

TÓM TẮT .....................................................................................................................viii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 1

1.1 Background to the study......................................................................................... 1

1.1.1 Listening skills ................................................................................................. 1

1.1.2 Theoretical and studying background ............................................................. 1

1.2 Aim of the study ..................................................................................................... 2

1.3 Significance of the study ........................................................................................ 3

1.4 Scope of the study .................................................................................................. 4

1.5 Organization of chapters ........................................................................................ 5

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................................... 6

2.1 AN OVERVIEW OF LISTENING COMPREHENSION .................................... 6

2.1.1 Definitions of Listening Comprehension ........................................................ 6

2.1.2 Listening classification: Reciprocal and Nonreciprocal listening .................. 7

2.1.3 Listening stages ................................................................................................ 9

2.1.4 Listening practice methods ............................................................................ 11

2.1.5 The importance of listening comprehension in English language learning.. 13

2.2 POTENTIAL DIFFICULTIES IN LISTENING ................................................. 13

2.2.1 Internal difficulties ......................................................................................... 14

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 2.2.3 External difficulties ........................................................................................ 16

2.3 THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ............................................................... 19

2.4 SUMMARY.......................................................................................................... 21

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY .................................................................................. 23

3.1 Research question ................................................................................................. 23

3.2 Research design .................................................................................................... 23

3.3 Context of the research ......................................................................................... 24

3.4 Participants ........................................................................................................... 24

3.5 Research instruments ............................................................................................ 25

3.5.1 Questionnaire ................................................................................................. 25

3.5.2 Interview ........................................................................................................ 29

3.6 Data collection procedure..................................................................................... 29

3.6.1 Questionnaire ................................................................................................. 30

3.6.2 Interview ........................................................................................................ 30

3.7 Data analysis procedure ....................................................................................... 30

3.7.1 Questionnaire ................................................................................................. 31

3.7.2 Interview ........................................................................................................ 31

3.8 Summary ............................................................................................................... 31

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ............................................................ 32

4.1 Internal difficulties ............................................................................................... 32

4.1.1 Listening practice ........................................................................................... 32

4.1.2 Knowledge ..................................................................................................... 36

4.2 External difficulties .............................................................................................. 39

4.2.1 Speaker ........................................................................................................... 39

4.2.2 Listening materials ......................................................................................... 42

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 4.2.3 Facilities ......................................................................................................... 46

4.3 Other difficulties ................................................................................................... 50

4.4 Summary ............................................................................................................... 51

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................... 52

5.1 Summary of findings ............................................................................................ 52

5.2 Implications .......................................................................................................... 53

5.2.1 For lecturers ................................................................................................... 54

5.2.2 For learners..................................................................................................... 54

5.3 Limitations of the study........................................................................................ 55

5.4 Recommendations for further study ..................................................................... 56

REFERENCES............................................................................................................... 57

APPENDIX A ................................................................................................................ 67

Questionnaire (Vietnamese version) ............................................................................. 67

APPENDIX B ................................................................................................................ 75

Questionnaire (English version) .................................................................................... 75

APPENDIX C ................................................................................................................ 84

Interview (Vietnamese version) ..................................................................................... 84

APPENDIX D ................................................................................................................ 85

Interview (English version) ........................................................................................... 85

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 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

1. VNU-HCM - Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City

2. USSH - University of Social Sciences and Humanities

3. EF - Faculty of English Linguistic and Literature

4. ĐT - General Program

5. CLC - High Quality Program

iv
 LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.5.1…………………………………………………………………………….27

Table 4.1...…………………………………………………………………………….33

Table 4.2...…………………………………………………………………………….34

Table 4.3...…………………………………………………………………………….36

Table 4.4...…………………………………………………………………………….39

Table 4.5...…………………………………………………………………………….43

Table 4.6...…………………………………………………………………………….46

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.3…………………………………………………………………………..…21

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 ABSTRACT

Listening has been regarded as one of the most primary skills in learning English and
also been investigated in several studies. Nevertheless, most of them focused on non-
English-majored students; little research has been carried out featuring English-majored
students, especially in the context of EF students in USSH VNU-HCM. In fact, albeit
specializing in English, EF students have still encountered several English listening
difficulties due to their highly academic English courses. This study aimed at
investigating the listening difficulties that EF students have been facing, concerning two
aspects: (1) internal difficulties (the listening problems which are derived from the
listeners) and (2) external difficulties (the listening problems that are not under the
control of the listeners). Questionnaires and interviews were employed in terms of
acquiring the data to analyze and investigate the common English listening difficulties.
According to the findings of this study, it was indicated that the EF students’ listening
difficulties were categorized into five sectors in tandem with five factors that possess
the possibility of adversely affecting the listening process, namely listening practice,
listening knowledge, speakers’ factors, listening materials and facilities. In addition,
neglecting listening guidelines, psychological effect concerning concentration,
language barrier and memorizing were suggested as other factors that potentially
constrain students’ comprehension when listening. Thanks to the data analysis, EF
students’ common listening difficulties within the five sectors were included based on
the answers of the participants. Therefore, recommendations were also suggested for
both students and teachers.

Key words: listening skills, listening comprehension, listening difficulties

vii
 TÓM TẮT

Kỹ năng nghe được xem là một trong những kỹ năng quan trọng khi học tiếng Anh và
đây cũng là một trong những kỹ năng được nghiên cứu trong rất nhiều báo cáo khoa
học. Tuy nhiên, hầu hết các báo cáo này đều tập trung vào nhóm đối tượng sinh viên
không chuyên Anh ngữ và có rất ít bài nghiên cứu về sinh viên chuyên Anh ngữ, đặc
biệt là nhóm sinh viên khoa Ngữ văn Anh trường Đại học Khoa học Xã hội và Nhân
văn Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh. Trên thực tế, dù đã sở hữu các kiến thức chuyên về Anh
ngữ, nhóm sinh viên khoa Ngữ văn Anh vẫn có thể gặp một vài khó khăn liên quan đến
kỹ năng nghe do những yêu cầu học thuật ngày càng cao về tiếng Anh của các khóa
học. Bài nghiên cứu này được nhóm chúng tôi thực hiện nhằm tìm ra những khó khăn
mà sinh viên khoa Ngữ văn Anh gặp phải và tập trung khai thác vào hai khía cạnh: (1)
khó khăn nội tại (khó khăn về nghe bắt nguồn từ chính người nghe) và (2) khó khăn bên
ngoài (khó khăn về nghe không nằm dưới sự kiểm soát của người nghe). Bài nghiên
cứu sử dụng bảng hỏi và phỏng vấn trực tiếp để thu thập và phân tích dữ liệu, từ đó tìm
ra những khó khăn thường gặp của sinh viên khoa Ngữ văn Anh về kỹ năng nghe. Theo
kết quả của nghiên cứu, những khó khăn về nghe của sinh viên khoa Ngữ văn Anh được
chia thành năm nhóm là năm yếu tố có khả năng ảnh hưởng đến quá trình nghe bao gồm
tập luyện kỹ năng nghe, kiến thức về kỹ năng nghe, yếu tố liên quan đến người nói, tài
liệu về kỹ năng nghe và cơ sở vật chất. Ngoài ra, yếu tố bỏ qua hướng dẫn về kỹ năng
nghe, ảnh hưởng tâm lý liên quan đến sự tập trung, rào cản ngôn ngữ và khả năng ghi
nhớ cũng được xem là những yếu tố có tiềm năng ảnh hưởng đến khả năng nghe - hiểu
của sinh viên. Sau khi phân tích dữ liệu dựa trên câu trả lời của người tham gia khảo
sát, bài nghiên cứu trình bày năm nhóm yếu tố có khả năng gây khó khăn về kỹ năng
nghe mà sinh viên khoa Ngữ văn Anh gặp phải. Cuối cùng, bài nghiên cứu cũng đưa ra
các đề nghị để sinh viên và giảng viên có thể khắc phục những khó khăn trên.

viii
 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

1.1.1 Listening skills

Learning a foreign language involves four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and
writing. However, learners are enamored with speaking the language immediately
because when it comes to real-life situations, speaking is the skill that students will be
judged on (Brown & Yuke, 1983) and learners cannot achieve their goals without using
proper language to communicate (Rao, 2019). However, the process of effectively
learning a language does take a long time and huge effort. Most infants listen a lot to
the people around them before they can utter their first word, which requires long
practice and familiarity. Listening skills are as important as speaking skills (Anderson
& Lynch, 1988) because the quality of the auditory input, which means information
being received by hearings, is strongly related to the one of the output. Also, auditory
input is the secondary importance in three major inputs which are: sight, hearing, and
touch (Rahman, 2020). In spite of its importance, listening used to be the neglected skill
in second language acquisition, learning, teaching (Ahmadi & Gilakjani, 2011), and it
is the language skill that has the least training (Lee, 1983). Learners tend to focus on
speaking skill without realizing that speaking itself does not enable one to communicate.
For instance, the greatest difficulty of a traveler in a foreign country is not that he cannot
make himself understood. He can convey his thoughts and needs by using body
language or pictures. The most embarrassing difficulty is that he does not understand
what is being said to him and around him. As a result, there is no communication and
the traveler’s excellent speaking skill cannot be used to the fullest. Therefore, the ability
to understand and be understood is of primary importance if the effectiveness of
communication is to be achieved.

1.1.2 Theoretical and studying background

Possessing the ability to speak English fluently and naturally has been the ultimate aim
of most English learners and teachers aim to teach students to speak the language with

1
some fluency and authentic idioms (River, 1966). However, what has been less
emphasized is that communication is the process that involves at least two people and
speaking does not itself constitute communication unless what is said is comprehended
by other communicators (Rivers, 1966). As ESL learners have acknowledged the
importance of listening in practice, much more attention is paid and efforts are made to
learning and improving listening skills (Ahmadi & Gilakjani, 2011). Listening should
be considered as the primary approach for some reasons, such as laying the foundation
for the future acquisition of speaking and fostering the development of linguistic
competence and producing better results (Cheung, 2010).

The English language has been a compulsory subject for all Vietnamese high school
students (Ministry of Education and Training, 2009) . However, high-school
Vietnamese EFL lecturers mainly provide their students with linguistic knowledge in
preparation for the national secondary education examination, which is grammar-based,
and most Vietnamese students learn English also for that instrumental purpose, which
means to pass examinations rather than to communicate (Nguyen V. L., 2011). This
matter results in the communicative competence in English of Vietnamese workforce
not meeting the requirements of the employers (Ha, 2007) and the unemployment of
fresh university graduates by foreign enterprises due to their poor English listening and
speaking skills (Pham, 2005).

1.2 Aim of the study

The study of Robertson showed that students who participate in international exchange
student programs were overwhelmed by language skills barriers, namely listening and
speaking skills (Robertson et al, 2000). However, for too long listening was relegated
to a secondary position in English classroom (Miller, 2003) and great attention was paid
to teaching those students academic literacy skills they would need to succeed in higher
education (Ferris & Tagg, 1996). This might contribute to the difficulties in English
listening practice. Through the normal course of a day, listening was used nearly twice
as much as speaking and four to five times as much as reading and writing (Rivers,
1981). From the above studies, it can be said that listening is an important skill for

2
students not only in the learning environment but also in the context in which
international communication is commanded. Having acknowledged the importance of
listening skills and aimed to support students in their ways of improving listening
ability, our group decided to conduct this research on the difficulties of Vietnamese
students in listening to English. The aim of this research is to investigate the common
difficulties that may be encountered while practicing listening skills by The Faculty of
English Linguistic and Literature (EF) students in the University of Social Sciences and
Humanities (USSH) of Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM).

As discussed above, despite the importance of listening skills, extensive and in-depth
research into difficulties that students may encounter when listening can hardly be
found, especially difficulties in listening that English-majored, namely EF students may
encounter. Acknowledging the common difficulties in listening may help EF students
build up effective learning strategies and also help lecturers design appropriate lesson
plans and guide their students to overcome listening difficulties. Due to the
aforementioned reasons, the current research was conducted and our research revolved
around answering the primary question “What are the common difficulties that EF
students encounter when practicing listening skills?”

1.3 Significance of the study

The very first step learners should do to acquire a language is to understand the spoken
language they encounter (Ahmadi, 2016). Listening was a fundamental skill as it
provided the input for learners (Rost, 1994) to give substantial and meaningful
responses (Renukadevi, 2014). As a result, this skill served as the most vital part of
communication. The ability to use listening in learning a foreign language was one of
the key factors involved in a successful learner (Rost, 2001; Kurita 2012). Listening
comprehension established a strong foundation for the acquisition and expansion of
other language skills (Hasan, 2000; Hamouda, 2013). By improving listening skills,
learners provided an appropriate circumstance for themselves to succeed in language
learning to enhance comprehensible input (Gilakjani & Sabouri, 2016).

Having realized the paramount role of listening skills, as a means of assistance for

3
learners to use English comprehensively, our study was conducted to investigate the
difficulties that third-year EF students of USSH, VNU-HCM have encountered during
their listening learning, additionally, to suggest some useful and practical solutions to
overcome the problems. The result of this study was expected to be a useful resource
for other research relating to listening skills and learning strategies to develop listening
skills for English-majored students.

Moreover, it was hoped that the findings of this study about the difficulties that students
may encounter while listening would proffer valuable data for lecturers being in the
process of formulating more effective learning strategies for improving students’
listening skills. The solutions suggested in this study could be useful for those being a
teacher or lecturer to consider, improve, and map out a learning method boosting
learner’s listening self-development.

Finally, the result of this study was expected in a way that was helpful for college
students to point out the difficulties they may encounter during the process of acquiring
knowledge via English listening skills. Having identified the adversity, each and every
student would construct their own learning strategy, which would be fit for their specific
characteristics and might improve the listening skills so that they could expand other
language skills.

In conclusion, this study might benefit lecturers and learners to be able to analyze the
problems while practicing listening skills. Eventually, they could self-improve to master
their skill and acquire an in-depth knowledge of English in the future.

1.4 Scope of the study

Regarding the limitation of time and budget, the scope of this study was narrowed down
to a group of students, who are EF students from two programs: General Program (ĐT)
and High Quality Program (CLC), school year 2018 to 2022, USSH, VNU-HCM.

We chose the USSH to conduct our research because of the time and place convenience.
Moreover, the university had over 3.000 students with diverse nationalities studying
and working, from which Vietnamese students would have many opportunities to

4
interact with other English-speaking learners or native speakers and practice listening
skills. In this study, third-year students were targeted because of the accessibility to the
students as we know the study curriculum, we could establish rapport with the students
so as to easily distribute questionnaire and receive responses. The fact that these third-
year students had been studying at the university for four semesters will guarantee the
accuracy and reliability of the outcome. The recorded experience would be highly
accurate and realistic. Also, the students were required to communicate and interact
with each other in the classroom with English as the primary language, so they needed
to practice listening skills frequently. The number of students required to collect our
research data was estimated at 100 students. In addition, to have an overview of the
difficulties from both the students’ and the lecturers’ perspectives, we also conducted
an interview with lecturers working at EF, VNU-HCM. The group of inclusive lecturers
was expected to have four lecturers.

1.5 Organization of chapters

This thesis consists of 5 chapters as follows:

Chapter 1 provides the reasons for choosing the topic, the purpose of the research, and
the scope of the research process.
Chapter 2 presents an overview of listening comprehension and potential difficulties in
listening.
Chapter 3 describes the research methodology, the research implementation process,
and data analysis.
Chapter 4 reports the results and new findings in the research process, and the
discussion about these results.
Chapter 5 reaches the conclusions about listening to English in the classroom and in
real life.

5
 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 AN OVERVIEW OF LISTENING COMPREHENSION

2.1.1 Definitions of Listening Comprehension

According to Ur (1984), listening comprehension could be defined as the ability to

accurately identify phonemes or groups of different phonemes and intonation. From
another perspective, this activity was understood to be a process of grasping the oral
messages of a language other than the native language (Richards, Platt & Platt, 1992).
Another research also suggested that listening comprehension is a process of
synthesizing information and forming meanings inside the listener's brain; in other
words, the listener's reliance on externally acquired information including sounds as
well as expressions and body language, resonating with the listener's intentions and
consciousness help the listener to understand messages that are not directly expressed
through external communication channels (Buck, 2001). Thus, it can be seen that
listening comprehension activities are extremely complex and carry different meanings
from different researchers' perspectives.

In addition, there are studies distinguishing the difference between listening

comprehension and daily listening activities; for example, Underwood (1989) made a
distinction between hearing and listening, perceiving that while the act of hearing is
inactive, listening to spoken messages is an active process that requires effort and
engagement. This notion was later confirmed by another study conducted by Samovar
and Mills (1995); they stated that when listening on a regular basis, we are merely
identifying sounds, but when listening to comprehend, that activity is listening with the
participation of consciousness and purpose of the brain.

Additionally, there are also studies that underscored the importance of listening
comprehension and the argument regarding listening as an active skill.

O'Mally, Chamot, and Kupper (1989, p.418) defined the term “listening
comprehension” as “an active process in which individuals focus on selected aspects of
aural input, construct meaning from passages, and relate what they hear to existing
6
knowledge.”

According to Osada (2004, p.54), until the time of their study, listening comprehension
“attracted little attention in both theory and practice.” It was regarded as a skill that can
be adopted as students listen to the spoken language, unlike reading, speaking, and
writing, which require further practice and instruction. However, this perception soon
changed in the latter half of the 20th century and the skill garnered more popularity.
Buck (2001, p.29) also refers to the skill as complex, with the meaning of the message
developed “by the listener in an active process of inference and hypothesis building.”
Berne (2004) affirmed the active nature of listening comprehension and also suggests
the role of learners: “Learners take an active role in orienting themselves to the listening
task, accessing their background knowledge, and comparing their interpretation of the
input with the actual input.” (p.522)

The shared perspective in the characteristics of listening comprehension drove

researchers to believe that the skill is mandatory in acquiring language and that it is an
active skill. English learners should be made aware of the nature of listening skills in
the classroom and encouraged by lecturers to actively participate for effective
development of listening comprehension, as “listening comprehension is anything but
a passive activity” (Vandergrift, 1999, p.191).

Through the reference to different views on listening comprehension skills in the above
studies, the researchers of this study decided to consider listening skills as a conscious
activity to grasp messages and information through what the listeners hear and this was
also the focus of this study.

2.1.2 Listening classification: Reciprocal and Nonreciprocal listening

Concerning the perspective and the role of the listeners or learners, according to several
researchers, namely Anderson and Lynch (1988), Griffiths (2008), and Wilson (2008),
listening comprehension activities can be divided into two types: one-way listening
(nonreciprocal / transactional) and two-way listening (reciprocal / interaction).

According to Anderson and Lynch (1988), reciprocal listening is the listening activity

7
in which the listener is allowed to communicate with the speaker and orient the
conversation. On the other hand, nonreciprocal listening is the activity of listening
through devices or lectures where information is only transmitted in only one direction
- from the speaker or the device to the listener.

In addition, according to research carried out by Lynch and Mendelsohn (2002), in

teaching, nonreciprocal listening is often called “Listening to learn” and reciprocal
listening is considered as “Listening and speaking ” (p.196). However, reciprocal
listening is assessed to be much easier than one-way listening - because listeners can
participate in the conversation and negotiate the speed, grammar usage, and vocabulary
of the information the speaker is presenting.

In another research, according to Griffiths (2008), reciprocal or two-way listening is an

activity where the listener can actively communicate with the speaker so that the
purpose of communication can be achieved; in particular, the listener can ask the
speaker to explain parts of the information that are still not clear and respond in non-
verbal or non-formative language (such as nodding or saying “um”, “yeah”).

Meanwhile, nonreciprocal or one-way listening does not give listeners the opportunity
to participate in contributing and moderating the conversation, leading to difficulty in
controlling the received information. Specifically, the listener can not control factors
that directly affect the listening comprehension process such as speaking speed,
vocabulary, and grammar used by the speaker; also, the listener is not allowed to ask
the speaker to repeat words that are not listened to clearly (Wilson, 2008).

In general, based on the views synthesized from the aforementioned studies above,
nonreciprocal listening is often regarded as more difficult than reciprocal listening.
Concerning the actual learning situation of EF students at USSH, VNU-HCM, the
nonreciprocal listening activities that the participants of this study experienced usually
exist in the form of exams and listening tests which are delivered through recorders,
cassettes, or lecture videos integrated into the curriculum by the teacher. Reciprocal
listening activities can be interpreted as a form of learning and exchanging with
lecturers at the university through live or offline lessons, or private discussions between

8
students and lecturers. In fact, the participants of this study have exposure to both
reciprocal listening and nonreciprocal listening. Therefore, in this study, both listening
types will be assessed and surveyed to list the common difficulties which EF students
encounter in reality during their study at USSH, VNU-HCM.

Since the participants of this study are EF students who study almost entirely in English,
the difficulties that these participants had been facing were definitely not just about one-
way listening activities as the majority of students specializing in other majors or in
other schools are dealing with. In fact, EF students have been exposed to academic
English which is much more complicated than English at the simple level of
communication in many aspects: speaking speed, grammar, vocabulary, etc. Moreover,
the fact that EF students study subjects that are specialized and highly academic led to
the difficulties they have been facing would be much different from those non-English-
majored students have been dealing with. Accordingly, research investigating the
English listening difficulties of these students (English-majored students) was highly in
need of being carried out in order that solutions and appropriate teaching methods would
be discussed and introduced to improve the quality of learning and teaching English
listening, which was basically the focus of this study.

2.1.3 Listening stages

Many prestigious linguists such as Underwood (1989), Harmer (1998), Celce-Murcia

(2001), etc. suggested that a complete listening process included three main stages: Pre-
listening, while-listening, and post-listening.

Understanding different stages of a listening process was crucial to allocate from which
stages the listening difficulties were derived when practicing a piece of listening, in
order to accurately identify the factors that influenced the students’ listening process
and caused the listening difficulties. Accordingly, solutions could be drawn to address
the listening difficulties.

2.1.3.1 The pre-listening stage

This is the stage where learners will be familiarized with the context of the listening

9
text (Underwood, 1989). At this stage, the context of the listening text will be
introduced; questions and tasks of the listening will be explained. Specifically, listeners
may do some of the following activities: look at pictures, read questions, discuss the
topic of the listening, etc. from which to prepare for the upcoming listening activity.
Therefore, pre-listening activities facilitate the listeners’ comprehension process,
activate their knowledge, motivate them to focus on the listening text, assist them to
make some guesses to answer the questions, and consolidate their confidence in order
to listen effectively (Wilson, 2008).

In this study, pre-listening activities were carefully investigated since the researchers
agreed with the notion that the pre-listening stage is highly important and could directly
affect students’ state of mind before listening.

2.1.3.2 The while-listening stage

This is the stage where listeners are required to listen for comprehension. According to
Underwood (1989), the aim of the while-listening stage is to sharpen listeners’ listening
skills in order to understand the messages as well as information which the speakers
want to deliver via speech; basically, while-listening activities are what students are
asked to do during the time that they are listening to the text such as marking or checking
items in pictures; choosing or drawing pictures; putting pictures in order; completing
forms, charts, diagrams, tables, maps, pictures or sentences; gap-filling; etc. Both
Underwood (1989) and Wilson (2008) agree that wisely chosen activities in the while-
listening stage can help listeners to understand the listening.

2.1.3.3 The post-listening stage

Post-listening activities are defined as questions or requirements after listening. These

activities are provided to check the listeners’ listening comprehension skills and some
could be the extension of the work done at the pre-listening and while-listening stages
(Underwood, 1989). The post-listening activities may include completing charts, tables;
matching with reading texts; summarizing; using the information from the listening text
to solve problems or make decisions; identifying the relationships between speakers;

10
identifying the attitude or behaviors of the speakers; giving opinions; etc. (Underwood,
1989; Davies & Pearse, 2000; Ur, 1984; Celce-Murcia, 2001)

2.1.4 Listening practice methods

In this study, listening practice methods were defined as the methods the students apply
to actively and proactively practice their English. Thanks to the advancement of
information technology, there are more and more methods for students to practice and
get exposed to English on a daily basis, ranging from traditional approaches such as
dictation and extensive listening practice to contemporary ones namely listening to
music and watching movies. Concerning the context and the subject of this study, the
four approaches were mentioned as the primary methods for English learners to
practice.

2.1.4.1 Listening to music and watching movies

English is an undeniably important skill since the world has become more globalized
and integrated. However, English learners in the context of Vietnam still lack the
opportunities to practice English with native speakers. Therefore, authentic listening
texts extracted from music and movies are highly recommended as one of the most
favorable materials to get exposed to English. Music and movies additionally provide
the students with real-life situations in English communication and generate their
interest to motivate them to learn English. Damronglaohapan and Stevenson (2013) also
supported this notion via a study indicating the promising effect of using music and
movies as teaching materials in helping students to improve their listening skills and
better understanding the vocabulary spoken by native speakers.

2.1.4.2 Joining English club

Due to the lack of opportunities to practice English with native speakers, English
learners still have other ways to use their English daily. Joining English clubs is one of
them. By providing the students with activities such as weekly meetings, talk shows,

11
and workshops, English clubs created a friendly and practical environment to practice
and cultivate their English competence (Huong, 2015). In addition, Zema (2018), whose
thesis conducted on the effects of English clubs, also concluded that English clubs
considerably improved not only students’ listening but also their speaking and attitude
towards English club activities.

2.1.4.3 Practice listening tests

Basically, listening tests are one of the common materials to practice English. In this
research, taking listening tests was considered extensive English listening practice
carried out by students themselves. The practice of cramming English listening tests is
not unusual to English learners, especially Vietnamese students when it comes to
preparation for English tests and examinations. In fact, according to a recent study by
Chang, Millett, and Renandya (2019), this method, nowadays, still showed positive
results in terms of improving students’ level of listening comprehension.

2.1.4.4 Dictation

According to the Longman dictionary of applied linguistics (Richard, Platt, & Platt,
1992), "Dictation is a technique used in both language teaching and language testing in
which a passage is read aloud to students, with pauses during which they must try to
write down what they heard as accurately as possible" (p.108). In another study
conducted on the effect of dictation on English listening comprehension by Kiany and
Shiramiry (2002), it suggested that there was a significant impact of English dictation
on students’ listening comprehension, and those who practiced this method achieved a
better performance in English listening in comparison with the others.

Albeit the diversity of English listening practice methods, the aforementioned were
seriously taken into account as the main methods in this research since they were
preferable to be discussed and studied in the context of Vietnam and previously
discussed to positively improve students’ listening skill.

12
2.1.5 The importance of listening comprehension in English language learning

Listening comprehension had become the foundation for many studies on second
language acquisition (O'Mally, Chamot & Kupper, 1989). It was also “a significant
language skill to develop in second language learning” (Gilakjani & Sabouri, 2016,
p.1670). Rost (1994) and Ziane (2011) agreed that listening comprehension was
important as without understanding the message through what we hear, the process of
learning fails. This was specifically true for EFL learners because they do not get
enough exposure to the language compared to native learners. Ziane (2001) also pointed
out that speaking abilities stem from listening skills, and an English learner who was
versed in listening comprehension could communicate with others more effortlessly and
do other language-related activities better.

Hogan et al (2004) introduced the connection between listening and reading

comprehension. They affirmed that listening comprehension was paramount upon
becoming prominent readers.

Ahmadi (2016, p.7) agreed with the significance of listening comprehension in language
learning, stating that:

“If learners want to learn to speak, they should first learn to understand the spoken
language they hear. If learners want to communicate with native speakers, they should
first learn to understand in real language situations to comprehend the main point of
what native speakers are telling.”

Therefore, listening comprehension was of top-notch importance in order to get a good

grasp of other aspects of language acquisition. As a result, this research was paramount
to accumulate the listening difficulties that were commonly encountered by EF
students.

2.2 POTENTIAL DIFFICULTIES IN LISTENING

In this study, the listening difficulties that English-majored students have been facing
were classified into: internal and external difficulties. Internal difficulties were defined
as the listening problems which are derived from the listeners. On the other hand,
13
external difficulties are problems that are not under the control of the listeners. By
categorizing the listening difficulties in that way, the potential reasons for them were
clearly drawn and allocated, whether or not the causes were within the listeners.

2.2.1 Internal difficulties

2.2.1.1 Inappropriate listening practice

In this study, inappropriate listening practice was defined as a listening difficulty that
resulted from the insufficient amount of time spent on listening and the unsuitable
listening strategies.

Research conducted in the Vietnam context showed that the lack of practice listening to
English, both in class and at home, was a critical difficulty affecting listening
comprehension (Hoang, 2006). Also, this research indicated that the use of improper
strategies for learning listening skills was another internal factor that obstructed the
improvement in learners’ listening skills. Some researchers also highlighted that the
inefficiency of practicing listening prevented learners from enhancing listening skills
(Nguyen D. T. C. H., 2011; Nguyen N. A., 2011).

2.2.1.2 The limitation of knowledge

During the process of listening comprehension, listeners had to use their knowledge to
facilitate the process of understanding the message from speakers. Rubin and Thompson
(1994) pointed out that learners' knowledge about linguistics, the culture of the target
language, the context we were involved in communicating, and the surrounding world
were the assets that could be made use of in learning a foreign language. According to
Widdowson (1983) and Buck (2001), the knowledge used to acquire a foreign language
consists of linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic knowledge. Linguistic knowledge
included phonology, syntax, semantics, and discourse structures. The non-linguistic
knowledge was socio-cultural knowledge of the target language, the contextual
background, and general world knowledge.

14
However, a barrier in listening could occur when a learner had little linguistic
knowledge or vocabulary (Ardila, 2013) as well as background knowledge
(Soureshjani, 2011). The limited vocabulary prevented learners from fully
understanding the listening text (Underwood, 1989). On the other hand, the shortage of
mutual knowledge between listeners and speakers made the process of delivering
information harder (Gilakjani & Ahmadi, 2011). According to Anderson and Lynch
(1988), it was suggested that the learners' unawareness of cultural and background
knowledge from the target language was a serious problem for them to succeed in
communication.

Phonological features

It was suggested that the lack of understanding about the sound pattern of the English
sound system (e.g. word pronunciation, similar sound, accent, stress, and intonation,
etc.) could lead to a critical reduction in listeners’ comprehension (Lee & VanPatten,
1995; Goh, 1997). The difference between Vietnamese and English sound systems led
to many learners having trouble recognizing the English sounds (Hoang, 2006).
Underwood (1989) reported that foreign learners of English found that there were lots
of unknown or unusual sounds in the English system for them to distinguish or hear
fully. Brown (1990) claimed that the problem of listening among learners was that they
were unable to use the phonological code to recognize the words used by the speakers
and how those words were organized into sentences.

Unfamiliar vocabulary

Underwood (1989) indicated that the limitation of vocabulary prevented listeners from
comprehending the messages delivered by speakers. The listening text would contain
lots of words that the listeners had little knowledge about. The unfamiliar vocabulary
used in a listening text also caused the listeners to stop the flow of listening
comprehension to figure out the meaning of that word, which resulted in the listeners’
missing the following part of the speech.

15
To some students, when listening to a conversation, they tend to make out every single
word said by the speakers. Then when there are unfamiliar words in the conversation,
they easily get confused and distracted from the conversation (Darti & Asmawati,
2017). This also showed that unfamiliar words including jargon and idioms interfered
with the learners’ listening skills, which meant that vocabulary was a big obstacle to
most students in listening comprehension. Therefore, the limitation of basic linguistic
knowledge (e.g. the uses of slang, vocabulary, multiple-meaning words) among
students was the main difficulty for students in listening (Nguyen D. T. C. H., 2011;
Hoang, 2006).

Cultural differences

Cultural or background knowledge was seen as one of the vital factors that learners
should comprehend to acquire a foreign language (Widdowson, 1983; Anderson &
Lynch, 1988; Buck, 2001). Learners might face some difficulties if the listening text
included lots of different cultural information (Nguyen D. T. C. H., 2011). It was
suggested that the lack of cultural knowledge could create huge problems for learners
to comprehend what speakers talked about (Gilakjani & Ahmadi, 2011).

2.2.3 External difficulties

2.2.3.1 Difficulties related to speakers

According to Brown and Yule (1983), the speaker was one of the four factors affecting
the process of listening comprehension. The spoken language had a number of unique
features, including the use of incomplete utterances or ungrammatical forms (e.g. using
a shortened form “Dinner” instead of a fully functional question “Is dinner ready?”),
that the listeners had to pay attention to (Ur, 1984). Repetition was also a feature of
spoken language, where the speakers repeated the same word or part of speech several
times, which was considered as one of the elements affecting the process of listening.
Additionally, Buck (2001) indicated that hesitation was a vital characteristic of spoken
language, where the speaker paused when saying a sentence, which made some
difficulties for listeners to reach the full message of the sentence.

16
Another aspect that played an important role in listening comprehension was the
speaker’s speed (Underwood, 1989). According to Ur (1996) and Underwood (1989),
the speakers’ inability to control the speaking speed from speakers was a difficulty for
themselves in listening comprehension. Underwood (1989) stated that the situation
where the speakers speak too fast would create a serious problem for learners to
understand the listening text. Buck (2001) claimed that learners could experience some
particular difficulties due to the fast speech rate. Another difficulty was that the listener
cannot see the speakers’ facial expressions and body language, and that led them to
encounter problems in comprehending the listening text (Byrne, 1976).

Moreover, learners often had difficulty in discriminating the speaker’s accent. Munro
and Derwing (1999) stated that the presence of too many accents in a speech could
affect the learners’ performance. It was indicated that accent was potentially a
paramount variable in listening comprehension (Buck, 2001). Many foreign language
learners tended to be used to the accent of their teacher as a result they found difficulty
when listening to a strange accent (Ur, 1984). Being unable to recognize the different
accents from both native and non-native speakers could be a hindrance in listening
comprehension (Gilakjani & Sabouri, 2016). Accent was seen as an important variable
in the listening process. It might cause the listeners to be disrupted in the listening
comprehension when they heard an unfamiliar accent (Buck, 2001).

2.2.3.2 Difficulties from listening materials

Hoang (2006) contended that suitable listening materials in the classroom allowed
learners to listen more effectively. “Authentic materials”, as defined by Thanajaro
(2000, p.5), are “language samples that are created by native speakers for native
speakers of the language”. Sabet, et.al (2012) opined that the right use of authentic
listening materials could improve students’ overall language proficiency and gave
exposure to the language used in real life. They also pointed out that using real,
simulated materials had a more positive effect on English learners compared to
textbook-based listening tasks.

17
Hansen and Jensen (1994) also believed that students of all levels of proficiency should
be allowed access to authentic materials in listening practice, which, according to Bacon
(1989), would help students gain certain benefits, such as acquiring useful strategies for
higher-level listening tasks. Hadley (1993) averred that there should be a combination
of both authentic listening materials and regular classroom activities. Listening
materials were believed to be made for students to demonstrate their aural
understanding of the task.

The length of the spoken passages was indicated as one of the most important factors
creating difficulty for learners in the listening process (Hasan, 2000). According to the
report of Azmi, Celik, Yidliz & Tugrul (2014), short listening texts were easier for
learners to comprehend and complete the listening task than long listening texts.
Research conducted by Thompson and Rubin (1996) stated that the length of the
listening text longer than 2.5 minutes was too long for students to maintain their
concentration. Due to the limited memory storage capacity of listeners, a long passage
might more probably obstruct listening comprehension (Henning, 1990). Moreover, the
longer the passage was, the more information listeners might drop when they
encountered the information they were unable to understand (Bloomfield et al., 2010).

Apart from reading, listeners might not have any chance to replay the audio to get
something they failed to comprehend (Bloomfield et al., 2010). Consequently, the result
of such failure would be the listeners’ inability of acquiring new information as well as
getting later information as it was dependent on the comprehension of earlier
information (Goh, 2000; O’Malley, Chamot, & Kupper, 1989).

2.2.3.3 Poor facilities

In some circumstances, the poor quality of auditory materials used for listening caused
some difficulties for learners to understand the listening text well (Bingol, Celik, Yildiz
& Mart, 2014). The poor quality of the recording might more likely make the speaker’s
sounds not clear enough and led students to lose concentration (Darti & Asmawati,
2017). The out-of-date facilities used in a classroom context were considered as one of

18
the major reasons contributing to the poor quality of recorded materials (Hoang, 2006;
Le, 2014).

Despite the fact that there are various types of potential listening difficulties the subject
of this research might encounter, only the aforementioned difficulties were investigated
and analyzed in the latter parts. Due to the fairly similar contexts and subjects, the
studies conducted by Hoang (2006) and Nguyen (2011) were merely adapted to
investigate the common listening difficulties of EF students. The others were not as
seriously consulted as the two mentioned ones since they were conducted outside of
Vietnam and on non-Vietnamese students, which were believed to be invalid and
unreliable in the context of this research. However, this research differed from the two
adapted studies and promisingly provided some novel and insightful results, addressing
the limitations of the two former studies.

Both Hoang (2006) and Nguyen D. T. C. H (2011) admitted their research was carried
out only on intermediate English learners who were non-English-majored and the
results could barely be a comprehensive generalization for English learners of all levels:
elementary, intermediate, and advanced. They also suggested a need of carrying further
research featured on Advanced English learners. Concerning that, this research aimed
at analyzing the listening difficulties of third-year EF students, who were identified as
advanced English learners, thankfully addressing the shortcoming of the two former
studies.

Moreover, the two mentioned studies were carried out a long time ago, which might no
longer represent the present generations. Therefore, this research resolved this problem
thanks to investigating the current students who were believed to have more advantages
in learning English in comparison to those in the past decade.

2.3 THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The study literally focused on the listening difficulties of English-majored students at

USSH, VNU-HCM. Therefore, the components under investigation were carefully
adopted and modified to favorably and appropriately resolve the research question.

19
The first component was internal difficulties, including the inappropriate listening
practice (1) and lack of knowledge of the content of the listening text or speech (2).

Inappropriate listening practice was about the insufficient amount of time spent on
listening to English and the improper listening strategies.

The shortage of knowledge would be related to linguistics or culture. By linguistically

related, the concerns were the limited range of vocabulary, the unfamiliarity with some
phonological features or grammatical patterns. By culturally related, it was the
unaccustomed background information that drove the listeners away from the main
ideas when listening.

The second component was external difficulties that resulted from the speaker (3), the
materials (4), and facilities (5).

In terms of the listening materials, the study focused on the length, the times of listening,
the volume of information, and the pre-listening materials that were supposedly related
to listening activity.

The concerns of facilities in this study were not only the listening-speaking equipment
(such as speakers, microphones, etc.) but also the supplies of visual aids and the quality
of the classrooms which were not able to prevent the distracting noises from outside,
the discomforts and inconveniences that drove the students uncomfortable during
listening activity.

In terms of the speakers’ factor, this study focused on the language used by the speakers,
namely their phonological features (accents and pronunciation), grammatical patterns,
speed, and body language.

In conclusion, the mentioned factors in this part established the conceptual framework
of the study, which was demonstrated as follows

20
 Figure 2.3: Students’ potentially listening difficulties

The conceptual framework served as the blueprint of this study. It was remarkably
utilized in terms of designing and planning the research instruments, i.e. interview
questions and questionnaire as well as the process of collecting and analyzing data.
Based on the framework, the questionnaire and interview questions were established to
solely focus on primary components and factors that favorably address the research
question which focused on the common listening difficulties of EF students at USSH,
VNU-HCM. Moreover, the process of analyzing data accumulated from the interview
was also carried out along with the components within the framework in order to get
succinct and valid information which directly fulfilled the research aims.

2.4 SUMMARY

This chapter reviewed and discussed the literature relevant to the study. The first issue
was an overview of listening comprehension. Listening is a conscious activity to grasp
messages and information through what we hear and this is also the object of our

21
research. In this thesis, listening is classified into two groups, which are one-way
listening (nonreciprocal / transactional) and two-way listening (reciprocal / interaction).
The second issue was about the three stages of listening, namely pre-listening, while-
listening and post-listening. Thirdly, the potential difficulties that learners may
encounter, which are divided into internal and external causes, were mentioned. Finally,
this chapter introduced the conceptual framework of the study.

The next chapter will describe the methodology employed in the study.

22
 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

As the aforementioned parts suggested, we presented the basis of the potential

difficulties EF students may encounter upon practising listening skills. In this section,
the research methodology was addressed, which consisted of (1) Research questions,
(2) Research design, (3) Context of the research, (4) Participant, (5) Research
instruments, (6) Data collection procedure, and (7) Data analysis procedure.

3.1 Research question

As stated in Chapter 1, the aim of this research was to conduct research on the
difficulties that may be encountered while practising listening skills by EF students -
USSH, VNUHCM. According to some relevant research, there were several factors
affecting EF students’ listening comprehension, both internal and external. We agreed
with the findings and developed our research on the premise of these researches.
Therefore, the research revolved around answering one question: “What are the
common difficulties that EF students encounter when practising listening skills?”.

3.2 Research design

As the research was based on qualitative data, we implemented the method of

qualitative research to figure out and analyze the common difficulties EF students may
encounter while practising listening skills. According to Brewer (2007), qualitative
research was a popular research method in social studies, putting an emphasis on the
content and quality of the research subject. Brewer claimed that qualitative research
paid less attention to theoretical analysis such as figures and numerical values, but more
on description and exploration. According to the study of Patton (2005), there was also
quantitative data to be presented in the combination with qualitative findings. In spite
of combining some features of quantitative research, the research mostly focused on
qualitative research to examine and investigate EF students’ most common difficulties
in listening comprehension.

23
3.3 Context of the research

The research was conducted at EF of USSH, VNU-HCM. Learners were enrolled in a

formal university program, particularly this research conducted in third-year students
who experienced about six semesters and were exposed to English environment
regularly. Nextly, the program of this university enabled learners not only to practice
English by using English materials, of both audiovisual and written form, but also to
use English regularly in the classroom environment.

3.4 Participants

The participants in this research were chosen from students and lecturers at EF of
USSH, VNU-HCM. The EF students were third-year students at USSH of VNU-HCM,
a university in the South of Vietnam. As the third-year students already studied for six
semesters, they had more experience and knowledge regarding listening comprehension
because of the listening courses they had taken, namely Listening - Speaking B1,
Listening - Speaking B2, Advanced Listening - Speaking C1, and Language Proficiency
C1. As regards the questionnaire distribution process, the convenience sampling method
was used, which enabled us to draw sources of data at our convenience to facilitate the
research. Due to the constraint of time and the current Covid-19 pandemic, this
sampling method was opted. The research group randomly selected 50 students in the
CLC and 50 students in the ĐT to do the research questionnaire. The ratio of 50 students
in each program was decided on because with the research population of the entire group
of third-year students from both programs estimated at 302 students, selecting 100
participants in total would not only enable us to cover a relatively wide yet general
group of students, guaranteeing unbiasedness, it would also help retrieve enough data
required for the research. The research group believed that the lack of diversity in age
among the chosen group of participants can be overcome by the sufficient experience
of the third-year EF students in practicing listening comprehension, as mentioned
before.

For the EF lecturers at USSH of VNU-HCM, the research group chose four lecturers
that have experience in teaching both programs and teach academic subjects involving

24
listening comprehension. To gather an overview of the difficulties in listening
comprehension from the lecturers’ perspectives, the purposive sampling technique was
used to find four EF lecturers to take part in the individual interview. Purposive
sampling, as suggested by Cresswell and Clark (2011), was a common technique in
qualitative research, used by choosing individuals who had certain experiences or
knowledge about the topic of research. Implementing the purposive sampling technique
guaranteed our research with relevant and helpful data for analysis.

3.5 Research instruments

As mentioned in our scope of research in section 1.4, individuals participating in the

research consisted of 100 EF students in both programs, from CLC and ĐT, along with
four EF lecturers from USSH, VNU-HCM. In this research, both questionnaire and
interview were used to collect and synthesize data from students and lecturers. It was
found that a number of qualitative studies within the English language field
implemented the two methods and succeeded in collecting the necessary data. For
instance, the research dissertation by Le (2014) pertaining to listening skill for
intermediate learners from an English center also made use of the two methods to
conduct his research. In addition, given that the research required data from a large
sample of 100 participants, collecting responses for our research via online
questionnaire was the most efficient option because the questionnaire is convenient,
cheap, quick, and researchers do not need to be present when they are completed.
Furthermore, in order to have a thorough insight into the common difficulties of third-
year students from lecturers' perception, carrying out interview played a major role in
collecting and synthesizing data for our research. Hence, the research group made the
decision to integrate questionnaire and personal interview into our research.

3.5.1 Questionnaire

According to Munn and Drever (1990), questionnaire is a common way of collecting

information with the responses that could be analyzed by a variety of statistical
techniques and the result presented with numbers. Questionnaire is known as a well-
established gathering data method in research (Oppenheim, 1992; McDowell & Newell,

25
1996). As presented in the previous part that questionnaire is convenient, money-saving,
and time-saving, this method of collecting data also offers other advantages for this
research including reaching lots of respondents to receive a standardized answer and
keeping the respondents’ information anonymous (Munn & Drever, 1990). Therefore,
the questionnaire was chosen to be our first instrument to gather data.

The questionnaire was distributed to students of the CLC and ĐT via several online
platforms, namely EF Facebook pages and emails of EF students. Due to objective and
subjective reasons such as inconveniences in study schedule and location as well as
spatial restrictions posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, sending the questionnaire online
saved us more time while ensuring reachability. One of the major benefits of
distributing questionnaire through online platforms was that it helped to connect with
individuals that may otherwise be out of reach through other media (Garton,
Haythornthwaite, and Wellman, 1999; Wellman, 1997).

The basis of our questionnaire was referenced from previous relevant studies, adapted
from the questionnaire by Nguyen D. T. C. H. (2011) and the questionnaire by Hoang
(2006). Particularly, in the research of Nguyen D. T. C. H. (2011), Question 13 - P. II
regarding the methods students apply in listening was adapted. As for the research of
Hoang (2006), the following adapted questions were: (1) Question 13 - P. IV about
common difficulties relating to the knowledge of listeners, (2) Question 11 - P. IV about
common difficulties relating to speakers, (3) Question 12 - P. IV about common
difficulties relating to listening texts, (4) Question 14 - P. IV about common difficulties
relating to facilities, and (5) Question 16 - P. V about students’ frequency of listening
practice. The research group chose to adapt the above questions as it was fit to our aim
of the study and provided enough information to answer the research question about the
common difficulties that EF students may encounter while listening. Besides, the
adapted questions were taken as it stuck to the items of our conceptual framework in
2.3, namely the limitation of knowledge, difficulties from speakers, difficulties from
listening materials, and difficulties from facilities.

The questionnaire comprised a total of ten questions, with nine close-ended and one
open-ended. The questionnaire laid an emphasis on inquiring about students’
26
difficulties when practising listening skills, with questions tailored in accordance with
the conceptual framework in 2.3. It was also presented in Vietnamese. By using our
native language, exchanging information with students was made easier as the English
language proficiency of the students was taken into account, with the students at
different levels of competence. A questionnaire in Vietnamese would help them
comprehend the questions better, hence, students might give more accurate answers
which would benefit to answer our research question. Particularly, the questionnaire
structure presented as the table below.

Table 3.5.1: Questionnaire items

PART QUESTIONS CONTENTS

Students’ perception of the importance of listening

Q2
1 comprehension

Q3 Methods students apply when learning listening

Q4 Listening Students’ frequency of listening practice

difficulties
2 students
encounter Methods students apply to practice
Q5 relating to listening skills
listening
practice

Q6 Difficulties relating to knowledge

Listening
Q7 difficulties Difficulties relating to speakers
3
Q8 students Difficulties relating to listening text
encounter
Q9 Difficulties relating to facilities

4 Q10 Other listening difficulties that are not mentioned in

27
 Part 3

In this table containing questionnaire items, all the questions attempted to look into
information corresponding to students’ listening comprehension. There was one
question not included in the table, namely Question 1, inquiring about whether the
participant in the questionnaire is from CLC or ĐT class. The nature of this question
was to help differentiate between the two groups of participants and since it did not
carry information about listening comprehension, it was not present in the table.

In Question 5, regarding the methods students apply for listening practice, much could
be expounded on the four methods. The first method students can apply is through
recreational activities, particularly watching English movies and listening to English
music. Siyanova-Chanturia and Webb (2016) mentioned the term “extensive viewing”,
referring to the act of watching TV and videos, listening to music for the purpose of
second language acquisition. Metruk (2019) claimed that research in this aspect is still
limited and needs more investigation. After his findings, he affirmed that this method
is an effective and fascinating way of practicing listening skills. The second method is
doing listening tests, which is a conventional way of honing students’ listening skills.
Based on Schmidt (2016), students have never been instructed on how to listen, but
instead, they listen to study grammar or vocabulary or for testing their comprehension.
Hence, most listening practice revolves around testing listening, which makes doing
listening tasks a prevalent method among students. The third method is practicing
listening through joining an English club or English speaking environment. This is an
effective way of enhancing not only listening skills but also speaking skills as students
get the chance to communicate and listen to each other’s English through interaction. A
great number of universities nowadays allow students to establish their own clubs or
activities to practice English. The last method in Question 5 revolves around English
dictation - the act of noting down what is said through what can be heard from the
listening. Not only in listening skills, Kim (2008) stated that dictation practice can also
help learners develop all four language skills. However, according to Nam and Seong

28
(2009), despite having a number of benefits, dictation is not prevalent in English classes
as both teachers and students do not feel the need to understand every single word.

3.5.2 Interview

As stated in a book by Fox (2006), interview is one of the most commonly used
instruments for studies having exploratory and descriptive data. He defined that the
interview involved the communication between the researcher and the participant in
order to collect the data. In-depth interview was considered an efficient method of
collecting primary data, which explored more detailed information about interviewees’
perceptions about a particular topic (Showkat & Parveen, 2017).

As its benefit of proposing in-depth information about the participants’ perspective,

interviewing was chosen to be our second method of collecting data, with our subjects
being four EF lectures from USSH, VNU-HCM. The lecturers were contacted and
arranged a face-to-face interview session at their convenience. Opdenakker (2006)
stated that direct interview had always been a widely used interview method in
qualitative research. Thanks to this method, more profound and comprehensive
information was retained as the research group was able to listen and record the
lecturers’ opinions. The interview revolved around three questions, inquiring lecturers’
opinions about the internal and external difficulties students might encounter as well as
suggesting several solutions. The interview questions were designed in both English
and Vietnamese. The lecturers were given the liberty to opt for whichever language they
found convenient.

3.6 Data collection procedure

After deciding the instrument and designing the questionnaire as well as interview
structure, the researcher started delivering the instrument to participants. The process
of collecting data was specifically presented as follows.

29
3.6.1 Questionnaire

The Online questionnaire was distributed via social platforms and email. Due to
complications of the Covid-19 pandemic, the research group was restricted from
directly getting in touch with the students. As a result, online distribution was
considered to be the best resort for our research. The online questionnaire was created
using Google Form. To be more specific, the questionnaire was distributed to EF
Facebook pages and EF students’ emails, noting that it required third-year participants.
After the participants had finished the questionnaire and clicked “Send”, the responses
were retrieved automatically by Google Form and sent to the researchers. It took two
weeks for the research group to receive a total of 100 responses from the students. Due
to the qualitative nature of our research, other data pertaining to frequency or statistics
were collected fairly easily. Therefore, our group only needed basic software with a full
array of equipment for analyzing, synthesizing, and presenting data. Given the reason,
Microsoft Excel 2013 was decided to be the software for statistical analysis.

3.6.2 Interview

As for the four EF lecturers at our university, we conducted purposive sampling on

them. The lecturers were invited to take part in a personal interview to uncover more
perspectives on the difficulties while practicing the listening skills of university
students, as well as proposing possible solutions for learners. The entire interview was
fully recorded and manually analyzed part by part by color coding.

3.7 Data analysis procedure

After the data was collected, the researchers began to analyze and examine the data after
two weeks gathering all the responses from both the questionnaire and the interview.
The responses were analyzed based on the conceptual framework presented in 2.3 in
order to answer the research questions. The process of analysis was generally presented
as follows.

30
3.7.1 Questionnaire

After the collection of 100 responses, the data was transferred to Excel for in-depth
analysis. The questionnaire was then coded and processed by Excel for statistics relating
to percentage. In particular, the responses of participants from Question 2 to Question
9 were measured by percentage, then mainly divided into internal difficulties and
external difficulties in light of the conceptual framework in 2.3. Question 10, since
being an open-ended question, was processed manually. Each difficulty was analyzed
and compared with responses from the lecturers’ interview.

3.7.2 Interview

With respect to interviewing lecturers, we conducted the interview within two weeks
due to the lecturers’ schedule conflicts. The interview responses given by the four
lecturers were converted from audio into text, then the information received from the
three questions was coded and analyzed manually on Microsoft Word. The process of
transcription and analysis took two more weeks to finish. Despite consuming an amount
of time, this method of manual analysis proved to be of much help to the research on
accounts that it was convenient, the number of questions made it more suitable for
manual work and thus, more thorough and careful analysis could be done.

3.8 Summary

This chapter listed and discussed the methodology of this research, consisting of (1)
Research questions, (2) Research design, (3) Context of the research, (4) Participant,
(5) Research instruments, (6) Data collection procedure, and (7) Data analysis
procedure. Since this research was qualitative-based, in order to address the research
questions, questionnaire and interview were employed as the instruments to collect the
insights which favorably contributed to the study. The questionnaire was delivered
online while the interview was conducted entirely face-to-face. These two instruments
were carefully adapted via relevant research conducted previously so as to gain
comprehensive information from the participants. The procedure of data collection and
analysis was carefully described for each instrument.

31
 CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter announces the results of the study, which were produced thanks to the data
collected from the analysis of the content of the questionnaire as well as the interview.
The data were carefully analyzed in order to get the answer to the research question
presented in the previous chapters.

The questionnaire included 10 questions. Questions from Question 4 to Question 10

were analyzed thoroughly because they focused on answering the research question and
adhered to our framework. Question 1, 2, and 3 were not analyzed in this chapter due
to the following reasons. First of all, Question 1 was a factual question, which helped
differentiate the two groups of participants whether they were from CLC or ĐT class.
The results from this question showed that out of 100 answers obtained, 50 of them
came from CLC class, and the rest 50 came from ĐT class. Secondly, Question 2 and
Question 3 were initially thought to be helpful in the analysis process; however, after
careful consideration, the research group realized that the two questions did not help
answer the research question and did not adhere to our framework. Therefore, it was
decided that these two questions would not be in analysis.

The following section showed the analysis of the data collected from the questionnaire,
from Question 4 to Question 10, and the interview.

4.1 Internal difficulties

The internal difficulties that students encountered when practicing listening, as

mentioned in Chapter 2, included the inappropriate listening practice, and the lack of
knowledge of the content of the listening text.

4.1.1 Listening practice

In the process of listening, EF students encountered many difficulties, some of which

are derived from the students - internal difficulties. One of the internal factors that
needed to be stated is listening practice.

32
Question 4 and 5 of the questionnaire were used to elicit information on how students
practice listening skills. Question 4 asked the students about their frequency of
practicing listening skills. Meanwhile, Question 5 asked about the method they use in
the practicing process.

Question 4 was designed to collect information about the frequency (Never, Rarely,
Sometimes, Usually, or Always) of in-class practice and self-practice of students.

Table 4.1. Students’ frequency of practicing listening skills

Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Always

In-class practice 1% 16% 40% 36% 7%

Self-practice 3% 20% 35% 30% 12%

The data in Table 4.1 show that the percentage of students practicing in class was a bit
higher than the percentage of students practicing by themselves. 83% of the students
frequently practiced listening skills normally in class (40% Sometimes, 36% Usually,
and 7% Always), while 77% of the students claimed to practice by themselves (35%
Sometimes, 30% Usually, and 12% Always). It could be seen that the majority of
students made use of all the time both in the classroom and at home to practice listening.
However, there were still students who did not make good use of their time practicing
listening skills in class (17 students) or at home (23 students), which would make a
critical difficulty affecting the listening comprehension (Hoang, 2006). Practicing in
class would focus more on practicing for the tests while practicing at home allowed the
students to choose what they want, or are interested to listen to, which created more
comfortable surroundings without much pressure. As a result, the combination of the
two activities was needed to help students develop their listening skills in both academic
and practical ways.

Question 5 provided four methods for practicing listening skills which included
watching English movies and listening to English music, taking the listening test,
joining an English club or immersing in an English-using environment, and finally

33
practicing English dictation. With each method, students were asked to tick one of the
options among Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Usually, and Always to choose their
frequency of using these methods in practicing listening.

Table 4.2. Students’ most used methods for practicing listening skills

Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Always

Watch English movies and listen to

0% 1% 13% 55% 31%
English music

Take listening test 13% 35% 39% 13% 0%

Join an English club or immerse in an

29% 39% 14% 9% 9%
English-using environment

English dictation practice 32% 40% 23% 4% 1%

Table 4.2 shows the students’ frequency of using the four methods for listening skills
practicing. It seemed like all of the students watched English movies and listened to
English music as a form of practicing their listening skills. 99 students claimed to
frequently use this method to practice listening, with 13, 55, and 31 students
“Sometimes”, “Usually”, and “Always” respectively used this method. This could be
because the utilization of the Internet and social media made finding sources of English
movies and music much easier and more convenient for students. Students could visit
various websites to look for listening materials.

Another method used by students was taking listening tests. 39 and 13 students claimed
to “Sometimes” and “Usually” respectively take listening tests for practicing listening.
However, none of the students “Always” used this method to improve their listening
skills. This might be due to the students’ focus on academic studying as they had to take
tests regularly at school. Therefore, lots of them chose to take listening tests rather than
other methods to practice their listening skills.

Surprisingly, joining an English club or immersing in an English-using environment

was not a common choice among students to practice listening skills (29% Never, 39%

34
Rarely). Students could have the thought that practicing in class or at home was enough
to improve their language skills. Therefore, when being asked for the method to improve
listening skills, most of them would not think of the fact that joining an English club
could develop their language skills, including listening skills, by communicating with
others and learning from them.

English dictation practicing was the least common method of practicing (32% Never,
40% Rarely). This could be because dictation was not prevalent in English classes as
both teachers and students do not feel the need to understand every single word, as
mentioned in Chapter 3.

Question 1 in the interview with the lecturers focused on the internal difficulties
students usually encounter, including listening practice. Two out of four lecturers
agreed that students often faced problems with listening practice. Lecturer 1 emphasized
that the lack of listening practice was one of the reasons why some of the students were
unable to keep up with the pace of the audio, resulting in missing important information.
When the students lacked practice, they would easily miss a part of the listening. Then
they tended to get anxious and became unable to finish the listening even though the
rest was not that difficult. According to Lecturer 2, students typically used traditional
methods of listening practice without incorporating modern methods of listening, such
as taking notes, broadening the source of listening materials, etc. The combination of
the conventional and modern methods for listening practice to improve their listening
skills, such as using new resources of listening materials or practicing passive listening
methods, would make students practice listening skills more actively.

In brief, watching English movies and listening to English music was the most common
method within the four methods listed above (99%). The second most common method
chosen by students was doing more listening tests on their own (52%). However, the
two other methods, joining an English club or immersing in an English-using
environment, and practicing English dictation, were not common methods among
students to practice listening skills (32% and 28% respectively). The frequencies of in-
class practice and self-practice were high (83% and 77% frequent practice,
respectively). However, some of the students still overlooked practicing either in class
35
or by themselves. Two out of four lecturers also agreed that students faced difficulties
with the listening practice. The students did not have a wide range of methods to practice
listening skills. The lack of practicing listening skills might lead to missing information,
anxiety, losing concentration, etc.

4.1.2 Knowledge

Question 6 in the questionnaire aimed at the difficulties students might encounter

related to knowledge. The difficulties concerning knowledge were divided into four
different aspects: the lack of phonetic knowledge, the limitation of vocabulary, the lack
of grammar, and the lack of cultural, contextual, and situational knowledge.

Table 4.3. Internal difficulties related to knowledge

Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Always

Difficulties encountered due to the lack

9% 39% 31% 20% 1%
of phonetic knowledge

Difficulties encountered due to the

1% 8% 44% 37% 10%
limited range of vocabulary

Difficulties encountered due to the lack

7% 49% 27% 15% 2%
of grammar

Difficulties encountered due to the lack

of cultural, contextual and situational 1% 15% 39% 41% 4%
knowledge

The data in Table 4.3 show that most of the students had difficulties related to
knowledge during listening practice. More than half of the students (52%) frequently
met difficulties due to the lack of phonetic knowledge, with 31%, 20%, and 1% of the
students affirmed that they “Sometimes”, “Usually”, and “Always” respectively
encountered the difficulties. As Hoang (2006) stated that the difference between
Vietnamese and English sound systems led to many learners having trouble recognizing
the English sounds. Moreover, the lack of understanding about the sound pattern of the

36
English sound system would result in a significant reduction in students’
comprehension.

Another difficulty students experienced was the limited range of vocabulary. 44

students “Sometimes” experienced this difficulty, while 37 students “Usually”
encountered and 10 students “Always” had this struggle. Students were unable to
comprehend the messages of listening texts due to their limited grasp of vocabulary
(unfamiliar vocabulary, jargon, idioms, etc.). They were easily confused and got
distracted when coming across an unknown word, which led to the misunderstanding
of the information.

Nearly half of the students (44%), with 27% “Sometimes”, 15% “Usually”, and 2%
“Always” encountered difficulties in grammar. This was because of the students’ poor
grammar knowledge, leading to the problems of recognizing the grammar during the
listening process.

39 students mentioned they “Sometimes” dealt with the lack of cultural, contextual, and
situational knowledge. Meanwhile, 41 and 4 students affirmed that they “Usually” and
“Always” respectively experienced this difficulty. Cultural or background knowledge
was one of the most significant factors that may influence comprehension in the
listening process (Widdowson, 1983; Anderson & Lynch, 1988; Buck, 2001). As a
result, students would encounter many difficulties if the listening text contained lots of
different cultural, contextual, or situational knowledge.

Question 1 in the interview also provided information about internal difficulties related
to knowledge. Two out of four lecturers believed that pronunciation, which was related
to phonetics, was a factor affecting the listening process. Lecturer 3 and Lecturer 4 both
mentioned a situation where students knew a word but could not make it out while
listening due to their own inaccurate pronunciation. As being stated by Lee and
VanPatten (1995), and Goh (1997), the lack of knowledge about the sound pattern of
the English sound system could lead to a critical reduction in listeners’ comprehension.
Moreover, the difference between Vietnamese and English sound systems led to many
learners having trouble recognizing the English sounds, which made the word hard to

37
recognize when articulated inaccurately. The limitation of vocabulary was mentioned
by two out of four lecturers that this problem prevented students from comprehending
the listening text. Both of them (Lecturer 1 and Lecturer 3) stated that the limited grasp
of vocabulary, especially terms and specialized words, would make students incapable
of recognizing the content of the listening. When students listened to a conversation,
they tended to make out every single word said by the speakers. In consequence, when
unfamiliar words occurred in the listening, the students easily got confused and
distracted from the main information. Meanwhile, two lecturers acknowledged that one
of the problems that most students faced was a lack of background knowledge. Lecturer
2 stated that if a student’s background was not wide enough, that student would struggle
to understand the context and keep up with the pace of the listening. Lecturer 3
mentioned that one word could have different meanings in various contexts; therefore,
if students did not have the background knowledge of the concept, they would be unable
to understand the subject. In brief, students struggled to understand the key points of
the listening and recognize a word in that particular context due to the lack of
background knowledge about a specific topic or a foreign community.

In this section, the most common difficulty students experienced was the limitation of
vocabulary (91%). Besides, the lack of cultural, contextual, and situational knowledge
was the second most common difficulty (84%). The third most common difficulty was
the lack of phonetic knowledge (52%). Finally, nearly half of the students (44%) had
problems in grammar. However, in this research, the rate of common difficulty was set
above 50%; therefore, the lack of grammar was not a common difficulty. In the
interview with lecturers, pronunciation, which was related to phonetics, the limitation
of vocabulary, and the lack of background knowledge were considered as the factors
affecting the listening process.

From the above data and analysis, the common difficulties in terms of students’
knowledge were lack of vocabulary, phonetic, cultural, contextual, and situational
knowledge. The reason why the students lacked knowledge in these aspects might be
that they did not put enough effort on practicing for these aspects. For example,
practicing English dictation could help develop their phonetic knowledge by listening

38
to the pronunciation for each word in a sentence. Joining an English club or immersing
themselves in an English-using environment was a way to broaden their vocabulary,
cultural, contextual, and situational knowledge of a specific aspect, or in a specific
place, foreign community. Because of the lack of practicing these methods, students
were limited in vocabulary, and other linguistic knowledge.

4.2 External difficulties

In terms of external difficulties, as presented in Chapter 2, students might encounter

difficulties from the speaker, the materials, and the facilities. The data analysis and
discussion of these difficulties will be displayed below.

4.2.1 Speaker

When investigating the difficulties EF students encountered while listening, other than
problems deriving from the learners themselves, factors from outer sources - external
factors, also hold much gravity. One of the external factors that needed to be mentioned
was of the speaker. Indeed, Miller (2009) also concurred that second language listeners
not only faced difficulties from inadequate listening skills and other internal factors,
speakers’ accents or their rate of speech were also a challenge.

Difficulties concerning speakers that the students faced were inquired in Question 7 in
the questionnaire, with five difficulties listed, namely the speakers’ accent, the rate of
speech, the naturalness of spoken language, the number of speakers and the lack of body
language.

Table 4.4: External difficulties related to speaker’s factor

Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Always

Difficulties encountered due to speakers’

0% 9% 50% 38% 3%
uncommon accent and intonation

Difficulties encountered due to the

1% 5% 39% 47% 8%
speakers’ fast rate of speech

39
Speakers’ speaking with false grammar,
faltering or hesitant sentences, self- 4% 29% 40% 23% 4%
corrections, redundant repetitions

Difficulties encountered due to the fact

that many speakers join in the 4% 25% 31% 32% 8%
conversation

Not seeing speakers’ body language and

facial expression which leads to 7% 31% 33% 24% 5%
difficulties in understanding

As can be seen from table 4.4, first, 91% of students found that the speakers’ uncommon
accent and intonation frequently posed a problem when listening, with 38% and 3% of
the students “Usually” and “Always” respectively encountering this. Half the students
“Sometimes” encountered difficulties in this respect and 9 students claimed to “Rarely”
got into this problem. It seemed like this was one common difficulty of EF students as
none of the students “Never” experienced it. This might be due to the unfamiliar
phonetic knowledge discussed before. Moreover, it could be because of their lack of
exposure to natural English in a real-life context as not many students would actually
interact with native English speakers frequently.

Another type of difficulty students faced was the fast rate at which the speakers speak,
resulting in students not being able to catch up with the pace, which led to a lack of
understanding. A substantially high percentage of students were found to frequently
experience this difficulty (94%), with almost half the students (47%) “Usually” found
this an obstacle in listening. 39 students “Sometimes” encountered this problem and 8
students “Always” saw this as a difficulty. Hayati (2010) also perceived that a slower
rate of speech would “give the students enough time to process the stream of
information” compared to a faster one. (p.107) Thus, this was a major difficulty for EF
students when listening.

40
It was quite common for speakers, when talking in real life, to stutter and be hesitant or
repeat themselves when producing speeches. 67% of students found this difficulty to
hinder their listening comprehension. 40 students considered this to be a difficulty they
“Sometimes” met, whereas 23 students and 4 students “Usually” and “Always”
respectively encountered them. 33 students did not find this problem a common
difficulty. This could be because many students, when in-class or at home, tended to
listen to recorded speeches of English speakers and not an actual conversation in a real-
life context. Hence, even though this was also a common difficulty, some students did
not frequently experience it. 29% of students considered this an uncommon difficulty
they “Rarely” encountered, and 4% saying they “Never” had this problem.

A relatively high percentage of students believed that the number of speakers could also
cause difficulty in their listening. 31%, 32% and 8% thought this to be the difficulty
they “Sometimes”, “Usually” and “Always” experienced, whereas 29% of students did
not frequently encounter this, with 25 students “Rarely” having this issue. A potential
reason for this difficulty might be because of the fact that too many speakers joining a
conversation could cause distraction for the listeners. Furthermore, in a conversation
held by many speakers, more accents were introduced, which brought the topic back to
the first difficulty of Table 4.4 - difficulty concerning speakers’ accent.

The last item in Table 4.4 concerned the difficulty in which listeners could not see
speakers' body language and facial expression, thus causing problems for
comprehension. Compared to other difficulties, not many students found this a common
difficulty when listening, with 38 students not encountering this problem when
listening. 7 students claimed to “Never'' see the lack of body language to be a problem.
However, 62% of students found this to be a common difficulty, with 33%, 24%, and
5% to “Sometimes”, “Usually” and “Always” respectively needed body language and
facial expressions to be present for better understanding. Oftentimes, the presence of
your bodily movements and gestures helped listeners be more engaged in the speech.
However, when listening to a recording or a listening test in class, this feature could be
ignored and could cause disengagement among listeners.

41
The interview of four EF lecturers also shed some light on this issue. For Question 2 of
the interview inquiring about the common external difficulties students encountered,
two lecturers also expressed their concern toward the speakers, namely the speakers’
accent and their rate of speech. With respect to the difficulty of the speakers’ accent,
lecturer 1 agreed that the accent of the speaker reading the listening, a British accent for
example, could make it hard for the listeners to follow. Lecturer 2 also contended that
a “new accent” of a speaker in the listening could deter them from catching up with the
pace. As for the rate of speech, lecturer 1 stated that the fast pace of speaking from the
listening posed a problem to the students. Furthermore, according to lecturer 2, if the
listening material features a speaker talking at a different speed from that the students
frequently hear, then it was also a difficulty for them.

In brief, most students found difficulties in listening comprehension regarding the

speakers. It could be affirmed that the common difficulties students encountered in this
aspect were the speakers’ accent and their rate of speech, with the first difficulty
frequently experienced by 91% of students and the second 94%. Two lecturers out of
four also agreed that this factor is common among students. The EF students might have
overlooked this factor when doing and practicing listening, which resulted in their lack
of understanding. The lack of listening source diversity might cause students to have
less exposure to more accents. Instead, many students would listen to recorded materials
intended for EFL classes. Those listening materials were clear and well-scripted.
However, given their inauthenticity, students would not be able to be familiarized with
the voice and accents of natural speakers.

4.2.2 Listening materials

The second factor contributing to students’ lack of understanding of a listening text was
the listening materials themselves. According to Gilakjani (2011), the selection of
listening materials was paramount. Difficulties deriving from this factor were
investigated in Question 8 in the questionnaire, with them being categorized into five
aspects: the length of the listening text, the content of the listening, the amount of
knowledge in the listening, the allotted time, and the provision of pre-listening
information.
42
 Table 4.5: External difficulties related to listening materials

Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Always

The listening text is so long that it causes

0% 13% 33% 47% 7%
distraction from fully understanding it

The content of the listening is hard to

0% 11% 38% 45% 6%
understand or boring

The listening text contains too much

specialized knowledge that causes 1% 12% 42% 37% 8%
difficulties in understanding

The allotted time for listening is not enough

4% 24% 38% 29% 5%
to listen and understand

Lack or not provide enough pre-listening

8% 33% 37% 18% 4%
information before listening

Table 4.5 shows the different difficulties regarding listening materials EF students
encountered. One of the difficulties students were seen to experience was the length of
the listening text which causes distraction from understanding the listening. A high
percentage of students (87%) experienced this problem of the lengthy listening text.
33, 47 and 7 students “Sometimes”, “Usually” and “Always” respectively found that
the length of listening text was a common difficulty. Only 13 students claimed not to
face this problem frequently, with no one “Never” having this difficulty. Hasan (2000)
also had a similar share in thoughts, stating that difficulties relating to listening texts
such as unknown words, long, complex texts, and difficult grammar lead to listening
miscomprehension. One possible reason why many students found long listening texts
distracting was because sometimes, they felt inclined to understand every single word
in a text in order to fully understand the message. When the text was long, they put more
effort in listening word for word instead of listening for the gist, and thus, at some point
in the listening, they realized they already lost focus and missed the key details.

43
Another notable difficulty for students in listening concerned the content of the listening
text. Oftentimes, in-class listening tasks were materials designed for learning and
comprehension purposes; hence, their content might not be engaging topics and bore
students out. A remarkably high number of students reacted to this difficulty, with 45%
of students choosing “Usually” as their frequency of encountering the problem. 38 and
6 stated that they “Sometimes” and “Always” respectively find listening texts boring
and difficult to understand. 11% of students claimed to rarely meet this problem. This
was a common difficulty among EF students as no surveyed students were seen to
“Never” find the content of listening incomprehensible or boring.

Another relatively common difficulty that students were found to experience was the
amount of knowledge in a listening text, causing lack of understanding. 87% of students
answered that the abundant amount of specialized knowledge in a listening text caused
them to have difficulties comprehending the message. 42 students “Sometimes”
encountered this problem, while 37 and 8 also “Usually” and “Always” had difficulties
in this aspect. The remaining 13 students did not frequently have this problem. A
possible explanation for this common difficulty might be due to students’ lack of
cultural, contextual knowledge. This difficulty was also surveyed, as seen in Table 4.3,
with 84% of students lacking knowledge regarding its cultural, contextual and
situational aspects. Underwood (1989) stated that a deficiency in this type of knowledge
brought about a hindrance in listening comprehension. Students, despite knowing what
the text was about superficially, might still fail to understand the text on a deeper level.

A shortage of time to listen for comprehension was also a difficulty many students
experienced. 72% of students were found to frequently encounter this difficulty, with
38, 29 and 5 expressing that they “Sometimes”, “Usually” and “Always” respectively
found it hard to understand the listening text because of the lack of time. 24 students
did not see this as a major difficulty, with them “Rarely” having this problem. 4 students
answered that they “Never” experienced problems due to shortage of time. According
to the given statistics, this might not be an extremely common difficulty which EF
students encountered. However, a number of students did have problems not being able
to understand the listening if there was not enough time. Particularly in a listening test

44
at school, students sometimes were only allowed to listen once, and with their
unfamiliarity with the speakers’ accent and the fast rate of speech, as analyzed in 4.2.1,
this precluded their listening comprehension.

The lack of background or pre-listening information of a listening text was also a

difficulty students came across. Surprisingly, this was the least common difficulty
among EF students, with only 59 students encountering this frequently, a much lower
rate compared to other difficulties. 37, 18 and 4 students were found to “Sometimes”,
“Usually” and “Always” respectively have difficulty with the lack of pre-listening
knowledge. 41 students, however, did not have this difficulty frequently, with 33
“Rarely” having this problem. 8 responded they “Never” had difficulty in listening
without knowing pre-listening information.

During the interview, this factor was also mentioned by two lecturers upon answering
the second question about the external difficulties students encountered. Lecturer 1
mentioned the difficulties regarding the content and specialized knowledge of the
listening material. They said that some topics of the listening, specifically those in the
technological field, as well as the terms used in the listening, would cause difficulties
for students to comprehend. If the topics are more familiar to the students, they will
have a better understanding of the listening. Lecturer 3 also had an agreement about the
listening topics, saying that if they “did not fit your taste”, the listeners would be
distracted from the listening.

To sum up, external difficulties concerning the listening text posed problems to
students. The most common difficulties the students encountered were related to the
content of the listening, the length as well as the specialized knowledge in the listening
material, with the percentage of 89%, 87% and 87% respectively. Two out of four
interviewed lecturers also concurred with the difficulties regarding the listening
material, specifically the content and the information in it. Students’ difficulties towards
the listening material itself potentially stemmed from the type of material they listen to
outside of school. Most of those materials, including songs, films, interviews, etc. might
not serve an academic purpose and often use casual, colloquial English. When students
listened to recordings at school, however, most materials were specifically made for
45
learning and could have more formal, academic topics. Not only did they bore students
out, they could also be difficult to understand.

4.2.3 Facilities

It was pointed out by Watson and Smeltzer (1984) that another type of listening
comprehension difficulty had something to do with noises from extrinsic sources from
the surroundings or problems emerging from the listening equipment. Those noises
could be from background noises, equipment of poor quality, volume control, etc. In
this research, difficulties pertaining to facilities posed as the last external factor,
comprising difficulties from outside noises, classroom quality, listening equipment
quality, speakers and other equipment’s quality and visual aids. This factor was
surveyed in Question 9 of the questionnaire.

Table 4.6: External difficulties related to facilities

Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Always

Difficulties due to the distracting noises

0% 19% 39% 35% 7%
from outside

Difficulties due to the poor quality of the

classroom (too narrow, too cold, too hot, 11% 27% 38% 19% 5%
etc.)

Lack of listening equipment (speakers,

7% 34% 33% 16% 10%
headphone, microphone, etc.)

Difficulties due to the poor quality of

speakers and equipment associated with 2% 23% 31% 28% 16%
listening activities

Lack of visual aids of the listening text

8% 33% 31% 22% 6%
(graphs, tables, pictures, etc.)

46
Table 4.6 shows five external difficulties with relation to the surrounding environment
and equipment. The first common difficulty found among EF students was the noises
outside of the room, causing distraction when listening. The distracting noises from the
surroundings could be from multiple sources, both inside and outside of the room. They
could be sounds from smart devices, knocks on doors or car honks. 81% of students
found this difficulty a frequently encountered one, with 35 “Usually” having this
problem. 39 and 7 students “Sometimes” and “Always” found these noises a source of
distraction, hindering their listening process. 19% of students did not frequently
experience this issue. However, according to the results, none of the students “Never”
had problems with the noises, making this one common difficulty among students.
Oftentimes, listening comprehension tasks required great concentration from students.
The extrinsic distraction would cause a breach in their process and thus made it difficult
for them to continue with the listening.

The second facility-related difficulty concerned the quality of the classroom where
students study. Calub et al (2018) perceived that the temperature of the classroom could
also be considered as a difficulty in listening comprehension. Classes without air-
conditioning during hot days or with conditioning on cold days caused discomfort to
the students and might interfere with their listening. 62% of students were found to have
frequent problems with where they listen, with 38, 19 and 5 “Sometimes”, “Usually”
and “Always” respectively finding the quality of the classroom a problem when they do
listening tasks. 38% of students did not find this a common difficulty during their
listening process, with 27 “Rarely” experiencing difficulty in this aspect. 11 students
were seen to even “Never” have this problem. It could be thanks to the appropriate
temperature adjustment in the university classrooms that not too many EF students were
subject to this discomfort.

The provision of listening equipment when doing listening tasks also played an integral
role in the classroom. EF students were questioned about the lack of appropriate
equipment and whether it caused difficulty in their listening process. 59% of students
agreed that the lack of speakers, microphones, etc. hindered them from doing listening
tasks. 33% and 16% of students “Sometimes” and “Usually” found it difficult to listen

47
without these tools. 10 students were seen to “Always” experience this difficulty. 41%
of students, however, did not frequently encounter this problem when listening. 34
students “Rarely” had a problem with listening equipment whereas 7 students “Never”
came across this issue. From this finding, it can be seen that the university had relatively
inadequate supply of equipment in classrooms. However, the shortage of listening
equipment might not pose too many problems when they do their listening, as
nowadays, personal equipment can be made use of when listening in class. As for the
lack of microphones, the difficulty stemming from it could be dependent on the class
size. A small class might not need support from a microphone whereas a larger one
does.

The fourth difficulty, which was found to be rather common, concerned the quality of
speakers and equipment concomitant with the listening. Hasan (2000) conducted a
research covering this aspect and found that poor-quality recordings led to difficulties
in comprehending the listening and also loss of concentration. Hence, the quality of
listening equipment played a vital role in listening comprehension. 75% students found
difficulty in listening with low-standard speakers and recordings, with 16 “Always''
encountering this difficulty. 31 and 28 students “Sometimes” and “Usually”
respectively had an issue with the equipment. 25% of students did not find this a
frequent problem, with 23 of them “Rarely” finding difficulty in this aspect. This
difficulty was still experienced by quite a number of students. One explanation could
be because when they did listening tasks, listening equipment acted as a medium for the
listening input. Poor-quality equipment compromised the listening audio and thus,
hindered students from listening properly.

The absence of visual aids, including pictures, graphs, tables, etc. was also a difficulty
present in the questionnaire. According to the data, this was a less common difficulty
students encountered when listening. 59% of students answered that they frequently
found this a hindrance, including 31, 21 and 6 students saying that they “Sometimes”,
“Usually” and “Always” found it difficult to do listening tasks without assistance of
visual input. A number of students (41%), on the other hand, saw this as an uncommon
difficulty. 33 “Rarely” met this problem and 8 “Never” experienced it. A possible

48
reason why some students had problems with listening tasks that did not provide
illustrations was because they might have a visual learning style, which required visual
aids to support their comprehension. These illustrations helped students become more
engaged in their listening.

The interview also had similar ideas regarding this facility-related factor, with three out
of four lecturers stating that this was a common factor hindering students’ listening. In
Question 2, when asked about external difficulties students often encountered, Lecturer
1 mentioned the uncongenial listening condition, stating that the background noises or
unclear recordings would pose a problem for students. Lecturer 3 also affirmed that the
distracting factors in a listening environment would be a disadvantage for students.
Lecturer 4 also had a similar idea, specifying that the noises from outside the room, the
chattering of other students would affect the listening process. As regards low-quality
equipment, lecturer 3 and lecturer 4 agreed that this was a common difficulty for many
students. The former said that the undurable facilities made audio sounds
incomprehensible whereas the latter expressed opinions about the quality of cassettes
and listening files.

In brief, a number of students encountered difficulties concerning the inadequate

facilities when they did listening tasks. Compared to other external factors, which were
speakers’ factor and listening material, this factor was less frequently experienced.
There were still common difficulties pertaining to it, however, including difficulties
from distracting noises and poor-quality listening equipment, with 81% and 75% of
students encountered these difficulties. Three out of four lecturers also found this a
common difficulty. The above analysis suggested that students’ difficulties with noises
and the quality of facilities might be connected to their loss of concentration and the
discomfort when listening with poor-quality equipment. This external factor had a great
influence on students’ ability to concentrate in a listening task, and with them getting
distracted amid the listening, a lack of understanding was expected. The findings also
concurred with that of Calub (2018) in her observation of listening difficulties relating
to the physical setting.

49
4.3 Other difficulties

Question 1 and Question 2 in the interview with lecturers and Question 10 in the
questionnaire explored other difficulties that students might encounter in their listening
practicing process.

In the questionnaire, the students also listed three other difficulties they usually
encounter in the process of practicing listening: the language barrier, memorizing, and
concentration while listening. One of the students mentioned their struggle with the
language barrier. They noticed that the difficulty in language comprehension led to slow
reflexes, which made it hard to catch the key points of the listening. Another student
claimed to have trouble remembering the main ideas of the listening. They usually
understood one point but forgot about it when listening to another, which made the
listening test more difficult. Two other students mentioned having difficulty
concentrating while listening. They often got distracted by the surroundings and missed
the vital details during the listening process. All the above difficulties were the reasons
for lacking knowledge and concentration in the listening practicing process.

In the interview, the lecturers stated two other problems that the students met during
their listening lessons: neglecting the guidelines, and the psychological effect. Lecturer
2 mentioned that students often neglected the listening guidelines which happened in
the pre-listening stage. As a result, students easily got confused about the content of the
listening and did not prepare well for the upcoming listening. Aside from that, three out
of four lecturers mentioned the effect of psychological features on the students’
listening process. According to Lecturer 1, students became panicked when they missed
a piece of information, leading to the impossibility to listen to the rest of the listening.
Lecturer 4 claimed that students who were not confident in their listening skills would
be anxious while listening, which would interfere with their concentration during the
listening process. Lecturer 3 indicated that students’ mental state would influence the
listening practice, listening to entertain would be somewhat different from listening to
a test or examination (midterm, final, listening, interpreting) when students would have
some butterflies in their stomach, making them unstable and distracted from listening.

50
All the difficulties mentioned by the lecturers: neglecting the guidelines, and
psychological effects, could be caused by the lack of preparation for the listening and
lack of confidence in their listening skills. Since students neglected the guidelines of
the listening, they could not make clear the topic or theme of the listening, leading to
slow reflexes. Therefore, they might miss some information at the beginning and start
to doubt their listening skills, leading to psychological effects, such as being anxious,
worried and unable to do well after losing some details as Lecturer 1 stated. These
features would lead to the difficulties the students stated above: the language barrier,
memorizing, and concentration while listening. When the students could not do well in
the first part, they would find it harder to structure the ideas, main points of the listening,
making it difficult to remember and concentrate while listening.

4.4 Summary

The fourth chapter analysed the data from the questionnaire and interview regarding
internal and external factors of difficulties in listening comprehension and discussed
them. The analysis of the data was from the two instruments: questionnaire and
interview. Further discussion centered around the findings to give some insights into
the difficulties EF students experience. From the statistics and opinions in the interview,
it could be seen that the five factors concerning listening strategies, knowledge,
speaker’s factor, listening materials and facilities were all encountered by the students,
with the common difficulties already laid out in the aforementioned parts.

51
 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION

This chapter summarizes the findings of the current research to answer the primary
research question. Given the major findings analyzed in the previous chapter, the
research suggests some implications for both lecturers and students that might assist
them to overcome the listening difficulties. By presenting the limitation of the study in
this chapter, the research formulates further recommendations for the studies of
discovering the listening difficulties of English-majored students and suggesting in-
depth solutions for those difficulties.

5.1 Summary of findings

The results from both questionnaire for students and interview for lecturers showed that
most third-year students of EF have encountered several difficulties internally and
externally while practising listening skills.

First, the data indicated that though some of the students still overlooked in-class
practice and self-practice, most of them spent time practicing listening frequently to
improve their skills. However, students barely used different kinds of methods to
practice. Watching English movies as well as listening to English music and taking
listening tests to practice are the most common methods that the students used to
practice. The lack of using a wide range of methods to practice listening skills might
lead to their limited knowledge of some specialized topics and features of spoken
language (e.g. accent, speed of speech, hesitation, repetition, etc.). Next, the difficulties
relating to knowledge that students usually encounter were the limitation of vocabulary,
the lack of background knowledge (including cultural, contextual, and situational), and
the lack of phonetic knowledge. The reason for the lack of the aforementioned
knowledge could be that students might neglect to broaden as well as to improve these
aspects.

Second, most students claimed that the speakers significantly affected their listening
comprehension. It was indicated by the data that speakers’ accent and speed of delivery
were the two common difficulties students encountered. It could be explained that the

52
lack of listening source diversity and students’ ignorance of those factors contributed to
the difficulties. Another aspect relating to external factors that the researchers
considered was listening materials. It was reported that the content, the length along
with the topic about specialized knowledge were the common difficulties which the
students met while practicing listening. The difficulties toward listening materials might
be caused by the difference between the type of material students listen to in-class and
outside the classroom environment. While the type of materials students listen to outside
of school might be casual conversations including colloquial English, the recordings at
school are mostly made for learning purposes with academic topics, which could be
hard for students to understand. The final difficulty that the researchers were concerned
about was facilities. This external factor, however, was less frequently experienced.
Most students reported that distracting noises and the poor quality of listening
equipment were the two major difficulties they encountered. Also, the data analysis
indicated that this difficulty with noises and the quality of facilities might have an
impact on students’ loss of concentration and discomfort when listening.

Finally, besides the five factors presented in the conceptual framework and the analysis,
the research found that students’ neglecting the guidelines of the listening test and
psychological features (i.e. students were worried that they would be unable to do well
in the listening test and anxious before taking the test) were the two notable difficulties
students might encounter while listening. Those difficulties, which were stated by
lecturers, also led to students’ language barrier, memorization, and concentration while
listening.

5.2 Implications

Based on the major findings of our research about the common difficulties that third-
year EF students may encounter while practicing listening, this research provided some
implications for both lecturers and learners to overcome the difficulties in order to make
the process of learning listening much more effective.

53
5.2.1 For lecturers

Lecturers should be more aware of the problems that their students might encounter in
the academic context (i.e. classroom or taking test context) so that they can immediately
help the learners. The following are some suggestions for lecturers:

● Lecturers should avoid the ways of teaching that solely focus on the examination.
Lecturers should utilize a variety of types of English materials to let students
expose themselves to English naturally and actively.
● Lecturers can suggest students to interact with each other while doing tasks, for
example, pair work or group work. Anderson and Lynch (1988) indicated that in
the pre-listening activities, working with others would help students to achieve
a better performance.
● Lecturers could spend time explaining and raising students’ awareness of the
importance of linguistics knowledge and background knowledge.
● Lecturers must realize some of the students’ improper ways of learning listening
skills. From that, they can help students to recognize the problems and change
learning strategies into more effective ones.

5.2.2 For learners

Learners should be aware of the importance of listening skills and have a positive
attitude toward learning listening comprehension so as to remove the difficulties and
improve their foreign learning. The following are some suggestions for English
learners:

● Learners should prepare a strong and calm state of mind before taking a listening
test. They should calm themselves down as well as not devalue their ability
before taking the listening test so that they can feel much more comfortable when
listening.
● Learners should recognize their own difficulties in order to take more proper and
effective methods to practice and develop their listening skills. It was

54
 recommended by a lecturer that students should consider using the note-taking
method in their listening to improve the performance.
● Learners are encouraged to take the initiative in improving their language skills.
They should spend time practicing frequently and seriously, both inside and
outside classroom environments.
● Also, they should listen to various types of audio materials (e.g. dialogue, group
discussion, formal speech, presentation, etc) about different topics to widen their
vocabulary and get familiar with different accents (i.e. native and non-native
speakers’ accent). Practicing frequently would help learners to realize and
acquaint themselves with the characteristics of spoken language (e.g. hesitation,
repetition, etc).
● It is suggested that learners can join in conversations with native speakers or
English-speaking environments such as English speaking clubs. Listening and
using English to exchange information regularly will increase learners’
confidence and ability.
● Besides, learners should cultivate their cultural as well as world knowledge,
which will be useful for them in not only listening tests but also real-life
situations outside of school.

5.3 Limitations of the study

This study appeared to have generated some useful information; however, when
applying the results, certain limitations of the study should be heeded. The first one to
be mentioned was that the Covid-19 lockdown as well as the time limitation obstructed
us from collecting and examining the data as detailed as expected. Also, our research
might be one of some initial research investigating the difficulties in listening of third-
year EF students, so having some minor mistakes was unavoidable. Finally, the
sampling method of this study was convenience sampling focusing on investigating
third-year EF students only so the results cannot represent the whole EF students as the
random sampling could have done.

55
5.4 Recommendations for further study

Further research should be conducted with a broader population from other school years
to have more general and reliable results in investigating the difficulties in listening
encountered by foreign language learners. Moreover, further studies on exploring the
solutions for difficulty listening should also be encouraged. This report might be useful
for future reports relating to listening comprehension of English-majored students.

56
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2%0Ahttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409517-5.00007-
3%0Ahttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2015.06.018%0Ahttp://dx.doi.org/10.1038/
s41559-019-0877-3%0Ahttp://dx.do

Ziane, R. (2011). The Role of Listening Comprehension in Improving EFL Learners’

Speaking Skill. Case Study: Second Year Students (LMD) at Biskra University.
Master’s Dissertation, Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research,
Faculty of letters and Foreign Languages, English Devision, University of
Biskra.

66
 APPENDIX A

Questionnaire (Vietnamese version)

BẢNG HỎI KHẢO SÁT CHO SINH VIÊN

Chào bạn,

Lời đầu tiên, nhóm Nghiên cứu chân thành cảm ơn bạn đã dành thời gian để tham gia
khảo sát này. Đóng góp của bạn sẽ giúp ích rất nhiều cho nhóm trong việc hoàn thành
bài nghiên cứu.

Nghiên cứu này được thực hiện nhằm khảo sát “Những khó khăn mà sinh viên khoa
Ngữ văn Anh khóa K18 gặp phải trong quá trình thực hành kỹ năng nghe” (bao
gồm cả nghe bài test lẫn nghe bài giảng).

Khảo sát này bao gồm 10 câu hỏi, trong đó:

- Một câu hỏi về thông tin cá nhân để thực hiện thống kê;
- Tám câu hỏi đánh giá mức độ về kỹ năng, quá trình luyện tập kỹ năng nghe và các
khó khăn bạn gặp trong quá trình sử dụng kỹ năng nghe;
- Một câu hỏi mở về các khó khăn khác (không được đề cập ở những câu trên) mà bạn
thường gặp phải khi nghe.

Mọi thông tin cá nhân sẽ được bảo mật và chỉ phục vụ cho mục đích nghiên cứu.
Nếu có thắc mắc, bạn vui lòng liên hệ qua mail: listeningresearch18clc04@gmail.com

Một lần nữa, nhóm chân thành cảm ơn sự đóng góp của bạn!

PHẦN I
Câu 1: Bạn là sinh viên thuộc hệ nào?
❏ Hệ Chính quy - Chất lượng cao

67
 ❏ Hệ Chính quy - Đại trà
Câu 2: Bạn đánh giá kỹ năng nghe đóng vai trò như thế nào đối với ngành học
của bạn?
❏ Không quan trọng
❏ Ít quan trọng
❏ Khá quan trọng
❏ Quan trọng
❏ Cực kỳ quan trọng
Câu 3: Bạn thường sử dụng cách nào để học nghe?
Xin đánh dấu vào một lựa chọn mà bạn cho là đúng nhất cho từng câu trả lời

Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn

STT
bao giờ khi thoảng xuyên luôn

Dùng kiến thức nền để

1
nghe hiểu

Đọc phần ghi băng

2 (tapescript) trước khi
nghe hiểu trên lớp

Cố gắng nghe hiểu

3
mọi từ, mọi điều

Đoán xem người nói

4 sẽ nói gì tiếp theo dựa
vào ngữ cảnh

Dịch sang tiếng Việt

5
trong khi nghe

Cần nghe nhiều hơn

6
một lần để hiểu

7 Đọc phần thông tin

68
 cho trước (pre-
listening) của bài
nghe/hoạt động nghe

Chỉ tập trung nghe

phần ý chính hoặc
8
keyword để hiểu nội
dung nghe

PHẦN II
Câu 4: Đánh giá tần suất rèn luyện kỹ năng nghe của bạn
Xin đánh dấu vào một lựa chọn mà bạn cho là đúng nhất cho từng câu trả lời
- Hiếm khi: Ít hơn 1 lần/tháng
- Thỉnh thoảng: Khoảng 1-2 lần/tháng
- Thường xuyên: Khoảng 1 lần/tuần
- Luôn luôn: Gần như hằng ngày

Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn

STT
bao giờ khi thoảng xuyên luôn

1 Luyện tập tại lớp

2 Luyện tập ở nhà

Câu 5: Phương pháp bạn thường dùng để luyện tập kỹ năng nghe
Xin đánh dấu vào một lựa chọn mà bạn cho là đúng nhất cho từng câu trả lời

Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn

STT
bao giờ khi thoảng xuyên luôn

Xem phim ảnh, nghe

1
nhạc từ người bản xứ

69
 Giải đề chuyên về kỹ
2
năng nghe

Tham gia CLB hoặc

môi trường có sử
3
dụng tiếng Anh
thường xuyên

4 Nghe chính tả

PHẦN III
Câu 6: Khi nghe bạn có thường gặp những khó khăn này không? (liên quan đến
kiến thức của người nghe)
Xin đánh dấu vào một lựa chọn mà bạn cho là đúng nhất cho từng câu trả lời

Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn

STT
bao giờ khi thoảng xuyên luôn

Gặp những khó khăn

trong việc nghe hiểu
1
vì thiếu kiến thức về
ngữ âm

Gặp những khó khăn

trong việc nghe hiểu
2
vì từ vựng không
phong phú

Gặp những khó khăn

trong việc nghe hiểu
3
vì thiếu kiến thức về
ngữ pháp

70
 Gặp những khó khăn
trong việc nghe hiểu
4 vì thiếu kiến thức về
văn hóa, ngữ cảnh,
tình huống

Câu 7: Khi nghe bạn có thường gặp những khó khăn này không? (liên quan đến
người nói)
Xin đánh dấu vào một lựa chọn mà bạn cho là đúng nhất cho từng câu trả lời

Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn

STT
bao giờ khi thoảng xuyên luôn

Gặp những khó khăn

trong việc nghe vì
1
không quen ngữ điệu
nói của người nói

Gặp những khó khăn

trong việc nghe vì tốc
độ nói của người nói
2
quá nhanh gây khó
khăn cho việc nghe
hiểu

Văn nói có nhiều cấu

trúc không theo ngữ
pháp, nhiều câu ấp
3
úng hoặc ngập ngừng,
những phần đính
chính, lặp lại dư thừa

4 Gặp những khó khăn

71
 trong việc nghe hiểu
vì có nhiều người nói
trong một bài nghe

Không nhìn thấy ngôn

ngữ hình thể và biểu
5 cảm của người nói
gây khó khăn cho việc
nghe hiểu

Câu 8: Khi nghe bạn có thường gặp những khó khăn này không? (liên quan đến
nội dung bài nghe)
Xin đánh dấu vào một lựa chọn mà bạn cho là đúng nhất cho từng câu trả lời

Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn

STT
bao giờ khi thoảng xuyên luôn

Bài nghe quá dài gây

mất tập trung trong
1
việc tiếp thu toàn bộ
nội dung

Nội dung nghe khó

2 hiểu hoặc không hấp
dẫn

Bài nghe có quá nhiều

kiến thức gây cản trở
3
trong việc tiếp thu
toàn bộ nội dung

Không đủ thời gian để

4
nghe và hiểu nội dung

72
 bài giảng

Thiếu hoặc không

cung cấp đủ các thông
5
tin trước khi nghe
(pre-listening)

Câu 9: Khi nghe bạn có thường gặp những khó khăn này không? (liên quan đến
thiết bị dùng trong dạy học)
Xin đánh dấu vào một lựa chọn mà bạn cho là đúng nhất cho từng câu trả lời

Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn

STT
bao giờ khi thoảng xuyên luôn

Gặp khó khăn vì môi

trường nghe có nhiều
1 tiếng ồn bên ngoài
gây cản trở trong việc
nghe hiểu

Phòng học ở trong

điều kiện xấu (chật
2 chội, quá lạnh, quá
nóng...) gây cản trở
việc nghe hiểu

Thiếu các thiết bị

3 nghe nhìn cần thiết
cho việc nghe hiểu

Máy móc kém chất

4 lượng hoặc âm thanh
không tốt gây cản trở

73
 việc nghe hiểu

Thiếu những trợ giúp

về thị giác (video,
5 tranh ảnh, đồ thị...)
gây trở ngại việc nghe
hiểu

PHẦN IV
Câu 10: Bạn còn gặp phải những khó khăn nào khác trong quá trình nghe
không?
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………

74
 APPENDIX B

Questionnaire (English version)

QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS

Dear,

First of all, the Research team would like to express our gratitude to you for taking time
to participate in this survey. Your contribution will be considerably of great help to the
team in completing the research.

This research is carried out in order to survey “The difficulties in practicing listening
skill encountered by third-year students of the Faculty of English Linguistics and
Literature” (including both reciprocal and nonreciprocal listening)

This survey consists of 10 questions, of which:

- One question of participants’ demographics
- Eight questions assessing participants’ listening practice and difficulties encountered
while listening
- One open-ending question of other common listening difficulties which have not been
included in the aforementioned questions

Your information and answers will be kept confidential and solely used for research
purposes. If you have any questions, please contact us via email:
listeningresearch18clc04@gmail.com

Once again, the Research team sincerely thank you for your contribution!

PART 1
Question 1: Which program do you belong to?

75
 ❏ High Quality Program
❏ General Program
Question 2: How important is the role of listening skill to your field of study?
❏ Not important
❏ Less important
❏ Comparatively important
❏ Important
❏ Extremely important
Question 3: Which methods do you usually apply when listening?

Please check (✓) the one that you think is the best answer for each of the

following

STT Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Always

Use your background

knowledge to
1 understand the
listening text or
conversation

Read the tapescript (of

the listening text)
2
before starting to
listen in class

Try to listen to
3 everything and every
single word

Predict what the

4 speaker is going to
say (based on the

76
 context)

Translating messages
5 into your mother
tongue when listening

Listen several times to

6
understand

Read the pre-listening

7
text before listening

Only listen to the

main points or
8
keywords to
understand

PART II
Question 4: Rate your frequency of practicing listening skills

Please check (✓) the one that you think is the best answer for each of the

following

- Rarely: Less than once a month

- Sometimes: About 1-2 times/month
- Usually: About once a week
- Always: Almost every day

STT Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Always

1 In-class practice

2 Self-practice

Question 5: Methods that you usually apply to practice your listening skill

77
 Please check (✓) the one that you think is the best answer for each of the

following

STT Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Always

Watch English movies

1 and listen to English
music

2 Take listening test

Join an English club

or immerse in an
3
English-using
environment

English dictation
4
practice

PART III
Question 6: Do you usually encounter these difficulties when listening?
(concerning listeners’ knowledge)

Please check (✓) the one that you think is the best answer for each of the

following

STT Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Always

Difficulties
encountered due to the
1
lack of phonetic
knowledge

78
 Difficulties
encountered due to the
2
limited range of
vocabulary

Difficulties
3 encountered due to the
lack of grammar

Difficulties
encountered due to the
4 lack of cultural,
contextual and
situational knowledge

Question 7: Do you usually encounter these difficulties when listening?

(concerning the speakers)

Please check (✓) the one that you think is the best answer for each of the

following

STT Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Always

Difficulties
encountered due to
1
speakers’ uncommon
accent and intonation

Difficulties
encountered due to the
2
high speaking speed
of speakers

79
 Speakers’ speaking
with false grammar,
faltering or hesitant
3
sentences, self-
corrections, redundant
repetitions

Difficulties
encountered due to the
4 fact that many
speakers join in the
conversation

Not seeing speakers’

body language and
5 facial expression that
leads to difficulties in
understanding

Question 8: Do you usually encounter these difficulties when listening?

(concerning listening text/content)

Please check (✓) the one that you think is the best answer for each of the

following

STT Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Always

The listening text is so

long that it causes
1
distraction in
understanding

2 The content of the

80
 listening is hard to
understand or boring

The listening text

contains too much
3 specialized knowledge
that causes difficulties
in understanding

The allotted time for

4 listening is not enough
to understand

Lack or not provide

enough pre-listening
5 information for
listeners before
listening

Question 9: Do you usually encounter these difficulties when listening?

(concerning the in-class facilities)

Please check (✓) the one that you think is the best answer for each of the

following

STT Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Always

Difficulties due to the

1 distracting noises
from outside

Difficulties due to the

2
poor quality of the

81
 classroom (too
narrow, too cold, too
hot, etc.)

Lack of listening
equipment (speakers,
3
headphone,
microphone, etc.)

Difficulties due to the

poor quality of
speakers and
4
equipment associated
with listening
activities

Lack of visual aids of

the listening text
5 (graphs, tables,
pictures, etc.)

PART IV
Question 10: Do you encounter other listening difficulties?
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………

82
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………

83
 APPENDIX C

Interview (Vietnamese version)

CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN DÀNH CHO GIẢNG VIÊN

ĐỀ TÀI: KHẢO SÁT VỀ NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM BA THUỘC KHOA
NGỮ VĂN ANH TRONG VIỆC THỰC HÀNH KỸ NĂNG NGHE

Ngày: ____________
TRƯỚC KHI PHỎNG VẤN
● Giới thiệu bản thân
● Đề nghị người tham gia phỏng vấn giới thiệu về bản thân họ
● Bàn luận về mục đích của đề tài nghiên cứu
● Cung cấp cấu trúc của buổi phỏng vấn

CÁC CÂU HỎI MẪU DÙNG TRONG PHỎNG VẤN

Xin hãy trả lời các câu hỏi dưới đây và giải thích (nếu có thể):
1. Những khó khăn bên trong/nội tại mà sinh viên thường gặp phải khi thực hành
kỹ năng nghe là gì? Nhóm đề cập đến cả hai loại nghe hiểu là nghe hai chiều và
nghe một chiều.
2. Những khó khăn bên ngoài mà sinh viên thường gặp phải khi thực hành kỹ
năng nghe là gì?
3. Thầy/cô đã thực hiện những điều gì để giúp sinh viên vượt qua những khó khăn
đó hoặc thầy/cô có đề xuất giải pháp nào để giúp học sinh vượt qua những khó
khăn đó không?

KẾT THÚC BUỔI PHỎNG VẤN

● Cảm ơn người được phỏng vấn vì sự cộng tác của họ.
● Xác nhận với người tham gia phỏng vấn thông tin của họ sẽ được bảo mật và
chỉ phục vụ cho mục đích nghiên cứu

84
 APPENDIX D

Interview (English version)

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR LECTURERS

TOPIC: DIFFICULTIES ENGLISH STUDENTS ENCOUNTER WHEN PRACTISING
LISTENING COMPREHENSION
Date: ____________

PRE-INTERVIEW
● Greet the participant
● Ask the participant to introduce themselves about their name, age, and place of
work.
● Discuss the purpose of the second interview
● Provide structure of the interview

SAMPLE QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEW

Please answer and elaborate if possible:
1. What are the common internal listening difficulties that students usually
encounter? By “listening”, we refer to both reciprocal (interactive/two-way)
and nonreciprocal (one-way) listening
2. What are the common external listening difficulties that students usually
encounter?
3. What did you do to help the students overcome their difficulties/what
suggestion do you recommend to help the students overcome their difficulties?

CONCLUDING STATEMENT
● Thank participants for their cooperation
● Tell participants that their information would be kept confidential and solely
used for research purposes.

85