MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES --- --- GRADUATIONTHESIS DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING LISTENING SKILLS: A CASE STUDY OF ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN AT FFL IN INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY STUDENT: NGUYEN THI DUY ANH ID NUMBER : 18045141 CLASS : DHAV14D COHORT: 2018-2022 SUPERVISOR : NGUYEN THI THOANG, MA. HCMC, 05/2021 0 0 Tieu luan 0 0 Tieu luan MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES --- --- GRADUATIONTHESIS DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING LISTENING SKILLS: A CASE STUDY OF ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN AT FFL IN INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY STUDENT: NGUYEN THI DUY ANH ID NUMBER : 18045141 CLASS : DHAV14D COHORT: 2018-2022 SUPERVISOR : NGUYEN THI THOANG, MA. HCMC, 05/2022 0 0 Tieu luan MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------ Student name : Nguyen Thi Duy Anh ID Number : 18045141 Class Code : DHAV14D Cohort : 2018-2022 Supervisor Name : Nguyen Thi Thoang, M. Student’s declaration: I declare that this graduation report is entirely my own work and does not involve in plagiarism or collusion.
It also has not been accepted as part of a submission to another purpose else where. I accept heavy penalty for any cheating or plagiarism. Date submitted : 29/05/2022 Signed : ……………………… Word count : 7407 words 0 0 Tieu luan ABSTRACT The research “A study on the difficulties in learning listening skills perceived by English-majored freshmen at the Industrial University of HCM City." aims to figure out some major factors causing difficulties for students in listening to English. The research is carried out within 12 weeks.
Participants in this study are 100 English-majored freshmen from the Industrial University of HCM City, chosen at random. Participants are given questionnaires to show their ideas during the research period. The questionnaire is the main instrument used in this study to gather information about students' listening problems. As a result, the study will analyze some difficulties in the listening of English majored first-year students at the Industrial University of HCM City that are related to linguistics such as vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, accents and intonation, background knowledge and unfamiliar topics, psychological barriers, and the length and speed rate of speech.
Keywords: Difficulties in listening, English-majored freshmen, listening to English 0 0 Tieu luan ACKNOWLEDGEMENT It brings me great joy and pleasure to express my gratitude to the college of the Faculty of Foreign Languages of the Industrial University of Chi Chi Minh City for putting together the most straightforward conditions for me to complete my research successfully. Throughout the course of the investigation, I received several passionate facilitations and support, encouraging and inspiring me to overcome all obstacles and bring this difficult but worthwhile period to a close. First and foremost, I am grateful to the School Board of the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City (IUH) and the Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL) for facilitating my research. Second, I want to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Ms.
Nguyễn Thị Thoang, Ph., who provided me with valuable guidance and recommendations that enabled me to complete my study successfully. Finally, I'd want to express my gratitude to one of my research team members, Nguyen Thị Thoang, who consistently shared my emotions and provided me with timely advice during the investigation. Last but not least, I am thankful to the one hundred FFL students who assisted me in completing this project; they played a crucial part in my study. To summarize, I am grateful to everyone who assisted me in completing this research from the bottom of my heart.
0 0 Tieu luan TABLE OF CONTENT CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION.4 Scope of the study .3 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Definition of key/concepts .1 Definition of listening .2 Definition of listening skills .2 Results of previous studies .1 The importance of listening skills .2 The common barriers in learning listening skills .3 Pronunciation and accents .4 Cultural differences and unfamiliar topics. 10 b) Quality of recorded material. 11 c) Length and speed of the listening .3 How to enhance listening skills .3 Socio-affective Strategies .13 CHAPTER III: RESEARCH DESIGN. Research methodology and research methods .18 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .1 Perspectives on Listening Comprehension Issues .2 Recommendations for Resolving Listening Comprehension Issues .40 0 0 Tieu luan LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1: The accessed amount of time when the first-year students have been learning English.2: The participants' opinions about learning listening skills.3: The barriers students encounter in listening skills Figure 4.4: The percentage of students that have difficulties Figure 4.5: The percentage of barriers Figure 4.1: Problems from the listening material Figure 4.2: Problems from the listeners Figure 4.3: Problems result from physical settings Figure 4.6: The percentage of respondents who confirmed that their teachers taught them skills for practicing English listening.7: The techniques used by freshmen in the listening process Figure 4.8: The freshmen students often chose for practice listening 0 0 Tieu luan Student: Nguyen Thi Duy Anh ID Number: 18045141 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Thoang, M.
1 0 0 Tieu luan Student: Nguyen Thi Duy Anh ID Number: 18045141 1.1 Rationale Listening is the most commonly used skill in everyday communication. It is very important in daily communication and the educational process. As a result, it is apparent that listening is essential for both communicating and learning a foreign language. As a researcher, I would like to present the thesis title “A study on the difficulties in learning listening skills perceived by English-majored freshmen at Industrial University of HCM City.’’ For the several reasons: Firstly, English not only allows us to effortlessly communicate with people from other nations, but it also provides us with greater career chances.
At the moment, many international investors live and work in Vietnam, thus knowing English well is an excellent way to increase your chances of landing a decent job with a good salary. Secondly, English is essential for those who want to travel or study abroad since it allows them to communicate and understand native people's dialects, culture, or food in depth. Listening is obviously highly important, and learners should be concerned in listening first and mainly when learning the English language. Furthermore, Pourhosein Gilakjani and Mohammadreza Ahmadi (2011) expressed that “Listening has an important role in the communication process”.
As for foreign language learning, listening is of paramount important since it provides the language input (Rost, 1994). Without understanding input appropriately, learning simply cannot get any improvement. According to Krashen (1985) and Hamouda (2013). Listening ability is crucial for acquiring understandable input.
There will be no learning if there is no feedback. Last but not least, rural kids in Vietnam have virtually little exposure to English language other than what they receive in the classroom, which is highly significant. Moreover, the low quality of cassettes has a discernible effect on the process of practicing and evaluating listening, especially in rural areas where tape players are either of poor quality or run on batteries. The students suffer significant listening issues as a result of the low-quality sound.
This study is being performed to boost students' perceptions of the importance of listening in learning English as well as their listening challenges in order to assist them in improving their listening skills.2 Research objectives This study aims at investigating: Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Thoang, M. 2 0 0 Tieu luan Student: Nguyen Thi Duy Anh ID Number: 18045141 (1) English-majored freshmen’s perceptions of the importance of listening skills (2) The barriers that students face when learning to listen (3) The techniques or strategies that learners use to improve their listening abilities 1.1 What barriers do students encounter in learning listening skill? 1.2 What techniques or strategies that students can apply to improve listening skill? 1.4 Scope of the study This study is going to cover these following: - This research mainly focus on the freshmen’s perceptions of the importance and difficulties in learning listening skills for English-majored freshmen at Industrial University of HCM city. - In addition to clarifying the issues, the researcher wishes to recommend some strategies for students to improve their listening skills. As a result, appropriate instructional strategies can be implemented to assist them in overcoming the challenges.
Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Thoang, M. 3 0 0 Tieu luan Student: Nguyen Thi Duy Anh ID Number: 18045141 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Thoang, M. 4 0 0 Tieu luan Student: Nguyen Thi Duy Anh ID Number: 18045141 2.1 Definition of key/concepts 2.1 Definition of listening In the communication process, listening relates to the capability to accurately receive and comprehend communications. Effective communication requires the ability to listen.
Messages are easily misunderstood if you don't know how to listen well. As a result, communication breaks down, and the message sender may become frustrated or irritated as a result. There are some definitions given by linguist: According to Underwood (1989), “a child receives listening as the first skill comes from observation of how a child acquires the mother tongue”.When a kid is born with no knowledge of the world. The child's initial activity is to listen in order to be able to speak by indicating what the parents are teaching it.In addition, According to Rost (2009), "listening helps us to understand the world around us and is one of the necessary elements in creating successful communication."Besides, Michael and Deborah (1997) stated that "listening established us in our real-life situation and enabled us to maintain meaningful relations with family, friends, and professional associates."Listening is crucial because it allows us to form bonds with others, learn from their experiences, and comprehend their views, personalities, and interests.
Since then, there have been opportunities for people to achieve in life and form personal bonds.2 Definition of listening skills The phrase "listening comprehension" has been defined in a variety of ways. In the communication process, listening refers to the ability to accurately receive and analyze communications. Listening is the act of hearing attentively. It is also a reading-like process that requires knowledge of phonology, grammar, semantics, and text comprehension.
According to Brown (2001), "listening is not merely the process of unidirectional receiving of audible symbols". He supposed that "one aspect of listening comprehension is the psychomotor process of receiving sound waves through the ear and transmitting nerve impulses to the brain". Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Thoang, M. 5 0 0 Tieu luan Student: Nguyen Thi Duy Anh ID Number: 18045141 Therefore, there are three elements in listening, including the sender, the message, and the listener.
In addition, Vishwanath Bite explains that listening skills are key to receiving messages effectively. It is a combination of hearing what another person says and psychological involvement with the person who is talking. Furthermore, according to Johnson (1951) and Hampleman (1958), "listening skills are part of the communication process, while it is to distinguish words from recognizing other words." Finally, according to Herbert J. Walberg, :”listening skills are essential for learning since they enable students to acquire insights and information, and to achieve success in communicating with others.2 Results of previous studies Firstly, "FACTORS AFFECTING THE LEARNING LISTENING ENGLISH".Kurniawati's 2019 research tries to determine the challenges caused by internal and external sources.
The descriptive qualitative method was applied in this study, and the data was presented in the form of reports and descriptions. The study enlisted the participation of 40 students. The variables creating difficulty in listening to students have been identified as deteriorating health or disease, illusive material, a lack of support, and a lack of training to improve English listening, whether with peers or native speakers (Kurniawati, 2019). Next, according to Ahkam Hasan Assaf's research paper named "The Difficulties encountered by EFL Learners in Listening Comprehension as Perceived by ELC Students at the Arab American University-Jenin,".