i
LISTENING CHALLENGES FACED BY EFL STUDENTS IN
ACADEMIC LISTENING CLASSES
THESIS
Submitted in partial fulfillment
of the Requirements for the degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Putri Nur Ani
112014067
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS
UNIVERSITAS KRISTEN SATYA WACANA
SALATIGA
2018
iii
v
ii
iv
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in
any course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any
university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, this contains no material
previously published or written by any other person except where due reference is
made in the text.
Copyright @2018: Putri Nur Ani and Yustinus Calvin Gai Mali, M.Hum.
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means
without the prior written permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the
English Language Education Program of Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana
Salatiga.
Putri Nur Ani
vi
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
COVER PAGE ......................................................................................................... i
APPROVAL PAGE ................................................................................................ ii
PERNYATAAN TIDAK PLAGIAT ..................................................................... iii
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ................................................................................ iv
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN AKSES ......................................................... iv
PUBLICATION AGREEMENT ........................................................................... vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................... vii
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................. ix
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................ 1
INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1
REVIEW OF LITERATURE ............................................................................. 3
Definition of Academic Listening ....................................................................... 3
Challenges in Academic Listening ..................................................................... 4
THE STUDY ....................................................................................................... 8
Method ................................................................................................................ 8
The Context of the Study .................................................................................... 9
The Research Participants ................................................................................... 9
Data Collection Instruments .............................................................................. 10
Data Collection Procedures ............................................................................... 11
Data Analysis Procedures ................................................................................. 12
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS .................................................................... 12
viii
Listening Challenges Faced by the Participants ............................................... 13
Speed of Speech ................................................................................................ 14
Unfamiliar Words.............................................................................................. 15
Unclear Sounds Resulting from Poor Equipment. ............................................ 16
CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 18
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................. 21
REFERENCES .................................................................................................. 22
APPENDIX ....................................................................................................... 25
ix
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. A Sample of Statements on the Questionnaire……………………10
Table 2. Analyzed Challenges Faced by Students in Academic Listening
Classes…………………………………………………………………......13
1
LISTENING CHALLENGES FACED BY EFL STUDENTS IN
ACADEMIC LISTENING CLASSES
Abstract
The aims of this study were to find out the listening challenges in
Academic Listening Classes. The participants of the study were 50 students in
Academic Listening Classes, at English Language Education Program,
Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana (ED-UKSW) academic year 2016/2017. The
data were collected through students' questionnaire and interview. More
specifically, the students responded to a statement asking their perspectives
towards the listening challenges. In the interview process, the researcher asked 10
participants to provide further clarification of the questionnaire responses. The
findings provided some evidence that the speed of speech, unfamiliar words, and
unclear sounds resulting from poor equipment were the primary listening
challenges perceived by the students. Besides, the overall results of the study
would like to suggest the solutions related to the listening challenges encountered
by students. The findings suggest that taking notes, vocabularies collection and a
lot of practice are the solutions to overcome the challenges in Academic Listening
Classes. Eventually, it is hoped that this study helps ED-UKSW students and EFL
students in related contexts to develop their learning strategies during listening
processes, so they can overcome their listening challenges in other similar
listening classes. Finally, the study proposed practical recommendations for EFL
teachers and researchers to deal with the challenges in Academic Listening
classes.
Keywords: academic listening class, challenges in academic listening, listening
ability.
INTRODUCTION
Listening is a language skill which plays an essential role in second
language teaching (Nunan, 1993, as cited in Gilakjani & Ahmadi, 2011). When
people speak means they will also listen, thus the process transmissions of
information will occur in this step. However, it does not mean that listening is
easy to be mastered. The most important thing to keep in mind though is that
listening is, indeed, a process, and one that requires effort.
2
Dealing with those issues, Ulum (2015) stated that listening is the weakest
skill of English as foreign language (EFL) students who encounter different kinds
of listening challenges. EFL listening skill is regarded as a problematic language
skill especially in a foreign language context where real practice chances are
narrow (Nowrouzi, Tam, Zareian, & Nimehchisalem, 2014). As a result, listening
comprehension has been regarded as one of the most challenging skills for most
students to learn (Chen, 2013).
Students at English Language Education Program, Universitas Kristen
Satya Wacana (ED-UKSW) also experience some challenges in their listening.
Therefore, they could not pass their Academic Listening classes successfully.
Considering the importance of mastering the listening skill and difficulties that
students have, this study aims to find out challenges specifically in the Academic
Listening classes at ED-UKSW and to answer the research question:
- What are listening challenges encountered by students in Academic
Listening classes?
This study was expected to find listening challenges that influence
students’ ability in listening processes. Therefore, to enhance students’ listening
ability they need to consider sufficient listening ability for their second language
(English) communication skills to advance. It is hoped that this study helps them
to be able to develop their learning strategies during listening processes so that
they can overcome their listening challenges in Academic Listening Classes. In
addition, the findings of the study will be a guide for EFL teachers to find
solutions to help students solve the challenges in listening.
3
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
This section provides a review of the literature relevant to the research
objectives. This includes a brief overview of the definition of Academic Listening
and listening challenges faced by EFL students.
Definition of Academic Listening
Academic Listening is a situation when students have to listen and talk in
various academic cases. For example, students need to be able to understand the
content of a lecture at the speed it is delivered (British Council, 2017).
Presentations also require good listening skills where students are expected to
understand and build on the contributions of others. Other events include tutorials,
discussions, seminars, meetings with tutors and supervisors, group projects, and
informal social interactions.
Academic Listening is also an indispensable necessity for English for
Academic Purposes (EAP) students in English-medium universities (Rahimirat &
Moini, 2015). Therefore, the students need to apply the highest level of listening
skills they have. Rather than only listening to the professors expounding abstract
and sophisticated concepts in the classroom, they have also be effective in taking
notes. It will help them in learning the topics covered in the lecture (British
Council, 2017).
In this research, Academic Listening refers to a course that guides students
to be able to master listening skills for academic purposes. The course enables
learners to recognize the speech signals that a competent listener uses to
4
understand the speaker’s meaning (Brown, 2012). The course aims to give
extensive practice in listening to talks and lectures in English. Also, it is used to
develop the ability to recognize and understand specific language features that
commonly occur in spoken academic English as well as focus on the main points
in a talk (Carrell, 2004).
Challenges in Academic Listening
Listening, in general, is a challenging language skill for many learners in
which they usually face frustration (Arnold & Goh, 2000, as cited in Alshaikhi, &
Madini, 2016). Moreover, learning Academic Listening at university can be a
challenge for many students. Students may find it hard to cope with the speed of
lecturers, dealing with technical vocabulary, or being able to concentrate on the
lecture for long periods of time (Rahimirad & Moini, 2015). Also, Academic
lectures have become the most widely used method of instruction at many
universities, workshops, and conferences (Huang & Finn, 2009).
In essence, Flower Dew and Miller (1996) classified the challenges in
listening into external and internal factors. One of the external factors is quality of
recorded materials. In some cases, recorded materials are not in high quality
(Azmi Bingol, Celik, Yidliz, & Tugrul Mart, 2014). The second challenges are
length and speed of listening. They stated that the level of students could have a
significant role when they listen to long recording parts. After they listen to the
recording, students will keep all information in their mind. Therefore, short
5
listening passages are recommended for learners for it reduces their tiredness
(Underwood, 1989, as cited in Gilakjani, 2016).
According to Habte-Gabr (2006), internal factors are divided into learners’
anxiety, background knowledge, language proficiency or their ways of processing
listening. Moreover, unfamiliar vocabulary also influenced students’ listening
ability especially in Academic context. In Academic context of listening, such in a
TOEFL and IELTS test learners have to be aware in facing a long spoken text,
unfamiliar vocabularies, the speed of speech, and accents (Rahimirad & Moini,
2015). The vocabularies used in Academic Listening will be different with some
other general listening clasess. In Academic Listening the topics and contents are
more in academic way.
Previous studies have explored challenges that students have when dealing
with Academic Listening classes. Azmi Bingol, Celik, Yidliz, and Tugrul Mart
(2014) in their study at Kasdi Merbah University in Ouargla found that there were
a lot of difficulties that learners encountered in the listening processes. Their
findings found that the challenges were quality of recorded materials, length and
speed of listening, learners’ cultural differences, accent, and unfamiliar
vocabulary. To deal with the challenges, the researchers suggested the students to
use metacognitive strategies more often. Metacognitive strategies are applied
when the listener plans, monitors and evaluates the listening process (Goh, 2000).
Regarding listening, this means a student is aware of their problems in listening
and the ability to manage and act on these challenges using specific and targeted
strategies (Vandergrift, Goh, Mareschal, & Tafaghodtari, 2006). For example, if a
6
student does not know much about a topic, they might do some reading before the
lecture which aids the listening and learning process. The findings showed that
metacognitive awareness had a positive relationship with the learners’ listening
performance.
In Iran, challenges in listening faced by EFL students were also of concern
for many researchers. A study was done by Mohseny and Raeisi’s (2009, as cited
in Kaseem, 2015) about the relationship between language proficiency of Iranian
EFL learners and their listening strategy used to face the listening challenges. The
findings showed that results indicated that the learners experienced moderate to
high levels of difficulty in all three categories of listening challenges, namely
perception, parsing, and utilization. The findings are expected to have useful
implications for syllabus designers and teachers who intend to address the
listening challenges of EFL learners.
This is supported by Bidabadi and Yamat (2011, as cited in Ahmadian &
Hosseini, 2012) in their study about the relationship between listening strategies
used by 92 Iranian EFL students and their listening proficiency. The result from
Bidabadi and Yamat found that most learners used the metacognitive approach
more often, followed by cognitive and socio-affective strategy to solve their
problem in listening.
In Saudi Arabia, Hamouda (2015) attempted to investigate the listening
challenges encountered by a group of first-year English major students of Qassim
University. 60 students who took the listening course were selected for the study.
The data was gathered through questionnaires and interviews. The results of the
7
study showed that accent, pronunciation, speed of speech, insufficient vocabulary,
different accent of speakers, lack of concentration, anxiety, and uncompromising
quality of recording were the major listening challenges encountered by EFL
Saudi learners. To deal with the challenges, the researchers suggested the students
address their problems. Then, the teachers’ role was to help their students to
overcome their listening comprehension problems.
Ulum in 2015 carried out a study of 50 EFL students from three different
classes in Hakkari, Turkey. The study aimed to find out EFL students’ listening
comprehension challenges in Hakkari, Turkey. The data was gathered by
questionnaires and interviews. The results of the study showed some problematic
issues that EFL students found it difficult to understand the listening text when
speakers speak with varied and unfamiliar accents.
Another study by Chen (2013), focused on students’ perceived listening
challenges over time as they develop their listening strategies in the context of a
Taiwanese technological college. The participants were 31 Taiwanese
college students. The data were collected both quantitatively and qualitatively to
examine changes in EFL listening challenges encountered by students. It is also
used to know how students dealt with these listening challenges as they developed
their strategy use over time. The result of his study showed that the challenges
were related to the three major significant differences in students’ perceived
listening challenges after the strategy instruction: which are unfamiliar
vocabulary, rapid speech rate and linking sounds between words.
8
To sum up, the following may be said about the past studies discussed in
this part. The studies were carried out to identify the challenges faced in listening
classes. They stated that the challenges came internally from the students such as
learners’ anxiety, background knowledge, language proficiency and lack of
concentration. The challenges also came externally from the listening
environment, such as pronunciation, the speed of speech, insufficient vocabulary,
different accent of speakers, and bad quality of the recording.
THE STUDY
Method
The study is aimed to points out listening comprehension challenges faced
by ED-UKSW students. To achieve the purpose of the study, I approached the
study qualitatively. There are three characteristics of the qualitative approach.
Firstly, observational research (or field research) is a correlational (i.e., non-
experimental) research in which a researcher observes ongoing behavior (Marshall
& Rossman, 2006 as cited in Harrel & Bradley, 2009). This characteristic
encouraged the researcher to go to the research site to observe behavior in its
natural setting and have face-to-face interaction over time to see the challenges
faced by Academic Listening students during the learning processes. Secondly,
the multiple sources of data characteristic were used to collect the various data.
Internet was used to gather various forms of data, such as interviews,
observations, and documents, rather than relying on a single data source
(LeCompte & Schensul, 1999, as cited in Zohrabi, 2013). In this research, the
researcher used questionnaire and interview to collect the data about challenges in
9
Academic Listening classes. Thirdly, the study focused on the participants’
perspectives. In this characteristic, the researcher focused on participants’
meanings, and their subjective views (Hatch, 2002, as cited in Creswell, 2017) so
the researcher would not constrain the interviewee’s answer in the interview
section.
The Context of the Study
The setting of the study was at English Language Education Program
Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana (ED-UKSW) in Salatiga, Central Java,
Indonesia. More specifically the study was carried out in Academic Listening
classes in this faculty. The reason why the researcher selected the context was the
accessibility ease to meet the participants.
The Research Participants
The participants were 50 students in ED-UKSW from batch 2016 who
have taken Academic Listening in 2017. They were chosen based on purposive
sampling. The participants were chosen by looking at the purpose, meaning and
meets of specific criteria and ideas (Zacharias, 2011). For this study, purposive
sampling was used for deciding the participants because they had taken Academic
Listening class in one semester, so they have experienced learning in those
classes. Therefore, they were expected to tell the challenges they face in
Academic Listening classes.
10
Data Collection Instruments
In order to obtain the data from the students, the researcher used a close-
ended questionnaire and semi-structured interview. The advantages of using
close-ended questionnaires are its efficiency, it eased the researcher in analyzing
the data (Brown, 2001). The data obtained through questionnaire and interview
was used to get information about the difficulties and challenges in Academic
Listening. To design the questionnaire, a present study referred to the
questionnaire adapted from Ismail (2014) and Hamouda (2013) about challenges
that influence listening comprehension was used.
The questionnaire consisted of one section by looking at the challenges
that appeared in the literature review part. The section deals with listening
challenges which students encounter in Academic Listening Classes. The
questionnaire consisted of five perceptions; listening material (3 items), linguistic
aspects (2 items), lack of concentration (2 items), problems related to the speaker
(4 items), problems related to the listener and physical setting (4 items).
Table 1 A Sample of Statements on the Questionnaire
Item Statements SA D A SD
1. I find it difficult to understand the spoken texts in
which there are too many unfamiliar words.
2. I find it difficult to understand the spoken texts
because of their complex grammatical structures.
3. I find it difficult to interpret the meaning of a long
spoken text.
4. I find the pronunciation familiar but I cannot
recognize the words.
5. I find it difficult to guess the meaning of an
unknown word while listening.
11
To support the questionnaire data, the researcher conducted a semi-
structured interview to clarify the interviewee’s answers and asked how the
students deal with their listening challenges. In this research, the semi-structured
interview was used because it gave flexibility for the researcher to add follow-up
questions which come immediately during the interview. This form of interview
was neither too rigid nor too open. It was a moderate form in which a great
amount of data can be elicited from the interviewee (Patton & Burns 1999, as
cited in Zohrabi, 2013).
Data Collection Procedures
The researcher had done these steps to collect the research data. Before
distributing the questionnaires, the researcher firstly met the students and asked
for their time to fill in the questionnaire. Secondly, the researcher explained the
purpose of the study and gave the questionnaire to the students. Thirdly, the
students were given time to fill in the questionnaire. Fourthly, the students were
asked to return the questionnaires. After that, all of the data were analyzed by the
researcher.
For the interviews, first, the interviewees were briefed on the aims and
procedures of the interview sessions. To reduce their fear of exposing their honest
views and to ensure better and valid results, the interviewees were informed that
their answers were treated with complete confidentiality (Al-Tamimi, 2009). To
record the interviewees, an MP4 and a notebook were used to record all of the
12
information. While listening to the interviewees, the researcher also did note
taking to collect important points of the interview's result.
Data Analysis Procedures
These are the steps of questionnaires’ data analysis done by the researcher.
First, the researcher read all the answers. Then, the total score from the
questionnaire was presented in the table. After that, for answers which were not
fully described, the researcher asked the participants to give further clarifications.
For the interviews, the researcher initially listened to the recorded
interviews, transcribed them, and then coded them based on similar answers. The
similar answers were collected into separate groups and named based on the
existing theories of students’ challenges in Academic Listening classes. The last
step, the researcher analyzed the data, linked them to the results of the previous
studies and wrote them into paragraphs.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
This section presents the findings of the study to answer this research
question What are listening challenges encountered by students in Academic
Listening classes? To provide a reliable discussion, I supported the research
results from the questionnaire data with excerpts of students’ responses in the
interview. For the purpose of the study, I translated all the excerpts into English.
13
Listening Challenges Faced by the Participants
From the results of the analysis, the present study reveals fifty cited
responses about the challenges faced by students in Academic Listening Classes.
The main themes concerning the challenges in Academic Listening were: listening
material, linguistic aspects, lack of concentration, problems related to the speaker,
and problems related to the listener. Table 2 depicts the categories.
Table 2 Analyzed Challenges Faced by Students in Academic Listening
Classes
No Statements SD D A SA Listening
Problems
1 Unfamiliar words 6% 12% 58% 4%
Listening
problems
related to the
content of the
listening skill
2 Complex grammatical
structures
12% 48% 38% 2%
3 A long spoken text 2% 62% 28% 8%
4 Guess the meaning of an
unknown word
2% 34% 56% 8%
Listening
problems
related to the
linguistic
features
5 Find the pronunciation familiar
but cannot recognize the words
8% 40% 46% 6%
6 The recording is of a poor
quality
10% 10% 30% 50%
Listening
problems
caused by
failure to
concentrate
7 Think about the meaning of
new words
8% 46% 34% 12%
8 Predict words that would come
next
0% 46% 42% 6%
Problems
related to
the listener
9 Difficult to recognize the words
because of the way they are
pronounced
8% 38% 48% 6%
10 Quickly remember words or
phrases have just heard
4% 48% 42% 6%
11 Listening without transcripts 4% 60% 26% 10%
12 The speakers speak too fast 2% 12% 64% 22%
Problems
related to the
speaker
13 The unclear sounds resulting
from poor equipment
4% 10% 54% 32%
14 Noisy classroom 6% 18% 38% 38%
15 The speakers speak with a
variety of accents
4% 28% 60% 8%
14
The following discussion presents primary challenges that students usually
face in Academic Listening classes. The data in Table 2 indicate that students had
three primary Academic Listening challenges. They were speed of speech,
unfamiliar words, and unclear sounds resulting from poor equipment.
Speed of Speech
As displayed in Table 2, the speed of speech is the most frequent category
cited from the questionnaire result by the students as 64% agree and 22% strongly
agree. In brief, the speed of speech deals with the speaker speaking too fast in
giving the information during the listening processes. In that case, the majority of
the students admitted that the speed of speech affected their listening skill in
Academic Listening classes:
Excerpt 1 “When I listen to a recording when the speaker speaks faster than normal I felt it
difficult to recognize the words. It was because I didn’t know what they were
speaking about. Therefore, it’s hard to take notes while listening”
(S23/interview/translated by the researcher)
These findings are consistent with the results of Gilakjani and Ahmadi
(2011) in their study at Kasdi Merbah University in Ouargla. They found that
speed of speech is another reason that makes listening text difficult. Hamouda
(2013) in his study showed that the speed of speech is one of the other major
listening challenges encountered by EFL Saudi learners. Also, Azmi Bingol,
Celik, Yidliz, and Tugrul Mart (2014) in their research in Iranian students found
that when speakers speak faster than normal the listener may have difficulties to
catch the main idea of the listening task.
15
To deal with the challenges, there are possible strategies to implement. As
Hamouda (2013) said in his study "Effective note-taking requires that you record
information quickly. To do this, good note taker does not write down every word
or try to take note in proper sentences; instead, they write only keywords and
phrases. Also, good note taker uses shorthand when they take note”. Moreover, in
listening comprehension, speech rate cannot be overlooked. However, the
decision to use what materials is important to the whole concept of listening
comprehension. Besides that, natural speech made improvement in listening
comprehension, it does not mean slow speech rate should be excluded (Hayati,
2010). Slow speech rate may be used as a short path practice for comprehending
natural speech rate.
Unfamiliar Words
This category would seem to indicate that most of the internal factors
come from the listeners. In this study, the unfamiliar words were related to the
sentence meaning that uses English vocabulary. Therefore, most students thought
that meaning resides within the unfamiliar words, so they need to know a huge
amount of vocabulary. According to Table 2, 58% of the students struggled with
unfamiliar words in listening. This category covers such written responses as:
Excerpt 2 “I had a problem with unfamiliar words. It bothered me if I didn’t know the
meaning of the words. Moreover, those words always appeared during the listening
process” (S34/interview/translated by the researcher)
Excerpt 3 “In Academic Listening class, my lecture asked me to listen to the recording of
journal text. I found some difficulties, especially in the vocabularies. There were
16
some academic vocabularies and I did not know the meanings. So, I felt like a little
bit in trouble” (S37/interview/translated by the researcher)
Excerpt 4
“There were some academic words appeared in TOEFL test and I didn’t know the
meaning. So I just skip and continue listening to the other part”
(S18/interview/translated by the researcher)
The students did not deny that unfamiliar words might trouble their
listening ability. This finding accords with Hung’s (1998) argumentation that
listening passages with known words are easier for learners to understand, even if
the theme is unknown to them. Moreover, the result from the previous study by
Chen (2013) showed that unfamiliar vocabulary was one of the challenges faced
by Taiwanese college students. On facing a new word, students tend to find out
the meaning rather than infer it from the context (Hasan, 2000). Moreover, in
TOEFL practice there were academic words appeared during the listening process.
Therefore, some students decided to skip the difficult part and continue listen to
the other parts.
To deal with the challenges, the previous study suggested the students
address their challenges (Hamouda, 2013). Students need to evaluate the listening
process (Goh, 2008). Thus, the solution to this problem is to ask the students to
practice as much as they can on these various materials
Unclear Sounds Resulting from Poor Equipment.
Another source of listening challenges stated by the students is unclear
sounds resulting from poor equipment. The findings revealed that 54% students
found themselves having a problem with poor equipment:
17
Excerpt 5 “Yes, I had a problem related to the speaker, especially, if the recording was of
poor quality. I couldn't understand what the speaker was talking about”
(S23/interview/translated by the researcher)
In addition, unclear sound resulting from poor quality equipment can also
interfere with the listener’s comprehension. Some students admitted that the
setting the speaker took of the recording influenced the quality of the recording. It
is also followed by the quality of tapes during the listening processes.
Excerpt 6 “Sometimes the sound of the recording was not clear. Also, the setting places of
the recording influenced my listening skill too. I often found some recording
recorded in a crowded area. It made me difficult to listen to the speaker clearly”
(S14/interview/translated by the researcher)
Excerpt 7 “I found that in some TOEFL test the recordings were played differently than
usual. I think there was something wrong with the tape. It made me hard to catch
the ideas. It’s also supported by the quality of the recording itself”
(S12/interview/translated by the researcher)
Hamouda (2013) in his study of a group of first year major English
students in Qassim University found that most of the students agreed that bad
quality of the recording was the major listening challenges encountered by EFL
Saudi learners. In line with his study, my results of the study on ED-UKSW
students showed that unclear sounds resulting from poor equipment takes the
biggest role in influencing students’ listening ability. Sometimes inconvenience of
classrooms affects students in the listening process (Chen, 2013).
To deal with the challenges, in listening activities, it is the best place for
students to do the listening in the laboratory room. This finding accords with
Hamouda’s (2013) argumentation that somehow it will bring out the better result
18
for the noises outside cannot get through the lab room. Furthermore, a good
cassette recorder or a CD player may give better recording rather than the old one.
Therefore, the teachers do not only give the good material for the students but also
can use the best place in listening (Goh, 2000). Thus, the students can listen well
to the material in a good condition and best place so that it can support their
listening.
CONCLUSION
In light of the findings, this study attempts to explore students’ listening
challenges in Academic Listening Classes at ED-UKSW. In essence, the findings
would seem to indicate that speed of speech, unfamiliar vocabularies, and unclear
sounds resulting from poor equipment were the primary challenges affecting the
students’ listening ability in Academic Listening classes.
This study would like to offer several recommendations to overcome the
listening challenges in Academic Listening classes. The challenges were also
caused from the listening material and physical settings. From the students itself,
they found the difficulties, such as lack of vocabulary and the inability to guess
what the speaker was going to say. Dealing with those challenge students can
guess and understand the meaning of the material in listening tasks if they know
the key words of the material. Also, the students have to know the needs in
listening that can help them improve their listening skill (Mohseny & Raeisi,
2009, as cited in Kaseem, 2015). Therefore, listening activities should be arranged
from basic to more complex as the learners advance in English language.
19
For teachers or lecturers, they should take care of their students when they
seem demotivated. They should encourage their students to find creative ways to
make the listening process enjoyable and fun, so the students will be more excited
about listening. The university and faculty of English Department should add
more facilities and good equipment for listening purposes too. The purpose is to
make students enjoy their listening processes and gives benefits for the
improvement of their listening skill.
Besides that, the students find difficulties on the listening material, such as
the unfamiliar vocabulary, the accent, the speed of speech, poor equipment, etc.
These problems can be overcome by using listening skills. Therefore, to acquire
acceptable listening skills, students themselves should have much more exposure
to varieties of listening. Also, they should learn the tips or strategies through
personal learning themselves. This review of literature indicated the factors that
caused some serious problems for learners’ listening comprehension. It also
offered some useful suggestions for teachers and students to improve their
listening ability. It is hoped that the findings of this study could contribute to the
improvement of teaching and learning in Academic Listening Classes.
The study is only limited for Academic Listening classes. However, the
results of the study are not really specific to Academic Listening classes. The
participants addressed challenges that similar with some other general listening
such as speed of speech, unfamiliar vocabularies and unclear sounds resulting
from poor equipment. Meanwhile, Academic Listening is more academic than
other listening classes. Also, the vocabulary and the content of the Academic
20
Listening are different with other listening classes. It can be seen from TOEFL
and IELTS’s practice in Academic Listening classes. The vocabulary and the
content of the listening will be more in academic way.
Thus, for further research, future studies can follow-up the present study by
investigating some challenges that students usually faced in Academic Listening
Classes. Future studies also can find the specific challenges in Academic
Listening classes compare to different listening classes.
21
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I want to express my gratefulness to Allah SWT for always
giving me strength and answering my prayers. I could not go this far without His
endless blessing. I could not thank my parents enough, Suisman and Daru Prapti,
also my siblings, Erni and Ficha for the unconditional love, care, and
encouragement since the beginning of my college life until now.
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Mr.
Yustinus Calvin Gai Mali, M. Hum for your support, guidance, patience, and
kindness over this time. Also, to my thesis examiner, Mrs. Anne Indrayanti
Timotius, M.Ed., thank you for your support and your time to evaluate my thesis.
To my beloved lecturer, Mr. D.Toar Yusak G.Sumakul, M.A., and Mr. Joseph
Ernest Mambu, Ph.D., thank you for the opportunity given to me in distributing
my questionnaires in your classes. Special thanks to my beloved participants that I
could not mention one by one, thank you for helping me share some experiences
together.
To my dear friends and my personal support, Vira Cahya, Novia
Australiane, Erlin, Henny, John, Marcel, Sandy Bastari, Inneke Elvira, Septin,
Defi, Afnie, Benedicta Maria and all of my friends that I could not mention one
by one. I would like to say thank you very much for sharing experiences, making
beautiful memories, also struggling together to finally reach the happy ending of
our college life.
22
REFERENCES
Ahmadian, M., & Hosseini, S. (2012). A study of the relationship between Iranian
EFL learners’ multiple intelligences and their performance on writing.
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 3(1), 34-76.
Al-Tamimi, A. & Munir Shuib (2009). Motivation and attitudes towards learning
English: a study of petroleum engineering undergraduates at Hadhramout
University of sciences and technology. GEMA Online™ Journal of
Language Studies, 9(2), 29-55.
Alshaikhi, D., & Madini, A. A. (2016). Attitude toward Enhancing Extensive
Listening through Podcasts Supplementary Pack. English Language
Teaching, 9(7), 32-47.
Brown, L. (2012). Developing Effective Listening Skills in Children. Retrieved
March 4, 2018, from http://www.neverendingstories.co.za/educational-
resources/item/developing-effective-listening-skills-in-children.html
Carrell, P. L., Dunkel, P. A., & Mollaun, P. (2004). The effects of notetaking,
lecture length and topic on a computer‐based test of ESL listening
comprehension. Applied Language Learning, 14(1), 83–105.
Chen, A. (2013). EFL listeners’ strategy development and listening problems: a
process-based study. The Journal of Asia TEFL 10(3), 81-101.
Creswell, J.W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among
five approaches (Rev.ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Creswell, J. W. (2008). Educational research: planning, conducting, and
evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (3rd ed.). NJ: Pearson
Education International.
Flowerdew, J., & Miller, L. (2005). Second language listening: Theory and
practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ghania, A. (2012). An analysis of some internal and external
factors influencing learners’ success in EFL. The case of third year LMD
students at Biskra University. Retrieved June 10, 2017, from
http://dspace.univbiskra.dz:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/4768/1/SE%2
0185.pdf
Gilakjani, A.P., Ahmadi, M.R. (2011). A Study of Factors Affecting EFL
Learners' English Listening Comprehension and the Strategies for
Improvement. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 2(5), 977-988
23
Gilakjani, A. P. (2016). The Significance of Listening Comprehension in English
Language Teaching. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 6(8), 1670.
Goh, C. C. M. (2000). A cognitive perspective on language learners' `listening
comprehension problems. Language learning, 28(1), 55-75.
Gruba, P. (2004). The role of video media in listening assessment. System, 25(3),
335-345.
Habte-Gabr, E. (2006). The Importance of socio-affective strategies in using EFL
for teaching mainstream subjects. The Journal of Humanizing Language
Teaching. Retrieved April 13, 2018, from
http://www.hltmag.co.uk/sep06/sart02.htm#C1I
Harrel, M., & Bradley, M. (2009). Data collection methods: semi structured
interviews and focus groups. Santa Monica: National Defense Research
Institute Gilakjani, A. P., Sabouri, N. B. (2016). Learners’ listening
comprehension difficulties in English language learning: A Literature
Review. English Language Teaching, 9(6), 123-129.
Hamouda, A. (2015). An investigation of listening comprehension problems
encountered by Saudi students in the el listening classroom. International
Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and
Development. 2(2),34-35.
Hayati, A. (2010). The effect of speech rate on listening comprehension of EFL
learners. Creative Education, 2(1), 107-114
Huang J., Finn, A. (2009). Academic listening tests for ESOL students:
Availability, concerns, and solutions. International Journal of Applied
Educational Studies, 6(1),46-55.
Ismail, K. (2014). An investigation of Listening Problems Encountered by EFL
Learners. A case study of second year license of English at Ukmo Kasdi
Merbah University Ouargla. Retrieved June 15, 2078, from
https://bu.univ-ouargla.dz/master/pdf/KAZOUZ_Ismail.pdf
Kassem, H. M. (2015). The relationship between listening strategies used by
Egyptian EFL college sophomores and their listening comprehension and
self-efficacy. English Language Teaching, 8(2), 159-169.
Nowrouzi, S., Tam, S. S., Nimehchisalem, V., and Zareian, G. (2014). Developing
an instrument for Iranian EFL learners' listening comprehension problems
and listening strategies. Advances in Language and Literacy Studies, 5(3),
85-146.
24
Ulum, Ömer Gökhan. (2015). Listening: The Ignored Skill in EFL Context.
Internatonal Journal of Humanites Social Sciences and Educato, 2(5),
257-270.
University of Glasgow. English and study skills; General and Academic listening.
Retrieved Juni 14, 2017, from
http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_220931_en.pdf
University of Toronto. Academic listening skills. Retrieved June 14, 2017, from
http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/eld/academic-listening-skills
Rahimirad, M., &Moini, M. R. (2015).The challenges of listening to academic
lectures for EAP learners and the impact of metacognition on academic
lecture listening comprehension.SAGE Open, 5(2), 1-9.
Vandergrift, L.,Goh, C. C. M., Mareschal, C. J., &Tafaghodtari, M. Z. (2006).
The metacognitive awareness listening questionnaire: Development and
validation. Language Learning, 56(3), 431-462.
Zacharias, N.T. (2012). Qualitative research methods for second language
education: A coursebook. England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Zohrabi, M. (2013). Mixed method research: instruments, validity, reliability and
reporting findings. Theory and Pracitice in Language Studies, 3, 254-262.
25
APPENDIX
Dear Respondents,
My name is Putri Nur Ani. Recently, I am studying for my Undergraduate
Program in Satya Wacana Christian University. As a part of my study, I am
conducting a research on “Listening Problems Faced by EFL Students in
Academic Listening Class.” Accordingly, in this opportunity, I would like to ask
your assistance by answering the questions in this questionnaire. I use those
questions in order to obtain information concerning your English-listening
problems in Academic Listening class that you took in the last semester.
It is not a test, so there are no right or wrong answers in this questionnaire.
Besides, your answers will not affect your grade in Academic Listening class.
Therefore, you are free to respond to how you really feel. If you have further
questions dealing with this research, you may contact me at this following phone
number;
085601656965 (WA) / LINE: Putriani557
I thank you very much for your help and participation in this research.
Please fill the information below, if you are willing to participate further in the
research as the interviewee.
Name :_____________________________________
NIM :_____________________________________
Phone number (WA/Line) :_____________________________________
26
Put a thick () in the appropriate box. Use the scale indicated below:
1= Strongly Disagree (SD)
2= Disagree (D)
3= Agree (A)
4= Strongly Agree (SA)
Item Statements SD D A SA
1. I find it difficult to understand the spoken texts
in which there are too many unfamiliar words.
2. I find it difficult to understand the spoken texts
because of their complex grammatical structures.
3. I find it difficult to interpret the meaning of a
long spoken text.
4. I find the pronunciation familiar but I cannot
recognize the words.
5. I find it difficult to guess the meaning of an
unknown word while listening.
6. I loose my concentration if the recording is in a
poor quality.
7. I loose my concentration when I think about the
meaning of new words.
8. I find it difficult to predict words that would
come next when listening to the spoken texts.
9. I find it difficult to quickly remember
words or phrases I have just heard.
10. I find it difficult when listening to English
without transcripts.
11. I find it difficult to recognize the words I
know because of the way they are
pronounced.
12. I find it difficult to understand the spoken texts
when the speakers speak too fast.
13. I find it difficult to understand the spoken texts
when the speakers speak with a variety of
accents.
14. It is difficult for me to concentrate in a noisy
classroom.
15. I find difficult to understand the spoken texts
because of the unclear sounds resulting from
poor equipment.
27
1. Dari semua masalah dan kesulitan yang kamu hadapi di kelas Academic
Listening, menurutmu manakah yang paling sulit?
2. Masalah dan kesulitan apa yang paling sering kamu temui?
3. Bisakah kamu memberikan contoh di setiap masalah yang kamu temui?
4. Bagaimana caramu untuk mengatasi masalah dan kesulitan mu di kelas
Academic Listening?
Participant number 14
B: “Dari semua masalah dan kesulitan yang kamu hadapi di kelas Academic
Listening, menurutmu manakah yang paling sulit?
A: “Aku piker yang susah itu adalah kosa kata yang tidak aku mengerti.
Contohnya jika dosen memutar rekamannya aku sering tidak tau apa
maksudnya. Ini karena aku tidak mengerti banyak kosakata yang aku temui
saat mendengarkan di kelas Academic Listening. Ada banyak sekali kosakata
yang tidak kumengerti jadinya aku kesusahan mendapatkan maksud dari
pembicaranya”
B: “Lalu bagaimana kamu mengatasinya?”
A: “Kalau menurutku dosen itu harus sering ngomong pake Bahasa Inggris jadi
aku bisa belajar kosakata yang benar dari beliau. Juga banyak banyak latihan
biar koleksi kosakatanya bertambah”
B: “Jadi menurutmu masalah yang tersulit itu kosakata yang kurang familier,
begitu ya?”
A: “iya kak”
B: “Lalu bagaimana jika rekamannya itu terlalu panjang?”
A: “kalau aku itu pastinya susah buatku. Aku harus membayangkan dan menebak
apa topic dari rekamannya. Dan itu bisa membuatku cepet lupa dan kesusahan
jika rekamannya terlalu panjang”
B: “kamu nebak kosakatanya gimana dek?”
A: “Aku lihat kosakata yang menurutku itu familier kalau enggak ya lihat konteks
dari rekamannya.”
B: “Oke. Selain itu ada masalah lagi ga?”
A: “ada, kadang tu aku sering kehilangan konsentrasi kalau rekamannya itu ga
jelas. Maksud aku itu adalah suara rekamannya. Mungkin itu karena tempat
dimana orang itu sedang rekaman itu juga berpengaruh untuk konsentrasiku.
Apalagi kalau pas rekaman di tempat rame misal kantin kan itu rame banget.
Belum lagi kalau suaranya kemresek gitu.”
B: “Oke, lalu apakah kamu punya masalah dengan konsentrasi jika berfikir
tentang arti kosakata baru yang kamu temui?”
A: “Iya kak, contohnya ya kalau rekamannya si pembicara lagi mbahas nomor
atau angka dari nomer telepon atau alamat atau terkadang kosakata yang sama
sekali aku baru ngerti itu membuatku bingung”
B: “lalu bagaimana cara kamu mengatasinya?”
A: "terkadang dosen akan memutarkan rekamannya dua kali. Putaran pertama aku
focus sama kosakata yang aku ketahui dulu. Lalu pada putaran yang kedua
28
aku mastiin buat mengisi bagian yang belum aku ketahui. Kalau aku belum
dapet idenya aku memutuskan buat skip aja lanjutin dengerin lagi."
B: “Apakah kamu menemukan kesulitan ketika mengingat kosakata yang barusan
kamu dengarkan?.”
A: “Ya”
B: “Apakah kamu punya solusinya?”
A: “Aku tidak harus mengingat semua kosakata yang muncul, kalau aku lebih ke
pemahaman inti poinnya dari rekamannya tersebut.”
B: “Kalau pembicarannya ngomong cepet banget gimana?”
A: “Pastinya susah. Gak semua mahasiswa mudeng apa yang sedang mereka
bicarakan, apalagi kosakatanya itu akademis.”
B: “Apa kamu solusi untuk mengatasi masalah ini?”
A: “Aku pikir taking notes.”
B: “Ada yang lain?”
A: “Aku pikir untuk mendengarkan banyak rekaman, mungkin bisa cari di
internet."
Participant number 34
B: “Apa yang menjadi kesulitanmu di kelas Academic Listening?”
A: “Accent, unfamiliar words, lecture, and bad recording."
B: “Menurutmu Accent mana yang paling sulit?”
A: “British lebih sulit daripada American accents.”
B: “Bagaimana kamu mengatasinya?”
A: "Banyak banyak latihan. Banyak mendengarkan recording sih kak”
B: "kamu punya masalah gak terhadap listening itu sendiri?"
A: “Punya kak apalagi terkait kosakata yang tidak aku mengerti, kadang tu aku ga
ngerti artinya jadinya aku malah menebak nebak itu artinya apa.”
B: “jadi kamu gak nerjemahin satu satu gitu ya?"
A: “iya kak. Ga perlu. Aku cukup pahami aja”
B: “Oke, kamu tadi kan bilang kalau punya masalah dengan Okay, you said if you
bad recording, bisa gak cerita dikit tentant itu?"
A: “Aku merasa kalau bad recording mengganggu banget pas proses listeningnya,
gabisa focus pokoknya. Apalagi pas kosakata yang aku ga ngerti banyak
muncul itu jadi kaya kesulitan tersendiri bagi aku. Lalu juga kalau speakernya
itu ngomongnya terlalu cepet jadi aku susah untuk menangkap idenya. Aku
sering juga tiba tiba lupa sampe mana aku mendengarkannya apalagi kalau
kelasnya berisik bakalan susah banget.”
B: “Kamu ada solusinya gak buat mengatasi semua masalahmu itu?”
A: “Kalau dari aku yang penting itu banyak latihan sih kak. Mencoba buat belajar
kosakata biar punya kosakata yang banyak. Mencoba juga buat menebak
kosakata dari konteks listeningnya. Terus menurutku dosen juga perlu
membantu mahasiswanya di kelas dengan banyak bicara pake Bahasa Inggri
sesering mungkin karena dikelas aku sering mendapati beliau sering memakai
Bahasa Indonesia”
Top Related