Listening skiil

Research proposal Outline:
CAN THO UNIVERSITY
ENGLISH MAJOR SOPHOMORES’ PROBLEMS IN
LISTENING TO ENGLISH

1. Rationale
English is an international language. It is necessary for students, especially English major students to be able to use and communicate in English efficiently. For that reason, listening is very important for those who are learning English because we cannot communicate with each other without listening to and understanding what the speakers said. However, it is also considered as one of the most problematic and difficult skills for foreign language learners for some certain reasons. For instance, listening is neglected in teaching and learning process in High School. So, listening scores in listening tests of sophomores in University are often lower than other skills’ tests. They also have a passive attitude or very low motivation toward Listening. These cause sophomores troubled and disheartened. Therefore, Listening Problems must be carried out help students and teachers recognize what the problems are and have suitable methods in learning Listening. With respect to this topic, this study attempts to fully investigate in the difficulties that English major sophomores at Can Tho University (CTU) face with.
2. Literature review
2.1. Definition of Listening
There are many definitions of listening coming from various researchers. According to Howatt and Dakin (1974), listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying. This process involves understanding a speaker 's accent or pronunciation, the speaker’s grammar and vocabulary, and comprehension of meaning. An able listener is capable of doing these four things simultaneously. Similarly, Rost (2002) defined listening, in its broadest sense, as a process of receiving what the speaker actually says; constructing and representing meaning; negotiating meaning with the speaker and responding; and, creating meaning through involvement, imagination and empathy. In brief, Listening is very important in communicating with others. In the five respects of learning English, listening (understanding), speaking, reading, writing and translating, which represent university students’ general ability of English, listening is the most important.
2.2. The problems in listening to English
According to Underwood (1989), there are seven causes of obstacles to efficient listening. Firstly, listeners cannot control the speed of delivery. He states that how quickly a speaker speaks cannot be controlled by many English language learners, which is the greatest difficulty with listening. Secondly, listeners cannot always have words repeated, which is a serious problem in learning situations. In the classroom, the decision as to whether or not to replay a recording or a section of a recording is not in the hands of students. Teachers decide what and when to repeat listening passages; however, it is hard for the teacher to judge whether or not the students have understood any particular section of what they have heard (Underwood, 1989, p. 17).The third problem is the lack of vocabulary. The speaker may choose words the listener do not know. Listeners sometimes encounter an unknown word which may cause them to stop and think about the meaning of that word and thus cause them to miss the next part of the speech. Fourthly, listeners hardly recognize the signals which indicate that the speaker is moving from one point to another, giving an example, or repeating a point. Discourse markers used in formal situations or lectures such as ' 'secondly, ' ' or ' 'then ' ' are comparatively evident to listeners. In informal situations or spontaneous conversations, signals are much vague as in pauses, gestures, increased loudness, a clear change of pitch, or different intonation patterns. These signals can be missed especially by less proficient listeners. Fifthly, listeners may lack contextual knowledge. Sharing mutual knowledge and common content makes communication easier. Even if listeners can understand the surface meaning of the text, they may have considerable difficulties in comprehending the whole meaning of the passage unless they are familiar with the context. Nonverbal clues such as facial expressions, nods, gestures, or tone of voice can also be easily misinterpreted by listeners from different cultures. Sixthly, it can be difficult for listeners to concentrate in a foreign language. In listening comprehension, even the shortest break in attention can seriously impair comprehension. Conversation is easier when students find the topic of the listening passage interesting; however, students sometimes feel listening is very tiring even if they are interested because it requires an enormous amount of effort to follow the meaning. Last but not least, students may have established certain learning habits. Teachers want students to understand every word they hear by repeating and pronouncing words carefully, by grading the language to suit their level, by speaking slowly and so on. As a result, they tend to become worried if they fail to understand a particular word or phrase and they will be discouraged by the failure. It is necessary for students to tolerate vagueness and incompleteness of understanding (Underwood, 1989). Additionally, the problems were believed to cause by the speech rate, vocabulary and pronunciation (Higgins, 1995). Besides, Flowerdew & Miller (1996) assumed that the problems of the students were for the speed of delivery, new terminology and concept, difficulty in focusing and the physical environment.
3. Research aim The main purpose of this study is to find out the listening problems that English majored sophomores are dealing with at CTU.
4. Research question
What listening problems do English majored sophomores in CTU encounter to listening to English?
5. Research hypothesis
This study points out the listening problems encountered by English major sophomores at CTU:
The speed of delivery.
Limit vocabulary.
The lack of contextual knowledge and poor concentration on a foreign language.
Hardly recognize the signals in the listening test or they cannot have the words repeated.
6. Research methodology
- Design: Descriptive design
- Participants: This study was carried out with the participation of 148 second-year students majoring in English language and translation in School of Social Sciences and Humanities at CTU (in total 200). Their ages range from 21 to 23 years old: + English sophomores have been studying academic English for one year, so they know what problems they are facing with. + Random selection helps to impartially evaluate their opinions. + The research is close and practical to students, so it is easy for us to collect their opinion.
- Instruments:
The research instrument is the English second-year students’ response to the questionnaire. It is designed to discover foreign learners’ difficulties when they study listening. Rating scale is used in this questionnaire.
The questionnaire focuses on the input and the listener with five minor difficulties faced to sophomores: extraneous noise, different accents, vocabulary, general knowledge, and the ability to recognize the topic. The questionnaire was designed with 20 questions in four point liker scale (never, sometimes, often, always).
- Materials: questionnaire
- Procedure:
+ Design the instrument: 20 questions in questionnaire.
+ Piloting: 148 second-year students in School of Social Sciences and Humanities at CTU are chosen to finish the research.
+ The participants complete the questionnaire at the recess. This questionnaire is anonymous. Students are first given a brief verbal explanation of the purpose of the survey, followed by specific clarification of the each question. All of the completed questionnaires are collected immediately at the end of the class. The students fill out the questionnaire without a time limit. None of the students denies participating. The responses of the questionnaire keep confidential. All the items are checked carefully for the missing items. Therefore, there is no missing item in the questionnaire data.
+ The data from the questionnaire will be analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively.
7. Research significance Apply the theory of research methods to find out the listening problems of English majored sophomores at CTU. This study can give some conclusions about listening problems that affect the students at CTU. Besides, this research can also help other researchers to find the solution to these problems to write the next research proposals.
8. References
Rost, M. (2002). Teaching and Researching Listening. London, UK: Longman.
Howatt, A. and J. Dakin. (1974). Language laboratory materials, ed. J. P. B. Allen, S. P. B. Allen, and S. P. Corde.
Underwood, (1989). Memory and concentration notes. In Osada. (2004). Retrieved October 27, 2013, from http://personal.tcu.edu/pking/COMM20193/memorynotes.
Underwood, M. (1989). Teaching listening. London: Longman.
Higgins, J.M.D. (1995) Facilitating listening in second language classrooms through the manipulation of temporal variables. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Kent at Canterbury.
Flowerdew, J. & Miller, L. (1996). Student perceptions, problems and strategies in second language lecture comprehension. RELC Journal, 27. 23-46.
9. Appendix
QUESTIONNAIRE

Item No.
Statements
Never
Sometimes
Often
Always
1
I find that listening is difficult

Do you
2
Listen to teachers and classmates in class?

3
Listen to English language CD’s or cassettes at home?

4
Listen to radio channels in English?

5
Watch English language study videos or British/American television channels?

6
I feel tired and distracted when I listen to a long spoken text.

7
I use my experience and background knowledge to help me in listening to the spoken text.

8
I find it difficult to listen to the spoken text because of new vocabularies.

9
I find the pronunciation familiar but cannot identify the words.

10
When there is any unknown word, I stop listening and think about the meaning of the word.

11
I lose focus on listening test when I have got an expected answer in my mind.

12
I lose my concentration because I search for the answers, and I listen to the dialogue at the same time.

13
I am unable to concentrate if the recording is in a poor quality.

14
I find it difficult to quickly remember words or phrases I have just heard.

15
I find it difficult to listen to various accents.

16
I find it difficult to listening the recording if I am unable to get things repeated.

17
It is difficult for me to concentrate with noises around.

18
I find it difficult to listening to English without transcripts.

19
I find it difficult to listen because the speaker speak too fast

20
I feel nervous and unable to listen when I don’t understand the spoken text from the beginning.

References: Rost, M. (2002). Teaching and Researching Listening. London, UK: Longman. Howatt, A. and J. Dakin. (1974). Language laboratory materials, ed. J. P. B. Allen, S. P. B. Allen, and S. P. Corde. Underwood, (1989). Memory and concentration notes. In Osada. (2004). Retrieved October 27, 2013, from http://personal.tcu.edu/pking/COMM20193/memorynotes. Underwood, M. (1989). Teaching listening. London: Longman. Higgins, J.M.D. (1995) Facilitating listening in second language classrooms through the manipulation of temporal variables. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Kent at Canterbury. Flowerdew, J. & Miller, L. (1996). Student perceptions, problems and strategies in second language lecture comprehension. RELC Journal, 27. 23-46.