VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
________________

TĂNG THỊ HỒNG MINH

THE PROBLEMS FACED BY TEACHERS AND FIRST YEAR
NON – ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT SAO DO UNIVERSITY
IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL AND
SOME SOLUTIONS

(NHỮNG VẤN ĐỀ GẶP PHẢI TRONG VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC KỸ NĂNG
NGHE HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN VÀ SINH VIÊN NĂM
THỨ NHẤT KHÔNG CHUYÊN TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SAO ĐỎ VÀ
MỘT SỐ GIẢI PHÁP KHẮC PHỤC) M.A. MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 6014.0111

HANOI – 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

submitted to any other university or institution wholly or partially.
Hanoi, September 2013
Student

Tăng Thị Hồng Minh
ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS



Listening plays an important role in communication as it is said that, of the
total time spent on communicating, listening takes up 40-50%; speaking, 25-30%;
reading, 11-16%; and writing, about 9% (Mendelsohn, 1994. This study attempt to
present listening comprehension problems encountered by lecturers and first-year
students at Sao Do University at the same time pointing out the factors affecting
learners‟ difficulties and the listening teaching difficulties. The thesis is based on
data collected from survey questionnaires. One hundred students and fifteen
lecturers at Sao Do University have taken part in this study. In addition, interviews
and class observation were applied as well to enhance the reliability and validity of
the study. The results showed that learners encountered various kinds of listening
problems which were divided into four categories: students‟ linguistic difficulties in
learning listening, students‟ listening difficulties related to the listening text, factors
related to the speakers, and factors related to the listeners. From the findings of the
research, some recommendations were presented to help them overcome the
difficulties in learning and teaching. iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPENDIX 1 I
APPENDIX 2 IV
APPENDIX 3 VI
APPENDIX 4 IX
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS IX
APPENDIX 5 X

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TABLE OF CHARTS

Chart 1. Learners‟ perceptions of listening difficulties related to listening text
Chart 2a. Learners‟ perceptions of their linguistic difficulties in learning listening
Chart 2b. Learners‟ perceptions of learning difficulties related to listeners
Chart 3: Learners‟ perceptions of their listening difficulties related to the speakers

problems in learning and teaching at SDU; none of them is about listening skills.
As a teacher of English, therefore, it is essential and motivating for me to conduct
a research on the topic: “The Problems faced by teachers and first year non-
English major students at Sao Do University in teaching and learning English
listening skills and some solutions” with the hope to make a small contribution
towards improving the quality of teaching and learning listening skill at SDU.
2. Aims of the study
Within the framework of minor thesis, the study is aimed:
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- To investigate the problems that first year non - English major students of
SDU encountered in learning listening skills.
- To identify factors causing the students‟ problems in learning listening skills.
- To investigate the areas of difficulties faced by teachers at Sao Do University
in teaching listening skills.
- To provide some suggested solutions to help students and teachers overcome
these difficulties, improve the quality of teaching and learning listening
comprehension at SDU.
3. Research Question
In order to achieve these aims, the study has three research questions as follows:
1. What are the problems faced by teachers and first year non – English major
students of Sao Do University in teaching and learning listening skills?
2. What factors cause these difficulties to students and teachers?
3. What are suggested solutions to improve teaching and learning listening skill?
The study; therefore, focuses on seeking the answers for aforementioned
questions.
4. Scope of the study
As a Ukrainian scholar once said “learning a second language is a long and
complex undertaking”. Thus, problems in learning and teaching a second language
are unavoidable. In the scope of this study, the writer„s typical purpose is to

activities. Moreover, it reviews previous studies on listening problems encountered
by second language learners in Vietnam context.
Chapter 2: Methodology - in this part, the introduction of research method
including research questions, data collection instruments are presented.
Chapter 3: The study - shows the procedure of carrying on the research and
presents the data analysis result from survey questionnaires, interviews and class
observation.
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Chapter 4: Findings and Recommendations - reports and discusses the findings
obtained from the data, then proposes some solutions for teaching and learning
improvement.
- Part III: Conclusion - review of the findings, implications and limitations
of the study and some suggestions for further research.


(1994) defines listening comprehension as ―the ability to understand the spoken
language of native speakers.''
Meanwhile, Buck (2001, 3) highlights the role of learners as interpreter who use
both linguistic cues and nonlinguistic knowledge to achieve full comprehension.
This point of view shares the ideas of Rubin. Rubin (1995) conceives listening as an
active process in which listeners interpret information which comes from auditory
and visual cues in order to define what is going on and what the speakers are trying
to express.
Larry Vandergrift (1999) has a more detailed definition of listening
comprehension. According to him, listening comprehension is a passive activity. It
is a complex and active process in which the listener must discriminate between
sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, interpret stress and
intonation, retain what was gathered in all of the above, and interpret it within the
socio-cultural context of the utterance.
To sum up, each definition reflects its author‟s own point of view; however, it is
widely admitted that listening comprehension is not merely the process of a
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unidirectional receiving of audible symbols, but an interactive process (Brown,
2001).
1.1.2 Stage of listening
1.1.2.1 Pre-listening
It is very difficult for students if the pre- listening activities are not exploited by
teachers. The pre – listening activities will give students a brief overview on what
are they going to hear such as: topic, related vocabulary and some necessary
information. Helgesen & Brown (2007) emphasize the importance of pre – listening
activities: “Just like we need to stress our muscles before exercising, students need
to warm up their non-native language skills before doing an exercise”. These
activities provide students with the necessary information so that they can listen
more effectively. This stage also can serve as the tool to catch student‟s attraction to

activities are extensions of the work done at the pre-listening and while-listening
stages and some relate only loosely to the listening text itself.
Davies (2000, 78) provides some ideas for post-listening stage as below:
- Give opinions
- Relate similar experiences
- Role-play a similar interaction
- Write a brief report
- Write a similar text
- Debate the topic
1.1.3 Strategies of listening comprehension
Listening strategies are technique or activities that contribute directly to the
comprehension and recall of listening input. It can be classified by how the listener
process the input.
Top-down strategies are listener based; the listener taps into background
knowledge of the topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language.
This background knowledge activates a set of expectations that help the listener to
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interpret what is heard and anticipate what will come next. Top-down strategies
include: listening for the main idea, predicting, drawing inferences, and
summarizing.
Bottom-up strategies are text based; the listener relies on the language in the
message, that is, the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates
meaning. Bottom-up strategies include: listening for specific details, recognizing
cognates and recognizing word-order patterns.
Strategic listeners also use metacognitive strategies to plan, monitor, and evaluate
their listening. They plan by deciding which listening strategies will serve best in a
particular situation. Moreover, they monitor their comprehension and the
effectiveness of the selected strategies. They also evaluate by determining whether
they have achieved their listening comprehension goals and whether the

troublesome factor to the learning listening.
1.2.2.2 Strange sounds and different accents
As the matter of fact, Vietnamese students have a lot of problems with some
English sounds such as the „θ‟sound. There are some English sounds which do not
exist in Vietnamese and this fact can cause difficulties to Vietnamese learners.
Moreover, it is not only the sounds which cause comprehension problems but also
the way they vary in speech. In English, the most important phonological changes
are: assimilation (changing sounds), elision (losing sounds), and intrusion (adding
or joining sounds). Listeners‟ lack of phonological knowledge might lead to
reduced comprehension (Buck, 2001).
Another “obvious source of difficulties for learners” as Rixon (1986, 37) states is
„native speakers‟ pronunciation‟. It is so clear to notice that many learners can
recognize English words quite well in written form, but they fail to understand them
in spoken form as they are used to hearing a clear and careful pronunciation of the
words; thus when there are some types of changes in sounds such as assimilation or
elision, the learners find it difficult to recognize. Apart from unfamiliar sounds, the
difference of accents also makes students confused in listening. Buck (2001, 35)
considers accent as the “potentially important variable in listening comprehension”.
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He also confirms that “unfamiliar accents can make comprehension almost
impossible for listeners” Thus, it is the role of teachers to support students with
valuable instructions and flexible teaching method in order to overcome these
difficulties.
1.2.2.3 Speech rate
Despite the fact that we can cope with missing whole chunks of speech having a
conversation on in our own language, many people do not seem to be able to
transfer that skill easily to a second language. Thus, a fast speaker usually causes a
fear for the foreign listener as they cannot catch his or her speech rate; they feel that
the utterances disappear before they can sort them out (Underwood, 1989). It is

warm-up activities or various pre – listening tasks. In addition, contextualizing the
text is also a good idea to reduce learners‟ anxiety. To that end, the listening tasks
should be simple and appropriate as well.
1.2.3.3 Lack of vocabulary and grammar structures
It is not really a difficult task to guess the meaning of a word or phrase in the
mother tongue; however, this task seems to be a difficult one for second language
learners. Thus, the shortage of vocabulary or grammar structure is one of the major
obstacles in learning listening. The reason is just simple as Underwood (1989) states
“for foreign language learners, an unknown word can be a barrier causing them to
stop and think about the meaning of the word and making them miss the next part of
the speech”. As the result, they are left behind and totally lost.
1.2.3.4 Low motivation
According to Gardner (1985) “the relationship between attitudes, motivation and
second language achievement is complex; they always interact and influence each
other” Meanwhile, listening and speaking are considered as difficult skills in second
language acquisition by Vietnamese learners. Being a teacher at SDU, the writer has
discovered quite many problems which students encountered in listening practicing.
Students often feel bored and want to quit whenever they are stuck in difficulties
and learning problems. They also get discouraged when they fail to complete the
task again and again. Gradually, they are demotivated in learning listening. Hence,
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it is advisable for teachers to “help students see how successful they have been in
doing the task” Hedge (2000, 244). The combination of a variety of listening
materials, visual aids and game in class room are recommendations for teachers in
this case.
1.2.3.5. Fatigue and concentration
It is undeniable that concentration plays an important role in learning especially
in listening. Only a minute of distraction during listening can result in wholly
misunderstanding of the listening text. “Even the shortest break in attention can

factors causing challenges in learning listening skills faced by first-year non-
English major students at Hanoi University of Industry. However, these two studies
do not suggest any solutions. Mai Thi Thu Trang (2010) studied the reality of
teaching and learning listening skills to first-year non-English major students at
Phuong Dong University - Problems and solutions.
The previous studies mentioned above pointed out some certain problems in
learning listening regarding to vocabulary, pronunciation, speech rate and learners‟
anxiety. Some solutions have been given including using game and music in pre-
listening activities, combining various strategies in teaching listening. To some
extent, these studies share similar studying context with that the writer is doing, so
she would like to take advantage of each study in order to avoid the deficiencies in
her research.
1.4 Summary
In this chapter, the theoretical framework for the study was coherently presented
in 3 main parts.
Firstly, an overview of listening comprehension in which listening
comprehension, stage of listening are presented.
Secondly, the potential problems of listening have been discussed in three sub –
parts separately. The first part, the situational problems have been taken into
consideration and analysis. The second part concentrates on presenting the potential
problems arising from listening materials. In the third part, the potential problems
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that come from the learners themselves have been discussed in detail and closely
with the actual learning listening situation in Vietnam.
Next, some previous studies related to listening problems are introduced.
To sum up, a necessary theoretical background has been provided in this chapter
for the present study to look into the listening obstacles that SDU first year non -
English major students meet in learning as well as the teaching difficulties of SDU
English teachers so that some treatments can be adopted to help improve the quality

limited to non – English major freshmen.
2.2 Participants
2.2.1 Teachers
This study was carried out with the participation of 15 teachers at the Faculty of
foreign languages at SDU. All of them are Vietnamese and their ages range from
twenty five to sixty years old. They all have good academic background with the
distinguished rank in B.A degree. At present, the number of M.A teachers accounts
for 90% of the total. 15 out of total 20 teachers are assigned to teach English to the
first year non-English major students. After a quick observation, I realize that all
listening classes are conducted in form of a fifty- minute lecture with most of the
time teachers as the main speakers. Methodologically, most of them follow the
traditional teaching method.
2.2.2 Students
A hundred students of first year non-English major students are at the age of 18
to 21. They come from different provinces in the North of Vietnam. These students
were chosen randomly from about 2000 first year students. The study was
conducted when they were in their first semester of the first year at SDU. Most of
students have studied English at high school; however, their English proficiency is
not the same. Besides, some of them only consider English as the sub – subject, so
only little attention has been paid to English learning. Some of them even feel afraid
of learning English in particular and foreign language in general. They fail to
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prepare a good state of mind before English class. However, they all share the
similar point of being good at grammar other than language skills.
2.3 Data collection instruments
As aforementioned, quantitative method in form of survey questionnaires are
mainly employed in this study to find out listening comprehension problems
experienced by first-year students and teachers at Sao Do University. This
instrument was applied to both students and teachers.

checked the accuracy before being taken in serious consideration and analysis.

In short, aforementioned content is mainly about the methodology of this study,
or in other words, it discusses the actual context, participants as well as the
instruments of this study. Chapter 3 will deal with data analysis of the study.