Luận Văn Some obstacles facing HPU 2nd year English majors in English listening comprehension and suggested s

Khóa luận tốt nghiệp năm 2012
Đề tài: Some obstacles facing HPU 2nd year English majors in English listening comprehension and suggested solutions


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Table of contents
Lists of figures and tables
PART I: INTRODUCTION . 1
1. Rationale 1
2. Aims of the study 1
3. Research questions 2
4. The significance of the study 2
5. Scope of the study . 2
6. Methods of the study . 2
7. Design of the study 3
PART II: DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND . 4
1. LISTENING 4
1.1. Definition of listening 4
1.2 Classification of listening 6
2. LISTENING COMPREHENSION . 10
2.1 Defining listening comprehension 10
2.2. Listening comprehension process 13
2.3. The stages in listening comprehension 15
3. POTENTIAL DIFFICULTIES IN LISTENING COMPREHENSION . 17
3.1. Listening problems . 17
3.2. Language problems 21
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY . 23
2.1. Introduction 23
2.2. The setting of the study 23
2.2.1. Students and their background 23
2.2.2. Resources and materials 24
2.3. The subjects 24
2.4. Instruments for collecting data . 24
2.5. Data collection procedure 25
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CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS . 27
3.1. Analyzing from the students’ survey questionnaire . 27
3.1.1 Years of studying English(Q1) 27
3.1.2 Students’ attitude toward listening skill (Q2&3) . 28
3.1.3. Students’ time allocation for self-study (Q4) . 29
3.1.4.Students’ opinion about their self-collected materials exploited(Q7) . 30
3.1.5 Student’s perceptions about their listening difficulties (Q5) . 31
3.1.6 Student’s opinions on the materials supplied by the teachers (Q6) . 33
Figure 8: Students opinions on the materials supplied by the teachers. . 33
3.2. Analyzing from the teachers’ survey questionnaire 34
3.2.1. Teachers’ opinions on students’ competence during their first two years
in the university. 34
3.2.2 Teachers’ opinions on students’ common difficulties in listening lessons 35
3.2.3 Teachers’ opinions on the materials supplying to the students(Q3) . 37
3.2.4 Teachers’ opinions on the ways to help students improve their listening skill
. 37
3.2.5 Teachers’ suggestions to the students to enhance their listening
competence. . 38
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS, DISCUSSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS . 39
4.1. Findings and discussions 39
4.2. Recommendations 40
PART 3: CONCLUSION 46
1. Overview of the study . 46
2. Limitations and suggestions for further study 47
REFERENCES 48
APPENDIX 50
APPENDIX 53


PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Being good at communication in English particularly and in foreign languages
generally is the desire of all foreign language learners. However, it requires them
to speak and to listen well in which listening seems the most challenging task for
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every student. In fact, there are many factors affecting the learners in listening
acquisition. Consequently, it is very difficult for them to master this skill.
Like students from different universities, the writer has faced many
difficulties in listening. With four - year experience in learning the skill and
from what her observed in practicing listening of other classmates, it can be
found that many students failed in practicing listening skill. Some of them
complained that they felt unconfident with listening tasks so they could hardly
understand the spoken messages.
All these above reasons have inspired the writer to do research on listening
skill and as a result, a research title goes as “Some obstacles facing HPU 2
nd
year English majors in English listening comprehension and suggested
solutions”
2. Aims of the study
The study has two main purposes as follows:
* Finding out the difficulties encountered by 2
nd
year English majors in
listening comprehension.
* Giving solutions to these problems
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3. Research questions
The study is conducted to answer the following questions:
* What difficulties do HPU 2
nd
year English majors face in listening
comprehension?
* What methods should be used to help HPU English major students
overcome their difficulties?
4. The significance of the study
Although listening has been one of the most common skills, there are few
studies on listening problems and factors affecting listening ability. The most
well known one is done by Boyle (1984) identifying and classifying factors
affecting listening comprehension. This thesis is designed to investigate
second year English major students’ obstacles and causes of those difficulties
especially it is done by a HPU student of English so it can be more subjective
and appropriate to the ELT situation in HPU.
5. Scope of the study
The study limits itself at finding out the difficulties in learning listening skill
of second year English majors. Moreover, the researcher concentrates on
studying linguistic problems (vocabulary, grammar, connected speech, stress
and intonation, accents, speech rate) and non – linguistic ones (skills,
psychology, environment, social and cultural knowledge ) accessed in the
view of both students and lecturers.
6. Methods of the study
The following methods are employed to collect data for the study:
- Quantitive method (Two survey questionnaire s were designed with the
participants of English teachers and major students at Hai Phong Private University.
- Direct observation and conversation
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The major source of data for the study was students’ survey questionnaire
respondents while direct observation and conversation applied with an aim to
get more information for any confirmation of the findings.
7. Design of the study
This study consists of three main parts: the introduction, the development and
the conclusion.
Part I: Introduction presents the rationales, aims, research questions,
significance, scope, method and design of the study.
Part II: Development is divided into 4 chapters:
Chapter 1: Theoretical background - deals with the concepts including
listening, types of listening, listening comprehension, listening
comprehension process, and potential difficulties in listening comprehension.
Chapter 2: Methodology - gives the situation analysis, subjects, and data
collection instruments.
Chapter 3: Data Analysis – shows the detailed results of the survey and a
comprehensive analysis on the data collected.
Chapter 4 - Findings, discussions and recommendations – refers to major findings,
discussions and offers some recommendations for improving students’ listening
comprehension.
Part III is the Conclusion presenting an overview of the study, suggestions for
further research and limitations of the study.