CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND RESEARCH
Transcript of CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND RESEARCH
8
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND RESEARCH
aaaaaaaThis chapter aims to review the literature and the related studies relevant to the
study The contents of theories and some key elements related to the study are
presented under the following headings aaaaaaa1aaListening comprehension
aaaaaaa2aaListening problems
aaaaaaa3aaListening strategies aaaaaaa4aaRelated studies
Listening comprehension
aaaaaaaOne view of listening comprehension by Clark he stated that listening
comprehension describes comprehension of a speakerrsquos message as the internal
reproduction of that message in the listenerrsquos mind so that successful listening
reproduces the meaning much as the speaker intended The second view proposed by
Rost focusing on the goals and internal meaning structures of listener listener does not
get meaning but rather constructs meaning (Celce-Mercia 2001 pp 88-89) The
intended message and the constructed message are different in some points The
factors which influenced the message are context purpose for listening and listenerrsquos
own prior knowledge Both views involve listening process and the importance of both
top-down and bottom-up operations
aaaaaaaNunan clarified the bottom-up processing that it involves constructing meaning
from the smallest unit of the spoken language to the largest one in a direct mode
(Kusumarasdyati 2004 p 2) Thus the learners attempt to understand a spoken speech
by decoding a number of sounds to form words Next a connection of words is linked to
form phrases which make up sentences These sentences build a complete text the
meaning of which is then constructed by the listeners
9
aaaaaaaOn the other hand Nunan claimed that the top-down processing refers to
interpreting meaning as intended by the speakers by means of structures of data in the
mind (Kusumarasdyati 2004 p2) This view highlights the importance of background
knowledge already possessed by the learners in making sense of the information they
hear In the aural perception prior knowledge may help their attempt to grab the
received information by relating the familiar with the new one and mainly the lack of such
knowledge can impede their efforts to understand a particular utterance Therefore
learners are comfortable to performing this processing by extracting the general idea of
the exchange they listen to The picture is shown in Figure 1
Bottom-up
Processing
Top-down
Processing
Identification of Details and
Facts (DETAIL)
Recognition of Supporting Ideas (SUPPORT)
Identification of Controlling
Idea or Topic (GIST)
Inferences that are Text-
Based about Content and
Relationships (TEXT INF)
Deduction of Vocabulary through Context (VOCAB)
Interferences about Speakersrsquo
Attitudes and Pragmatic Meaning
(PRAG INF)
Figure 1 Operationlization of a Model of
Second Language Listening Comprehension
(Wagner 2002 Online)
10
aaaaaaaThis view of listening comprehension is in accordance with second-language
theory which views listening to spoken language as an active and a complex process in
which listeners focus on selected aspects of aural input construct meaning and relate
what they hear to existing knowledgerdquo (Hason 2000 Online) It should be also made
clear that learnersrsquo perceptions of their listening problems may or may not correspond to
what actually happens as different factors which the listener may not be aware of may
interact and influence learnersrsquo perceptions The listener however might identify one
factor among others which he thinks can be behind some of his listening problems
aaaaaaaCamp and Sattlewhite also suggested the listening model which has four
components The picture is shown in Figure 2 (Camp amp Satterwhite 1988 pp 64-65)
Hearing
Listening
Interpreting
Retaining
Figure 2 The Listening Model
(Camp amp Satterwhite 1988 pp 64-65)
aaaaaaa1aaHearing it is the physiological aspect of listening Hearing is non selective
process of sound waves impinging on the ear and the ear responding to those waves
that fall within a certain frequency range and are sufficiently loud For example the
listener may hear a nearby conversation or the hum of a computer without focusing on
these sounds
aaaaaaa2aaListening the act of filtering out interruptions to allow the listener to
comprehend the meaning of sounds For example when you ask someone question
then you listen for a response
aaaaaaa3aaInterpretation a mental function whereby you analyze the sounds that you
comprehended You relate your experience with what you have heard
aaaaaaa4aaRetaining the ability to recall information or the act of remembering the
interpreted sounds for later use
11
Importance of listening
aaaaaaaListening requires effort and concentration and it is difficult to know whether
someone is listening what the speaker says or not If the listeners are not ready to listen
the failure of listening will occur The importance of effective listening poor listening skills
can create serious problems For student poor listening can result in lower grades
incorrect assignments lost job opportunities etc When you are not talking or reading
mostly you are listening to something or someone
aaaaaaaThere are several language experts who support the idea of the importance of
listening that people spent most of their time on listening Wilt found that 45 percent of
communication was spent listening 30 percent speaking 16 percent reading and 9
percent writing (Hyslop amp Tone 1988 Online) The chart is shown in Figure 3 Moreover
the study of Adler amp Rodman found that college students spent average of their
communication time composed of 14 percent writing 16 percent speaking 17 percent
reading and a whopping 53 percent listening (Adler amp Rodman 1976 p 74) People
become conscious that listening is the most frequent type of communication behavior
Baker and several colleagues found that college students spend nearly half of their
communication time listening or 42-53 30-32 speaking 15-17 reading and 11-14
writing (Seiler amp Beall 1999 p 135) Because is such a routine Few people think of
developing their listening skills In fact businesses lose millions of dollars each year
because of a failure to listen to and understand customersrsquo needs Effective listeners
welcome new information and new idea to create and adapt to apply with their lives
Same to the survey of graduates from a major university who were professional and
business people all wished they had more training in listening They believed that
effective listening leads to job success (Thill amp Bovee 2002 p 117)
12
05
1015202530354045
Writing Reading Speaking Listening
Time()
Figure 3 The Communication Time of People
(Hyslop amp Tone 1988 Online)
aaaaaaaAccording to Nunan amp Miller there are four main importance of listening in
second and foreign language learning which are firstly listening is vital in the language
classroom It provides input for the learner Any learning basically cannot begin without
understanding input at the right level Secondly spoken language gives a mean of
interaction for the learner Learners must cooperate to achieve understanding access to
speakers of the language is necessary Furthermore learnersrsquo failure to understanding
the language they hear is a drive not a barrier to interaction and learning Thirdly
authentic spoken language shows a challenge for the learner to try to comprehend
language as native speakers actually use it Lastly teacher can use listening exercises
to draw learnersrsquo attention to new forms (vocabulary grammar new interaction patterns)
in the language (Nunan amp Miller 1995 p 211)
aaaaaaaThere are many levels of involvement in listening which depended on different
kinds of situations as shown in Figure 4 a continuum that runs from minimum to
maximum involvement
13
Listening for
Evaluation
Listening for
Understanding
Levels of Receiver Involvement in Various Situations LEAST
Involvement
MOST
Involvement
Listening
for Pleasure Hearing
Listening to Remember
Figure 4 Levels of Involvement in Listening Situation
(Taylor et al 1986 p 143) aaaaaaa1aaHearingrdquoHearing is little more than being in range of and receiving soundrdquo
(Taylor et al 1986 p 143) We may not pay attention to sounds we hear except calling
our attention Environmental sounds and surroundings music usually are heard not listen
to When we turn on the radio and then go to have a conversation with friends you
usually will not even become aware of hearing the sounds
aaaaaaa2aaListening for pleasure It involves more personal participation than hearing
ldquoWe receive sounds more consciously and actively decoderdquo (Taylor et al 1986 p 143)
We may listen to music to a speech or to television and radio at the level of listening for
pleasure
aaaaaaa3aaListening to understand This stage requires a upper degree of involvement
We try to understand all the messages we receive and give the feedback back to the
source of messages It usually occurs with friends and family in informal setting or in
school talking to friends and listening to professorrsquos lectures or in public communication
(Taylor et al 1986 pp 144-145)
aaaaaaa4aaListening to evaluate It needs high involvement of receiver because many
features of listening to understand involve This stage goes further than understanding
for the reason that it has to analyze the received messages to decide how credible and
meaningful they are before responding (Taylor et al 1986 p 144)
14
aaaaaaa5aaListening to remember We frequently want to remember as much as we
can at all stage of listening Remembering is essential for both understanding and
evaluation It has need of special effort to accomplish this level of receiver involvement in
listening situation (Taylor et al 1986 p 144)
aaaaaaaMoreover Rost commented that listening is used in language teaching It helps
learners to comprehend spoken language Listening is not only a critical means of
acquiring a second language but also a skill area in language performance (Rost 1990
p 7) Purpose of Listening
aaaaaaaListeners do not pay attention to everything they listen selectively according to
the purpose of the task This in turn determines the type of listening required and the
way in which listeners will approach a task According to Richards he differentiated
between an interactional and a transactional purpose for communication Interactional
use of language is socially oriented to please the social needs of the participants eg
small talk and casual conversations Therefore interactional listening is highly
contextualized and two-way involving interaction with a speaker A transactional use of
language on the other hand is more message-oriented and is used primarily to
communicate information eg news broadcasts and lectures In contrast with
interactional listening transactional listening requires correct comprehension of a
message with no opportunity for clarification with a speaker or one-way listening
(Richards 1990 unpaged) Knowing the communicative purpose of a text or utterance
will help the listener decide what to listen for and thus which processes to start As with
the advantages of knowing the context knowing the purpose for listening also really
reduces the load of comprehension since listeners know that they need to listen for
something very specific instead of trying to comprehend every word
aaaaaaaMoreover there are three general purposes of listening The first purpose is to
understand ideas When we listen to understand we listen for the main idea or central
concepts The listener seeks to identify key words and phrases that will help them to
15
summarize the concepts being discussed The second purpose is to retain information
Once the listeners are able to focus your attention on what another person is saying and
they are able to understand what the person has said they are ready to move their
listening to the next level which called ldquoListening to retainrdquo If you retain what you hear
you must learn The last purpose is to analyze and evaluate content This purpose is
greater skill than retention When listener learns to analyze and evaluate content
successfully the learner can find the gaps in the arguments and statements the listener
encounters during interpersonal communication (Gamble amp Gamble 1987 pp 91-96) Listening Problems
aaaaaaaAcquiring EFL listening skills is one of the most difficult tasks for any learners
According to study of Hason and Osada can be summarized into 5 main listening
problems related to the speaker as follows (Hason 2000 Online) (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaIt is difficult to understand natural speech which is full of hesitation and
pauses The learners usually get used to listening to tape cassettes teacherrsquos speech
which slower and easier than the natural speech in real life
aaaaaaa2aaIt is difficult to understand the meaning of words which are not pronounced
clearly such as the word ldquothe teacherrdquo and ldquoT-shirtrdquo
aaaaaaa3aaIt is difficult to understand the meaning of the spoken text without seeing the
speakerrsquos body language Most people want to see the mouth of the speaker to catch the
pronunciation and translate the meaning of words or see the body language like the
hands eyes to get the meaning
aaaaaaa4aaIt is difficult to understand well when speakers speak too fast The listeners
especially L2 learners try to catch every word therefore they cannot get the main idea
aaaaaaa5aaIt is difficult to understand well when speakers speak with varied accents
Learners tend to be used to their teacherrsquos accent or to the standard variety of British or
American English They find it is quite hard to understand speakers with other accents
aaaaaaaFrom the study of many researchers about listening problems related to the
listener can be concentrated in to ten main problems as follows
16
aaaaaaa1aaListeners cannot control the speed of the deliveryrdquo Many English language
learners believe that the greatest difficulty with listening comprehension is listeners
cannot control how quickly a speaker speaks (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa2aaListeners cannot always have words repeated This is a serious problem
because the listeners cannot replay the speech Itrsquos hard for the speakers to judge
whether the listeners understand what they say or not (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa3aaListeners have a limited vocabulary The speaker may focus on the words
the listener does not know and it can make the listeners to miss the next part of the
speech (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa4aaListeners may fail to recognize the signal which indicates that the speaker
is moving from one point to another giving example or repeating a point The listeners
can notice some markers like ldquosecondlyrdquo or ldquothenrdquo the body language the different
intonation and the gestures (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa5aaListeners may lack related knowledge If the listeners have some relevant
knowledge then it can make the communication easier (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa6aaIt can be difficult for the listeners to concentrate in a foreign language
Students sometimes feel listening is very tiring even if they are interested because it
requires a strong effort to follow the meaning (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa7aaListeners may have their own certain habits such as wish to understand
every word By tradition teachers want students to understand every word they hear by
repeating and pronouncing words carefully and slowly Therefore students tend to
become worried if they fail to understand a particular words or phrases and they will feel
bored and tired to dealing with listening (Hason 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa8aaListeners are out listening It means you let your mind wander to things You
do not remember what the speaker actually said but you remember what you think the
speaker probably said (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
aaaaaaa9aaPrejudgment It is the most common barrier Most people must have some
assumption in their mind They try to defend other personrsquos opinions or views They think
that every comment as a personal attack (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
17
aaaaaaa10aaSelf-centeredness It causes people to take control of conversation rather
than listening to what is being said They think that they know more than the speaker and
determine to prove it (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
Listening Strategies
aaaaaaaListening ability like speaking reading and writing abilities can be improved
There are some guidelines which should be of considerable value if followed According
to the study of DeVito there are six listening strategies as follows (DeVito 1978 pp 145-
153)
aaaaaaa1aaListening for recognition It is not a passive activity it is not a process that
will happen if we simply do nothing to stop it We may hear without effort but we cannot
listen without effort Listening is a difficult process In speaking we can control the
situation we can talk about what we like in the way we like In listening however we are
forced to follow the pace the content and the language set by the speaker Perhaps the
best preparation for active listening is to act like an active listener
aaaaaaa2aaListening for the total meaning The total meaning is not only in the words
used but also in the nonverbal behavior of the speaker Listen for main ideas
connections between ideas and important details Listen answers to these questions
related to the topic Who What Where Why How
aaaaaaa3aaListening with empathy The listener needs to feel what the speaker feels
we need to empathize with the speaker If the listeners understand the feeling of what
speakers say then the listeners can easily understand the real intended meaning of the
speakers aaaaaaa4aaListening with an open mind It is not easy to do or listen to criticisms of
what we think is just great If the listeners cannot accept the otherrsquos opinions then the
listeners will try to avoid listening which makes them not understand the meaning of the
message
18
aaaaaaa5aaTaking selective notes To remind your remembrance and the key words
that helping your understanding This strategy is very useful for the listeners especially
the students who study second language They can look at the note whenever they want
aaaaaaa6aaAsking questions The listener can ensure your own understanding of the
speakerrsquos thoughts and feelings by using this technique However your questions should
support the speakerrsquos feelings and thoughts and confirm your interest
aaaaaaaIn addition from the study of Noonan there are two more strategies of EFL
listening as follows (Noonan 2005 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaSpending more time to practice The person who takes time to practice
language the more knowledge and improvement they gain Moreover the person who
has confidence will be easier to practice English and develop their listening and
speaking skills quickly
aaaaaaa2aaBehaving like a good listener such as stop talking listener cannot listen
when you are talking Listener will only be thinking about what you are going to say next
instead of paying attention to what the other person is trying to say consciously focus
the attention on the speaker pay attention to the speakers do not interrupt allow plenty
of time for the speaker to convey ideas and meaning Be courteous and give the speaker
adequate time to present the full message concentrate on what is being said react to
the idea expressed and look at a speaker
aaaaaaaBesides EFL listeners can use following websites on the internet to practice their
listening skills by listening to online TV or radio stations which offer online broadcast
aaaaaaa1aaBBC This site provides information on frequency and program schedule for
learning English through BBC radio program (httpwwwbbccoukworldservice
learningenglishradioindexshtml)
aaaaaaa2aaCNN This site offers free viewing of news videos on the international edition
of the cnncom site (httpeditioncnncomvideo)
aaaaaaa3aaVoice of America Choose NewsNow for live broadcasts Try the Special
English section and click on the Feature scripts (httpwwwvoagov)
aaaaaaaIf the language learners want to practice their listening on the internet the
19
following sites are designed especially for non-native speakers of English They may
have graded activities transcripts exercises and answers
aaaaaaa1aaESLnotescom This website offers notes and English language resources
for movies (httpwwweslnotescom)
aaaaaaa2aaEveryday English in Conversation Try a variety of everyday conversation
topics with scripts (httpwwwfocusenglishcomdialogues conversationhtml)
aaaaaaa3aaLearn English by the British Council Listen to songs read lyrics and do
activities (httpwwwlearnenglishorguksongsindexasp)
aaaaaaa4aaCharles Kellys Quizzes Based on VOAs Special English Programs
Program scripts audio files and grammarvocabulary quizzes are based on Voice of
Americas Special English programs A variety of topics are offered
(httpwwwmanythingsorgvoa) aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher recommended the dissimilar strategy for instance
paired listening in second language (L2) listening instruction (Fernandez-Toro 2005 p
4) The EFL teachers can implement this strategy for their instructions Listening to
recording allows listeners to control the tape by going back to difficult parts of the
message This approach can help reduce anxiety because responsibility for the task is
shared with a partner The method also gives the learners the chance to cooperate in
order to learn more efficiently through shared scaffolding The theory of scaffolding was
proposed by Evelyn Hatch refers to the cooperative attempt between learners and their
interlocutors in building discourse (Ellis 2002 p 48) This principle helps the learners to
listen to the message and then produce utterance they would not be able to produce on
their own
Related Studies
aaaaaaaMany researchers studied EFL listening in many aspects There were three main
research areas which related with this study They concerned about importance of
listening listening problems and listening strategies
20
Listening Comprehension
aaaaaaaMany people consider listening is an essential skill when compare with other
skills for instance writing reading speaking This idea was supported by the study of
Petchkij The study showed the problems of ward nurses in private hospitals in Bangkok
in communicating English with foreign patients It revealed that listening is the important
aspect to achieve their communications The researcher pointed that most samples
spent most of their times on listening to instruction management of conflict routine
information exchange advising small group communication persuading giving orders
and public speaking From the findings speaking and listening skills are the skills most
frequently used by nurses to accomplish their work objectives (Petchkij 2001 p 21)
The answer might result from peoplersquos awareness According to the communication a
vital part of our every life it mostly involves with oral communication which composed of
listening and speaking Every activity and situation in oral communication concerned with
listening begins since we were born Most people assume that listening is an automatic
they can hear or can listen all the times but in speaking they cannot Consequently
listening becomes the critical skill for the communication Listening Problems
aaaaaaaTo acquire EFL listening skill language learners have to encounter with many
problems which correlated with the study of Pengsritong about problems of English
listening of Ramkhamheang University students The findings indicated that the
experience in using English showed the difference in listening results and the frequency
in practicing listening skills of students show the difference in listening results
(Pengsritong 2001 Online)
aaaaaaaIn addition Hason studied the difficulties of listening and discovered that some
problems in listening are related to the speed of delivery and the language used by the
speaker Since these are outside the learners control the learner cannot keep up with
the speaker Consequently the listener fails to understand the whole meaning of the text
21
Being unfamiliar with the sounds stress and intonation of naturally spoken English the
learner also faces obstacles especially if the speaker has a different accent (Hason
2000 Online)
aaaaaaaOther problems are due to a lack of concentration distractions inside and
outside the classroom the tendency of the listener to try to understand every thing in the
listening text
Listening Strategies aaaaaaaThere are many strategies for language learners to utilize in order to develop
their listening According to the study of Tienttaeng-Ngam about the communicative
strategies of foreign exchange officers it showed that the subjects applied many
listening strategies such as observation to customersrsquo body language asking questions
asking customers to speak slowly Repeating what customers say to ensure mutual
understanding and writing down messages to show to customers (Tienttaeng-Ngam
2001 pp 72-73)
aaaaaaaBesides other researchers also suggested other dissimilar strategy which is
watching DVDs or soundtrack movies Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong
studied on the impacts of reaching EFL listening through DVD-based films It was found
that students statistically improved their listening ability and their attitudes toward
learning listening through the innovative teaching method were very positive The finding
suggested that DVD-based films are helpful for studentsrsquo listening improvement The
researcher has used DVDs to help students learn how to express themselves orally in
English (Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong 2006 pp 42-49)
aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher Elvin studied about listening in English with
English subtitles it was the most popular choice among my students Students showed
significant improvement in listening and reading comprehension as well as word
remembrance and vocabulary acquisition (Elvin 2004 Online) Moreover the survey
investigated studentsrsquo preferred audio and subtitle options and sequences for studying
aural English using DVD when a repeated viewing strategy is employed The finding
22
reveals that almost all of the students want to listen to English every time the DVD is
played
aaaaaaaOn the other hand the problems such as subtitles that shown on the screen are
not the same as what is being said can occur The students feel worry about specific
words and phrases students want to read and listen for general understanding at the
same time Sometimes it is hard to know that the students understand the meaning
through the listening or through reading the subtitles or just looking the visuals
(Helgesen 2004 unpaged)
aaaaaaaBased on the findings of some researchers they proposed the guidelines of
listening activities for solving learnersrsquo problems of listening comprehension which is very
useful for EFL teachers They consisted of three stages as follows (Hason 2000 Online)
(Pospieszynska 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaPre-listening
aaaaaaaIn real life situations a listener almost always knows in advance what is going to
be said who is speaking or what the subject is going to be about The pre-listening
stage helps learners to find out the aim of listening and provides the background
information
aaaaaaaaaaaaDiscussion starting a discussion about the topic (possibly based on
visuals and titles) then let the students think about a suitable topic of conversation and
the teacher encourages them to exchange ideas and opinions about the topic
aaaaaaaaabaaPrediction asking the students to predict the content or what speakers
are going to say based on the information in discussion section
aaaaaaaaacaaQuestions guessing and preparing some questions to be answered
during listening to the passage
Aaaaaaa2aaWhile-listening or listening in progress
aaaaaaaThis stage concerned about all tasks that students are asked to do during the
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaIdentifying the idea students jot down main points and key words
23
aaaaaaaaabaaIdentifying features of natural input students listen to natural oral
discourse They are asked to classify stress patterns intonation etc aaaaaaaaacaaFilling in gaps while listening to a dialogue students hear only the
utterances of one speaker and are asked to write down the word or sentence
aaaaaaaaadaaFilling in blanks of a transcript of a spoken text with the words missing
(eg lyrics of a song) aaaaaaaaaeaaInformation search listening for specific items eg answer a particular
question from the pre-listening stage
aaaaaaa3aaPost-listening
aaaaaaaThe post-listening stage includes all the exercises which are completed after
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaEvaluation students answer true-false questions or multiple-choice
questions as an evaluation of their understanding
aaaaaaaaabaaSpeaking students act as a role play or interview on topics related to the
text
aaaaaaaaacaaWriting students write postcards letters etc on topics related to the text
aaaaaaaTo summarize accessing to the target language is not the simply exploit of EFL
learners Therefore the learners have to realize the importance of listening skill Their
capacity to arouse the learnersrsquo motivation and their potential to engage the learners in a
variety of fruitful activities and listening development strategies related to aural
perception in the target language can hardly be denied It is therefore the language
learners who want to develop their listening skill should analysis their listening problems
first and then apply the appropriate strategies to be proper with their learning style
which could lead the learner to be more successful in the communication world
- COVER
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
- Abstract
- CONTENT
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- APPENDIX
- BIOGRAPHY
-
9
aaaaaaaOn the other hand Nunan claimed that the top-down processing refers to
interpreting meaning as intended by the speakers by means of structures of data in the
mind (Kusumarasdyati 2004 p2) This view highlights the importance of background
knowledge already possessed by the learners in making sense of the information they
hear In the aural perception prior knowledge may help their attempt to grab the
received information by relating the familiar with the new one and mainly the lack of such
knowledge can impede their efforts to understand a particular utterance Therefore
learners are comfortable to performing this processing by extracting the general idea of
the exchange they listen to The picture is shown in Figure 1
Bottom-up
Processing
Top-down
Processing
Identification of Details and
Facts (DETAIL)
Recognition of Supporting Ideas (SUPPORT)
Identification of Controlling
Idea or Topic (GIST)
Inferences that are Text-
Based about Content and
Relationships (TEXT INF)
Deduction of Vocabulary through Context (VOCAB)
Interferences about Speakersrsquo
Attitudes and Pragmatic Meaning
(PRAG INF)
Figure 1 Operationlization of a Model of
Second Language Listening Comprehension
(Wagner 2002 Online)
10
aaaaaaaThis view of listening comprehension is in accordance with second-language
theory which views listening to spoken language as an active and a complex process in
which listeners focus on selected aspects of aural input construct meaning and relate
what they hear to existing knowledgerdquo (Hason 2000 Online) It should be also made
clear that learnersrsquo perceptions of their listening problems may or may not correspond to
what actually happens as different factors which the listener may not be aware of may
interact and influence learnersrsquo perceptions The listener however might identify one
factor among others which he thinks can be behind some of his listening problems
aaaaaaaCamp and Sattlewhite also suggested the listening model which has four
components The picture is shown in Figure 2 (Camp amp Satterwhite 1988 pp 64-65)
Hearing
Listening
Interpreting
Retaining
Figure 2 The Listening Model
(Camp amp Satterwhite 1988 pp 64-65)
aaaaaaa1aaHearing it is the physiological aspect of listening Hearing is non selective
process of sound waves impinging on the ear and the ear responding to those waves
that fall within a certain frequency range and are sufficiently loud For example the
listener may hear a nearby conversation or the hum of a computer without focusing on
these sounds
aaaaaaa2aaListening the act of filtering out interruptions to allow the listener to
comprehend the meaning of sounds For example when you ask someone question
then you listen for a response
aaaaaaa3aaInterpretation a mental function whereby you analyze the sounds that you
comprehended You relate your experience with what you have heard
aaaaaaa4aaRetaining the ability to recall information or the act of remembering the
interpreted sounds for later use
11
Importance of listening
aaaaaaaListening requires effort and concentration and it is difficult to know whether
someone is listening what the speaker says or not If the listeners are not ready to listen
the failure of listening will occur The importance of effective listening poor listening skills
can create serious problems For student poor listening can result in lower grades
incorrect assignments lost job opportunities etc When you are not talking or reading
mostly you are listening to something or someone
aaaaaaaThere are several language experts who support the idea of the importance of
listening that people spent most of their time on listening Wilt found that 45 percent of
communication was spent listening 30 percent speaking 16 percent reading and 9
percent writing (Hyslop amp Tone 1988 Online) The chart is shown in Figure 3 Moreover
the study of Adler amp Rodman found that college students spent average of their
communication time composed of 14 percent writing 16 percent speaking 17 percent
reading and a whopping 53 percent listening (Adler amp Rodman 1976 p 74) People
become conscious that listening is the most frequent type of communication behavior
Baker and several colleagues found that college students spend nearly half of their
communication time listening or 42-53 30-32 speaking 15-17 reading and 11-14
writing (Seiler amp Beall 1999 p 135) Because is such a routine Few people think of
developing their listening skills In fact businesses lose millions of dollars each year
because of a failure to listen to and understand customersrsquo needs Effective listeners
welcome new information and new idea to create and adapt to apply with their lives
Same to the survey of graduates from a major university who were professional and
business people all wished they had more training in listening They believed that
effective listening leads to job success (Thill amp Bovee 2002 p 117)
12
05
1015202530354045
Writing Reading Speaking Listening
Time()
Figure 3 The Communication Time of People
(Hyslop amp Tone 1988 Online)
aaaaaaaAccording to Nunan amp Miller there are four main importance of listening in
second and foreign language learning which are firstly listening is vital in the language
classroom It provides input for the learner Any learning basically cannot begin without
understanding input at the right level Secondly spoken language gives a mean of
interaction for the learner Learners must cooperate to achieve understanding access to
speakers of the language is necessary Furthermore learnersrsquo failure to understanding
the language they hear is a drive not a barrier to interaction and learning Thirdly
authentic spoken language shows a challenge for the learner to try to comprehend
language as native speakers actually use it Lastly teacher can use listening exercises
to draw learnersrsquo attention to new forms (vocabulary grammar new interaction patterns)
in the language (Nunan amp Miller 1995 p 211)
aaaaaaaThere are many levels of involvement in listening which depended on different
kinds of situations as shown in Figure 4 a continuum that runs from minimum to
maximum involvement
13
Listening for
Evaluation
Listening for
Understanding
Levels of Receiver Involvement in Various Situations LEAST
Involvement
MOST
Involvement
Listening
for Pleasure Hearing
Listening to Remember
Figure 4 Levels of Involvement in Listening Situation
(Taylor et al 1986 p 143) aaaaaaa1aaHearingrdquoHearing is little more than being in range of and receiving soundrdquo
(Taylor et al 1986 p 143) We may not pay attention to sounds we hear except calling
our attention Environmental sounds and surroundings music usually are heard not listen
to When we turn on the radio and then go to have a conversation with friends you
usually will not even become aware of hearing the sounds
aaaaaaa2aaListening for pleasure It involves more personal participation than hearing
ldquoWe receive sounds more consciously and actively decoderdquo (Taylor et al 1986 p 143)
We may listen to music to a speech or to television and radio at the level of listening for
pleasure
aaaaaaa3aaListening to understand This stage requires a upper degree of involvement
We try to understand all the messages we receive and give the feedback back to the
source of messages It usually occurs with friends and family in informal setting or in
school talking to friends and listening to professorrsquos lectures or in public communication
(Taylor et al 1986 pp 144-145)
aaaaaaa4aaListening to evaluate It needs high involvement of receiver because many
features of listening to understand involve This stage goes further than understanding
for the reason that it has to analyze the received messages to decide how credible and
meaningful they are before responding (Taylor et al 1986 p 144)
14
aaaaaaa5aaListening to remember We frequently want to remember as much as we
can at all stage of listening Remembering is essential for both understanding and
evaluation It has need of special effort to accomplish this level of receiver involvement in
listening situation (Taylor et al 1986 p 144)
aaaaaaaMoreover Rost commented that listening is used in language teaching It helps
learners to comprehend spoken language Listening is not only a critical means of
acquiring a second language but also a skill area in language performance (Rost 1990
p 7) Purpose of Listening
aaaaaaaListeners do not pay attention to everything they listen selectively according to
the purpose of the task This in turn determines the type of listening required and the
way in which listeners will approach a task According to Richards he differentiated
between an interactional and a transactional purpose for communication Interactional
use of language is socially oriented to please the social needs of the participants eg
small talk and casual conversations Therefore interactional listening is highly
contextualized and two-way involving interaction with a speaker A transactional use of
language on the other hand is more message-oriented and is used primarily to
communicate information eg news broadcasts and lectures In contrast with
interactional listening transactional listening requires correct comprehension of a
message with no opportunity for clarification with a speaker or one-way listening
(Richards 1990 unpaged) Knowing the communicative purpose of a text or utterance
will help the listener decide what to listen for and thus which processes to start As with
the advantages of knowing the context knowing the purpose for listening also really
reduces the load of comprehension since listeners know that they need to listen for
something very specific instead of trying to comprehend every word
aaaaaaaMoreover there are three general purposes of listening The first purpose is to
understand ideas When we listen to understand we listen for the main idea or central
concepts The listener seeks to identify key words and phrases that will help them to
15
summarize the concepts being discussed The second purpose is to retain information
Once the listeners are able to focus your attention on what another person is saying and
they are able to understand what the person has said they are ready to move their
listening to the next level which called ldquoListening to retainrdquo If you retain what you hear
you must learn The last purpose is to analyze and evaluate content This purpose is
greater skill than retention When listener learns to analyze and evaluate content
successfully the learner can find the gaps in the arguments and statements the listener
encounters during interpersonal communication (Gamble amp Gamble 1987 pp 91-96) Listening Problems
aaaaaaaAcquiring EFL listening skills is one of the most difficult tasks for any learners
According to study of Hason and Osada can be summarized into 5 main listening
problems related to the speaker as follows (Hason 2000 Online) (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaIt is difficult to understand natural speech which is full of hesitation and
pauses The learners usually get used to listening to tape cassettes teacherrsquos speech
which slower and easier than the natural speech in real life
aaaaaaa2aaIt is difficult to understand the meaning of words which are not pronounced
clearly such as the word ldquothe teacherrdquo and ldquoT-shirtrdquo
aaaaaaa3aaIt is difficult to understand the meaning of the spoken text without seeing the
speakerrsquos body language Most people want to see the mouth of the speaker to catch the
pronunciation and translate the meaning of words or see the body language like the
hands eyes to get the meaning
aaaaaaa4aaIt is difficult to understand well when speakers speak too fast The listeners
especially L2 learners try to catch every word therefore they cannot get the main idea
aaaaaaa5aaIt is difficult to understand well when speakers speak with varied accents
Learners tend to be used to their teacherrsquos accent or to the standard variety of British or
American English They find it is quite hard to understand speakers with other accents
aaaaaaaFrom the study of many researchers about listening problems related to the
listener can be concentrated in to ten main problems as follows
16
aaaaaaa1aaListeners cannot control the speed of the deliveryrdquo Many English language
learners believe that the greatest difficulty with listening comprehension is listeners
cannot control how quickly a speaker speaks (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa2aaListeners cannot always have words repeated This is a serious problem
because the listeners cannot replay the speech Itrsquos hard for the speakers to judge
whether the listeners understand what they say or not (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa3aaListeners have a limited vocabulary The speaker may focus on the words
the listener does not know and it can make the listeners to miss the next part of the
speech (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa4aaListeners may fail to recognize the signal which indicates that the speaker
is moving from one point to another giving example or repeating a point The listeners
can notice some markers like ldquosecondlyrdquo or ldquothenrdquo the body language the different
intonation and the gestures (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa5aaListeners may lack related knowledge If the listeners have some relevant
knowledge then it can make the communication easier (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa6aaIt can be difficult for the listeners to concentrate in a foreign language
Students sometimes feel listening is very tiring even if they are interested because it
requires a strong effort to follow the meaning (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa7aaListeners may have their own certain habits such as wish to understand
every word By tradition teachers want students to understand every word they hear by
repeating and pronouncing words carefully and slowly Therefore students tend to
become worried if they fail to understand a particular words or phrases and they will feel
bored and tired to dealing with listening (Hason 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa8aaListeners are out listening It means you let your mind wander to things You
do not remember what the speaker actually said but you remember what you think the
speaker probably said (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
aaaaaaa9aaPrejudgment It is the most common barrier Most people must have some
assumption in their mind They try to defend other personrsquos opinions or views They think
that every comment as a personal attack (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
17
aaaaaaa10aaSelf-centeredness It causes people to take control of conversation rather
than listening to what is being said They think that they know more than the speaker and
determine to prove it (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
Listening Strategies
aaaaaaaListening ability like speaking reading and writing abilities can be improved
There are some guidelines which should be of considerable value if followed According
to the study of DeVito there are six listening strategies as follows (DeVito 1978 pp 145-
153)
aaaaaaa1aaListening for recognition It is not a passive activity it is not a process that
will happen if we simply do nothing to stop it We may hear without effort but we cannot
listen without effort Listening is a difficult process In speaking we can control the
situation we can talk about what we like in the way we like In listening however we are
forced to follow the pace the content and the language set by the speaker Perhaps the
best preparation for active listening is to act like an active listener
aaaaaaa2aaListening for the total meaning The total meaning is not only in the words
used but also in the nonverbal behavior of the speaker Listen for main ideas
connections between ideas and important details Listen answers to these questions
related to the topic Who What Where Why How
aaaaaaa3aaListening with empathy The listener needs to feel what the speaker feels
we need to empathize with the speaker If the listeners understand the feeling of what
speakers say then the listeners can easily understand the real intended meaning of the
speakers aaaaaaa4aaListening with an open mind It is not easy to do or listen to criticisms of
what we think is just great If the listeners cannot accept the otherrsquos opinions then the
listeners will try to avoid listening which makes them not understand the meaning of the
message
18
aaaaaaa5aaTaking selective notes To remind your remembrance and the key words
that helping your understanding This strategy is very useful for the listeners especially
the students who study second language They can look at the note whenever they want
aaaaaaa6aaAsking questions The listener can ensure your own understanding of the
speakerrsquos thoughts and feelings by using this technique However your questions should
support the speakerrsquos feelings and thoughts and confirm your interest
aaaaaaaIn addition from the study of Noonan there are two more strategies of EFL
listening as follows (Noonan 2005 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaSpending more time to practice The person who takes time to practice
language the more knowledge and improvement they gain Moreover the person who
has confidence will be easier to practice English and develop their listening and
speaking skills quickly
aaaaaaa2aaBehaving like a good listener such as stop talking listener cannot listen
when you are talking Listener will only be thinking about what you are going to say next
instead of paying attention to what the other person is trying to say consciously focus
the attention on the speaker pay attention to the speakers do not interrupt allow plenty
of time for the speaker to convey ideas and meaning Be courteous and give the speaker
adequate time to present the full message concentrate on what is being said react to
the idea expressed and look at a speaker
aaaaaaaBesides EFL listeners can use following websites on the internet to practice their
listening skills by listening to online TV or radio stations which offer online broadcast
aaaaaaa1aaBBC This site provides information on frequency and program schedule for
learning English through BBC radio program (httpwwwbbccoukworldservice
learningenglishradioindexshtml)
aaaaaaa2aaCNN This site offers free viewing of news videos on the international edition
of the cnncom site (httpeditioncnncomvideo)
aaaaaaa3aaVoice of America Choose NewsNow for live broadcasts Try the Special
English section and click on the Feature scripts (httpwwwvoagov)
aaaaaaaIf the language learners want to practice their listening on the internet the
19
following sites are designed especially for non-native speakers of English They may
have graded activities transcripts exercises and answers
aaaaaaa1aaESLnotescom This website offers notes and English language resources
for movies (httpwwweslnotescom)
aaaaaaa2aaEveryday English in Conversation Try a variety of everyday conversation
topics with scripts (httpwwwfocusenglishcomdialogues conversationhtml)
aaaaaaa3aaLearn English by the British Council Listen to songs read lyrics and do
activities (httpwwwlearnenglishorguksongsindexasp)
aaaaaaa4aaCharles Kellys Quizzes Based on VOAs Special English Programs
Program scripts audio files and grammarvocabulary quizzes are based on Voice of
Americas Special English programs A variety of topics are offered
(httpwwwmanythingsorgvoa) aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher recommended the dissimilar strategy for instance
paired listening in second language (L2) listening instruction (Fernandez-Toro 2005 p
4) The EFL teachers can implement this strategy for their instructions Listening to
recording allows listeners to control the tape by going back to difficult parts of the
message This approach can help reduce anxiety because responsibility for the task is
shared with a partner The method also gives the learners the chance to cooperate in
order to learn more efficiently through shared scaffolding The theory of scaffolding was
proposed by Evelyn Hatch refers to the cooperative attempt between learners and their
interlocutors in building discourse (Ellis 2002 p 48) This principle helps the learners to
listen to the message and then produce utterance they would not be able to produce on
their own
Related Studies
aaaaaaaMany researchers studied EFL listening in many aspects There were three main
research areas which related with this study They concerned about importance of
listening listening problems and listening strategies
20
Listening Comprehension
aaaaaaaMany people consider listening is an essential skill when compare with other
skills for instance writing reading speaking This idea was supported by the study of
Petchkij The study showed the problems of ward nurses in private hospitals in Bangkok
in communicating English with foreign patients It revealed that listening is the important
aspect to achieve their communications The researcher pointed that most samples
spent most of their times on listening to instruction management of conflict routine
information exchange advising small group communication persuading giving orders
and public speaking From the findings speaking and listening skills are the skills most
frequently used by nurses to accomplish their work objectives (Petchkij 2001 p 21)
The answer might result from peoplersquos awareness According to the communication a
vital part of our every life it mostly involves with oral communication which composed of
listening and speaking Every activity and situation in oral communication concerned with
listening begins since we were born Most people assume that listening is an automatic
they can hear or can listen all the times but in speaking they cannot Consequently
listening becomes the critical skill for the communication Listening Problems
aaaaaaaTo acquire EFL listening skill language learners have to encounter with many
problems which correlated with the study of Pengsritong about problems of English
listening of Ramkhamheang University students The findings indicated that the
experience in using English showed the difference in listening results and the frequency
in practicing listening skills of students show the difference in listening results
(Pengsritong 2001 Online)
aaaaaaaIn addition Hason studied the difficulties of listening and discovered that some
problems in listening are related to the speed of delivery and the language used by the
speaker Since these are outside the learners control the learner cannot keep up with
the speaker Consequently the listener fails to understand the whole meaning of the text
21
Being unfamiliar with the sounds stress and intonation of naturally spoken English the
learner also faces obstacles especially if the speaker has a different accent (Hason
2000 Online)
aaaaaaaOther problems are due to a lack of concentration distractions inside and
outside the classroom the tendency of the listener to try to understand every thing in the
listening text
Listening Strategies aaaaaaaThere are many strategies for language learners to utilize in order to develop
their listening According to the study of Tienttaeng-Ngam about the communicative
strategies of foreign exchange officers it showed that the subjects applied many
listening strategies such as observation to customersrsquo body language asking questions
asking customers to speak slowly Repeating what customers say to ensure mutual
understanding and writing down messages to show to customers (Tienttaeng-Ngam
2001 pp 72-73)
aaaaaaaBesides other researchers also suggested other dissimilar strategy which is
watching DVDs or soundtrack movies Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong
studied on the impacts of reaching EFL listening through DVD-based films It was found
that students statistically improved their listening ability and their attitudes toward
learning listening through the innovative teaching method were very positive The finding
suggested that DVD-based films are helpful for studentsrsquo listening improvement The
researcher has used DVDs to help students learn how to express themselves orally in
English (Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong 2006 pp 42-49)
aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher Elvin studied about listening in English with
English subtitles it was the most popular choice among my students Students showed
significant improvement in listening and reading comprehension as well as word
remembrance and vocabulary acquisition (Elvin 2004 Online) Moreover the survey
investigated studentsrsquo preferred audio and subtitle options and sequences for studying
aural English using DVD when a repeated viewing strategy is employed The finding
22
reveals that almost all of the students want to listen to English every time the DVD is
played
aaaaaaaOn the other hand the problems such as subtitles that shown on the screen are
not the same as what is being said can occur The students feel worry about specific
words and phrases students want to read and listen for general understanding at the
same time Sometimes it is hard to know that the students understand the meaning
through the listening or through reading the subtitles or just looking the visuals
(Helgesen 2004 unpaged)
aaaaaaaBased on the findings of some researchers they proposed the guidelines of
listening activities for solving learnersrsquo problems of listening comprehension which is very
useful for EFL teachers They consisted of three stages as follows (Hason 2000 Online)
(Pospieszynska 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaPre-listening
aaaaaaaIn real life situations a listener almost always knows in advance what is going to
be said who is speaking or what the subject is going to be about The pre-listening
stage helps learners to find out the aim of listening and provides the background
information
aaaaaaaaaaaaDiscussion starting a discussion about the topic (possibly based on
visuals and titles) then let the students think about a suitable topic of conversation and
the teacher encourages them to exchange ideas and opinions about the topic
aaaaaaaaabaaPrediction asking the students to predict the content or what speakers
are going to say based on the information in discussion section
aaaaaaaaacaaQuestions guessing and preparing some questions to be answered
during listening to the passage
Aaaaaaa2aaWhile-listening or listening in progress
aaaaaaaThis stage concerned about all tasks that students are asked to do during the
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaIdentifying the idea students jot down main points and key words
23
aaaaaaaaabaaIdentifying features of natural input students listen to natural oral
discourse They are asked to classify stress patterns intonation etc aaaaaaaaacaaFilling in gaps while listening to a dialogue students hear only the
utterances of one speaker and are asked to write down the word or sentence
aaaaaaaaadaaFilling in blanks of a transcript of a spoken text with the words missing
(eg lyrics of a song) aaaaaaaaaeaaInformation search listening for specific items eg answer a particular
question from the pre-listening stage
aaaaaaa3aaPost-listening
aaaaaaaThe post-listening stage includes all the exercises which are completed after
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaEvaluation students answer true-false questions or multiple-choice
questions as an evaluation of their understanding
aaaaaaaaabaaSpeaking students act as a role play or interview on topics related to the
text
aaaaaaaaacaaWriting students write postcards letters etc on topics related to the text
aaaaaaaTo summarize accessing to the target language is not the simply exploit of EFL
learners Therefore the learners have to realize the importance of listening skill Their
capacity to arouse the learnersrsquo motivation and their potential to engage the learners in a
variety of fruitful activities and listening development strategies related to aural
perception in the target language can hardly be denied It is therefore the language
learners who want to develop their listening skill should analysis their listening problems
first and then apply the appropriate strategies to be proper with their learning style
which could lead the learner to be more successful in the communication world
- COVER
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
- Abstract
- CONTENT
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- APPENDIX
- BIOGRAPHY
-
10
aaaaaaaThis view of listening comprehension is in accordance with second-language
theory which views listening to spoken language as an active and a complex process in
which listeners focus on selected aspects of aural input construct meaning and relate
what they hear to existing knowledgerdquo (Hason 2000 Online) It should be also made
clear that learnersrsquo perceptions of their listening problems may or may not correspond to
what actually happens as different factors which the listener may not be aware of may
interact and influence learnersrsquo perceptions The listener however might identify one
factor among others which he thinks can be behind some of his listening problems
aaaaaaaCamp and Sattlewhite also suggested the listening model which has four
components The picture is shown in Figure 2 (Camp amp Satterwhite 1988 pp 64-65)
Hearing
Listening
Interpreting
Retaining
Figure 2 The Listening Model
(Camp amp Satterwhite 1988 pp 64-65)
aaaaaaa1aaHearing it is the physiological aspect of listening Hearing is non selective
process of sound waves impinging on the ear and the ear responding to those waves
that fall within a certain frequency range and are sufficiently loud For example the
listener may hear a nearby conversation or the hum of a computer without focusing on
these sounds
aaaaaaa2aaListening the act of filtering out interruptions to allow the listener to
comprehend the meaning of sounds For example when you ask someone question
then you listen for a response
aaaaaaa3aaInterpretation a mental function whereby you analyze the sounds that you
comprehended You relate your experience with what you have heard
aaaaaaa4aaRetaining the ability to recall information or the act of remembering the
interpreted sounds for later use
11
Importance of listening
aaaaaaaListening requires effort and concentration and it is difficult to know whether
someone is listening what the speaker says or not If the listeners are not ready to listen
the failure of listening will occur The importance of effective listening poor listening skills
can create serious problems For student poor listening can result in lower grades
incorrect assignments lost job opportunities etc When you are not talking or reading
mostly you are listening to something or someone
aaaaaaaThere are several language experts who support the idea of the importance of
listening that people spent most of their time on listening Wilt found that 45 percent of
communication was spent listening 30 percent speaking 16 percent reading and 9
percent writing (Hyslop amp Tone 1988 Online) The chart is shown in Figure 3 Moreover
the study of Adler amp Rodman found that college students spent average of their
communication time composed of 14 percent writing 16 percent speaking 17 percent
reading and a whopping 53 percent listening (Adler amp Rodman 1976 p 74) People
become conscious that listening is the most frequent type of communication behavior
Baker and several colleagues found that college students spend nearly half of their
communication time listening or 42-53 30-32 speaking 15-17 reading and 11-14
writing (Seiler amp Beall 1999 p 135) Because is such a routine Few people think of
developing their listening skills In fact businesses lose millions of dollars each year
because of a failure to listen to and understand customersrsquo needs Effective listeners
welcome new information and new idea to create and adapt to apply with their lives
Same to the survey of graduates from a major university who were professional and
business people all wished they had more training in listening They believed that
effective listening leads to job success (Thill amp Bovee 2002 p 117)
12
05
1015202530354045
Writing Reading Speaking Listening
Time()
Figure 3 The Communication Time of People
(Hyslop amp Tone 1988 Online)
aaaaaaaAccording to Nunan amp Miller there are four main importance of listening in
second and foreign language learning which are firstly listening is vital in the language
classroom It provides input for the learner Any learning basically cannot begin without
understanding input at the right level Secondly spoken language gives a mean of
interaction for the learner Learners must cooperate to achieve understanding access to
speakers of the language is necessary Furthermore learnersrsquo failure to understanding
the language they hear is a drive not a barrier to interaction and learning Thirdly
authentic spoken language shows a challenge for the learner to try to comprehend
language as native speakers actually use it Lastly teacher can use listening exercises
to draw learnersrsquo attention to new forms (vocabulary grammar new interaction patterns)
in the language (Nunan amp Miller 1995 p 211)
aaaaaaaThere are many levels of involvement in listening which depended on different
kinds of situations as shown in Figure 4 a continuum that runs from minimum to
maximum involvement
13
Listening for
Evaluation
Listening for
Understanding
Levels of Receiver Involvement in Various Situations LEAST
Involvement
MOST
Involvement
Listening
for Pleasure Hearing
Listening to Remember
Figure 4 Levels of Involvement in Listening Situation
(Taylor et al 1986 p 143) aaaaaaa1aaHearingrdquoHearing is little more than being in range of and receiving soundrdquo
(Taylor et al 1986 p 143) We may not pay attention to sounds we hear except calling
our attention Environmental sounds and surroundings music usually are heard not listen
to When we turn on the radio and then go to have a conversation with friends you
usually will not even become aware of hearing the sounds
aaaaaaa2aaListening for pleasure It involves more personal participation than hearing
ldquoWe receive sounds more consciously and actively decoderdquo (Taylor et al 1986 p 143)
We may listen to music to a speech or to television and radio at the level of listening for
pleasure
aaaaaaa3aaListening to understand This stage requires a upper degree of involvement
We try to understand all the messages we receive and give the feedback back to the
source of messages It usually occurs with friends and family in informal setting or in
school talking to friends and listening to professorrsquos lectures or in public communication
(Taylor et al 1986 pp 144-145)
aaaaaaa4aaListening to evaluate It needs high involvement of receiver because many
features of listening to understand involve This stage goes further than understanding
for the reason that it has to analyze the received messages to decide how credible and
meaningful they are before responding (Taylor et al 1986 p 144)
14
aaaaaaa5aaListening to remember We frequently want to remember as much as we
can at all stage of listening Remembering is essential for both understanding and
evaluation It has need of special effort to accomplish this level of receiver involvement in
listening situation (Taylor et al 1986 p 144)
aaaaaaaMoreover Rost commented that listening is used in language teaching It helps
learners to comprehend spoken language Listening is not only a critical means of
acquiring a second language but also a skill area in language performance (Rost 1990
p 7) Purpose of Listening
aaaaaaaListeners do not pay attention to everything they listen selectively according to
the purpose of the task This in turn determines the type of listening required and the
way in which listeners will approach a task According to Richards he differentiated
between an interactional and a transactional purpose for communication Interactional
use of language is socially oriented to please the social needs of the participants eg
small talk and casual conversations Therefore interactional listening is highly
contextualized and two-way involving interaction with a speaker A transactional use of
language on the other hand is more message-oriented and is used primarily to
communicate information eg news broadcasts and lectures In contrast with
interactional listening transactional listening requires correct comprehension of a
message with no opportunity for clarification with a speaker or one-way listening
(Richards 1990 unpaged) Knowing the communicative purpose of a text or utterance
will help the listener decide what to listen for and thus which processes to start As with
the advantages of knowing the context knowing the purpose for listening also really
reduces the load of comprehension since listeners know that they need to listen for
something very specific instead of trying to comprehend every word
aaaaaaaMoreover there are three general purposes of listening The first purpose is to
understand ideas When we listen to understand we listen for the main idea or central
concepts The listener seeks to identify key words and phrases that will help them to
15
summarize the concepts being discussed The second purpose is to retain information
Once the listeners are able to focus your attention on what another person is saying and
they are able to understand what the person has said they are ready to move their
listening to the next level which called ldquoListening to retainrdquo If you retain what you hear
you must learn The last purpose is to analyze and evaluate content This purpose is
greater skill than retention When listener learns to analyze and evaluate content
successfully the learner can find the gaps in the arguments and statements the listener
encounters during interpersonal communication (Gamble amp Gamble 1987 pp 91-96) Listening Problems
aaaaaaaAcquiring EFL listening skills is one of the most difficult tasks for any learners
According to study of Hason and Osada can be summarized into 5 main listening
problems related to the speaker as follows (Hason 2000 Online) (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaIt is difficult to understand natural speech which is full of hesitation and
pauses The learners usually get used to listening to tape cassettes teacherrsquos speech
which slower and easier than the natural speech in real life
aaaaaaa2aaIt is difficult to understand the meaning of words which are not pronounced
clearly such as the word ldquothe teacherrdquo and ldquoT-shirtrdquo
aaaaaaa3aaIt is difficult to understand the meaning of the spoken text without seeing the
speakerrsquos body language Most people want to see the mouth of the speaker to catch the
pronunciation and translate the meaning of words or see the body language like the
hands eyes to get the meaning
aaaaaaa4aaIt is difficult to understand well when speakers speak too fast The listeners
especially L2 learners try to catch every word therefore they cannot get the main idea
aaaaaaa5aaIt is difficult to understand well when speakers speak with varied accents
Learners tend to be used to their teacherrsquos accent or to the standard variety of British or
American English They find it is quite hard to understand speakers with other accents
aaaaaaaFrom the study of many researchers about listening problems related to the
listener can be concentrated in to ten main problems as follows
16
aaaaaaa1aaListeners cannot control the speed of the deliveryrdquo Many English language
learners believe that the greatest difficulty with listening comprehension is listeners
cannot control how quickly a speaker speaks (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa2aaListeners cannot always have words repeated This is a serious problem
because the listeners cannot replay the speech Itrsquos hard for the speakers to judge
whether the listeners understand what they say or not (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa3aaListeners have a limited vocabulary The speaker may focus on the words
the listener does not know and it can make the listeners to miss the next part of the
speech (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa4aaListeners may fail to recognize the signal which indicates that the speaker
is moving from one point to another giving example or repeating a point The listeners
can notice some markers like ldquosecondlyrdquo or ldquothenrdquo the body language the different
intonation and the gestures (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa5aaListeners may lack related knowledge If the listeners have some relevant
knowledge then it can make the communication easier (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa6aaIt can be difficult for the listeners to concentrate in a foreign language
Students sometimes feel listening is very tiring even if they are interested because it
requires a strong effort to follow the meaning (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa7aaListeners may have their own certain habits such as wish to understand
every word By tradition teachers want students to understand every word they hear by
repeating and pronouncing words carefully and slowly Therefore students tend to
become worried if they fail to understand a particular words or phrases and they will feel
bored and tired to dealing with listening (Hason 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa8aaListeners are out listening It means you let your mind wander to things You
do not remember what the speaker actually said but you remember what you think the
speaker probably said (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
aaaaaaa9aaPrejudgment It is the most common barrier Most people must have some
assumption in their mind They try to defend other personrsquos opinions or views They think
that every comment as a personal attack (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
17
aaaaaaa10aaSelf-centeredness It causes people to take control of conversation rather
than listening to what is being said They think that they know more than the speaker and
determine to prove it (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
Listening Strategies
aaaaaaaListening ability like speaking reading and writing abilities can be improved
There are some guidelines which should be of considerable value if followed According
to the study of DeVito there are six listening strategies as follows (DeVito 1978 pp 145-
153)
aaaaaaa1aaListening for recognition It is not a passive activity it is not a process that
will happen if we simply do nothing to stop it We may hear without effort but we cannot
listen without effort Listening is a difficult process In speaking we can control the
situation we can talk about what we like in the way we like In listening however we are
forced to follow the pace the content and the language set by the speaker Perhaps the
best preparation for active listening is to act like an active listener
aaaaaaa2aaListening for the total meaning The total meaning is not only in the words
used but also in the nonverbal behavior of the speaker Listen for main ideas
connections between ideas and important details Listen answers to these questions
related to the topic Who What Where Why How
aaaaaaa3aaListening with empathy The listener needs to feel what the speaker feels
we need to empathize with the speaker If the listeners understand the feeling of what
speakers say then the listeners can easily understand the real intended meaning of the
speakers aaaaaaa4aaListening with an open mind It is not easy to do or listen to criticisms of
what we think is just great If the listeners cannot accept the otherrsquos opinions then the
listeners will try to avoid listening which makes them not understand the meaning of the
message
18
aaaaaaa5aaTaking selective notes To remind your remembrance and the key words
that helping your understanding This strategy is very useful for the listeners especially
the students who study second language They can look at the note whenever they want
aaaaaaa6aaAsking questions The listener can ensure your own understanding of the
speakerrsquos thoughts and feelings by using this technique However your questions should
support the speakerrsquos feelings and thoughts and confirm your interest
aaaaaaaIn addition from the study of Noonan there are two more strategies of EFL
listening as follows (Noonan 2005 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaSpending more time to practice The person who takes time to practice
language the more knowledge and improvement they gain Moreover the person who
has confidence will be easier to practice English and develop their listening and
speaking skills quickly
aaaaaaa2aaBehaving like a good listener such as stop talking listener cannot listen
when you are talking Listener will only be thinking about what you are going to say next
instead of paying attention to what the other person is trying to say consciously focus
the attention on the speaker pay attention to the speakers do not interrupt allow plenty
of time for the speaker to convey ideas and meaning Be courteous and give the speaker
adequate time to present the full message concentrate on what is being said react to
the idea expressed and look at a speaker
aaaaaaaBesides EFL listeners can use following websites on the internet to practice their
listening skills by listening to online TV or radio stations which offer online broadcast
aaaaaaa1aaBBC This site provides information on frequency and program schedule for
learning English through BBC radio program (httpwwwbbccoukworldservice
learningenglishradioindexshtml)
aaaaaaa2aaCNN This site offers free viewing of news videos on the international edition
of the cnncom site (httpeditioncnncomvideo)
aaaaaaa3aaVoice of America Choose NewsNow for live broadcasts Try the Special
English section and click on the Feature scripts (httpwwwvoagov)
aaaaaaaIf the language learners want to practice their listening on the internet the
19
following sites are designed especially for non-native speakers of English They may
have graded activities transcripts exercises and answers
aaaaaaa1aaESLnotescom This website offers notes and English language resources
for movies (httpwwweslnotescom)
aaaaaaa2aaEveryday English in Conversation Try a variety of everyday conversation
topics with scripts (httpwwwfocusenglishcomdialogues conversationhtml)
aaaaaaa3aaLearn English by the British Council Listen to songs read lyrics and do
activities (httpwwwlearnenglishorguksongsindexasp)
aaaaaaa4aaCharles Kellys Quizzes Based on VOAs Special English Programs
Program scripts audio files and grammarvocabulary quizzes are based on Voice of
Americas Special English programs A variety of topics are offered
(httpwwwmanythingsorgvoa) aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher recommended the dissimilar strategy for instance
paired listening in second language (L2) listening instruction (Fernandez-Toro 2005 p
4) The EFL teachers can implement this strategy for their instructions Listening to
recording allows listeners to control the tape by going back to difficult parts of the
message This approach can help reduce anxiety because responsibility for the task is
shared with a partner The method also gives the learners the chance to cooperate in
order to learn more efficiently through shared scaffolding The theory of scaffolding was
proposed by Evelyn Hatch refers to the cooperative attempt between learners and their
interlocutors in building discourse (Ellis 2002 p 48) This principle helps the learners to
listen to the message and then produce utterance they would not be able to produce on
their own
Related Studies
aaaaaaaMany researchers studied EFL listening in many aspects There were three main
research areas which related with this study They concerned about importance of
listening listening problems and listening strategies
20
Listening Comprehension
aaaaaaaMany people consider listening is an essential skill when compare with other
skills for instance writing reading speaking This idea was supported by the study of
Petchkij The study showed the problems of ward nurses in private hospitals in Bangkok
in communicating English with foreign patients It revealed that listening is the important
aspect to achieve their communications The researcher pointed that most samples
spent most of their times on listening to instruction management of conflict routine
information exchange advising small group communication persuading giving orders
and public speaking From the findings speaking and listening skills are the skills most
frequently used by nurses to accomplish their work objectives (Petchkij 2001 p 21)
The answer might result from peoplersquos awareness According to the communication a
vital part of our every life it mostly involves with oral communication which composed of
listening and speaking Every activity and situation in oral communication concerned with
listening begins since we were born Most people assume that listening is an automatic
they can hear or can listen all the times but in speaking they cannot Consequently
listening becomes the critical skill for the communication Listening Problems
aaaaaaaTo acquire EFL listening skill language learners have to encounter with many
problems which correlated with the study of Pengsritong about problems of English
listening of Ramkhamheang University students The findings indicated that the
experience in using English showed the difference in listening results and the frequency
in practicing listening skills of students show the difference in listening results
(Pengsritong 2001 Online)
aaaaaaaIn addition Hason studied the difficulties of listening and discovered that some
problems in listening are related to the speed of delivery and the language used by the
speaker Since these are outside the learners control the learner cannot keep up with
the speaker Consequently the listener fails to understand the whole meaning of the text
21
Being unfamiliar with the sounds stress and intonation of naturally spoken English the
learner also faces obstacles especially if the speaker has a different accent (Hason
2000 Online)
aaaaaaaOther problems are due to a lack of concentration distractions inside and
outside the classroom the tendency of the listener to try to understand every thing in the
listening text
Listening Strategies aaaaaaaThere are many strategies for language learners to utilize in order to develop
their listening According to the study of Tienttaeng-Ngam about the communicative
strategies of foreign exchange officers it showed that the subjects applied many
listening strategies such as observation to customersrsquo body language asking questions
asking customers to speak slowly Repeating what customers say to ensure mutual
understanding and writing down messages to show to customers (Tienttaeng-Ngam
2001 pp 72-73)
aaaaaaaBesides other researchers also suggested other dissimilar strategy which is
watching DVDs or soundtrack movies Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong
studied on the impacts of reaching EFL listening through DVD-based films It was found
that students statistically improved their listening ability and their attitudes toward
learning listening through the innovative teaching method were very positive The finding
suggested that DVD-based films are helpful for studentsrsquo listening improvement The
researcher has used DVDs to help students learn how to express themselves orally in
English (Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong 2006 pp 42-49)
aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher Elvin studied about listening in English with
English subtitles it was the most popular choice among my students Students showed
significant improvement in listening and reading comprehension as well as word
remembrance and vocabulary acquisition (Elvin 2004 Online) Moreover the survey
investigated studentsrsquo preferred audio and subtitle options and sequences for studying
aural English using DVD when a repeated viewing strategy is employed The finding
22
reveals that almost all of the students want to listen to English every time the DVD is
played
aaaaaaaOn the other hand the problems such as subtitles that shown on the screen are
not the same as what is being said can occur The students feel worry about specific
words and phrases students want to read and listen for general understanding at the
same time Sometimes it is hard to know that the students understand the meaning
through the listening or through reading the subtitles or just looking the visuals
(Helgesen 2004 unpaged)
aaaaaaaBased on the findings of some researchers they proposed the guidelines of
listening activities for solving learnersrsquo problems of listening comprehension which is very
useful for EFL teachers They consisted of three stages as follows (Hason 2000 Online)
(Pospieszynska 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaPre-listening
aaaaaaaIn real life situations a listener almost always knows in advance what is going to
be said who is speaking or what the subject is going to be about The pre-listening
stage helps learners to find out the aim of listening and provides the background
information
aaaaaaaaaaaaDiscussion starting a discussion about the topic (possibly based on
visuals and titles) then let the students think about a suitable topic of conversation and
the teacher encourages them to exchange ideas and opinions about the topic
aaaaaaaaabaaPrediction asking the students to predict the content or what speakers
are going to say based on the information in discussion section
aaaaaaaaacaaQuestions guessing and preparing some questions to be answered
during listening to the passage
Aaaaaaa2aaWhile-listening or listening in progress
aaaaaaaThis stage concerned about all tasks that students are asked to do during the
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaIdentifying the idea students jot down main points and key words
23
aaaaaaaaabaaIdentifying features of natural input students listen to natural oral
discourse They are asked to classify stress patterns intonation etc aaaaaaaaacaaFilling in gaps while listening to a dialogue students hear only the
utterances of one speaker and are asked to write down the word or sentence
aaaaaaaaadaaFilling in blanks of a transcript of a spoken text with the words missing
(eg lyrics of a song) aaaaaaaaaeaaInformation search listening for specific items eg answer a particular
question from the pre-listening stage
aaaaaaa3aaPost-listening
aaaaaaaThe post-listening stage includes all the exercises which are completed after
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaEvaluation students answer true-false questions or multiple-choice
questions as an evaluation of their understanding
aaaaaaaaabaaSpeaking students act as a role play or interview on topics related to the
text
aaaaaaaaacaaWriting students write postcards letters etc on topics related to the text
aaaaaaaTo summarize accessing to the target language is not the simply exploit of EFL
learners Therefore the learners have to realize the importance of listening skill Their
capacity to arouse the learnersrsquo motivation and their potential to engage the learners in a
variety of fruitful activities and listening development strategies related to aural
perception in the target language can hardly be denied It is therefore the language
learners who want to develop their listening skill should analysis their listening problems
first and then apply the appropriate strategies to be proper with their learning style
which could lead the learner to be more successful in the communication world
- COVER
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
- Abstract
- CONTENT
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- APPENDIX
- BIOGRAPHY
-
11
Importance of listening
aaaaaaaListening requires effort and concentration and it is difficult to know whether
someone is listening what the speaker says or not If the listeners are not ready to listen
the failure of listening will occur The importance of effective listening poor listening skills
can create serious problems For student poor listening can result in lower grades
incorrect assignments lost job opportunities etc When you are not talking or reading
mostly you are listening to something or someone
aaaaaaaThere are several language experts who support the idea of the importance of
listening that people spent most of their time on listening Wilt found that 45 percent of
communication was spent listening 30 percent speaking 16 percent reading and 9
percent writing (Hyslop amp Tone 1988 Online) The chart is shown in Figure 3 Moreover
the study of Adler amp Rodman found that college students spent average of their
communication time composed of 14 percent writing 16 percent speaking 17 percent
reading and a whopping 53 percent listening (Adler amp Rodman 1976 p 74) People
become conscious that listening is the most frequent type of communication behavior
Baker and several colleagues found that college students spend nearly half of their
communication time listening or 42-53 30-32 speaking 15-17 reading and 11-14
writing (Seiler amp Beall 1999 p 135) Because is such a routine Few people think of
developing their listening skills In fact businesses lose millions of dollars each year
because of a failure to listen to and understand customersrsquo needs Effective listeners
welcome new information and new idea to create and adapt to apply with their lives
Same to the survey of graduates from a major university who were professional and
business people all wished they had more training in listening They believed that
effective listening leads to job success (Thill amp Bovee 2002 p 117)
12
05
1015202530354045
Writing Reading Speaking Listening
Time()
Figure 3 The Communication Time of People
(Hyslop amp Tone 1988 Online)
aaaaaaaAccording to Nunan amp Miller there are four main importance of listening in
second and foreign language learning which are firstly listening is vital in the language
classroom It provides input for the learner Any learning basically cannot begin without
understanding input at the right level Secondly spoken language gives a mean of
interaction for the learner Learners must cooperate to achieve understanding access to
speakers of the language is necessary Furthermore learnersrsquo failure to understanding
the language they hear is a drive not a barrier to interaction and learning Thirdly
authentic spoken language shows a challenge for the learner to try to comprehend
language as native speakers actually use it Lastly teacher can use listening exercises
to draw learnersrsquo attention to new forms (vocabulary grammar new interaction patterns)
in the language (Nunan amp Miller 1995 p 211)
aaaaaaaThere are many levels of involvement in listening which depended on different
kinds of situations as shown in Figure 4 a continuum that runs from minimum to
maximum involvement
13
Listening for
Evaluation
Listening for
Understanding
Levels of Receiver Involvement in Various Situations LEAST
Involvement
MOST
Involvement
Listening
for Pleasure Hearing
Listening to Remember
Figure 4 Levels of Involvement in Listening Situation
(Taylor et al 1986 p 143) aaaaaaa1aaHearingrdquoHearing is little more than being in range of and receiving soundrdquo
(Taylor et al 1986 p 143) We may not pay attention to sounds we hear except calling
our attention Environmental sounds and surroundings music usually are heard not listen
to When we turn on the radio and then go to have a conversation with friends you
usually will not even become aware of hearing the sounds
aaaaaaa2aaListening for pleasure It involves more personal participation than hearing
ldquoWe receive sounds more consciously and actively decoderdquo (Taylor et al 1986 p 143)
We may listen to music to a speech or to television and radio at the level of listening for
pleasure
aaaaaaa3aaListening to understand This stage requires a upper degree of involvement
We try to understand all the messages we receive and give the feedback back to the
source of messages It usually occurs with friends and family in informal setting or in
school talking to friends and listening to professorrsquos lectures or in public communication
(Taylor et al 1986 pp 144-145)
aaaaaaa4aaListening to evaluate It needs high involvement of receiver because many
features of listening to understand involve This stage goes further than understanding
for the reason that it has to analyze the received messages to decide how credible and
meaningful they are before responding (Taylor et al 1986 p 144)
14
aaaaaaa5aaListening to remember We frequently want to remember as much as we
can at all stage of listening Remembering is essential for both understanding and
evaluation It has need of special effort to accomplish this level of receiver involvement in
listening situation (Taylor et al 1986 p 144)
aaaaaaaMoreover Rost commented that listening is used in language teaching It helps
learners to comprehend spoken language Listening is not only a critical means of
acquiring a second language but also a skill area in language performance (Rost 1990
p 7) Purpose of Listening
aaaaaaaListeners do not pay attention to everything they listen selectively according to
the purpose of the task This in turn determines the type of listening required and the
way in which listeners will approach a task According to Richards he differentiated
between an interactional and a transactional purpose for communication Interactional
use of language is socially oriented to please the social needs of the participants eg
small talk and casual conversations Therefore interactional listening is highly
contextualized and two-way involving interaction with a speaker A transactional use of
language on the other hand is more message-oriented and is used primarily to
communicate information eg news broadcasts and lectures In contrast with
interactional listening transactional listening requires correct comprehension of a
message with no opportunity for clarification with a speaker or one-way listening
(Richards 1990 unpaged) Knowing the communicative purpose of a text or utterance
will help the listener decide what to listen for and thus which processes to start As with
the advantages of knowing the context knowing the purpose for listening also really
reduces the load of comprehension since listeners know that they need to listen for
something very specific instead of trying to comprehend every word
aaaaaaaMoreover there are three general purposes of listening The first purpose is to
understand ideas When we listen to understand we listen for the main idea or central
concepts The listener seeks to identify key words and phrases that will help them to
15
summarize the concepts being discussed The second purpose is to retain information
Once the listeners are able to focus your attention on what another person is saying and
they are able to understand what the person has said they are ready to move their
listening to the next level which called ldquoListening to retainrdquo If you retain what you hear
you must learn The last purpose is to analyze and evaluate content This purpose is
greater skill than retention When listener learns to analyze and evaluate content
successfully the learner can find the gaps in the arguments and statements the listener
encounters during interpersonal communication (Gamble amp Gamble 1987 pp 91-96) Listening Problems
aaaaaaaAcquiring EFL listening skills is one of the most difficult tasks for any learners
According to study of Hason and Osada can be summarized into 5 main listening
problems related to the speaker as follows (Hason 2000 Online) (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaIt is difficult to understand natural speech which is full of hesitation and
pauses The learners usually get used to listening to tape cassettes teacherrsquos speech
which slower and easier than the natural speech in real life
aaaaaaa2aaIt is difficult to understand the meaning of words which are not pronounced
clearly such as the word ldquothe teacherrdquo and ldquoT-shirtrdquo
aaaaaaa3aaIt is difficult to understand the meaning of the spoken text without seeing the
speakerrsquos body language Most people want to see the mouth of the speaker to catch the
pronunciation and translate the meaning of words or see the body language like the
hands eyes to get the meaning
aaaaaaa4aaIt is difficult to understand well when speakers speak too fast The listeners
especially L2 learners try to catch every word therefore they cannot get the main idea
aaaaaaa5aaIt is difficult to understand well when speakers speak with varied accents
Learners tend to be used to their teacherrsquos accent or to the standard variety of British or
American English They find it is quite hard to understand speakers with other accents
aaaaaaaFrom the study of many researchers about listening problems related to the
listener can be concentrated in to ten main problems as follows
16
aaaaaaa1aaListeners cannot control the speed of the deliveryrdquo Many English language
learners believe that the greatest difficulty with listening comprehension is listeners
cannot control how quickly a speaker speaks (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa2aaListeners cannot always have words repeated This is a serious problem
because the listeners cannot replay the speech Itrsquos hard for the speakers to judge
whether the listeners understand what they say or not (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa3aaListeners have a limited vocabulary The speaker may focus on the words
the listener does not know and it can make the listeners to miss the next part of the
speech (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa4aaListeners may fail to recognize the signal which indicates that the speaker
is moving from one point to another giving example or repeating a point The listeners
can notice some markers like ldquosecondlyrdquo or ldquothenrdquo the body language the different
intonation and the gestures (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa5aaListeners may lack related knowledge If the listeners have some relevant
knowledge then it can make the communication easier (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa6aaIt can be difficult for the listeners to concentrate in a foreign language
Students sometimes feel listening is very tiring even if they are interested because it
requires a strong effort to follow the meaning (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa7aaListeners may have their own certain habits such as wish to understand
every word By tradition teachers want students to understand every word they hear by
repeating and pronouncing words carefully and slowly Therefore students tend to
become worried if they fail to understand a particular words or phrases and they will feel
bored and tired to dealing with listening (Hason 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa8aaListeners are out listening It means you let your mind wander to things You
do not remember what the speaker actually said but you remember what you think the
speaker probably said (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
aaaaaaa9aaPrejudgment It is the most common barrier Most people must have some
assumption in their mind They try to defend other personrsquos opinions or views They think
that every comment as a personal attack (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
17
aaaaaaa10aaSelf-centeredness It causes people to take control of conversation rather
than listening to what is being said They think that they know more than the speaker and
determine to prove it (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
Listening Strategies
aaaaaaaListening ability like speaking reading and writing abilities can be improved
There are some guidelines which should be of considerable value if followed According
to the study of DeVito there are six listening strategies as follows (DeVito 1978 pp 145-
153)
aaaaaaa1aaListening for recognition It is not a passive activity it is not a process that
will happen if we simply do nothing to stop it We may hear without effort but we cannot
listen without effort Listening is a difficult process In speaking we can control the
situation we can talk about what we like in the way we like In listening however we are
forced to follow the pace the content and the language set by the speaker Perhaps the
best preparation for active listening is to act like an active listener
aaaaaaa2aaListening for the total meaning The total meaning is not only in the words
used but also in the nonverbal behavior of the speaker Listen for main ideas
connections between ideas and important details Listen answers to these questions
related to the topic Who What Where Why How
aaaaaaa3aaListening with empathy The listener needs to feel what the speaker feels
we need to empathize with the speaker If the listeners understand the feeling of what
speakers say then the listeners can easily understand the real intended meaning of the
speakers aaaaaaa4aaListening with an open mind It is not easy to do or listen to criticisms of
what we think is just great If the listeners cannot accept the otherrsquos opinions then the
listeners will try to avoid listening which makes them not understand the meaning of the
message
18
aaaaaaa5aaTaking selective notes To remind your remembrance and the key words
that helping your understanding This strategy is very useful for the listeners especially
the students who study second language They can look at the note whenever they want
aaaaaaa6aaAsking questions The listener can ensure your own understanding of the
speakerrsquos thoughts and feelings by using this technique However your questions should
support the speakerrsquos feelings and thoughts and confirm your interest
aaaaaaaIn addition from the study of Noonan there are two more strategies of EFL
listening as follows (Noonan 2005 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaSpending more time to practice The person who takes time to practice
language the more knowledge and improvement they gain Moreover the person who
has confidence will be easier to practice English and develop their listening and
speaking skills quickly
aaaaaaa2aaBehaving like a good listener such as stop talking listener cannot listen
when you are talking Listener will only be thinking about what you are going to say next
instead of paying attention to what the other person is trying to say consciously focus
the attention on the speaker pay attention to the speakers do not interrupt allow plenty
of time for the speaker to convey ideas and meaning Be courteous and give the speaker
adequate time to present the full message concentrate on what is being said react to
the idea expressed and look at a speaker
aaaaaaaBesides EFL listeners can use following websites on the internet to practice their
listening skills by listening to online TV or radio stations which offer online broadcast
aaaaaaa1aaBBC This site provides information on frequency and program schedule for
learning English through BBC radio program (httpwwwbbccoukworldservice
learningenglishradioindexshtml)
aaaaaaa2aaCNN This site offers free viewing of news videos on the international edition
of the cnncom site (httpeditioncnncomvideo)
aaaaaaa3aaVoice of America Choose NewsNow for live broadcasts Try the Special
English section and click on the Feature scripts (httpwwwvoagov)
aaaaaaaIf the language learners want to practice their listening on the internet the
19
following sites are designed especially for non-native speakers of English They may
have graded activities transcripts exercises and answers
aaaaaaa1aaESLnotescom This website offers notes and English language resources
for movies (httpwwweslnotescom)
aaaaaaa2aaEveryday English in Conversation Try a variety of everyday conversation
topics with scripts (httpwwwfocusenglishcomdialogues conversationhtml)
aaaaaaa3aaLearn English by the British Council Listen to songs read lyrics and do
activities (httpwwwlearnenglishorguksongsindexasp)
aaaaaaa4aaCharles Kellys Quizzes Based on VOAs Special English Programs
Program scripts audio files and grammarvocabulary quizzes are based on Voice of
Americas Special English programs A variety of topics are offered
(httpwwwmanythingsorgvoa) aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher recommended the dissimilar strategy for instance
paired listening in second language (L2) listening instruction (Fernandez-Toro 2005 p
4) The EFL teachers can implement this strategy for their instructions Listening to
recording allows listeners to control the tape by going back to difficult parts of the
message This approach can help reduce anxiety because responsibility for the task is
shared with a partner The method also gives the learners the chance to cooperate in
order to learn more efficiently through shared scaffolding The theory of scaffolding was
proposed by Evelyn Hatch refers to the cooperative attempt between learners and their
interlocutors in building discourse (Ellis 2002 p 48) This principle helps the learners to
listen to the message and then produce utterance they would not be able to produce on
their own
Related Studies
aaaaaaaMany researchers studied EFL listening in many aspects There were three main
research areas which related with this study They concerned about importance of
listening listening problems and listening strategies
20
Listening Comprehension
aaaaaaaMany people consider listening is an essential skill when compare with other
skills for instance writing reading speaking This idea was supported by the study of
Petchkij The study showed the problems of ward nurses in private hospitals in Bangkok
in communicating English with foreign patients It revealed that listening is the important
aspect to achieve their communications The researcher pointed that most samples
spent most of their times on listening to instruction management of conflict routine
information exchange advising small group communication persuading giving orders
and public speaking From the findings speaking and listening skills are the skills most
frequently used by nurses to accomplish their work objectives (Petchkij 2001 p 21)
The answer might result from peoplersquos awareness According to the communication a
vital part of our every life it mostly involves with oral communication which composed of
listening and speaking Every activity and situation in oral communication concerned with
listening begins since we were born Most people assume that listening is an automatic
they can hear or can listen all the times but in speaking they cannot Consequently
listening becomes the critical skill for the communication Listening Problems
aaaaaaaTo acquire EFL listening skill language learners have to encounter with many
problems which correlated with the study of Pengsritong about problems of English
listening of Ramkhamheang University students The findings indicated that the
experience in using English showed the difference in listening results and the frequency
in practicing listening skills of students show the difference in listening results
(Pengsritong 2001 Online)
aaaaaaaIn addition Hason studied the difficulties of listening and discovered that some
problems in listening are related to the speed of delivery and the language used by the
speaker Since these are outside the learners control the learner cannot keep up with
the speaker Consequently the listener fails to understand the whole meaning of the text
21
Being unfamiliar with the sounds stress and intonation of naturally spoken English the
learner also faces obstacles especially if the speaker has a different accent (Hason
2000 Online)
aaaaaaaOther problems are due to a lack of concentration distractions inside and
outside the classroom the tendency of the listener to try to understand every thing in the
listening text
Listening Strategies aaaaaaaThere are many strategies for language learners to utilize in order to develop
their listening According to the study of Tienttaeng-Ngam about the communicative
strategies of foreign exchange officers it showed that the subjects applied many
listening strategies such as observation to customersrsquo body language asking questions
asking customers to speak slowly Repeating what customers say to ensure mutual
understanding and writing down messages to show to customers (Tienttaeng-Ngam
2001 pp 72-73)
aaaaaaaBesides other researchers also suggested other dissimilar strategy which is
watching DVDs or soundtrack movies Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong
studied on the impacts of reaching EFL listening through DVD-based films It was found
that students statistically improved their listening ability and their attitudes toward
learning listening through the innovative teaching method were very positive The finding
suggested that DVD-based films are helpful for studentsrsquo listening improvement The
researcher has used DVDs to help students learn how to express themselves orally in
English (Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong 2006 pp 42-49)
aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher Elvin studied about listening in English with
English subtitles it was the most popular choice among my students Students showed
significant improvement in listening and reading comprehension as well as word
remembrance and vocabulary acquisition (Elvin 2004 Online) Moreover the survey
investigated studentsrsquo preferred audio and subtitle options and sequences for studying
aural English using DVD when a repeated viewing strategy is employed The finding
22
reveals that almost all of the students want to listen to English every time the DVD is
played
aaaaaaaOn the other hand the problems such as subtitles that shown on the screen are
not the same as what is being said can occur The students feel worry about specific
words and phrases students want to read and listen for general understanding at the
same time Sometimes it is hard to know that the students understand the meaning
through the listening or through reading the subtitles or just looking the visuals
(Helgesen 2004 unpaged)
aaaaaaaBased on the findings of some researchers they proposed the guidelines of
listening activities for solving learnersrsquo problems of listening comprehension which is very
useful for EFL teachers They consisted of three stages as follows (Hason 2000 Online)
(Pospieszynska 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaPre-listening
aaaaaaaIn real life situations a listener almost always knows in advance what is going to
be said who is speaking or what the subject is going to be about The pre-listening
stage helps learners to find out the aim of listening and provides the background
information
aaaaaaaaaaaaDiscussion starting a discussion about the topic (possibly based on
visuals and titles) then let the students think about a suitable topic of conversation and
the teacher encourages them to exchange ideas and opinions about the topic
aaaaaaaaabaaPrediction asking the students to predict the content or what speakers
are going to say based on the information in discussion section
aaaaaaaaacaaQuestions guessing and preparing some questions to be answered
during listening to the passage
Aaaaaaa2aaWhile-listening or listening in progress
aaaaaaaThis stage concerned about all tasks that students are asked to do during the
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaIdentifying the idea students jot down main points and key words
23
aaaaaaaaabaaIdentifying features of natural input students listen to natural oral
discourse They are asked to classify stress patterns intonation etc aaaaaaaaacaaFilling in gaps while listening to a dialogue students hear only the
utterances of one speaker and are asked to write down the word or sentence
aaaaaaaaadaaFilling in blanks of a transcript of a spoken text with the words missing
(eg lyrics of a song) aaaaaaaaaeaaInformation search listening for specific items eg answer a particular
question from the pre-listening stage
aaaaaaa3aaPost-listening
aaaaaaaThe post-listening stage includes all the exercises which are completed after
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaEvaluation students answer true-false questions or multiple-choice
questions as an evaluation of their understanding
aaaaaaaaabaaSpeaking students act as a role play or interview on topics related to the
text
aaaaaaaaacaaWriting students write postcards letters etc on topics related to the text
aaaaaaaTo summarize accessing to the target language is not the simply exploit of EFL
learners Therefore the learners have to realize the importance of listening skill Their
capacity to arouse the learnersrsquo motivation and their potential to engage the learners in a
variety of fruitful activities and listening development strategies related to aural
perception in the target language can hardly be denied It is therefore the language
learners who want to develop their listening skill should analysis their listening problems
first and then apply the appropriate strategies to be proper with their learning style
which could lead the learner to be more successful in the communication world
- COVER
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
- Abstract
- CONTENT
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- APPENDIX
- BIOGRAPHY
-
12
05
1015202530354045
Writing Reading Speaking Listening
Time()
Figure 3 The Communication Time of People
(Hyslop amp Tone 1988 Online)
aaaaaaaAccording to Nunan amp Miller there are four main importance of listening in
second and foreign language learning which are firstly listening is vital in the language
classroom It provides input for the learner Any learning basically cannot begin without
understanding input at the right level Secondly spoken language gives a mean of
interaction for the learner Learners must cooperate to achieve understanding access to
speakers of the language is necessary Furthermore learnersrsquo failure to understanding
the language they hear is a drive not a barrier to interaction and learning Thirdly
authentic spoken language shows a challenge for the learner to try to comprehend
language as native speakers actually use it Lastly teacher can use listening exercises
to draw learnersrsquo attention to new forms (vocabulary grammar new interaction patterns)
in the language (Nunan amp Miller 1995 p 211)
aaaaaaaThere are many levels of involvement in listening which depended on different
kinds of situations as shown in Figure 4 a continuum that runs from minimum to
maximum involvement
13
Listening for
Evaluation
Listening for
Understanding
Levels of Receiver Involvement in Various Situations LEAST
Involvement
MOST
Involvement
Listening
for Pleasure Hearing
Listening to Remember
Figure 4 Levels of Involvement in Listening Situation
(Taylor et al 1986 p 143) aaaaaaa1aaHearingrdquoHearing is little more than being in range of and receiving soundrdquo
(Taylor et al 1986 p 143) We may not pay attention to sounds we hear except calling
our attention Environmental sounds and surroundings music usually are heard not listen
to When we turn on the radio and then go to have a conversation with friends you
usually will not even become aware of hearing the sounds
aaaaaaa2aaListening for pleasure It involves more personal participation than hearing
ldquoWe receive sounds more consciously and actively decoderdquo (Taylor et al 1986 p 143)
We may listen to music to a speech or to television and radio at the level of listening for
pleasure
aaaaaaa3aaListening to understand This stage requires a upper degree of involvement
We try to understand all the messages we receive and give the feedback back to the
source of messages It usually occurs with friends and family in informal setting or in
school talking to friends and listening to professorrsquos lectures or in public communication
(Taylor et al 1986 pp 144-145)
aaaaaaa4aaListening to evaluate It needs high involvement of receiver because many
features of listening to understand involve This stage goes further than understanding
for the reason that it has to analyze the received messages to decide how credible and
meaningful they are before responding (Taylor et al 1986 p 144)
14
aaaaaaa5aaListening to remember We frequently want to remember as much as we
can at all stage of listening Remembering is essential for both understanding and
evaluation It has need of special effort to accomplish this level of receiver involvement in
listening situation (Taylor et al 1986 p 144)
aaaaaaaMoreover Rost commented that listening is used in language teaching It helps
learners to comprehend spoken language Listening is not only a critical means of
acquiring a second language but also a skill area in language performance (Rost 1990
p 7) Purpose of Listening
aaaaaaaListeners do not pay attention to everything they listen selectively according to
the purpose of the task This in turn determines the type of listening required and the
way in which listeners will approach a task According to Richards he differentiated
between an interactional and a transactional purpose for communication Interactional
use of language is socially oriented to please the social needs of the participants eg
small talk and casual conversations Therefore interactional listening is highly
contextualized and two-way involving interaction with a speaker A transactional use of
language on the other hand is more message-oriented and is used primarily to
communicate information eg news broadcasts and lectures In contrast with
interactional listening transactional listening requires correct comprehension of a
message with no opportunity for clarification with a speaker or one-way listening
(Richards 1990 unpaged) Knowing the communicative purpose of a text or utterance
will help the listener decide what to listen for and thus which processes to start As with
the advantages of knowing the context knowing the purpose for listening also really
reduces the load of comprehension since listeners know that they need to listen for
something very specific instead of trying to comprehend every word
aaaaaaaMoreover there are three general purposes of listening The first purpose is to
understand ideas When we listen to understand we listen for the main idea or central
concepts The listener seeks to identify key words and phrases that will help them to
15
summarize the concepts being discussed The second purpose is to retain information
Once the listeners are able to focus your attention on what another person is saying and
they are able to understand what the person has said they are ready to move their
listening to the next level which called ldquoListening to retainrdquo If you retain what you hear
you must learn The last purpose is to analyze and evaluate content This purpose is
greater skill than retention When listener learns to analyze and evaluate content
successfully the learner can find the gaps in the arguments and statements the listener
encounters during interpersonal communication (Gamble amp Gamble 1987 pp 91-96) Listening Problems
aaaaaaaAcquiring EFL listening skills is one of the most difficult tasks for any learners
According to study of Hason and Osada can be summarized into 5 main listening
problems related to the speaker as follows (Hason 2000 Online) (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaIt is difficult to understand natural speech which is full of hesitation and
pauses The learners usually get used to listening to tape cassettes teacherrsquos speech
which slower and easier than the natural speech in real life
aaaaaaa2aaIt is difficult to understand the meaning of words which are not pronounced
clearly such as the word ldquothe teacherrdquo and ldquoT-shirtrdquo
aaaaaaa3aaIt is difficult to understand the meaning of the spoken text without seeing the
speakerrsquos body language Most people want to see the mouth of the speaker to catch the
pronunciation and translate the meaning of words or see the body language like the
hands eyes to get the meaning
aaaaaaa4aaIt is difficult to understand well when speakers speak too fast The listeners
especially L2 learners try to catch every word therefore they cannot get the main idea
aaaaaaa5aaIt is difficult to understand well when speakers speak with varied accents
Learners tend to be used to their teacherrsquos accent or to the standard variety of British or
American English They find it is quite hard to understand speakers with other accents
aaaaaaaFrom the study of many researchers about listening problems related to the
listener can be concentrated in to ten main problems as follows
16
aaaaaaa1aaListeners cannot control the speed of the deliveryrdquo Many English language
learners believe that the greatest difficulty with listening comprehension is listeners
cannot control how quickly a speaker speaks (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa2aaListeners cannot always have words repeated This is a serious problem
because the listeners cannot replay the speech Itrsquos hard for the speakers to judge
whether the listeners understand what they say or not (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa3aaListeners have a limited vocabulary The speaker may focus on the words
the listener does not know and it can make the listeners to miss the next part of the
speech (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa4aaListeners may fail to recognize the signal which indicates that the speaker
is moving from one point to another giving example or repeating a point The listeners
can notice some markers like ldquosecondlyrdquo or ldquothenrdquo the body language the different
intonation and the gestures (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa5aaListeners may lack related knowledge If the listeners have some relevant
knowledge then it can make the communication easier (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa6aaIt can be difficult for the listeners to concentrate in a foreign language
Students sometimes feel listening is very tiring even if they are interested because it
requires a strong effort to follow the meaning (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa7aaListeners may have their own certain habits such as wish to understand
every word By tradition teachers want students to understand every word they hear by
repeating and pronouncing words carefully and slowly Therefore students tend to
become worried if they fail to understand a particular words or phrases and they will feel
bored and tired to dealing with listening (Hason 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa8aaListeners are out listening It means you let your mind wander to things You
do not remember what the speaker actually said but you remember what you think the
speaker probably said (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
aaaaaaa9aaPrejudgment It is the most common barrier Most people must have some
assumption in their mind They try to defend other personrsquos opinions or views They think
that every comment as a personal attack (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
17
aaaaaaa10aaSelf-centeredness It causes people to take control of conversation rather
than listening to what is being said They think that they know more than the speaker and
determine to prove it (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
Listening Strategies
aaaaaaaListening ability like speaking reading and writing abilities can be improved
There are some guidelines which should be of considerable value if followed According
to the study of DeVito there are six listening strategies as follows (DeVito 1978 pp 145-
153)
aaaaaaa1aaListening for recognition It is not a passive activity it is not a process that
will happen if we simply do nothing to stop it We may hear without effort but we cannot
listen without effort Listening is a difficult process In speaking we can control the
situation we can talk about what we like in the way we like In listening however we are
forced to follow the pace the content and the language set by the speaker Perhaps the
best preparation for active listening is to act like an active listener
aaaaaaa2aaListening for the total meaning The total meaning is not only in the words
used but also in the nonverbal behavior of the speaker Listen for main ideas
connections between ideas and important details Listen answers to these questions
related to the topic Who What Where Why How
aaaaaaa3aaListening with empathy The listener needs to feel what the speaker feels
we need to empathize with the speaker If the listeners understand the feeling of what
speakers say then the listeners can easily understand the real intended meaning of the
speakers aaaaaaa4aaListening with an open mind It is not easy to do or listen to criticisms of
what we think is just great If the listeners cannot accept the otherrsquos opinions then the
listeners will try to avoid listening which makes them not understand the meaning of the
message
18
aaaaaaa5aaTaking selective notes To remind your remembrance and the key words
that helping your understanding This strategy is very useful for the listeners especially
the students who study second language They can look at the note whenever they want
aaaaaaa6aaAsking questions The listener can ensure your own understanding of the
speakerrsquos thoughts and feelings by using this technique However your questions should
support the speakerrsquos feelings and thoughts and confirm your interest
aaaaaaaIn addition from the study of Noonan there are two more strategies of EFL
listening as follows (Noonan 2005 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaSpending more time to practice The person who takes time to practice
language the more knowledge and improvement they gain Moreover the person who
has confidence will be easier to practice English and develop their listening and
speaking skills quickly
aaaaaaa2aaBehaving like a good listener such as stop talking listener cannot listen
when you are talking Listener will only be thinking about what you are going to say next
instead of paying attention to what the other person is trying to say consciously focus
the attention on the speaker pay attention to the speakers do not interrupt allow plenty
of time for the speaker to convey ideas and meaning Be courteous and give the speaker
adequate time to present the full message concentrate on what is being said react to
the idea expressed and look at a speaker
aaaaaaaBesides EFL listeners can use following websites on the internet to practice their
listening skills by listening to online TV or radio stations which offer online broadcast
aaaaaaa1aaBBC This site provides information on frequency and program schedule for
learning English through BBC radio program (httpwwwbbccoukworldservice
learningenglishradioindexshtml)
aaaaaaa2aaCNN This site offers free viewing of news videos on the international edition
of the cnncom site (httpeditioncnncomvideo)
aaaaaaa3aaVoice of America Choose NewsNow for live broadcasts Try the Special
English section and click on the Feature scripts (httpwwwvoagov)
aaaaaaaIf the language learners want to practice their listening on the internet the
19
following sites are designed especially for non-native speakers of English They may
have graded activities transcripts exercises and answers
aaaaaaa1aaESLnotescom This website offers notes and English language resources
for movies (httpwwweslnotescom)
aaaaaaa2aaEveryday English in Conversation Try a variety of everyday conversation
topics with scripts (httpwwwfocusenglishcomdialogues conversationhtml)
aaaaaaa3aaLearn English by the British Council Listen to songs read lyrics and do
activities (httpwwwlearnenglishorguksongsindexasp)
aaaaaaa4aaCharles Kellys Quizzes Based on VOAs Special English Programs
Program scripts audio files and grammarvocabulary quizzes are based on Voice of
Americas Special English programs A variety of topics are offered
(httpwwwmanythingsorgvoa) aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher recommended the dissimilar strategy for instance
paired listening in second language (L2) listening instruction (Fernandez-Toro 2005 p
4) The EFL teachers can implement this strategy for their instructions Listening to
recording allows listeners to control the tape by going back to difficult parts of the
message This approach can help reduce anxiety because responsibility for the task is
shared with a partner The method also gives the learners the chance to cooperate in
order to learn more efficiently through shared scaffolding The theory of scaffolding was
proposed by Evelyn Hatch refers to the cooperative attempt between learners and their
interlocutors in building discourse (Ellis 2002 p 48) This principle helps the learners to
listen to the message and then produce utterance they would not be able to produce on
their own
Related Studies
aaaaaaaMany researchers studied EFL listening in many aspects There were three main
research areas which related with this study They concerned about importance of
listening listening problems and listening strategies
20
Listening Comprehension
aaaaaaaMany people consider listening is an essential skill when compare with other
skills for instance writing reading speaking This idea was supported by the study of
Petchkij The study showed the problems of ward nurses in private hospitals in Bangkok
in communicating English with foreign patients It revealed that listening is the important
aspect to achieve their communications The researcher pointed that most samples
spent most of their times on listening to instruction management of conflict routine
information exchange advising small group communication persuading giving orders
and public speaking From the findings speaking and listening skills are the skills most
frequently used by nurses to accomplish their work objectives (Petchkij 2001 p 21)
The answer might result from peoplersquos awareness According to the communication a
vital part of our every life it mostly involves with oral communication which composed of
listening and speaking Every activity and situation in oral communication concerned with
listening begins since we were born Most people assume that listening is an automatic
they can hear or can listen all the times but in speaking they cannot Consequently
listening becomes the critical skill for the communication Listening Problems
aaaaaaaTo acquire EFL listening skill language learners have to encounter with many
problems which correlated with the study of Pengsritong about problems of English
listening of Ramkhamheang University students The findings indicated that the
experience in using English showed the difference in listening results and the frequency
in practicing listening skills of students show the difference in listening results
(Pengsritong 2001 Online)
aaaaaaaIn addition Hason studied the difficulties of listening and discovered that some
problems in listening are related to the speed of delivery and the language used by the
speaker Since these are outside the learners control the learner cannot keep up with
the speaker Consequently the listener fails to understand the whole meaning of the text
21
Being unfamiliar with the sounds stress and intonation of naturally spoken English the
learner also faces obstacles especially if the speaker has a different accent (Hason
2000 Online)
aaaaaaaOther problems are due to a lack of concentration distractions inside and
outside the classroom the tendency of the listener to try to understand every thing in the
listening text
Listening Strategies aaaaaaaThere are many strategies for language learners to utilize in order to develop
their listening According to the study of Tienttaeng-Ngam about the communicative
strategies of foreign exchange officers it showed that the subjects applied many
listening strategies such as observation to customersrsquo body language asking questions
asking customers to speak slowly Repeating what customers say to ensure mutual
understanding and writing down messages to show to customers (Tienttaeng-Ngam
2001 pp 72-73)
aaaaaaaBesides other researchers also suggested other dissimilar strategy which is
watching DVDs or soundtrack movies Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong
studied on the impacts of reaching EFL listening through DVD-based films It was found
that students statistically improved their listening ability and their attitudes toward
learning listening through the innovative teaching method were very positive The finding
suggested that DVD-based films are helpful for studentsrsquo listening improvement The
researcher has used DVDs to help students learn how to express themselves orally in
English (Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong 2006 pp 42-49)
aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher Elvin studied about listening in English with
English subtitles it was the most popular choice among my students Students showed
significant improvement in listening and reading comprehension as well as word
remembrance and vocabulary acquisition (Elvin 2004 Online) Moreover the survey
investigated studentsrsquo preferred audio and subtitle options and sequences for studying
aural English using DVD when a repeated viewing strategy is employed The finding
22
reveals that almost all of the students want to listen to English every time the DVD is
played
aaaaaaaOn the other hand the problems such as subtitles that shown on the screen are
not the same as what is being said can occur The students feel worry about specific
words and phrases students want to read and listen for general understanding at the
same time Sometimes it is hard to know that the students understand the meaning
through the listening or through reading the subtitles or just looking the visuals
(Helgesen 2004 unpaged)
aaaaaaaBased on the findings of some researchers they proposed the guidelines of
listening activities for solving learnersrsquo problems of listening comprehension which is very
useful for EFL teachers They consisted of three stages as follows (Hason 2000 Online)
(Pospieszynska 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaPre-listening
aaaaaaaIn real life situations a listener almost always knows in advance what is going to
be said who is speaking or what the subject is going to be about The pre-listening
stage helps learners to find out the aim of listening and provides the background
information
aaaaaaaaaaaaDiscussion starting a discussion about the topic (possibly based on
visuals and titles) then let the students think about a suitable topic of conversation and
the teacher encourages them to exchange ideas and opinions about the topic
aaaaaaaaabaaPrediction asking the students to predict the content or what speakers
are going to say based on the information in discussion section
aaaaaaaaacaaQuestions guessing and preparing some questions to be answered
during listening to the passage
Aaaaaaa2aaWhile-listening or listening in progress
aaaaaaaThis stage concerned about all tasks that students are asked to do during the
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaIdentifying the idea students jot down main points and key words
23
aaaaaaaaabaaIdentifying features of natural input students listen to natural oral
discourse They are asked to classify stress patterns intonation etc aaaaaaaaacaaFilling in gaps while listening to a dialogue students hear only the
utterances of one speaker and are asked to write down the word or sentence
aaaaaaaaadaaFilling in blanks of a transcript of a spoken text with the words missing
(eg lyrics of a song) aaaaaaaaaeaaInformation search listening for specific items eg answer a particular
question from the pre-listening stage
aaaaaaa3aaPost-listening
aaaaaaaThe post-listening stage includes all the exercises which are completed after
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaEvaluation students answer true-false questions or multiple-choice
questions as an evaluation of their understanding
aaaaaaaaabaaSpeaking students act as a role play or interview on topics related to the
text
aaaaaaaaacaaWriting students write postcards letters etc on topics related to the text
aaaaaaaTo summarize accessing to the target language is not the simply exploit of EFL
learners Therefore the learners have to realize the importance of listening skill Their
capacity to arouse the learnersrsquo motivation and their potential to engage the learners in a
variety of fruitful activities and listening development strategies related to aural
perception in the target language can hardly be denied It is therefore the language
learners who want to develop their listening skill should analysis their listening problems
first and then apply the appropriate strategies to be proper with their learning style
which could lead the learner to be more successful in the communication world
- COVER
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
- Abstract
- CONTENT
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- APPENDIX
- BIOGRAPHY
-
13
Listening for
Evaluation
Listening for
Understanding
Levels of Receiver Involvement in Various Situations LEAST
Involvement
MOST
Involvement
Listening
for Pleasure Hearing
Listening to Remember
Figure 4 Levels of Involvement in Listening Situation
(Taylor et al 1986 p 143) aaaaaaa1aaHearingrdquoHearing is little more than being in range of and receiving soundrdquo
(Taylor et al 1986 p 143) We may not pay attention to sounds we hear except calling
our attention Environmental sounds and surroundings music usually are heard not listen
to When we turn on the radio and then go to have a conversation with friends you
usually will not even become aware of hearing the sounds
aaaaaaa2aaListening for pleasure It involves more personal participation than hearing
ldquoWe receive sounds more consciously and actively decoderdquo (Taylor et al 1986 p 143)
We may listen to music to a speech or to television and radio at the level of listening for
pleasure
aaaaaaa3aaListening to understand This stage requires a upper degree of involvement
We try to understand all the messages we receive and give the feedback back to the
source of messages It usually occurs with friends and family in informal setting or in
school talking to friends and listening to professorrsquos lectures or in public communication
(Taylor et al 1986 pp 144-145)
aaaaaaa4aaListening to evaluate It needs high involvement of receiver because many
features of listening to understand involve This stage goes further than understanding
for the reason that it has to analyze the received messages to decide how credible and
meaningful they are before responding (Taylor et al 1986 p 144)
14
aaaaaaa5aaListening to remember We frequently want to remember as much as we
can at all stage of listening Remembering is essential for both understanding and
evaluation It has need of special effort to accomplish this level of receiver involvement in
listening situation (Taylor et al 1986 p 144)
aaaaaaaMoreover Rost commented that listening is used in language teaching It helps
learners to comprehend spoken language Listening is not only a critical means of
acquiring a second language but also a skill area in language performance (Rost 1990
p 7) Purpose of Listening
aaaaaaaListeners do not pay attention to everything they listen selectively according to
the purpose of the task This in turn determines the type of listening required and the
way in which listeners will approach a task According to Richards he differentiated
between an interactional and a transactional purpose for communication Interactional
use of language is socially oriented to please the social needs of the participants eg
small talk and casual conversations Therefore interactional listening is highly
contextualized and two-way involving interaction with a speaker A transactional use of
language on the other hand is more message-oriented and is used primarily to
communicate information eg news broadcasts and lectures In contrast with
interactional listening transactional listening requires correct comprehension of a
message with no opportunity for clarification with a speaker or one-way listening
(Richards 1990 unpaged) Knowing the communicative purpose of a text or utterance
will help the listener decide what to listen for and thus which processes to start As with
the advantages of knowing the context knowing the purpose for listening also really
reduces the load of comprehension since listeners know that they need to listen for
something very specific instead of trying to comprehend every word
aaaaaaaMoreover there are three general purposes of listening The first purpose is to
understand ideas When we listen to understand we listen for the main idea or central
concepts The listener seeks to identify key words and phrases that will help them to
15
summarize the concepts being discussed The second purpose is to retain information
Once the listeners are able to focus your attention on what another person is saying and
they are able to understand what the person has said they are ready to move their
listening to the next level which called ldquoListening to retainrdquo If you retain what you hear
you must learn The last purpose is to analyze and evaluate content This purpose is
greater skill than retention When listener learns to analyze and evaluate content
successfully the learner can find the gaps in the arguments and statements the listener
encounters during interpersonal communication (Gamble amp Gamble 1987 pp 91-96) Listening Problems
aaaaaaaAcquiring EFL listening skills is one of the most difficult tasks for any learners
According to study of Hason and Osada can be summarized into 5 main listening
problems related to the speaker as follows (Hason 2000 Online) (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaIt is difficult to understand natural speech which is full of hesitation and
pauses The learners usually get used to listening to tape cassettes teacherrsquos speech
which slower and easier than the natural speech in real life
aaaaaaa2aaIt is difficult to understand the meaning of words which are not pronounced
clearly such as the word ldquothe teacherrdquo and ldquoT-shirtrdquo
aaaaaaa3aaIt is difficult to understand the meaning of the spoken text without seeing the
speakerrsquos body language Most people want to see the mouth of the speaker to catch the
pronunciation and translate the meaning of words or see the body language like the
hands eyes to get the meaning
aaaaaaa4aaIt is difficult to understand well when speakers speak too fast The listeners
especially L2 learners try to catch every word therefore they cannot get the main idea
aaaaaaa5aaIt is difficult to understand well when speakers speak with varied accents
Learners tend to be used to their teacherrsquos accent or to the standard variety of British or
American English They find it is quite hard to understand speakers with other accents
aaaaaaaFrom the study of many researchers about listening problems related to the
listener can be concentrated in to ten main problems as follows
16
aaaaaaa1aaListeners cannot control the speed of the deliveryrdquo Many English language
learners believe that the greatest difficulty with listening comprehension is listeners
cannot control how quickly a speaker speaks (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa2aaListeners cannot always have words repeated This is a serious problem
because the listeners cannot replay the speech Itrsquos hard for the speakers to judge
whether the listeners understand what they say or not (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa3aaListeners have a limited vocabulary The speaker may focus on the words
the listener does not know and it can make the listeners to miss the next part of the
speech (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa4aaListeners may fail to recognize the signal which indicates that the speaker
is moving from one point to another giving example or repeating a point The listeners
can notice some markers like ldquosecondlyrdquo or ldquothenrdquo the body language the different
intonation and the gestures (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa5aaListeners may lack related knowledge If the listeners have some relevant
knowledge then it can make the communication easier (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa6aaIt can be difficult for the listeners to concentrate in a foreign language
Students sometimes feel listening is very tiring even if they are interested because it
requires a strong effort to follow the meaning (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa7aaListeners may have their own certain habits such as wish to understand
every word By tradition teachers want students to understand every word they hear by
repeating and pronouncing words carefully and slowly Therefore students tend to
become worried if they fail to understand a particular words or phrases and they will feel
bored and tired to dealing with listening (Hason 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa8aaListeners are out listening It means you let your mind wander to things You
do not remember what the speaker actually said but you remember what you think the
speaker probably said (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
aaaaaaa9aaPrejudgment It is the most common barrier Most people must have some
assumption in their mind They try to defend other personrsquos opinions or views They think
that every comment as a personal attack (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
17
aaaaaaa10aaSelf-centeredness It causes people to take control of conversation rather
than listening to what is being said They think that they know more than the speaker and
determine to prove it (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
Listening Strategies
aaaaaaaListening ability like speaking reading and writing abilities can be improved
There are some guidelines which should be of considerable value if followed According
to the study of DeVito there are six listening strategies as follows (DeVito 1978 pp 145-
153)
aaaaaaa1aaListening for recognition It is not a passive activity it is not a process that
will happen if we simply do nothing to stop it We may hear without effort but we cannot
listen without effort Listening is a difficult process In speaking we can control the
situation we can talk about what we like in the way we like In listening however we are
forced to follow the pace the content and the language set by the speaker Perhaps the
best preparation for active listening is to act like an active listener
aaaaaaa2aaListening for the total meaning The total meaning is not only in the words
used but also in the nonverbal behavior of the speaker Listen for main ideas
connections between ideas and important details Listen answers to these questions
related to the topic Who What Where Why How
aaaaaaa3aaListening with empathy The listener needs to feel what the speaker feels
we need to empathize with the speaker If the listeners understand the feeling of what
speakers say then the listeners can easily understand the real intended meaning of the
speakers aaaaaaa4aaListening with an open mind It is not easy to do or listen to criticisms of
what we think is just great If the listeners cannot accept the otherrsquos opinions then the
listeners will try to avoid listening which makes them not understand the meaning of the
message
18
aaaaaaa5aaTaking selective notes To remind your remembrance and the key words
that helping your understanding This strategy is very useful for the listeners especially
the students who study second language They can look at the note whenever they want
aaaaaaa6aaAsking questions The listener can ensure your own understanding of the
speakerrsquos thoughts and feelings by using this technique However your questions should
support the speakerrsquos feelings and thoughts and confirm your interest
aaaaaaaIn addition from the study of Noonan there are two more strategies of EFL
listening as follows (Noonan 2005 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaSpending more time to practice The person who takes time to practice
language the more knowledge and improvement they gain Moreover the person who
has confidence will be easier to practice English and develop their listening and
speaking skills quickly
aaaaaaa2aaBehaving like a good listener such as stop talking listener cannot listen
when you are talking Listener will only be thinking about what you are going to say next
instead of paying attention to what the other person is trying to say consciously focus
the attention on the speaker pay attention to the speakers do not interrupt allow plenty
of time for the speaker to convey ideas and meaning Be courteous and give the speaker
adequate time to present the full message concentrate on what is being said react to
the idea expressed and look at a speaker
aaaaaaaBesides EFL listeners can use following websites on the internet to practice their
listening skills by listening to online TV or radio stations which offer online broadcast
aaaaaaa1aaBBC This site provides information on frequency and program schedule for
learning English through BBC radio program (httpwwwbbccoukworldservice
learningenglishradioindexshtml)
aaaaaaa2aaCNN This site offers free viewing of news videos on the international edition
of the cnncom site (httpeditioncnncomvideo)
aaaaaaa3aaVoice of America Choose NewsNow for live broadcasts Try the Special
English section and click on the Feature scripts (httpwwwvoagov)
aaaaaaaIf the language learners want to practice their listening on the internet the
19
following sites are designed especially for non-native speakers of English They may
have graded activities transcripts exercises and answers
aaaaaaa1aaESLnotescom This website offers notes and English language resources
for movies (httpwwweslnotescom)
aaaaaaa2aaEveryday English in Conversation Try a variety of everyday conversation
topics with scripts (httpwwwfocusenglishcomdialogues conversationhtml)
aaaaaaa3aaLearn English by the British Council Listen to songs read lyrics and do
activities (httpwwwlearnenglishorguksongsindexasp)
aaaaaaa4aaCharles Kellys Quizzes Based on VOAs Special English Programs
Program scripts audio files and grammarvocabulary quizzes are based on Voice of
Americas Special English programs A variety of topics are offered
(httpwwwmanythingsorgvoa) aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher recommended the dissimilar strategy for instance
paired listening in second language (L2) listening instruction (Fernandez-Toro 2005 p
4) The EFL teachers can implement this strategy for their instructions Listening to
recording allows listeners to control the tape by going back to difficult parts of the
message This approach can help reduce anxiety because responsibility for the task is
shared with a partner The method also gives the learners the chance to cooperate in
order to learn more efficiently through shared scaffolding The theory of scaffolding was
proposed by Evelyn Hatch refers to the cooperative attempt between learners and their
interlocutors in building discourse (Ellis 2002 p 48) This principle helps the learners to
listen to the message and then produce utterance they would not be able to produce on
their own
Related Studies
aaaaaaaMany researchers studied EFL listening in many aspects There were three main
research areas which related with this study They concerned about importance of
listening listening problems and listening strategies
20
Listening Comprehension
aaaaaaaMany people consider listening is an essential skill when compare with other
skills for instance writing reading speaking This idea was supported by the study of
Petchkij The study showed the problems of ward nurses in private hospitals in Bangkok
in communicating English with foreign patients It revealed that listening is the important
aspect to achieve their communications The researcher pointed that most samples
spent most of their times on listening to instruction management of conflict routine
information exchange advising small group communication persuading giving orders
and public speaking From the findings speaking and listening skills are the skills most
frequently used by nurses to accomplish their work objectives (Petchkij 2001 p 21)
The answer might result from peoplersquos awareness According to the communication a
vital part of our every life it mostly involves with oral communication which composed of
listening and speaking Every activity and situation in oral communication concerned with
listening begins since we were born Most people assume that listening is an automatic
they can hear or can listen all the times but in speaking they cannot Consequently
listening becomes the critical skill for the communication Listening Problems
aaaaaaaTo acquire EFL listening skill language learners have to encounter with many
problems which correlated with the study of Pengsritong about problems of English
listening of Ramkhamheang University students The findings indicated that the
experience in using English showed the difference in listening results and the frequency
in practicing listening skills of students show the difference in listening results
(Pengsritong 2001 Online)
aaaaaaaIn addition Hason studied the difficulties of listening and discovered that some
problems in listening are related to the speed of delivery and the language used by the
speaker Since these are outside the learners control the learner cannot keep up with
the speaker Consequently the listener fails to understand the whole meaning of the text
21
Being unfamiliar with the sounds stress and intonation of naturally spoken English the
learner also faces obstacles especially if the speaker has a different accent (Hason
2000 Online)
aaaaaaaOther problems are due to a lack of concentration distractions inside and
outside the classroom the tendency of the listener to try to understand every thing in the
listening text
Listening Strategies aaaaaaaThere are many strategies for language learners to utilize in order to develop
their listening According to the study of Tienttaeng-Ngam about the communicative
strategies of foreign exchange officers it showed that the subjects applied many
listening strategies such as observation to customersrsquo body language asking questions
asking customers to speak slowly Repeating what customers say to ensure mutual
understanding and writing down messages to show to customers (Tienttaeng-Ngam
2001 pp 72-73)
aaaaaaaBesides other researchers also suggested other dissimilar strategy which is
watching DVDs or soundtrack movies Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong
studied on the impacts of reaching EFL listening through DVD-based films It was found
that students statistically improved their listening ability and their attitudes toward
learning listening through the innovative teaching method were very positive The finding
suggested that DVD-based films are helpful for studentsrsquo listening improvement The
researcher has used DVDs to help students learn how to express themselves orally in
English (Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong 2006 pp 42-49)
aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher Elvin studied about listening in English with
English subtitles it was the most popular choice among my students Students showed
significant improvement in listening and reading comprehension as well as word
remembrance and vocabulary acquisition (Elvin 2004 Online) Moreover the survey
investigated studentsrsquo preferred audio and subtitle options and sequences for studying
aural English using DVD when a repeated viewing strategy is employed The finding
22
reveals that almost all of the students want to listen to English every time the DVD is
played
aaaaaaaOn the other hand the problems such as subtitles that shown on the screen are
not the same as what is being said can occur The students feel worry about specific
words and phrases students want to read and listen for general understanding at the
same time Sometimes it is hard to know that the students understand the meaning
through the listening or through reading the subtitles or just looking the visuals
(Helgesen 2004 unpaged)
aaaaaaaBased on the findings of some researchers they proposed the guidelines of
listening activities for solving learnersrsquo problems of listening comprehension which is very
useful for EFL teachers They consisted of three stages as follows (Hason 2000 Online)
(Pospieszynska 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaPre-listening
aaaaaaaIn real life situations a listener almost always knows in advance what is going to
be said who is speaking or what the subject is going to be about The pre-listening
stage helps learners to find out the aim of listening and provides the background
information
aaaaaaaaaaaaDiscussion starting a discussion about the topic (possibly based on
visuals and titles) then let the students think about a suitable topic of conversation and
the teacher encourages them to exchange ideas and opinions about the topic
aaaaaaaaabaaPrediction asking the students to predict the content or what speakers
are going to say based on the information in discussion section
aaaaaaaaacaaQuestions guessing and preparing some questions to be answered
during listening to the passage
Aaaaaaa2aaWhile-listening or listening in progress
aaaaaaaThis stage concerned about all tasks that students are asked to do during the
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaIdentifying the idea students jot down main points and key words
23
aaaaaaaaabaaIdentifying features of natural input students listen to natural oral
discourse They are asked to classify stress patterns intonation etc aaaaaaaaacaaFilling in gaps while listening to a dialogue students hear only the
utterances of one speaker and are asked to write down the word or sentence
aaaaaaaaadaaFilling in blanks of a transcript of a spoken text with the words missing
(eg lyrics of a song) aaaaaaaaaeaaInformation search listening for specific items eg answer a particular
question from the pre-listening stage
aaaaaaa3aaPost-listening
aaaaaaaThe post-listening stage includes all the exercises which are completed after
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaEvaluation students answer true-false questions or multiple-choice
questions as an evaluation of their understanding
aaaaaaaaabaaSpeaking students act as a role play or interview on topics related to the
text
aaaaaaaaacaaWriting students write postcards letters etc on topics related to the text
aaaaaaaTo summarize accessing to the target language is not the simply exploit of EFL
learners Therefore the learners have to realize the importance of listening skill Their
capacity to arouse the learnersrsquo motivation and their potential to engage the learners in a
variety of fruitful activities and listening development strategies related to aural
perception in the target language can hardly be denied It is therefore the language
learners who want to develop their listening skill should analysis their listening problems
first and then apply the appropriate strategies to be proper with their learning style
which could lead the learner to be more successful in the communication world
- COVER
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
- Abstract
- CONTENT
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- APPENDIX
- BIOGRAPHY
-
14
aaaaaaa5aaListening to remember We frequently want to remember as much as we
can at all stage of listening Remembering is essential for both understanding and
evaluation It has need of special effort to accomplish this level of receiver involvement in
listening situation (Taylor et al 1986 p 144)
aaaaaaaMoreover Rost commented that listening is used in language teaching It helps
learners to comprehend spoken language Listening is not only a critical means of
acquiring a second language but also a skill area in language performance (Rost 1990
p 7) Purpose of Listening
aaaaaaaListeners do not pay attention to everything they listen selectively according to
the purpose of the task This in turn determines the type of listening required and the
way in which listeners will approach a task According to Richards he differentiated
between an interactional and a transactional purpose for communication Interactional
use of language is socially oriented to please the social needs of the participants eg
small talk and casual conversations Therefore interactional listening is highly
contextualized and two-way involving interaction with a speaker A transactional use of
language on the other hand is more message-oriented and is used primarily to
communicate information eg news broadcasts and lectures In contrast with
interactional listening transactional listening requires correct comprehension of a
message with no opportunity for clarification with a speaker or one-way listening
(Richards 1990 unpaged) Knowing the communicative purpose of a text or utterance
will help the listener decide what to listen for and thus which processes to start As with
the advantages of knowing the context knowing the purpose for listening also really
reduces the load of comprehension since listeners know that they need to listen for
something very specific instead of trying to comprehend every word
aaaaaaaMoreover there are three general purposes of listening The first purpose is to
understand ideas When we listen to understand we listen for the main idea or central
concepts The listener seeks to identify key words and phrases that will help them to
15
summarize the concepts being discussed The second purpose is to retain information
Once the listeners are able to focus your attention on what another person is saying and
they are able to understand what the person has said they are ready to move their
listening to the next level which called ldquoListening to retainrdquo If you retain what you hear
you must learn The last purpose is to analyze and evaluate content This purpose is
greater skill than retention When listener learns to analyze and evaluate content
successfully the learner can find the gaps in the arguments and statements the listener
encounters during interpersonal communication (Gamble amp Gamble 1987 pp 91-96) Listening Problems
aaaaaaaAcquiring EFL listening skills is one of the most difficult tasks for any learners
According to study of Hason and Osada can be summarized into 5 main listening
problems related to the speaker as follows (Hason 2000 Online) (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaIt is difficult to understand natural speech which is full of hesitation and
pauses The learners usually get used to listening to tape cassettes teacherrsquos speech
which slower and easier than the natural speech in real life
aaaaaaa2aaIt is difficult to understand the meaning of words which are not pronounced
clearly such as the word ldquothe teacherrdquo and ldquoT-shirtrdquo
aaaaaaa3aaIt is difficult to understand the meaning of the spoken text without seeing the
speakerrsquos body language Most people want to see the mouth of the speaker to catch the
pronunciation and translate the meaning of words or see the body language like the
hands eyes to get the meaning
aaaaaaa4aaIt is difficult to understand well when speakers speak too fast The listeners
especially L2 learners try to catch every word therefore they cannot get the main idea
aaaaaaa5aaIt is difficult to understand well when speakers speak with varied accents
Learners tend to be used to their teacherrsquos accent or to the standard variety of British or
American English They find it is quite hard to understand speakers with other accents
aaaaaaaFrom the study of many researchers about listening problems related to the
listener can be concentrated in to ten main problems as follows
16
aaaaaaa1aaListeners cannot control the speed of the deliveryrdquo Many English language
learners believe that the greatest difficulty with listening comprehension is listeners
cannot control how quickly a speaker speaks (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa2aaListeners cannot always have words repeated This is a serious problem
because the listeners cannot replay the speech Itrsquos hard for the speakers to judge
whether the listeners understand what they say or not (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa3aaListeners have a limited vocabulary The speaker may focus on the words
the listener does not know and it can make the listeners to miss the next part of the
speech (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa4aaListeners may fail to recognize the signal which indicates that the speaker
is moving from one point to another giving example or repeating a point The listeners
can notice some markers like ldquosecondlyrdquo or ldquothenrdquo the body language the different
intonation and the gestures (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa5aaListeners may lack related knowledge If the listeners have some relevant
knowledge then it can make the communication easier (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa6aaIt can be difficult for the listeners to concentrate in a foreign language
Students sometimes feel listening is very tiring even if they are interested because it
requires a strong effort to follow the meaning (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa7aaListeners may have their own certain habits such as wish to understand
every word By tradition teachers want students to understand every word they hear by
repeating and pronouncing words carefully and slowly Therefore students tend to
become worried if they fail to understand a particular words or phrases and they will feel
bored and tired to dealing with listening (Hason 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa8aaListeners are out listening It means you let your mind wander to things You
do not remember what the speaker actually said but you remember what you think the
speaker probably said (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
aaaaaaa9aaPrejudgment It is the most common barrier Most people must have some
assumption in their mind They try to defend other personrsquos opinions or views They think
that every comment as a personal attack (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
17
aaaaaaa10aaSelf-centeredness It causes people to take control of conversation rather
than listening to what is being said They think that they know more than the speaker and
determine to prove it (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
Listening Strategies
aaaaaaaListening ability like speaking reading and writing abilities can be improved
There are some guidelines which should be of considerable value if followed According
to the study of DeVito there are six listening strategies as follows (DeVito 1978 pp 145-
153)
aaaaaaa1aaListening for recognition It is not a passive activity it is not a process that
will happen if we simply do nothing to stop it We may hear without effort but we cannot
listen without effort Listening is a difficult process In speaking we can control the
situation we can talk about what we like in the way we like In listening however we are
forced to follow the pace the content and the language set by the speaker Perhaps the
best preparation for active listening is to act like an active listener
aaaaaaa2aaListening for the total meaning The total meaning is not only in the words
used but also in the nonverbal behavior of the speaker Listen for main ideas
connections between ideas and important details Listen answers to these questions
related to the topic Who What Where Why How
aaaaaaa3aaListening with empathy The listener needs to feel what the speaker feels
we need to empathize with the speaker If the listeners understand the feeling of what
speakers say then the listeners can easily understand the real intended meaning of the
speakers aaaaaaa4aaListening with an open mind It is not easy to do or listen to criticisms of
what we think is just great If the listeners cannot accept the otherrsquos opinions then the
listeners will try to avoid listening which makes them not understand the meaning of the
message
18
aaaaaaa5aaTaking selective notes To remind your remembrance and the key words
that helping your understanding This strategy is very useful for the listeners especially
the students who study second language They can look at the note whenever they want
aaaaaaa6aaAsking questions The listener can ensure your own understanding of the
speakerrsquos thoughts and feelings by using this technique However your questions should
support the speakerrsquos feelings and thoughts and confirm your interest
aaaaaaaIn addition from the study of Noonan there are two more strategies of EFL
listening as follows (Noonan 2005 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaSpending more time to practice The person who takes time to practice
language the more knowledge and improvement they gain Moreover the person who
has confidence will be easier to practice English and develop their listening and
speaking skills quickly
aaaaaaa2aaBehaving like a good listener such as stop talking listener cannot listen
when you are talking Listener will only be thinking about what you are going to say next
instead of paying attention to what the other person is trying to say consciously focus
the attention on the speaker pay attention to the speakers do not interrupt allow plenty
of time for the speaker to convey ideas and meaning Be courteous and give the speaker
adequate time to present the full message concentrate on what is being said react to
the idea expressed and look at a speaker
aaaaaaaBesides EFL listeners can use following websites on the internet to practice their
listening skills by listening to online TV or radio stations which offer online broadcast
aaaaaaa1aaBBC This site provides information on frequency and program schedule for
learning English through BBC radio program (httpwwwbbccoukworldservice
learningenglishradioindexshtml)
aaaaaaa2aaCNN This site offers free viewing of news videos on the international edition
of the cnncom site (httpeditioncnncomvideo)
aaaaaaa3aaVoice of America Choose NewsNow for live broadcasts Try the Special
English section and click on the Feature scripts (httpwwwvoagov)
aaaaaaaIf the language learners want to practice their listening on the internet the
19
following sites are designed especially for non-native speakers of English They may
have graded activities transcripts exercises and answers
aaaaaaa1aaESLnotescom This website offers notes and English language resources
for movies (httpwwweslnotescom)
aaaaaaa2aaEveryday English in Conversation Try a variety of everyday conversation
topics with scripts (httpwwwfocusenglishcomdialogues conversationhtml)
aaaaaaa3aaLearn English by the British Council Listen to songs read lyrics and do
activities (httpwwwlearnenglishorguksongsindexasp)
aaaaaaa4aaCharles Kellys Quizzes Based on VOAs Special English Programs
Program scripts audio files and grammarvocabulary quizzes are based on Voice of
Americas Special English programs A variety of topics are offered
(httpwwwmanythingsorgvoa) aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher recommended the dissimilar strategy for instance
paired listening in second language (L2) listening instruction (Fernandez-Toro 2005 p
4) The EFL teachers can implement this strategy for their instructions Listening to
recording allows listeners to control the tape by going back to difficult parts of the
message This approach can help reduce anxiety because responsibility for the task is
shared with a partner The method also gives the learners the chance to cooperate in
order to learn more efficiently through shared scaffolding The theory of scaffolding was
proposed by Evelyn Hatch refers to the cooperative attempt between learners and their
interlocutors in building discourse (Ellis 2002 p 48) This principle helps the learners to
listen to the message and then produce utterance they would not be able to produce on
their own
Related Studies
aaaaaaaMany researchers studied EFL listening in many aspects There were three main
research areas which related with this study They concerned about importance of
listening listening problems and listening strategies
20
Listening Comprehension
aaaaaaaMany people consider listening is an essential skill when compare with other
skills for instance writing reading speaking This idea was supported by the study of
Petchkij The study showed the problems of ward nurses in private hospitals in Bangkok
in communicating English with foreign patients It revealed that listening is the important
aspect to achieve their communications The researcher pointed that most samples
spent most of their times on listening to instruction management of conflict routine
information exchange advising small group communication persuading giving orders
and public speaking From the findings speaking and listening skills are the skills most
frequently used by nurses to accomplish their work objectives (Petchkij 2001 p 21)
The answer might result from peoplersquos awareness According to the communication a
vital part of our every life it mostly involves with oral communication which composed of
listening and speaking Every activity and situation in oral communication concerned with
listening begins since we were born Most people assume that listening is an automatic
they can hear or can listen all the times but in speaking they cannot Consequently
listening becomes the critical skill for the communication Listening Problems
aaaaaaaTo acquire EFL listening skill language learners have to encounter with many
problems which correlated with the study of Pengsritong about problems of English
listening of Ramkhamheang University students The findings indicated that the
experience in using English showed the difference in listening results and the frequency
in practicing listening skills of students show the difference in listening results
(Pengsritong 2001 Online)
aaaaaaaIn addition Hason studied the difficulties of listening and discovered that some
problems in listening are related to the speed of delivery and the language used by the
speaker Since these are outside the learners control the learner cannot keep up with
the speaker Consequently the listener fails to understand the whole meaning of the text
21
Being unfamiliar with the sounds stress and intonation of naturally spoken English the
learner also faces obstacles especially if the speaker has a different accent (Hason
2000 Online)
aaaaaaaOther problems are due to a lack of concentration distractions inside and
outside the classroom the tendency of the listener to try to understand every thing in the
listening text
Listening Strategies aaaaaaaThere are many strategies for language learners to utilize in order to develop
their listening According to the study of Tienttaeng-Ngam about the communicative
strategies of foreign exchange officers it showed that the subjects applied many
listening strategies such as observation to customersrsquo body language asking questions
asking customers to speak slowly Repeating what customers say to ensure mutual
understanding and writing down messages to show to customers (Tienttaeng-Ngam
2001 pp 72-73)
aaaaaaaBesides other researchers also suggested other dissimilar strategy which is
watching DVDs or soundtrack movies Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong
studied on the impacts of reaching EFL listening through DVD-based films It was found
that students statistically improved their listening ability and their attitudes toward
learning listening through the innovative teaching method were very positive The finding
suggested that DVD-based films are helpful for studentsrsquo listening improvement The
researcher has used DVDs to help students learn how to express themselves orally in
English (Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong 2006 pp 42-49)
aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher Elvin studied about listening in English with
English subtitles it was the most popular choice among my students Students showed
significant improvement in listening and reading comprehension as well as word
remembrance and vocabulary acquisition (Elvin 2004 Online) Moreover the survey
investigated studentsrsquo preferred audio and subtitle options and sequences for studying
aural English using DVD when a repeated viewing strategy is employed The finding
22
reveals that almost all of the students want to listen to English every time the DVD is
played
aaaaaaaOn the other hand the problems such as subtitles that shown on the screen are
not the same as what is being said can occur The students feel worry about specific
words and phrases students want to read and listen for general understanding at the
same time Sometimes it is hard to know that the students understand the meaning
through the listening or through reading the subtitles or just looking the visuals
(Helgesen 2004 unpaged)
aaaaaaaBased on the findings of some researchers they proposed the guidelines of
listening activities for solving learnersrsquo problems of listening comprehension which is very
useful for EFL teachers They consisted of three stages as follows (Hason 2000 Online)
(Pospieszynska 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaPre-listening
aaaaaaaIn real life situations a listener almost always knows in advance what is going to
be said who is speaking or what the subject is going to be about The pre-listening
stage helps learners to find out the aim of listening and provides the background
information
aaaaaaaaaaaaDiscussion starting a discussion about the topic (possibly based on
visuals and titles) then let the students think about a suitable topic of conversation and
the teacher encourages them to exchange ideas and opinions about the topic
aaaaaaaaabaaPrediction asking the students to predict the content or what speakers
are going to say based on the information in discussion section
aaaaaaaaacaaQuestions guessing and preparing some questions to be answered
during listening to the passage
Aaaaaaa2aaWhile-listening or listening in progress
aaaaaaaThis stage concerned about all tasks that students are asked to do during the
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaIdentifying the idea students jot down main points and key words
23
aaaaaaaaabaaIdentifying features of natural input students listen to natural oral
discourse They are asked to classify stress patterns intonation etc aaaaaaaaacaaFilling in gaps while listening to a dialogue students hear only the
utterances of one speaker and are asked to write down the word or sentence
aaaaaaaaadaaFilling in blanks of a transcript of a spoken text with the words missing
(eg lyrics of a song) aaaaaaaaaeaaInformation search listening for specific items eg answer a particular
question from the pre-listening stage
aaaaaaa3aaPost-listening
aaaaaaaThe post-listening stage includes all the exercises which are completed after
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaEvaluation students answer true-false questions or multiple-choice
questions as an evaluation of their understanding
aaaaaaaaabaaSpeaking students act as a role play or interview on topics related to the
text
aaaaaaaaacaaWriting students write postcards letters etc on topics related to the text
aaaaaaaTo summarize accessing to the target language is not the simply exploit of EFL
learners Therefore the learners have to realize the importance of listening skill Their
capacity to arouse the learnersrsquo motivation and their potential to engage the learners in a
variety of fruitful activities and listening development strategies related to aural
perception in the target language can hardly be denied It is therefore the language
learners who want to develop their listening skill should analysis their listening problems
first and then apply the appropriate strategies to be proper with their learning style
which could lead the learner to be more successful in the communication world
- COVER
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
- Abstract
- CONTENT
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- APPENDIX
- BIOGRAPHY
-
15
summarize the concepts being discussed The second purpose is to retain information
Once the listeners are able to focus your attention on what another person is saying and
they are able to understand what the person has said they are ready to move their
listening to the next level which called ldquoListening to retainrdquo If you retain what you hear
you must learn The last purpose is to analyze and evaluate content This purpose is
greater skill than retention When listener learns to analyze and evaluate content
successfully the learner can find the gaps in the arguments and statements the listener
encounters during interpersonal communication (Gamble amp Gamble 1987 pp 91-96) Listening Problems
aaaaaaaAcquiring EFL listening skills is one of the most difficult tasks for any learners
According to study of Hason and Osada can be summarized into 5 main listening
problems related to the speaker as follows (Hason 2000 Online) (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaIt is difficult to understand natural speech which is full of hesitation and
pauses The learners usually get used to listening to tape cassettes teacherrsquos speech
which slower and easier than the natural speech in real life
aaaaaaa2aaIt is difficult to understand the meaning of words which are not pronounced
clearly such as the word ldquothe teacherrdquo and ldquoT-shirtrdquo
aaaaaaa3aaIt is difficult to understand the meaning of the spoken text without seeing the
speakerrsquos body language Most people want to see the mouth of the speaker to catch the
pronunciation and translate the meaning of words or see the body language like the
hands eyes to get the meaning
aaaaaaa4aaIt is difficult to understand well when speakers speak too fast The listeners
especially L2 learners try to catch every word therefore they cannot get the main idea
aaaaaaa5aaIt is difficult to understand well when speakers speak with varied accents
Learners tend to be used to their teacherrsquos accent or to the standard variety of British or
American English They find it is quite hard to understand speakers with other accents
aaaaaaaFrom the study of many researchers about listening problems related to the
listener can be concentrated in to ten main problems as follows
16
aaaaaaa1aaListeners cannot control the speed of the deliveryrdquo Many English language
learners believe that the greatest difficulty with listening comprehension is listeners
cannot control how quickly a speaker speaks (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa2aaListeners cannot always have words repeated This is a serious problem
because the listeners cannot replay the speech Itrsquos hard for the speakers to judge
whether the listeners understand what they say or not (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa3aaListeners have a limited vocabulary The speaker may focus on the words
the listener does not know and it can make the listeners to miss the next part of the
speech (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa4aaListeners may fail to recognize the signal which indicates that the speaker
is moving from one point to another giving example or repeating a point The listeners
can notice some markers like ldquosecondlyrdquo or ldquothenrdquo the body language the different
intonation and the gestures (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa5aaListeners may lack related knowledge If the listeners have some relevant
knowledge then it can make the communication easier (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa6aaIt can be difficult for the listeners to concentrate in a foreign language
Students sometimes feel listening is very tiring even if they are interested because it
requires a strong effort to follow the meaning (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa7aaListeners may have their own certain habits such as wish to understand
every word By tradition teachers want students to understand every word they hear by
repeating and pronouncing words carefully and slowly Therefore students tend to
become worried if they fail to understand a particular words or phrases and they will feel
bored and tired to dealing with listening (Hason 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa8aaListeners are out listening It means you let your mind wander to things You
do not remember what the speaker actually said but you remember what you think the
speaker probably said (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
aaaaaaa9aaPrejudgment It is the most common barrier Most people must have some
assumption in their mind They try to defend other personrsquos opinions or views They think
that every comment as a personal attack (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
17
aaaaaaa10aaSelf-centeredness It causes people to take control of conversation rather
than listening to what is being said They think that they know more than the speaker and
determine to prove it (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
Listening Strategies
aaaaaaaListening ability like speaking reading and writing abilities can be improved
There are some guidelines which should be of considerable value if followed According
to the study of DeVito there are six listening strategies as follows (DeVito 1978 pp 145-
153)
aaaaaaa1aaListening for recognition It is not a passive activity it is not a process that
will happen if we simply do nothing to stop it We may hear without effort but we cannot
listen without effort Listening is a difficult process In speaking we can control the
situation we can talk about what we like in the way we like In listening however we are
forced to follow the pace the content and the language set by the speaker Perhaps the
best preparation for active listening is to act like an active listener
aaaaaaa2aaListening for the total meaning The total meaning is not only in the words
used but also in the nonverbal behavior of the speaker Listen for main ideas
connections between ideas and important details Listen answers to these questions
related to the topic Who What Where Why How
aaaaaaa3aaListening with empathy The listener needs to feel what the speaker feels
we need to empathize with the speaker If the listeners understand the feeling of what
speakers say then the listeners can easily understand the real intended meaning of the
speakers aaaaaaa4aaListening with an open mind It is not easy to do or listen to criticisms of
what we think is just great If the listeners cannot accept the otherrsquos opinions then the
listeners will try to avoid listening which makes them not understand the meaning of the
message
18
aaaaaaa5aaTaking selective notes To remind your remembrance and the key words
that helping your understanding This strategy is very useful for the listeners especially
the students who study second language They can look at the note whenever they want
aaaaaaa6aaAsking questions The listener can ensure your own understanding of the
speakerrsquos thoughts and feelings by using this technique However your questions should
support the speakerrsquos feelings and thoughts and confirm your interest
aaaaaaaIn addition from the study of Noonan there are two more strategies of EFL
listening as follows (Noonan 2005 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaSpending more time to practice The person who takes time to practice
language the more knowledge and improvement they gain Moreover the person who
has confidence will be easier to practice English and develop their listening and
speaking skills quickly
aaaaaaa2aaBehaving like a good listener such as stop talking listener cannot listen
when you are talking Listener will only be thinking about what you are going to say next
instead of paying attention to what the other person is trying to say consciously focus
the attention on the speaker pay attention to the speakers do not interrupt allow plenty
of time for the speaker to convey ideas and meaning Be courteous and give the speaker
adequate time to present the full message concentrate on what is being said react to
the idea expressed and look at a speaker
aaaaaaaBesides EFL listeners can use following websites on the internet to practice their
listening skills by listening to online TV or radio stations which offer online broadcast
aaaaaaa1aaBBC This site provides information on frequency and program schedule for
learning English through BBC radio program (httpwwwbbccoukworldservice
learningenglishradioindexshtml)
aaaaaaa2aaCNN This site offers free viewing of news videos on the international edition
of the cnncom site (httpeditioncnncomvideo)
aaaaaaa3aaVoice of America Choose NewsNow for live broadcasts Try the Special
English section and click on the Feature scripts (httpwwwvoagov)
aaaaaaaIf the language learners want to practice their listening on the internet the
19
following sites are designed especially for non-native speakers of English They may
have graded activities transcripts exercises and answers
aaaaaaa1aaESLnotescom This website offers notes and English language resources
for movies (httpwwweslnotescom)
aaaaaaa2aaEveryday English in Conversation Try a variety of everyday conversation
topics with scripts (httpwwwfocusenglishcomdialogues conversationhtml)
aaaaaaa3aaLearn English by the British Council Listen to songs read lyrics and do
activities (httpwwwlearnenglishorguksongsindexasp)
aaaaaaa4aaCharles Kellys Quizzes Based on VOAs Special English Programs
Program scripts audio files and grammarvocabulary quizzes are based on Voice of
Americas Special English programs A variety of topics are offered
(httpwwwmanythingsorgvoa) aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher recommended the dissimilar strategy for instance
paired listening in second language (L2) listening instruction (Fernandez-Toro 2005 p
4) The EFL teachers can implement this strategy for their instructions Listening to
recording allows listeners to control the tape by going back to difficult parts of the
message This approach can help reduce anxiety because responsibility for the task is
shared with a partner The method also gives the learners the chance to cooperate in
order to learn more efficiently through shared scaffolding The theory of scaffolding was
proposed by Evelyn Hatch refers to the cooperative attempt between learners and their
interlocutors in building discourse (Ellis 2002 p 48) This principle helps the learners to
listen to the message and then produce utterance they would not be able to produce on
their own
Related Studies
aaaaaaaMany researchers studied EFL listening in many aspects There were three main
research areas which related with this study They concerned about importance of
listening listening problems and listening strategies
20
Listening Comprehension
aaaaaaaMany people consider listening is an essential skill when compare with other
skills for instance writing reading speaking This idea was supported by the study of
Petchkij The study showed the problems of ward nurses in private hospitals in Bangkok
in communicating English with foreign patients It revealed that listening is the important
aspect to achieve their communications The researcher pointed that most samples
spent most of their times on listening to instruction management of conflict routine
information exchange advising small group communication persuading giving orders
and public speaking From the findings speaking and listening skills are the skills most
frequently used by nurses to accomplish their work objectives (Petchkij 2001 p 21)
The answer might result from peoplersquos awareness According to the communication a
vital part of our every life it mostly involves with oral communication which composed of
listening and speaking Every activity and situation in oral communication concerned with
listening begins since we were born Most people assume that listening is an automatic
they can hear or can listen all the times but in speaking they cannot Consequently
listening becomes the critical skill for the communication Listening Problems
aaaaaaaTo acquire EFL listening skill language learners have to encounter with many
problems which correlated with the study of Pengsritong about problems of English
listening of Ramkhamheang University students The findings indicated that the
experience in using English showed the difference in listening results and the frequency
in practicing listening skills of students show the difference in listening results
(Pengsritong 2001 Online)
aaaaaaaIn addition Hason studied the difficulties of listening and discovered that some
problems in listening are related to the speed of delivery and the language used by the
speaker Since these are outside the learners control the learner cannot keep up with
the speaker Consequently the listener fails to understand the whole meaning of the text
21
Being unfamiliar with the sounds stress and intonation of naturally spoken English the
learner also faces obstacles especially if the speaker has a different accent (Hason
2000 Online)
aaaaaaaOther problems are due to a lack of concentration distractions inside and
outside the classroom the tendency of the listener to try to understand every thing in the
listening text
Listening Strategies aaaaaaaThere are many strategies for language learners to utilize in order to develop
their listening According to the study of Tienttaeng-Ngam about the communicative
strategies of foreign exchange officers it showed that the subjects applied many
listening strategies such as observation to customersrsquo body language asking questions
asking customers to speak slowly Repeating what customers say to ensure mutual
understanding and writing down messages to show to customers (Tienttaeng-Ngam
2001 pp 72-73)
aaaaaaaBesides other researchers also suggested other dissimilar strategy which is
watching DVDs or soundtrack movies Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong
studied on the impacts of reaching EFL listening through DVD-based films It was found
that students statistically improved their listening ability and their attitudes toward
learning listening through the innovative teaching method were very positive The finding
suggested that DVD-based films are helpful for studentsrsquo listening improvement The
researcher has used DVDs to help students learn how to express themselves orally in
English (Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong 2006 pp 42-49)
aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher Elvin studied about listening in English with
English subtitles it was the most popular choice among my students Students showed
significant improvement in listening and reading comprehension as well as word
remembrance and vocabulary acquisition (Elvin 2004 Online) Moreover the survey
investigated studentsrsquo preferred audio and subtitle options and sequences for studying
aural English using DVD when a repeated viewing strategy is employed The finding
22
reveals that almost all of the students want to listen to English every time the DVD is
played
aaaaaaaOn the other hand the problems such as subtitles that shown on the screen are
not the same as what is being said can occur The students feel worry about specific
words and phrases students want to read and listen for general understanding at the
same time Sometimes it is hard to know that the students understand the meaning
through the listening or through reading the subtitles or just looking the visuals
(Helgesen 2004 unpaged)
aaaaaaaBased on the findings of some researchers they proposed the guidelines of
listening activities for solving learnersrsquo problems of listening comprehension which is very
useful for EFL teachers They consisted of three stages as follows (Hason 2000 Online)
(Pospieszynska 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaPre-listening
aaaaaaaIn real life situations a listener almost always knows in advance what is going to
be said who is speaking or what the subject is going to be about The pre-listening
stage helps learners to find out the aim of listening and provides the background
information
aaaaaaaaaaaaDiscussion starting a discussion about the topic (possibly based on
visuals and titles) then let the students think about a suitable topic of conversation and
the teacher encourages them to exchange ideas and opinions about the topic
aaaaaaaaabaaPrediction asking the students to predict the content or what speakers
are going to say based on the information in discussion section
aaaaaaaaacaaQuestions guessing and preparing some questions to be answered
during listening to the passage
Aaaaaaa2aaWhile-listening or listening in progress
aaaaaaaThis stage concerned about all tasks that students are asked to do during the
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaIdentifying the idea students jot down main points and key words
23
aaaaaaaaabaaIdentifying features of natural input students listen to natural oral
discourse They are asked to classify stress patterns intonation etc aaaaaaaaacaaFilling in gaps while listening to a dialogue students hear only the
utterances of one speaker and are asked to write down the word or sentence
aaaaaaaaadaaFilling in blanks of a transcript of a spoken text with the words missing
(eg lyrics of a song) aaaaaaaaaeaaInformation search listening for specific items eg answer a particular
question from the pre-listening stage
aaaaaaa3aaPost-listening
aaaaaaaThe post-listening stage includes all the exercises which are completed after
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaEvaluation students answer true-false questions or multiple-choice
questions as an evaluation of their understanding
aaaaaaaaabaaSpeaking students act as a role play or interview on topics related to the
text
aaaaaaaaacaaWriting students write postcards letters etc on topics related to the text
aaaaaaaTo summarize accessing to the target language is not the simply exploit of EFL
learners Therefore the learners have to realize the importance of listening skill Their
capacity to arouse the learnersrsquo motivation and their potential to engage the learners in a
variety of fruitful activities and listening development strategies related to aural
perception in the target language can hardly be denied It is therefore the language
learners who want to develop their listening skill should analysis their listening problems
first and then apply the appropriate strategies to be proper with their learning style
which could lead the learner to be more successful in the communication world
- COVER
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
- Abstract
- CONTENT
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- APPENDIX
- BIOGRAPHY
-
16
aaaaaaa1aaListeners cannot control the speed of the deliveryrdquo Many English language
learners believe that the greatest difficulty with listening comprehension is listeners
cannot control how quickly a speaker speaks (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa2aaListeners cannot always have words repeated This is a serious problem
because the listeners cannot replay the speech Itrsquos hard for the speakers to judge
whether the listeners understand what they say or not (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa3aaListeners have a limited vocabulary The speaker may focus on the words
the listener does not know and it can make the listeners to miss the next part of the
speech (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa4aaListeners may fail to recognize the signal which indicates that the speaker
is moving from one point to another giving example or repeating a point The listeners
can notice some markers like ldquosecondlyrdquo or ldquothenrdquo the body language the different
intonation and the gestures (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa5aaListeners may lack related knowledge If the listeners have some relevant
knowledge then it can make the communication easier (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa6aaIt can be difficult for the listeners to concentrate in a foreign language
Students sometimes feel listening is very tiring even if they are interested because it
requires a strong effort to follow the meaning (Osada 2004 Online)
aaaaaaa7aaListeners may have their own certain habits such as wish to understand
every word By tradition teachers want students to understand every word they hear by
repeating and pronouncing words carefully and slowly Therefore students tend to
become worried if they fail to understand a particular words or phrases and they will feel
bored and tired to dealing with listening (Hason 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa8aaListeners are out listening It means you let your mind wander to things You
do not remember what the speaker actually said but you remember what you think the
speaker probably said (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
aaaaaaa9aaPrejudgment It is the most common barrier Most people must have some
assumption in their mind They try to defend other personrsquos opinions or views They think
that every comment as a personal attack (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
17
aaaaaaa10aaSelf-centeredness It causes people to take control of conversation rather
than listening to what is being said They think that they know more than the speaker and
determine to prove it (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
Listening Strategies
aaaaaaaListening ability like speaking reading and writing abilities can be improved
There are some guidelines which should be of considerable value if followed According
to the study of DeVito there are six listening strategies as follows (DeVito 1978 pp 145-
153)
aaaaaaa1aaListening for recognition It is not a passive activity it is not a process that
will happen if we simply do nothing to stop it We may hear without effort but we cannot
listen without effort Listening is a difficult process In speaking we can control the
situation we can talk about what we like in the way we like In listening however we are
forced to follow the pace the content and the language set by the speaker Perhaps the
best preparation for active listening is to act like an active listener
aaaaaaa2aaListening for the total meaning The total meaning is not only in the words
used but also in the nonverbal behavior of the speaker Listen for main ideas
connections between ideas and important details Listen answers to these questions
related to the topic Who What Where Why How
aaaaaaa3aaListening with empathy The listener needs to feel what the speaker feels
we need to empathize with the speaker If the listeners understand the feeling of what
speakers say then the listeners can easily understand the real intended meaning of the
speakers aaaaaaa4aaListening with an open mind It is not easy to do or listen to criticisms of
what we think is just great If the listeners cannot accept the otherrsquos opinions then the
listeners will try to avoid listening which makes them not understand the meaning of the
message
18
aaaaaaa5aaTaking selective notes To remind your remembrance and the key words
that helping your understanding This strategy is very useful for the listeners especially
the students who study second language They can look at the note whenever they want
aaaaaaa6aaAsking questions The listener can ensure your own understanding of the
speakerrsquos thoughts and feelings by using this technique However your questions should
support the speakerrsquos feelings and thoughts and confirm your interest
aaaaaaaIn addition from the study of Noonan there are two more strategies of EFL
listening as follows (Noonan 2005 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaSpending more time to practice The person who takes time to practice
language the more knowledge and improvement they gain Moreover the person who
has confidence will be easier to practice English and develop their listening and
speaking skills quickly
aaaaaaa2aaBehaving like a good listener such as stop talking listener cannot listen
when you are talking Listener will only be thinking about what you are going to say next
instead of paying attention to what the other person is trying to say consciously focus
the attention on the speaker pay attention to the speakers do not interrupt allow plenty
of time for the speaker to convey ideas and meaning Be courteous and give the speaker
adequate time to present the full message concentrate on what is being said react to
the idea expressed and look at a speaker
aaaaaaaBesides EFL listeners can use following websites on the internet to practice their
listening skills by listening to online TV or radio stations which offer online broadcast
aaaaaaa1aaBBC This site provides information on frequency and program schedule for
learning English through BBC radio program (httpwwwbbccoukworldservice
learningenglishradioindexshtml)
aaaaaaa2aaCNN This site offers free viewing of news videos on the international edition
of the cnncom site (httpeditioncnncomvideo)
aaaaaaa3aaVoice of America Choose NewsNow for live broadcasts Try the Special
English section and click on the Feature scripts (httpwwwvoagov)
aaaaaaaIf the language learners want to practice their listening on the internet the
19
following sites are designed especially for non-native speakers of English They may
have graded activities transcripts exercises and answers
aaaaaaa1aaESLnotescom This website offers notes and English language resources
for movies (httpwwweslnotescom)
aaaaaaa2aaEveryday English in Conversation Try a variety of everyday conversation
topics with scripts (httpwwwfocusenglishcomdialogues conversationhtml)
aaaaaaa3aaLearn English by the British Council Listen to songs read lyrics and do
activities (httpwwwlearnenglishorguksongsindexasp)
aaaaaaa4aaCharles Kellys Quizzes Based on VOAs Special English Programs
Program scripts audio files and grammarvocabulary quizzes are based on Voice of
Americas Special English programs A variety of topics are offered
(httpwwwmanythingsorgvoa) aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher recommended the dissimilar strategy for instance
paired listening in second language (L2) listening instruction (Fernandez-Toro 2005 p
4) The EFL teachers can implement this strategy for their instructions Listening to
recording allows listeners to control the tape by going back to difficult parts of the
message This approach can help reduce anxiety because responsibility for the task is
shared with a partner The method also gives the learners the chance to cooperate in
order to learn more efficiently through shared scaffolding The theory of scaffolding was
proposed by Evelyn Hatch refers to the cooperative attempt between learners and their
interlocutors in building discourse (Ellis 2002 p 48) This principle helps the learners to
listen to the message and then produce utterance they would not be able to produce on
their own
Related Studies
aaaaaaaMany researchers studied EFL listening in many aspects There were three main
research areas which related with this study They concerned about importance of
listening listening problems and listening strategies
20
Listening Comprehension
aaaaaaaMany people consider listening is an essential skill when compare with other
skills for instance writing reading speaking This idea was supported by the study of
Petchkij The study showed the problems of ward nurses in private hospitals in Bangkok
in communicating English with foreign patients It revealed that listening is the important
aspect to achieve their communications The researcher pointed that most samples
spent most of their times on listening to instruction management of conflict routine
information exchange advising small group communication persuading giving orders
and public speaking From the findings speaking and listening skills are the skills most
frequently used by nurses to accomplish their work objectives (Petchkij 2001 p 21)
The answer might result from peoplersquos awareness According to the communication a
vital part of our every life it mostly involves with oral communication which composed of
listening and speaking Every activity and situation in oral communication concerned with
listening begins since we were born Most people assume that listening is an automatic
they can hear or can listen all the times but in speaking they cannot Consequently
listening becomes the critical skill for the communication Listening Problems
aaaaaaaTo acquire EFL listening skill language learners have to encounter with many
problems which correlated with the study of Pengsritong about problems of English
listening of Ramkhamheang University students The findings indicated that the
experience in using English showed the difference in listening results and the frequency
in practicing listening skills of students show the difference in listening results
(Pengsritong 2001 Online)
aaaaaaaIn addition Hason studied the difficulties of listening and discovered that some
problems in listening are related to the speed of delivery and the language used by the
speaker Since these are outside the learners control the learner cannot keep up with
the speaker Consequently the listener fails to understand the whole meaning of the text
21
Being unfamiliar with the sounds stress and intonation of naturally spoken English the
learner also faces obstacles especially if the speaker has a different accent (Hason
2000 Online)
aaaaaaaOther problems are due to a lack of concentration distractions inside and
outside the classroom the tendency of the listener to try to understand every thing in the
listening text
Listening Strategies aaaaaaaThere are many strategies for language learners to utilize in order to develop
their listening According to the study of Tienttaeng-Ngam about the communicative
strategies of foreign exchange officers it showed that the subjects applied many
listening strategies such as observation to customersrsquo body language asking questions
asking customers to speak slowly Repeating what customers say to ensure mutual
understanding and writing down messages to show to customers (Tienttaeng-Ngam
2001 pp 72-73)
aaaaaaaBesides other researchers also suggested other dissimilar strategy which is
watching DVDs or soundtrack movies Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong
studied on the impacts of reaching EFL listening through DVD-based films It was found
that students statistically improved their listening ability and their attitudes toward
learning listening through the innovative teaching method were very positive The finding
suggested that DVD-based films are helpful for studentsrsquo listening improvement The
researcher has used DVDs to help students learn how to express themselves orally in
English (Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong 2006 pp 42-49)
aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher Elvin studied about listening in English with
English subtitles it was the most popular choice among my students Students showed
significant improvement in listening and reading comprehension as well as word
remembrance and vocabulary acquisition (Elvin 2004 Online) Moreover the survey
investigated studentsrsquo preferred audio and subtitle options and sequences for studying
aural English using DVD when a repeated viewing strategy is employed The finding
22
reveals that almost all of the students want to listen to English every time the DVD is
played
aaaaaaaOn the other hand the problems such as subtitles that shown on the screen are
not the same as what is being said can occur The students feel worry about specific
words and phrases students want to read and listen for general understanding at the
same time Sometimes it is hard to know that the students understand the meaning
through the listening or through reading the subtitles or just looking the visuals
(Helgesen 2004 unpaged)
aaaaaaaBased on the findings of some researchers they proposed the guidelines of
listening activities for solving learnersrsquo problems of listening comprehension which is very
useful for EFL teachers They consisted of three stages as follows (Hason 2000 Online)
(Pospieszynska 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaPre-listening
aaaaaaaIn real life situations a listener almost always knows in advance what is going to
be said who is speaking or what the subject is going to be about The pre-listening
stage helps learners to find out the aim of listening and provides the background
information
aaaaaaaaaaaaDiscussion starting a discussion about the topic (possibly based on
visuals and titles) then let the students think about a suitable topic of conversation and
the teacher encourages them to exchange ideas and opinions about the topic
aaaaaaaaabaaPrediction asking the students to predict the content or what speakers
are going to say based on the information in discussion section
aaaaaaaaacaaQuestions guessing and preparing some questions to be answered
during listening to the passage
Aaaaaaa2aaWhile-listening or listening in progress
aaaaaaaThis stage concerned about all tasks that students are asked to do during the
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaIdentifying the idea students jot down main points and key words
23
aaaaaaaaabaaIdentifying features of natural input students listen to natural oral
discourse They are asked to classify stress patterns intonation etc aaaaaaaaacaaFilling in gaps while listening to a dialogue students hear only the
utterances of one speaker and are asked to write down the word or sentence
aaaaaaaaadaaFilling in blanks of a transcript of a spoken text with the words missing
(eg lyrics of a song) aaaaaaaaaeaaInformation search listening for specific items eg answer a particular
question from the pre-listening stage
aaaaaaa3aaPost-listening
aaaaaaaThe post-listening stage includes all the exercises which are completed after
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaEvaluation students answer true-false questions or multiple-choice
questions as an evaluation of their understanding
aaaaaaaaabaaSpeaking students act as a role play or interview on topics related to the
text
aaaaaaaaacaaWriting students write postcards letters etc on topics related to the text
aaaaaaaTo summarize accessing to the target language is not the simply exploit of EFL
learners Therefore the learners have to realize the importance of listening skill Their
capacity to arouse the learnersrsquo motivation and their potential to engage the learners in a
variety of fruitful activities and listening development strategies related to aural
perception in the target language can hardly be denied It is therefore the language
learners who want to develop their listening skill should analysis their listening problems
first and then apply the appropriate strategies to be proper with their learning style
which could lead the learner to be more successful in the communication world
- COVER
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
- Abstract
- CONTENT
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- APPENDIX
- BIOGRAPHY
-
17
aaaaaaa10aaSelf-centeredness It causes people to take control of conversation rather
than listening to what is being said They think that they know more than the speaker and
determine to prove it (Thill amp Bovee 2002 pp 121-123)
Listening Strategies
aaaaaaaListening ability like speaking reading and writing abilities can be improved
There are some guidelines which should be of considerable value if followed According
to the study of DeVito there are six listening strategies as follows (DeVito 1978 pp 145-
153)
aaaaaaa1aaListening for recognition It is not a passive activity it is not a process that
will happen if we simply do nothing to stop it We may hear without effort but we cannot
listen without effort Listening is a difficult process In speaking we can control the
situation we can talk about what we like in the way we like In listening however we are
forced to follow the pace the content and the language set by the speaker Perhaps the
best preparation for active listening is to act like an active listener
aaaaaaa2aaListening for the total meaning The total meaning is not only in the words
used but also in the nonverbal behavior of the speaker Listen for main ideas
connections between ideas and important details Listen answers to these questions
related to the topic Who What Where Why How
aaaaaaa3aaListening with empathy The listener needs to feel what the speaker feels
we need to empathize with the speaker If the listeners understand the feeling of what
speakers say then the listeners can easily understand the real intended meaning of the
speakers aaaaaaa4aaListening with an open mind It is not easy to do or listen to criticisms of
what we think is just great If the listeners cannot accept the otherrsquos opinions then the
listeners will try to avoid listening which makes them not understand the meaning of the
message
18
aaaaaaa5aaTaking selective notes To remind your remembrance and the key words
that helping your understanding This strategy is very useful for the listeners especially
the students who study second language They can look at the note whenever they want
aaaaaaa6aaAsking questions The listener can ensure your own understanding of the
speakerrsquos thoughts and feelings by using this technique However your questions should
support the speakerrsquos feelings and thoughts and confirm your interest
aaaaaaaIn addition from the study of Noonan there are two more strategies of EFL
listening as follows (Noonan 2005 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaSpending more time to practice The person who takes time to practice
language the more knowledge and improvement they gain Moreover the person who
has confidence will be easier to practice English and develop their listening and
speaking skills quickly
aaaaaaa2aaBehaving like a good listener such as stop talking listener cannot listen
when you are talking Listener will only be thinking about what you are going to say next
instead of paying attention to what the other person is trying to say consciously focus
the attention on the speaker pay attention to the speakers do not interrupt allow plenty
of time for the speaker to convey ideas and meaning Be courteous and give the speaker
adequate time to present the full message concentrate on what is being said react to
the idea expressed and look at a speaker
aaaaaaaBesides EFL listeners can use following websites on the internet to practice their
listening skills by listening to online TV or radio stations which offer online broadcast
aaaaaaa1aaBBC This site provides information on frequency and program schedule for
learning English through BBC radio program (httpwwwbbccoukworldservice
learningenglishradioindexshtml)
aaaaaaa2aaCNN This site offers free viewing of news videos on the international edition
of the cnncom site (httpeditioncnncomvideo)
aaaaaaa3aaVoice of America Choose NewsNow for live broadcasts Try the Special
English section and click on the Feature scripts (httpwwwvoagov)
aaaaaaaIf the language learners want to practice their listening on the internet the
19
following sites are designed especially for non-native speakers of English They may
have graded activities transcripts exercises and answers
aaaaaaa1aaESLnotescom This website offers notes and English language resources
for movies (httpwwweslnotescom)
aaaaaaa2aaEveryday English in Conversation Try a variety of everyday conversation
topics with scripts (httpwwwfocusenglishcomdialogues conversationhtml)
aaaaaaa3aaLearn English by the British Council Listen to songs read lyrics and do
activities (httpwwwlearnenglishorguksongsindexasp)
aaaaaaa4aaCharles Kellys Quizzes Based on VOAs Special English Programs
Program scripts audio files and grammarvocabulary quizzes are based on Voice of
Americas Special English programs A variety of topics are offered
(httpwwwmanythingsorgvoa) aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher recommended the dissimilar strategy for instance
paired listening in second language (L2) listening instruction (Fernandez-Toro 2005 p
4) The EFL teachers can implement this strategy for their instructions Listening to
recording allows listeners to control the tape by going back to difficult parts of the
message This approach can help reduce anxiety because responsibility for the task is
shared with a partner The method also gives the learners the chance to cooperate in
order to learn more efficiently through shared scaffolding The theory of scaffolding was
proposed by Evelyn Hatch refers to the cooperative attempt between learners and their
interlocutors in building discourse (Ellis 2002 p 48) This principle helps the learners to
listen to the message and then produce utterance they would not be able to produce on
their own
Related Studies
aaaaaaaMany researchers studied EFL listening in many aspects There were three main
research areas which related with this study They concerned about importance of
listening listening problems and listening strategies
20
Listening Comprehension
aaaaaaaMany people consider listening is an essential skill when compare with other
skills for instance writing reading speaking This idea was supported by the study of
Petchkij The study showed the problems of ward nurses in private hospitals in Bangkok
in communicating English with foreign patients It revealed that listening is the important
aspect to achieve their communications The researcher pointed that most samples
spent most of their times on listening to instruction management of conflict routine
information exchange advising small group communication persuading giving orders
and public speaking From the findings speaking and listening skills are the skills most
frequently used by nurses to accomplish their work objectives (Petchkij 2001 p 21)
The answer might result from peoplersquos awareness According to the communication a
vital part of our every life it mostly involves with oral communication which composed of
listening and speaking Every activity and situation in oral communication concerned with
listening begins since we were born Most people assume that listening is an automatic
they can hear or can listen all the times but in speaking they cannot Consequently
listening becomes the critical skill for the communication Listening Problems
aaaaaaaTo acquire EFL listening skill language learners have to encounter with many
problems which correlated with the study of Pengsritong about problems of English
listening of Ramkhamheang University students The findings indicated that the
experience in using English showed the difference in listening results and the frequency
in practicing listening skills of students show the difference in listening results
(Pengsritong 2001 Online)
aaaaaaaIn addition Hason studied the difficulties of listening and discovered that some
problems in listening are related to the speed of delivery and the language used by the
speaker Since these are outside the learners control the learner cannot keep up with
the speaker Consequently the listener fails to understand the whole meaning of the text
21
Being unfamiliar with the sounds stress and intonation of naturally spoken English the
learner also faces obstacles especially if the speaker has a different accent (Hason
2000 Online)
aaaaaaaOther problems are due to a lack of concentration distractions inside and
outside the classroom the tendency of the listener to try to understand every thing in the
listening text
Listening Strategies aaaaaaaThere are many strategies for language learners to utilize in order to develop
their listening According to the study of Tienttaeng-Ngam about the communicative
strategies of foreign exchange officers it showed that the subjects applied many
listening strategies such as observation to customersrsquo body language asking questions
asking customers to speak slowly Repeating what customers say to ensure mutual
understanding and writing down messages to show to customers (Tienttaeng-Ngam
2001 pp 72-73)
aaaaaaaBesides other researchers also suggested other dissimilar strategy which is
watching DVDs or soundtrack movies Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong
studied on the impacts of reaching EFL listening through DVD-based films It was found
that students statistically improved their listening ability and their attitudes toward
learning listening through the innovative teaching method were very positive The finding
suggested that DVD-based films are helpful for studentsrsquo listening improvement The
researcher has used DVDs to help students learn how to express themselves orally in
English (Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong 2006 pp 42-49)
aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher Elvin studied about listening in English with
English subtitles it was the most popular choice among my students Students showed
significant improvement in listening and reading comprehension as well as word
remembrance and vocabulary acquisition (Elvin 2004 Online) Moreover the survey
investigated studentsrsquo preferred audio and subtitle options and sequences for studying
aural English using DVD when a repeated viewing strategy is employed The finding
22
reveals that almost all of the students want to listen to English every time the DVD is
played
aaaaaaaOn the other hand the problems such as subtitles that shown on the screen are
not the same as what is being said can occur The students feel worry about specific
words and phrases students want to read and listen for general understanding at the
same time Sometimes it is hard to know that the students understand the meaning
through the listening or through reading the subtitles or just looking the visuals
(Helgesen 2004 unpaged)
aaaaaaaBased on the findings of some researchers they proposed the guidelines of
listening activities for solving learnersrsquo problems of listening comprehension which is very
useful for EFL teachers They consisted of three stages as follows (Hason 2000 Online)
(Pospieszynska 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaPre-listening
aaaaaaaIn real life situations a listener almost always knows in advance what is going to
be said who is speaking or what the subject is going to be about The pre-listening
stage helps learners to find out the aim of listening and provides the background
information
aaaaaaaaaaaaDiscussion starting a discussion about the topic (possibly based on
visuals and titles) then let the students think about a suitable topic of conversation and
the teacher encourages them to exchange ideas and opinions about the topic
aaaaaaaaabaaPrediction asking the students to predict the content or what speakers
are going to say based on the information in discussion section
aaaaaaaaacaaQuestions guessing and preparing some questions to be answered
during listening to the passage
Aaaaaaa2aaWhile-listening or listening in progress
aaaaaaaThis stage concerned about all tasks that students are asked to do during the
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaIdentifying the idea students jot down main points and key words
23
aaaaaaaaabaaIdentifying features of natural input students listen to natural oral
discourse They are asked to classify stress patterns intonation etc aaaaaaaaacaaFilling in gaps while listening to a dialogue students hear only the
utterances of one speaker and are asked to write down the word or sentence
aaaaaaaaadaaFilling in blanks of a transcript of a spoken text with the words missing
(eg lyrics of a song) aaaaaaaaaeaaInformation search listening for specific items eg answer a particular
question from the pre-listening stage
aaaaaaa3aaPost-listening
aaaaaaaThe post-listening stage includes all the exercises which are completed after
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaEvaluation students answer true-false questions or multiple-choice
questions as an evaluation of their understanding
aaaaaaaaabaaSpeaking students act as a role play or interview on topics related to the
text
aaaaaaaaacaaWriting students write postcards letters etc on topics related to the text
aaaaaaaTo summarize accessing to the target language is not the simply exploit of EFL
learners Therefore the learners have to realize the importance of listening skill Their
capacity to arouse the learnersrsquo motivation and their potential to engage the learners in a
variety of fruitful activities and listening development strategies related to aural
perception in the target language can hardly be denied It is therefore the language
learners who want to develop their listening skill should analysis their listening problems
first and then apply the appropriate strategies to be proper with their learning style
which could lead the learner to be more successful in the communication world
- COVER
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
- Abstract
- CONTENT
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- APPENDIX
- BIOGRAPHY
-
18
aaaaaaa5aaTaking selective notes To remind your remembrance and the key words
that helping your understanding This strategy is very useful for the listeners especially
the students who study second language They can look at the note whenever they want
aaaaaaa6aaAsking questions The listener can ensure your own understanding of the
speakerrsquos thoughts and feelings by using this technique However your questions should
support the speakerrsquos feelings and thoughts and confirm your interest
aaaaaaaIn addition from the study of Noonan there are two more strategies of EFL
listening as follows (Noonan 2005 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaSpending more time to practice The person who takes time to practice
language the more knowledge and improvement they gain Moreover the person who
has confidence will be easier to practice English and develop their listening and
speaking skills quickly
aaaaaaa2aaBehaving like a good listener such as stop talking listener cannot listen
when you are talking Listener will only be thinking about what you are going to say next
instead of paying attention to what the other person is trying to say consciously focus
the attention on the speaker pay attention to the speakers do not interrupt allow plenty
of time for the speaker to convey ideas and meaning Be courteous and give the speaker
adequate time to present the full message concentrate on what is being said react to
the idea expressed and look at a speaker
aaaaaaaBesides EFL listeners can use following websites on the internet to practice their
listening skills by listening to online TV or radio stations which offer online broadcast
aaaaaaa1aaBBC This site provides information on frequency and program schedule for
learning English through BBC radio program (httpwwwbbccoukworldservice
learningenglishradioindexshtml)
aaaaaaa2aaCNN This site offers free viewing of news videos on the international edition
of the cnncom site (httpeditioncnncomvideo)
aaaaaaa3aaVoice of America Choose NewsNow for live broadcasts Try the Special
English section and click on the Feature scripts (httpwwwvoagov)
aaaaaaaIf the language learners want to practice their listening on the internet the
19
following sites are designed especially for non-native speakers of English They may
have graded activities transcripts exercises and answers
aaaaaaa1aaESLnotescom This website offers notes and English language resources
for movies (httpwwweslnotescom)
aaaaaaa2aaEveryday English in Conversation Try a variety of everyday conversation
topics with scripts (httpwwwfocusenglishcomdialogues conversationhtml)
aaaaaaa3aaLearn English by the British Council Listen to songs read lyrics and do
activities (httpwwwlearnenglishorguksongsindexasp)
aaaaaaa4aaCharles Kellys Quizzes Based on VOAs Special English Programs
Program scripts audio files and grammarvocabulary quizzes are based on Voice of
Americas Special English programs A variety of topics are offered
(httpwwwmanythingsorgvoa) aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher recommended the dissimilar strategy for instance
paired listening in second language (L2) listening instruction (Fernandez-Toro 2005 p
4) The EFL teachers can implement this strategy for their instructions Listening to
recording allows listeners to control the tape by going back to difficult parts of the
message This approach can help reduce anxiety because responsibility for the task is
shared with a partner The method also gives the learners the chance to cooperate in
order to learn more efficiently through shared scaffolding The theory of scaffolding was
proposed by Evelyn Hatch refers to the cooperative attempt between learners and their
interlocutors in building discourse (Ellis 2002 p 48) This principle helps the learners to
listen to the message and then produce utterance they would not be able to produce on
their own
Related Studies
aaaaaaaMany researchers studied EFL listening in many aspects There were three main
research areas which related with this study They concerned about importance of
listening listening problems and listening strategies
20
Listening Comprehension
aaaaaaaMany people consider listening is an essential skill when compare with other
skills for instance writing reading speaking This idea was supported by the study of
Petchkij The study showed the problems of ward nurses in private hospitals in Bangkok
in communicating English with foreign patients It revealed that listening is the important
aspect to achieve their communications The researcher pointed that most samples
spent most of their times on listening to instruction management of conflict routine
information exchange advising small group communication persuading giving orders
and public speaking From the findings speaking and listening skills are the skills most
frequently used by nurses to accomplish their work objectives (Petchkij 2001 p 21)
The answer might result from peoplersquos awareness According to the communication a
vital part of our every life it mostly involves with oral communication which composed of
listening and speaking Every activity and situation in oral communication concerned with
listening begins since we were born Most people assume that listening is an automatic
they can hear or can listen all the times but in speaking they cannot Consequently
listening becomes the critical skill for the communication Listening Problems
aaaaaaaTo acquire EFL listening skill language learners have to encounter with many
problems which correlated with the study of Pengsritong about problems of English
listening of Ramkhamheang University students The findings indicated that the
experience in using English showed the difference in listening results and the frequency
in practicing listening skills of students show the difference in listening results
(Pengsritong 2001 Online)
aaaaaaaIn addition Hason studied the difficulties of listening and discovered that some
problems in listening are related to the speed of delivery and the language used by the
speaker Since these are outside the learners control the learner cannot keep up with
the speaker Consequently the listener fails to understand the whole meaning of the text
21
Being unfamiliar with the sounds stress and intonation of naturally spoken English the
learner also faces obstacles especially if the speaker has a different accent (Hason
2000 Online)
aaaaaaaOther problems are due to a lack of concentration distractions inside and
outside the classroom the tendency of the listener to try to understand every thing in the
listening text
Listening Strategies aaaaaaaThere are many strategies for language learners to utilize in order to develop
their listening According to the study of Tienttaeng-Ngam about the communicative
strategies of foreign exchange officers it showed that the subjects applied many
listening strategies such as observation to customersrsquo body language asking questions
asking customers to speak slowly Repeating what customers say to ensure mutual
understanding and writing down messages to show to customers (Tienttaeng-Ngam
2001 pp 72-73)
aaaaaaaBesides other researchers also suggested other dissimilar strategy which is
watching DVDs or soundtrack movies Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong
studied on the impacts of reaching EFL listening through DVD-based films It was found
that students statistically improved their listening ability and their attitudes toward
learning listening through the innovative teaching method were very positive The finding
suggested that DVD-based films are helpful for studentsrsquo listening improvement The
researcher has used DVDs to help students learn how to express themselves orally in
English (Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong 2006 pp 42-49)
aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher Elvin studied about listening in English with
English subtitles it was the most popular choice among my students Students showed
significant improvement in listening and reading comprehension as well as word
remembrance and vocabulary acquisition (Elvin 2004 Online) Moreover the survey
investigated studentsrsquo preferred audio and subtitle options and sequences for studying
aural English using DVD when a repeated viewing strategy is employed The finding
22
reveals that almost all of the students want to listen to English every time the DVD is
played
aaaaaaaOn the other hand the problems such as subtitles that shown on the screen are
not the same as what is being said can occur The students feel worry about specific
words and phrases students want to read and listen for general understanding at the
same time Sometimes it is hard to know that the students understand the meaning
through the listening or through reading the subtitles or just looking the visuals
(Helgesen 2004 unpaged)
aaaaaaaBased on the findings of some researchers they proposed the guidelines of
listening activities for solving learnersrsquo problems of listening comprehension which is very
useful for EFL teachers They consisted of three stages as follows (Hason 2000 Online)
(Pospieszynska 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaPre-listening
aaaaaaaIn real life situations a listener almost always knows in advance what is going to
be said who is speaking or what the subject is going to be about The pre-listening
stage helps learners to find out the aim of listening and provides the background
information
aaaaaaaaaaaaDiscussion starting a discussion about the topic (possibly based on
visuals and titles) then let the students think about a suitable topic of conversation and
the teacher encourages them to exchange ideas and opinions about the topic
aaaaaaaaabaaPrediction asking the students to predict the content or what speakers
are going to say based on the information in discussion section
aaaaaaaaacaaQuestions guessing and preparing some questions to be answered
during listening to the passage
Aaaaaaa2aaWhile-listening or listening in progress
aaaaaaaThis stage concerned about all tasks that students are asked to do during the
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaIdentifying the idea students jot down main points and key words
23
aaaaaaaaabaaIdentifying features of natural input students listen to natural oral
discourse They are asked to classify stress patterns intonation etc aaaaaaaaacaaFilling in gaps while listening to a dialogue students hear only the
utterances of one speaker and are asked to write down the word or sentence
aaaaaaaaadaaFilling in blanks of a transcript of a spoken text with the words missing
(eg lyrics of a song) aaaaaaaaaeaaInformation search listening for specific items eg answer a particular
question from the pre-listening stage
aaaaaaa3aaPost-listening
aaaaaaaThe post-listening stage includes all the exercises which are completed after
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaEvaluation students answer true-false questions or multiple-choice
questions as an evaluation of their understanding
aaaaaaaaabaaSpeaking students act as a role play or interview on topics related to the
text
aaaaaaaaacaaWriting students write postcards letters etc on topics related to the text
aaaaaaaTo summarize accessing to the target language is not the simply exploit of EFL
learners Therefore the learners have to realize the importance of listening skill Their
capacity to arouse the learnersrsquo motivation and their potential to engage the learners in a
variety of fruitful activities and listening development strategies related to aural
perception in the target language can hardly be denied It is therefore the language
learners who want to develop their listening skill should analysis their listening problems
first and then apply the appropriate strategies to be proper with their learning style
which could lead the learner to be more successful in the communication world
- COVER
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
- Abstract
- CONTENT
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- APPENDIX
- BIOGRAPHY
-
19
following sites are designed especially for non-native speakers of English They may
have graded activities transcripts exercises and answers
aaaaaaa1aaESLnotescom This website offers notes and English language resources
for movies (httpwwweslnotescom)
aaaaaaa2aaEveryday English in Conversation Try a variety of everyday conversation
topics with scripts (httpwwwfocusenglishcomdialogues conversationhtml)
aaaaaaa3aaLearn English by the British Council Listen to songs read lyrics and do
activities (httpwwwlearnenglishorguksongsindexasp)
aaaaaaa4aaCharles Kellys Quizzes Based on VOAs Special English Programs
Program scripts audio files and grammarvocabulary quizzes are based on Voice of
Americas Special English programs A variety of topics are offered
(httpwwwmanythingsorgvoa) aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher recommended the dissimilar strategy for instance
paired listening in second language (L2) listening instruction (Fernandez-Toro 2005 p
4) The EFL teachers can implement this strategy for their instructions Listening to
recording allows listeners to control the tape by going back to difficult parts of the
message This approach can help reduce anxiety because responsibility for the task is
shared with a partner The method also gives the learners the chance to cooperate in
order to learn more efficiently through shared scaffolding The theory of scaffolding was
proposed by Evelyn Hatch refers to the cooperative attempt between learners and their
interlocutors in building discourse (Ellis 2002 p 48) This principle helps the learners to
listen to the message and then produce utterance they would not be able to produce on
their own
Related Studies
aaaaaaaMany researchers studied EFL listening in many aspects There were three main
research areas which related with this study They concerned about importance of
listening listening problems and listening strategies
20
Listening Comprehension
aaaaaaaMany people consider listening is an essential skill when compare with other
skills for instance writing reading speaking This idea was supported by the study of
Petchkij The study showed the problems of ward nurses in private hospitals in Bangkok
in communicating English with foreign patients It revealed that listening is the important
aspect to achieve their communications The researcher pointed that most samples
spent most of their times on listening to instruction management of conflict routine
information exchange advising small group communication persuading giving orders
and public speaking From the findings speaking and listening skills are the skills most
frequently used by nurses to accomplish their work objectives (Petchkij 2001 p 21)
The answer might result from peoplersquos awareness According to the communication a
vital part of our every life it mostly involves with oral communication which composed of
listening and speaking Every activity and situation in oral communication concerned with
listening begins since we were born Most people assume that listening is an automatic
they can hear or can listen all the times but in speaking they cannot Consequently
listening becomes the critical skill for the communication Listening Problems
aaaaaaaTo acquire EFL listening skill language learners have to encounter with many
problems which correlated with the study of Pengsritong about problems of English
listening of Ramkhamheang University students The findings indicated that the
experience in using English showed the difference in listening results and the frequency
in practicing listening skills of students show the difference in listening results
(Pengsritong 2001 Online)
aaaaaaaIn addition Hason studied the difficulties of listening and discovered that some
problems in listening are related to the speed of delivery and the language used by the
speaker Since these are outside the learners control the learner cannot keep up with
the speaker Consequently the listener fails to understand the whole meaning of the text
21
Being unfamiliar with the sounds stress and intonation of naturally spoken English the
learner also faces obstacles especially if the speaker has a different accent (Hason
2000 Online)
aaaaaaaOther problems are due to a lack of concentration distractions inside and
outside the classroom the tendency of the listener to try to understand every thing in the
listening text
Listening Strategies aaaaaaaThere are many strategies for language learners to utilize in order to develop
their listening According to the study of Tienttaeng-Ngam about the communicative
strategies of foreign exchange officers it showed that the subjects applied many
listening strategies such as observation to customersrsquo body language asking questions
asking customers to speak slowly Repeating what customers say to ensure mutual
understanding and writing down messages to show to customers (Tienttaeng-Ngam
2001 pp 72-73)
aaaaaaaBesides other researchers also suggested other dissimilar strategy which is
watching DVDs or soundtrack movies Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong
studied on the impacts of reaching EFL listening through DVD-based films It was found
that students statistically improved their listening ability and their attitudes toward
learning listening through the innovative teaching method were very positive The finding
suggested that DVD-based films are helpful for studentsrsquo listening improvement The
researcher has used DVDs to help students learn how to express themselves orally in
English (Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong 2006 pp 42-49)
aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher Elvin studied about listening in English with
English subtitles it was the most popular choice among my students Students showed
significant improvement in listening and reading comprehension as well as word
remembrance and vocabulary acquisition (Elvin 2004 Online) Moreover the survey
investigated studentsrsquo preferred audio and subtitle options and sequences for studying
aural English using DVD when a repeated viewing strategy is employed The finding
22
reveals that almost all of the students want to listen to English every time the DVD is
played
aaaaaaaOn the other hand the problems such as subtitles that shown on the screen are
not the same as what is being said can occur The students feel worry about specific
words and phrases students want to read and listen for general understanding at the
same time Sometimes it is hard to know that the students understand the meaning
through the listening or through reading the subtitles or just looking the visuals
(Helgesen 2004 unpaged)
aaaaaaaBased on the findings of some researchers they proposed the guidelines of
listening activities for solving learnersrsquo problems of listening comprehension which is very
useful for EFL teachers They consisted of three stages as follows (Hason 2000 Online)
(Pospieszynska 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaPre-listening
aaaaaaaIn real life situations a listener almost always knows in advance what is going to
be said who is speaking or what the subject is going to be about The pre-listening
stage helps learners to find out the aim of listening and provides the background
information
aaaaaaaaaaaaDiscussion starting a discussion about the topic (possibly based on
visuals and titles) then let the students think about a suitable topic of conversation and
the teacher encourages them to exchange ideas and opinions about the topic
aaaaaaaaabaaPrediction asking the students to predict the content or what speakers
are going to say based on the information in discussion section
aaaaaaaaacaaQuestions guessing and preparing some questions to be answered
during listening to the passage
Aaaaaaa2aaWhile-listening or listening in progress
aaaaaaaThis stage concerned about all tasks that students are asked to do during the
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaIdentifying the idea students jot down main points and key words
23
aaaaaaaaabaaIdentifying features of natural input students listen to natural oral
discourse They are asked to classify stress patterns intonation etc aaaaaaaaacaaFilling in gaps while listening to a dialogue students hear only the
utterances of one speaker and are asked to write down the word or sentence
aaaaaaaaadaaFilling in blanks of a transcript of a spoken text with the words missing
(eg lyrics of a song) aaaaaaaaaeaaInformation search listening for specific items eg answer a particular
question from the pre-listening stage
aaaaaaa3aaPost-listening
aaaaaaaThe post-listening stage includes all the exercises which are completed after
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaEvaluation students answer true-false questions or multiple-choice
questions as an evaluation of their understanding
aaaaaaaaabaaSpeaking students act as a role play or interview on topics related to the
text
aaaaaaaaacaaWriting students write postcards letters etc on topics related to the text
aaaaaaaTo summarize accessing to the target language is not the simply exploit of EFL
learners Therefore the learners have to realize the importance of listening skill Their
capacity to arouse the learnersrsquo motivation and their potential to engage the learners in a
variety of fruitful activities and listening development strategies related to aural
perception in the target language can hardly be denied It is therefore the language
learners who want to develop their listening skill should analysis their listening problems
first and then apply the appropriate strategies to be proper with their learning style
which could lead the learner to be more successful in the communication world
- COVER
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
- Abstract
- CONTENT
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- APPENDIX
- BIOGRAPHY
-
20
Listening Comprehension
aaaaaaaMany people consider listening is an essential skill when compare with other
skills for instance writing reading speaking This idea was supported by the study of
Petchkij The study showed the problems of ward nurses in private hospitals in Bangkok
in communicating English with foreign patients It revealed that listening is the important
aspect to achieve their communications The researcher pointed that most samples
spent most of their times on listening to instruction management of conflict routine
information exchange advising small group communication persuading giving orders
and public speaking From the findings speaking and listening skills are the skills most
frequently used by nurses to accomplish their work objectives (Petchkij 2001 p 21)
The answer might result from peoplersquos awareness According to the communication a
vital part of our every life it mostly involves with oral communication which composed of
listening and speaking Every activity and situation in oral communication concerned with
listening begins since we were born Most people assume that listening is an automatic
they can hear or can listen all the times but in speaking they cannot Consequently
listening becomes the critical skill for the communication Listening Problems
aaaaaaaTo acquire EFL listening skill language learners have to encounter with many
problems which correlated with the study of Pengsritong about problems of English
listening of Ramkhamheang University students The findings indicated that the
experience in using English showed the difference in listening results and the frequency
in practicing listening skills of students show the difference in listening results
(Pengsritong 2001 Online)
aaaaaaaIn addition Hason studied the difficulties of listening and discovered that some
problems in listening are related to the speed of delivery and the language used by the
speaker Since these are outside the learners control the learner cannot keep up with
the speaker Consequently the listener fails to understand the whole meaning of the text
21
Being unfamiliar with the sounds stress and intonation of naturally spoken English the
learner also faces obstacles especially if the speaker has a different accent (Hason
2000 Online)
aaaaaaaOther problems are due to a lack of concentration distractions inside and
outside the classroom the tendency of the listener to try to understand every thing in the
listening text
Listening Strategies aaaaaaaThere are many strategies for language learners to utilize in order to develop
their listening According to the study of Tienttaeng-Ngam about the communicative
strategies of foreign exchange officers it showed that the subjects applied many
listening strategies such as observation to customersrsquo body language asking questions
asking customers to speak slowly Repeating what customers say to ensure mutual
understanding and writing down messages to show to customers (Tienttaeng-Ngam
2001 pp 72-73)
aaaaaaaBesides other researchers also suggested other dissimilar strategy which is
watching DVDs or soundtrack movies Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong
studied on the impacts of reaching EFL listening through DVD-based films It was found
that students statistically improved their listening ability and their attitudes toward
learning listening through the innovative teaching method were very positive The finding
suggested that DVD-based films are helpful for studentsrsquo listening improvement The
researcher has used DVDs to help students learn how to express themselves orally in
English (Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong 2006 pp 42-49)
aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher Elvin studied about listening in English with
English subtitles it was the most popular choice among my students Students showed
significant improvement in listening and reading comprehension as well as word
remembrance and vocabulary acquisition (Elvin 2004 Online) Moreover the survey
investigated studentsrsquo preferred audio and subtitle options and sequences for studying
aural English using DVD when a repeated viewing strategy is employed The finding
22
reveals that almost all of the students want to listen to English every time the DVD is
played
aaaaaaaOn the other hand the problems such as subtitles that shown on the screen are
not the same as what is being said can occur The students feel worry about specific
words and phrases students want to read and listen for general understanding at the
same time Sometimes it is hard to know that the students understand the meaning
through the listening or through reading the subtitles or just looking the visuals
(Helgesen 2004 unpaged)
aaaaaaaBased on the findings of some researchers they proposed the guidelines of
listening activities for solving learnersrsquo problems of listening comprehension which is very
useful for EFL teachers They consisted of three stages as follows (Hason 2000 Online)
(Pospieszynska 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaPre-listening
aaaaaaaIn real life situations a listener almost always knows in advance what is going to
be said who is speaking or what the subject is going to be about The pre-listening
stage helps learners to find out the aim of listening and provides the background
information
aaaaaaaaaaaaDiscussion starting a discussion about the topic (possibly based on
visuals and titles) then let the students think about a suitable topic of conversation and
the teacher encourages them to exchange ideas and opinions about the topic
aaaaaaaaabaaPrediction asking the students to predict the content or what speakers
are going to say based on the information in discussion section
aaaaaaaaacaaQuestions guessing and preparing some questions to be answered
during listening to the passage
Aaaaaaa2aaWhile-listening or listening in progress
aaaaaaaThis stage concerned about all tasks that students are asked to do during the
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaIdentifying the idea students jot down main points and key words
23
aaaaaaaaabaaIdentifying features of natural input students listen to natural oral
discourse They are asked to classify stress patterns intonation etc aaaaaaaaacaaFilling in gaps while listening to a dialogue students hear only the
utterances of one speaker and are asked to write down the word or sentence
aaaaaaaaadaaFilling in blanks of a transcript of a spoken text with the words missing
(eg lyrics of a song) aaaaaaaaaeaaInformation search listening for specific items eg answer a particular
question from the pre-listening stage
aaaaaaa3aaPost-listening
aaaaaaaThe post-listening stage includes all the exercises which are completed after
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaEvaluation students answer true-false questions or multiple-choice
questions as an evaluation of their understanding
aaaaaaaaabaaSpeaking students act as a role play or interview on topics related to the
text
aaaaaaaaacaaWriting students write postcards letters etc on topics related to the text
aaaaaaaTo summarize accessing to the target language is not the simply exploit of EFL
learners Therefore the learners have to realize the importance of listening skill Their
capacity to arouse the learnersrsquo motivation and their potential to engage the learners in a
variety of fruitful activities and listening development strategies related to aural
perception in the target language can hardly be denied It is therefore the language
learners who want to develop their listening skill should analysis their listening problems
first and then apply the appropriate strategies to be proper with their learning style
which could lead the learner to be more successful in the communication world
- COVER
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
- Abstract
- CONTENT
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- APPENDIX
- BIOGRAPHY
-
21
Being unfamiliar with the sounds stress and intonation of naturally spoken English the
learner also faces obstacles especially if the speaker has a different accent (Hason
2000 Online)
aaaaaaaOther problems are due to a lack of concentration distractions inside and
outside the classroom the tendency of the listener to try to understand every thing in the
listening text
Listening Strategies aaaaaaaThere are many strategies for language learners to utilize in order to develop
their listening According to the study of Tienttaeng-Ngam about the communicative
strategies of foreign exchange officers it showed that the subjects applied many
listening strategies such as observation to customersrsquo body language asking questions
asking customers to speak slowly Repeating what customers say to ensure mutual
understanding and writing down messages to show to customers (Tienttaeng-Ngam
2001 pp 72-73)
aaaaaaaBesides other researchers also suggested other dissimilar strategy which is
watching DVDs or soundtrack movies Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong
studied on the impacts of reaching EFL listening through DVD-based films It was found
that students statistically improved their listening ability and their attitudes toward
learning listening through the innovative teaching method were very positive The finding
suggested that DVD-based films are helpful for studentsrsquo listening improvement The
researcher has used DVDs to help students learn how to express themselves orally in
English (Joochim Ratchaneeladdachit amp Janyakulwong 2006 pp 42-49)
aaaaaaaMoreover another researcher Elvin studied about listening in English with
English subtitles it was the most popular choice among my students Students showed
significant improvement in listening and reading comprehension as well as word
remembrance and vocabulary acquisition (Elvin 2004 Online) Moreover the survey
investigated studentsrsquo preferred audio and subtitle options and sequences for studying
aural English using DVD when a repeated viewing strategy is employed The finding
22
reveals that almost all of the students want to listen to English every time the DVD is
played
aaaaaaaOn the other hand the problems such as subtitles that shown on the screen are
not the same as what is being said can occur The students feel worry about specific
words and phrases students want to read and listen for general understanding at the
same time Sometimes it is hard to know that the students understand the meaning
through the listening or through reading the subtitles or just looking the visuals
(Helgesen 2004 unpaged)
aaaaaaaBased on the findings of some researchers they proposed the guidelines of
listening activities for solving learnersrsquo problems of listening comprehension which is very
useful for EFL teachers They consisted of three stages as follows (Hason 2000 Online)
(Pospieszynska 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaPre-listening
aaaaaaaIn real life situations a listener almost always knows in advance what is going to
be said who is speaking or what the subject is going to be about The pre-listening
stage helps learners to find out the aim of listening and provides the background
information
aaaaaaaaaaaaDiscussion starting a discussion about the topic (possibly based on
visuals and titles) then let the students think about a suitable topic of conversation and
the teacher encourages them to exchange ideas and opinions about the topic
aaaaaaaaabaaPrediction asking the students to predict the content or what speakers
are going to say based on the information in discussion section
aaaaaaaaacaaQuestions guessing and preparing some questions to be answered
during listening to the passage
Aaaaaaa2aaWhile-listening or listening in progress
aaaaaaaThis stage concerned about all tasks that students are asked to do during the
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaIdentifying the idea students jot down main points and key words
23
aaaaaaaaabaaIdentifying features of natural input students listen to natural oral
discourse They are asked to classify stress patterns intonation etc aaaaaaaaacaaFilling in gaps while listening to a dialogue students hear only the
utterances of one speaker and are asked to write down the word or sentence
aaaaaaaaadaaFilling in blanks of a transcript of a spoken text with the words missing
(eg lyrics of a song) aaaaaaaaaeaaInformation search listening for specific items eg answer a particular
question from the pre-listening stage
aaaaaaa3aaPost-listening
aaaaaaaThe post-listening stage includes all the exercises which are completed after
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaEvaluation students answer true-false questions or multiple-choice
questions as an evaluation of their understanding
aaaaaaaaabaaSpeaking students act as a role play or interview on topics related to the
text
aaaaaaaaacaaWriting students write postcards letters etc on topics related to the text
aaaaaaaTo summarize accessing to the target language is not the simply exploit of EFL
learners Therefore the learners have to realize the importance of listening skill Their
capacity to arouse the learnersrsquo motivation and their potential to engage the learners in a
variety of fruitful activities and listening development strategies related to aural
perception in the target language can hardly be denied It is therefore the language
learners who want to develop their listening skill should analysis their listening problems
first and then apply the appropriate strategies to be proper with their learning style
which could lead the learner to be more successful in the communication world
- COVER
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
- Abstract
- CONTENT
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- APPENDIX
- BIOGRAPHY
-
22
reveals that almost all of the students want to listen to English every time the DVD is
played
aaaaaaaOn the other hand the problems such as subtitles that shown on the screen are
not the same as what is being said can occur The students feel worry about specific
words and phrases students want to read and listen for general understanding at the
same time Sometimes it is hard to know that the students understand the meaning
through the listening or through reading the subtitles or just looking the visuals
(Helgesen 2004 unpaged)
aaaaaaaBased on the findings of some researchers they proposed the guidelines of
listening activities for solving learnersrsquo problems of listening comprehension which is very
useful for EFL teachers They consisted of three stages as follows (Hason 2000 Online)
(Pospieszynska 2000 Online)
aaaaaaa1aaPre-listening
aaaaaaaIn real life situations a listener almost always knows in advance what is going to
be said who is speaking or what the subject is going to be about The pre-listening
stage helps learners to find out the aim of listening and provides the background
information
aaaaaaaaaaaaDiscussion starting a discussion about the topic (possibly based on
visuals and titles) then let the students think about a suitable topic of conversation and
the teacher encourages them to exchange ideas and opinions about the topic
aaaaaaaaabaaPrediction asking the students to predict the content or what speakers
are going to say based on the information in discussion section
aaaaaaaaacaaQuestions guessing and preparing some questions to be answered
during listening to the passage
Aaaaaaa2aaWhile-listening or listening in progress
aaaaaaaThis stage concerned about all tasks that students are asked to do during the
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaIdentifying the idea students jot down main points and key words
23
aaaaaaaaabaaIdentifying features of natural input students listen to natural oral
discourse They are asked to classify stress patterns intonation etc aaaaaaaaacaaFilling in gaps while listening to a dialogue students hear only the
utterances of one speaker and are asked to write down the word or sentence
aaaaaaaaadaaFilling in blanks of a transcript of a spoken text with the words missing
(eg lyrics of a song) aaaaaaaaaeaaInformation search listening for specific items eg answer a particular
question from the pre-listening stage
aaaaaaa3aaPost-listening
aaaaaaaThe post-listening stage includes all the exercises which are completed after
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaEvaluation students answer true-false questions or multiple-choice
questions as an evaluation of their understanding
aaaaaaaaabaaSpeaking students act as a role play or interview on topics related to the
text
aaaaaaaaacaaWriting students write postcards letters etc on topics related to the text
aaaaaaaTo summarize accessing to the target language is not the simply exploit of EFL
learners Therefore the learners have to realize the importance of listening skill Their
capacity to arouse the learnersrsquo motivation and their potential to engage the learners in a
variety of fruitful activities and listening development strategies related to aural
perception in the target language can hardly be denied It is therefore the language
learners who want to develop their listening skill should analysis their listening problems
first and then apply the appropriate strategies to be proper with their learning style
which could lead the learner to be more successful in the communication world
- COVER
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
- Abstract
- CONTENT
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- APPENDIX
- BIOGRAPHY
-
23
aaaaaaaaabaaIdentifying features of natural input students listen to natural oral
discourse They are asked to classify stress patterns intonation etc aaaaaaaaacaaFilling in gaps while listening to a dialogue students hear only the
utterances of one speaker and are asked to write down the word or sentence
aaaaaaaaadaaFilling in blanks of a transcript of a spoken text with the words missing
(eg lyrics of a song) aaaaaaaaaeaaInformation search listening for specific items eg answer a particular
question from the pre-listening stage
aaaaaaa3aaPost-listening
aaaaaaaThe post-listening stage includes all the exercises which are completed after
listening to the text
aaaaaaaaaaaaEvaluation students answer true-false questions or multiple-choice
questions as an evaluation of their understanding
aaaaaaaaabaaSpeaking students act as a role play or interview on topics related to the
text
aaaaaaaaacaaWriting students write postcards letters etc on topics related to the text
aaaaaaaTo summarize accessing to the target language is not the simply exploit of EFL
learners Therefore the learners have to realize the importance of listening skill Their
capacity to arouse the learnersrsquo motivation and their potential to engage the learners in a
variety of fruitful activities and listening development strategies related to aural
perception in the target language can hardly be denied It is therefore the language
learners who want to develop their listening skill should analysis their listening problems
first and then apply the appropriate strategies to be proper with their learning style
which could lead the learner to be more successful in the communication world
- COVER
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
- Abstract
- CONTENT
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- APPENDIX
- BIOGRAPHY
-