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DECLARATION OF THESIS / UNDERGRADUATE PROJECT PAPER AND COPYRIGHT

Author’s full name: Elmira Daneshpour

Date of birth: 22.06.1985

Title: Iranian Mechanical Engineering Master Student’s

Listening Comprehension Problems with lectures in ESL context

Academic Session: 2012/2013(1) I declare that this thesis is classified as:

I acknowledged that UniversitiTeknologi Malaysia reserves the right as follows:

1. The thesis is the property of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. 2. The Library of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia has the right to make copies for the purpose of research only. 3. The Library has the right to make copies of the thesis for academic exchange.

Certified by:

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(NEW IC NO. /PASSPORT NO) NAME OF SUPERVISOR

Date: Date:

NOTES:* If the thesis is CONFIDENTAL or RESTRICTED, please attach with the letter from the organization with period and reasons for confidentiality or restriction.

�

CONFIDENTIAL (Contains confidential information under the Official Secret Act 1972)*

RESTRICTED (Contains restricted information as specified by the organization where research was

OPEN ACCESS I agree that my thesis to be published as online open access (full text)

SUPERVISOR DECLARATION

“I hereby declare that I have read this project report and in my opinion this project report is sufficient in terms of scope and quality for the award of the degree of Master of Education (Teaching English as Second Language)

Signature : ...................................................

Name of Supervisor :

Date :

IRANIAN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING MASTER STUDENT’S

LISTENING COMPREHENSION PROBLEMS WITH LECTURES IN ESL CONTEXT

ELMIRA DANESHPOUR

A project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Education (Teaching English as Second Language)

Faculty of Education Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

DECEMBER 2012

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DECLARATION

I declare that this project report entitled “Iranian Mechanical Engineering

Master Student’s Listening Comprehension Problems with lectures in ESL context

“is the result of my own research except as cited in the references. The project report has

not been accepted for any degree and is not concurrently submitted in candidature of any

other degree.

Signature: Name: Date:

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DEDICATION

To my beloved mother and father

(Aliakbar Daneshpour and Shohreh Shadpour)

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I wish to express my sincere appreciation to my thesis supervisor, Associate

Professor Dr. Abidah, for encouragement, guidance, critics and friendship. Without his

continued support and interest, this thesis would not have been the same as presented

here.

My fellow postgraduate students should also be recognized for their support. My

sincere appreciation also extends to all my colleagues and others who have provided

assistance at various occasions. Their views and tips are useful indeed. Unfortunately, it

is not possible to list all of them in this limited space. I am grateful to all my family

members especially my mother and father.

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ABSTRACT

Listening comprehension is the most important skill in language learning and it is

also categorized into three different contents which are listening, informative listening

and full listening. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia is an international university which is

included of so many international postgraduate students. Since, they are doing their study

in English which is their second language; they face so many problems in listening

comprehension especially in their first semester. There is a large number of Iranian

students in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia as postgraduate students and those who were

master students in Mechanical Engineering were chosen due to having the sample of

majority of Iranian student community. The methodology of the study was mixed method

and it was included of quantitative and qualitative research method. The quantitative

research method was three-part questionnaire while qualitative method was semi-

structured interview. Meanwhile the quantitative method itself was classified into three

different questionnaires which were personal information, listening comprehension

factors and strategies. Twenty five of the first semester students were chosen to collect

the data. Microsoft Excel (2007) licensed software was used to analyse the data and the

results indicated that among the factors that affecting the students’ listening

comprehension, the environment factor was most significant parameter in listening

comprehension problems of the student with the mean value of 4.4 which clearly means

that 88% of the student were agreed and strongly agreed with it. In the case of strategies

leading the students to overcome their listening comprehension problems, indirect social

strategy was ranked with the mean value of 3.16. As a matter of fact, the high mean

values obtained in this research was indicated that Iranian students face difficulties in

listening comprehension and hopefully this study will raise the awareness of their

listening comprehension problems to employ the effective strategy to cope their

difficulties in understanding lecture in English.

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ABSTRAK

Kefahaman mendengar adalah kemahiran yang paling penting dalam

pembelajaran bahasa dan ia juga dikategorikan kepada tiga kandungan yang berbeza

yang mendengar, mendengar bermaklumat dan mendengar penuh. Universiti Teknologi

Malaysia adalah sebuah universiti antarabangsa yang termasuk pelajar pascasiswazah

antarabangsa yang begitu banyak. Sejak itu, mereka melakukan kajian mereka dalam

bahasa Inggeris yang merupakan bahasa kedua mereka, mereka menghadapi begitu

banyak masalah dalam kefahaman mendengar terutama dalam semester pertama mereka.

Terdapat sebilangan besar pelajar Iran di Universiti Teknologi Malaysia sebagai pelajar

pasca siswazah dan mereka yang merupakan pelajar sarjana dalam bidang Kejuruteraan

Mekanikal telah dipilih kerana mempunyai sampel majoriti masyarakat pelajar Iran.

Metodologi kajian adalah kaedah campuran dan ia telah dimasukkan kaedah penyelidikan

kuantitatif dan kualitatif. Kaedah penyelidikan kuantitatif adalah tiga bahagian soal

selidik manakala kaedah kualitatif adalah temu bual separa berstruktur. Sementara itu,

kaedah kuantitatif sendiri telah dikelaskan kepada tiga soal selidik yang berbeza yang

maklumat peribadi, faktor kefahaman mendengar dan strategi. Dua puluh lima pelajar

semester pertama telah dipilih untuk mengumpul data. Microsoft Excel (2007) perisian

berlesen telah digunakan untuk menganalisis data dan keputusan menunjukkan bahawa

antara faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kefahaman pelajar mendengar, faktor

persekitaran adalah parameter yang paling penting dalam masalah kefahaman mendengar

pelajar dengan nilai min 4.4 yang jelas bermaksud bahawa 88% pelajar telah bersetuju

dan sangat bersetuju dengannya. Dalam kes strategi yang memimpin pelajar untuk

mengatasi masalah kefahaman mereka mendengar, strategi sosial tidak langsung telah

disenaraikan dengan nilai min 3.16. Sebagai hakikatnya, nilai min yang tinggi yang

diperolehi dalam kajian ini menunjukkan bahawa pelajar Iran menghadapi kesukaran

dalam kefahaman mendengar dan diharapkan kajian ini akan meningkatkan kesedaran

masalah kefahaman mendengar mereka untuk menggunakan strategi yang berkesan untuk

menangani masalah mereka dalam syarahan pemahaman dalam Bahasa Inggeris.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

DECLARATION ii

DEDICATION iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv

ABSTRACT v

ABSTRAK vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS vii

LIST OF FIGURES xi

LIST OF TABLES xii

LIST OF APPENDICES xiv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xv

1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Background of the Study 2

1.3 Problem Statement 4

1.4 Purpose of the Study 4

1.5 Research Objectives 5

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1.6 Research Questions 5

1.7 Scope of the study 6

1.8 Significance of Research 6

1.9 Limitations 7

2 LITERATURE REVIEW 9

2.1 Introduction 9

2.2 Definition of Listening 10

2.3 Comprehensible Input 12

2.4 Listening Comprehension 12

2.5 Academic Listening 14

2.6 Listening in EFL Context 15

2.7 Common Problems in Listening Comprehension 16

2.7.1 Problems Among EFL learners 17

2.8 Strategies of Listening Comprehension 18

2.9 Factors of Listening Comprehension 21

3 METHODOLOGY 25

3.1 Introduction 25

3.2 Research Approach 25

3.3 Research Design 26

3.4 Participants and Sampling 27

3.5 Research Instruments 29

3.5.1 Three-part Questionnaire 30

3.5.2 Semi-Structured Interview 31

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3.6 Data Collection Procedure 31

3.7 Reliability and Validity 32

3.8 Data Analysis 32

4 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 34

4.1 Introduction 34

4.2 Qualitative and Quantitative Data 35

4.2.1 Questionnaire: Part One; Demographic

Information 35

4.2.2 Questionnaire: Part Two; Factors 36

4.2.3 Questionnaire: Part Three; Strategies 42

4.2.3.1 Direct Strategies (Memory) 43

4.2.3.2 Direct Strategies( Compensate) 45

4.3 Data from Semi-Structured interview 50

4.3.1 Interview Question No.1; students’

understanding of the lecture 51

4.3.2 Interview Question No.2; students’ common

listening comprehension problems 51

4.3.3 Interview Question No.3; factors affecting on

students’ listening comprehension 53

4.3.4 Interview Question No.4; students’ interesting in

topic 54

4.3.5 Interview Question No.5; the importance of

content knowledge and second language proficiency 54

4.3.6 Interview Question No.6; students’ using of the

strategies 55

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4.3.7 Interview Question No.7; students’

understanding of the lecture before, during and after class 56

4.3.8 Interview Question No.8; students’ difficulty of

listening comprehension 57

5 CONCLUSIONS 59

5.1 Introduction 59

5.2 Conclusion 59

5.3 Implications 61

. 5.4 Recommendations 61

REFERENCES 63

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LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE NO TITLE

PAGE

Figure 3.1 Design of the study 27

Figure 4.1 Summary of Result of the Factors

Affecting Listening Comprehension 42

Figure 4.2 Summary of Result of the Language

Learning Strategies 49

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LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO TITLE PAGE

Table 2.1: Goh’s Task Factor of Listening Comprehension Affecting Factors 21

Table 2.2: Goh’s Environment Factor of Listening Comprehension

Affecting Factors 21

Table 2.3: Goh’s Text Factor of Listening Comprehension Affecting Factors 22

Table 2.4: Goh’s Listener Factor of Listening Comprehension Affecting Factors 23

Table 2.5: Goh’s Speaker Factor of Listening Comprehension Affecting Factors 24

Table 3.1: Applying condition for studying at UTM 29

Table 3.2 Data collection procedure 32

Table 4.1 Participants’ responses of Text Factor Affecting Listening

Comprehension 37

Table 4.2 Participants’ responses of Task Factor Affecting Listening

Comprehension 38

Table 4.3 Participants’ responses of Speaker Factor Affecting Listening

Comprehension 39

Table 4.4 Participants’ responses of Listener Factor Affecting Listening

Comprehension 40

Table 4.5 Participants’ responses of Environment Factor Affecting

Listening Comprehension 41

Table 4.6 Summary of Result of the Factors Affecting Listening

Comprehension 41

Table 4.7 Respondents’ Use of Direct Strategies (Memory) 44

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Table 4.8 Respondents’ Use of Direct Strategies (Compensate) 45

Table 4.9 Respondents’ Use of Indirect Strategies (Meta-cognitive) 46

Table 4.10 Respondents’ Use of Indirect Strategies (Social) 47

Table 4.11 Summary of Results of Language Learning Strategies 48

Table 4.12 Interview assessment based on question No.2 52

Table 4.13 Interview assessment based on question No.3 53

Table 4.14 Interview assessment based on question No.4 54

Table 4.15 Interview assessment based on question No.5 55

Table 4.16 Interview assessment based on question No.6 56

Table 4.17 Interview assessment based on question No.7 56

Table 4.18 Interview assessment based on question No.8 57

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LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX TITLE PAGE

APPENDIX (A) DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION QUESTIONNAIRE 66

APPENDIX (B) LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES’

QUESTIONNAIRE 68

APPENDIX (C) INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 70

APPENDIX (D) RESPONDED INTERVIEW 71

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LIST OF ABBREVIATION

SD - Strongly Disagree

D - Disagree

N - Neutral

A - Agree

SA - Strongly Agree

NT - Never or almost never true of me

UNT - Usually not true of me

ST - Somewhat true of me

UT - Usually true of me

AT - Always or almost always true of

me

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

Listening is one of the most important skills among all language skills.

Listening is considered as a skill because learners need practice to be a good listener.

Listening is a demanding process and most of the time learners can understand and

comprehend listening if they are interested in listening topic or has background

knowledge about the topic. Listening comprehension is the most important skill in

language learning and the least researched one. Listening comprehension is also

categorized into content listening, informative listening and full listening.

Listening among all language learners is a controversial skill (Lund, 1990).

Learners in EFL (English as a foreign language) context and ESL context always

have lots of problems with different aspects of this skill and look for new strategies

to learn listening in better ways. ESL context refers to the learning English in some

countries which speak English as a second language that speaking English takes a

place more in public environment. EFL context refers to the learning English in non

English-speaking countries that speaking English is limited in their educational

systems and in their English private institutes. (Michieka, 2011)

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This research looks into the possible listening comprehension problems

which Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) master students might face with their

lectures in English and investigate the strategies they need to overcome their

problems.

EFL learner in a new context might have the same or different problems and

also use different strategies to handle these problems. In this paper the researcher

studies on Iranian mechanical engineering master students in ESL context as a

sample of master students in EFL context.

1.2 Background study

There are so many researches in the past decade concerning listening

comprehension problems. This study focuses on listening comprehension problems

and strategies regarding to the changing in contexts from EFL to ESL. Learners learn

English language in ESL/EFL context in different countries. For example learners

learn English language as a second language (ESL) in Malaysia, in Iran English

language is as a foreign language.

According to Iran ministry of education syllabus, Iranian students have

studied English based on GTM (Grammar Translation Method) method in university,

so all Iranian students just learnt English language theoretically instead of

practically. In order to control variables and have the same setting and situations

among Iranian learners toward ESL English lectures, Iranian mechanical master

students has been selected as a sample of the Iranian students.

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According to GTM methodology grammar and translation are two

remarkable factors which learners are asked to focus more on them. There is no place

for listening or other language skills so learners are not familiar with listening

strategies. They did not practice enough to listening comprehension and their EFL

teachers have taught them in their first language at their undergraduate and

postgraduate levels even at universities. They just passed some courses in English

which they just focused on reading, writing and translation in L2 in L1. According to

Iran ministry of education syllabus these English courses are around 4 credits in

bachelor; courses are based on students’ major, they did not have any practical using

of listening and speaking.

Though all students must have IELTS score band above 6 or they must pass

IEC (intensive English courses) based on UTM regulations to join their faculties,

Iranian master students are not professional in different language skills specially

listening skill due to the differences in their EFL and ESL contexts. When Iranian

master students start their postgraduate education in UTM, they might face to some

problems in listening with lectures regarding to they never have English base class in

Iran. All the lecturers have taught all the courses in L1 (Persian language).

According to Underwood (1989), students in EFL context have so many

problems in listening comprehension, and they are not exposed to authentic materials

as well. Due to the EFL context and environment, students in EFL context do not

have any contact with real English world; they do not receive authentic, eligible well

organized comprehensible input.

Most Iranian Mechanical engineering master students as an EFL student in

ESL context have so many problems with listening comprehension. Iranian master

students who want to study in UTM might encounter some similar or different

problems in their listening comprehension in the new environment which is ESL

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context. Listening comprehension skill is significant to Iranian students because if

they could not comprehend the lectures in English, they won’t pass their courses.

1.3 Problem Statement

There are some Iranian students that they’ve had a different background of

listening comprehension in Iran as students in EFL context and they faced with some

problems in ESL context (UTM). Due to the differences between EFL and ESL

context and as these students have passed their undergraduate academic studies

based on their L1 (Persian) language in Iran and they do not know about English

listening strategies.

Based on Iran ministry of education all university lecturers speak in Persian

language. The possible problems might happen in order to the changing of EFL to

ESL context and based on English language. The students learn English language

just to get some technical words and information from the course lectures in Iran. So

they cannot understand their lectures in English and never pass their courses if they

could not comprehend listening during the class. However, the most significant

problem of Iranian students is the listening comprehension problems with lectures in

English.

1.4 Purpose of the Study

Aim of this study is to investigate more about Iranian Mechanical

engineering master students’ problems in listening comprehension in their English

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lectures. More over the study looks for strategies that these students use to overcome

their problems in listening comprehension and which factors have influence on it. All

data will be analysis based on qualitative and quantitative research method to find

out their listening comprehension problems.

1.5 Research Objectives

The objectives of this research are as follows:

i. To investigate problems of Iranian mechanical engineering master

students listening comprehension with their lecture in English in ESL

context.

ii. To find out the main strategies used by Iranian mechanical

engineering master students to overcome their listening

comprehension problems.

1.6 Research Questions

The following research questions will be investigated in the study:

1. What are the listening comprehension problems faced by Iranian

mechanical engineering master students with lectures in English in ESL

context?

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2. What are the common strategies used by Iranian mechanical engineering

master students in ESL context to overcome listening comprehension

problems with lectures in English?

1.7 Scope of the study

The study involved 25 mechanical engineering master students who enroll in

their first semester of academic year 2012-2013 at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

They have studied their bachelor in EFL context (Iran) and now they are studying in

ESL context (Malaysia). These students graduated from Iran (undergraduate degree)

and they study at UTM as a master student. All Iranian mechanical engineering

students passed IEC in previous semester.

The normal age of master students at UTM University ranged between 24 to

33 years old. The research area is on listening comprehension problems that

university students have with lectures in English and the strategies that they use to

overcome those problems.

1.8 Significance of Research

Master students in both ESL and EFL context have some problems in their

listening comprehension with lectures. The main emphasis of this study is on Iranian

master problems in ESL context. They need to understand their university lectures in

English to study their core credits (lectures are in English not English courses). Their

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problems are to comprehend listening of lectures to understand their university

courses which are different from English courses (they join to the faculty).

Based on the past studies (Lotfi, 2012; Hayati, 2010; Teng, 1998) there are

common problems which students in EFL contexts have and they might have them in

a new context which is ESL context. Master students who change their context form

EFL to ESL might face with problems in listening comprehension. There is a need to

have more research about problems that student encounter and some strategies they

used to overcome those problems.

These problems are not depending on the lecturers, because of their English

background, they will have some problems while listening to their lectures. The

students’ awareness of their problems in listening comprehension can help them to

solve these problems. It also improves students’ comprehension of their core subjects

better than before, therefore, they can be more successful in during their study.

1.9 Limitations

It is not possible to study listening comprehension problems of all university

students in EFL context who enter to ESL context. Sample of 25 Iranian mechanical

engineering master students to study UTM University as an ESL context is going to

be investigated. The researcher cannot study all university lecturers in English and

all Iranian population because of the limitation of time, so she studies two courses

and sample due to her limitation.

The result of this study is related to Iranian master students in UTM,

therefore it is not related to all EFL learners who study in UTM (just Iranian as EFL

learners), thus the problems and strategies might be different to all EFL learners.

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In this research the researcher can use pilot study, but because of the

limitation of time she did not design questionnaire and just adapts from the other

research. On the other hand, the researcher uses 20 minutes of recording the voice of

lecturers; otherwise she can use much more time if she expands the time from one

semester to two or more semester.

The limitation of time push the researcher to adapt the questionnaire from the

others, she does not have enough time to design a questioner based on her study. the

limitation of time also influence on the time of recording, the researcher uses 20

minutes of recording the voice of lecturers; otherwise she could use much more time

if she expands the time from one semester to two or more semester.