Problems With Listening - Hasan

Learners’ Perceptions of ListeningComprehension Problems Ali S. Hasan Faculty of Education, Damascus University, Damascus, Syria Many EFL learners find that they are unable to comprehend natural spoken English delivered at normal speed. The paper reports a study of listening problems encountered in the EFL classroom in the ESP Centre at Damascus University, as reported by the learners themselves. It looks in particular at learner strategies, features of the listening text, characteristicsof the speaker, attitudes of the listener, the task to be completed as a result of understanding the text, and the degree of visual or written support for the aural input. The results of the study show that EFL learnersexperiencea range of listening problems. To overcome them, various techniques which help learners to utilise effective strategies to confront problems of listening comprehension are discussed and the pedagogic implications are stated. It should be made clear, right from the beginning, that listening and understanding are two separate processes. We should distinguish between listening as a process which requires mere listening to the message and which does not necessarily involve interpretation or reaction to the text, and listening comprehension as a process which involves the meaningful interactive activity for an overall understanding of the text. Listening comprehension in this research is taken to refer to the way listeners select and interpret information that comes from the auditory and/or visual clues in order to come to better understanding and comprehension of what speakers say. This 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 knowledge (O’Malley & Chamot, 1989; Byrnes, 1984; Richards, 1985; Howard, 1983). It should be also made clear that learners’ 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 learners’ perceptions. The listener, however, might identify one factor, among others, which he thinks can be behind some of his listening problems. For example, some listeners might think that a spoken passage is difficult to understand because speakers speak too fast, while in fact it is not the speed of the speaker but some other feature (or features) which causes the difficulty, such as pronunciation, hesitation, pauses, and varied accents. This research is, therefore, about learners’ reported perceptions of listening comprehension as listening cannot be observed and defined precisely and directly. However, we can study listening by asking learners to tell us about it. This is what the present research tries to demonstrate. It reports the findings of a questionnaire study that revealed learners’ perceptions and beliefs about their listening comprehension problems. 0790-8318/00/02 0137-17 $10.00/0 LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND CURRICULUM 137 © 2000 A.S. Hasan Vol. 13, No. 2, 2000 Learners also need to be aware of the factors which contribute to their difficulties in listening. The significance of the study stems from the importance of listening skills in foreign language learning. but rather how best to diagnose its problems and promote its development. These particular learners. interaction patterns) in the language. the study derives its importance from the context it explores. therefore. the function of the teacher being to identify and redress learners’ weakness as listeners’. or phrase in the text. therefore. For example. When listeners know something about their own strategies. that is. Third. They may be unwilling to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context of the spoken text. Wenden (1986) cites research findings stating that unsuccessful learners are generally less aware of effective ways of approaching the learning tasks. Learners may use ineffective strategies falsely assuming that their strategies help them in listening comprehension. Listening exercises. grammar. It is assumed that the ideas derived from this research will provide insights for learning and teaching listening comprehension skills. Thus listening comprehension provides the right conditions for language acquisition and development of other language skills (Krashen. listening provides comprehensible input for the learner which is essential for any learning to occur. Listening becomes in this case as Field (1998: 112) puts it. listening exercises help learners draw their attention to new forms (vocabulary. Awareness of effective listening strategies would benefit both learners and teachers. strategies and problems. ‘a diagonistic activity’. problems. to identify the listening comprehension strategies used by this particular group of learners and the problems they encounter when listening to a spoken text. syllable. . Thus. which will be suggested as an implication of the study. should be geared to develop learners’ effective listening strategies and to overcome their listening problems. Listening plays an important role in second-language instruction for several reasons (Rost. The research reported here is intended. It is also intended to acquaint teachers with these problematic areas in listening comprehension so that necessary treatment measures. 1994). Culture and Curriculum From the learner’s point of view It should be noted that learners’ perceptions of their listening problems and strategies can affect their comprehension either positively or negatively. can be taken. listeners need to interact with speakers to achieve understanding. Second. have listening comprehension problems as they are still at their intermediate level in English proficiency. First. teachers help their learners to overcome their listening problems and become better listeners. word. learners may wrongly think that they have to listen to every word and detail to get the main idea of the text. the crucial question is not to say that listening comprehension is an important skill. and attitudes they will be able to improve their listening practices and become better listeners. as the author has observed. it tries to give an account of the way EFL learners at Damascus University view listening comprehension. By focusing on the strategies effective listeners use and applying them in the EFL classroom. teachers may wrongly encourage learners to use ineffective strategies in their classrooms. On the other hand. 1995). More specifically. they may insist on complete understanding of every phoneme.138 Language. listener characteristics. It can be said that much of the information we have about L2 listening comprehension is rooted in the work of first-language researchers. The difficulties encountered by Arab EFL learners in listening comprehension have also been pointed out (Hasan. 1960). Higgins (1995) studied Omani students’ problems in listening comprehension and found that the factors which facilitate or hinder listening are speech rate. and pronunciation. 1978. Further research investi- . 1984. Comparing it with other language skills. Richards. There is little knowledge about how listening takes place. Rubin (1994) identified five factors which affect listening comprehension: text characteristics. Rost. 1994).interlocutor characteristics. Devine. in particular. 1964. Flowerdew and Miller (1996) studied learners’ strategies and difficulties in listening to academic lectures. Pre-listening activities. 1985). Rubin. 1967. 1986. As Faerch and Kasper (1986: 264) put it. 1992. difficulties in concentrating. ‘there are fewer insights about the process of listening and the way it is learnt’. Duker. 1994. Mendelsohn & Rubin. listening selectively. 1991. Research on second-language listening has also attempted to point out the factors that may influence learners’ comprehension (Dunkel. the listener and the physical setting. facilitate second-language listening comprehension (Herron. The research available on second-language listening comprehension is insufficient. Flowerdew. 1988. They found that students’ problems were speed of delivery.task characteristics. Richards (1985: 189) says that ‘there is little direct research on second language listening comprehension’. Keller. 1988. and negotiating meaning. Research findings have indicated that familiarity with passage content facilitates second-language listening comprehension (Chiang & Dunkel. Yagang (1994) attributes the difficulty of listening comprehension to four sources: the message. They help students develop background knowledge and improve their understanding of the spoken text. We can say that this statement is still true despite the importance given to listening comprehension (see Goh.Listening Comprehension Problems 139 Research Findings Research on second-language listening comprehension draws on studies done on first-language learning (Anderson & Lynch. the speaker. guessing/inferencing/predicting. Berne. Students will be able to generate ideas about the topic and such information will help them activate relevant schema for the listening text. Brown. new terminology and concepts. Dunkel. Rixon. vocabulary. and process characteristics. Students become able to connect new information with prior knowledge schema. Brown & Yule. 1997. Goh (1997: 161) states that. Similarly. 1995). Lynch. In this way processing the new language becomes feasible as it becomes connected with concepts and words students have already used. 1994) as well as theoretical and pedagogical studies (Ur. 1993). 1983). 1991. 1994. 1995). 1992. Grant (1997) chooses four strategies which would help learners to listen to English: activating/building schema. 1993. Effective listeners use background knowledge and relate this prior knowledge or schemata to the new information contained in the spoken text and this will help them to comprehend the text as they process it. ‘comprehension takes place when input and knowledge are matched against each other’. The literature available on L2 listening includes empirical research (Oxford. and problems related to physical environment. (2) Learners experience different sorts of listening comprehension problems which may be due to the inadequacy of the message and the inadequacy of listening tasks and activities. Higgins. 1984. and in the final analysis. These insights cannot. Culture and Curriculum gated the role of temporal factors facilitating or inhibiting successful listening (Boyle. agriculture. see also references of this research) to examine these hypotheses. Based on a field study done at Damascus University. As Vogely (1995: 41) states. 1997). however. Theoretical explanations of listening comprehension provide us with clues about the problems which learners face when they listen to a spoken text. Boyle. and those related to the learners’ proficiency in listening comprehension. and the listener. sciences. it delineates their perceptions of listening problems pertinent to the message they listen to. principles and ideas need to be tested in practice’. It also provides clues about the strategies which learners use to overcome their problems in listening comprehension. It shows how listening is practised and perceived by the students themselves. Interesting and unexpected things happen in the classroom. 1984. At the time of the experiment the students were about half way through their course. As Nunan (1991: 38) states. and research are as good as teachers and textbook writers make them. such as medicine. ‘theories. ideas. The initial draft of the questionnaire consisted of 41 questions. 1991. Yagang. Although much information has been provided about listening comprehension. Results of the Study The subjects of the study (n = 81) were all native speakers of Arabic learning English as a foreign language for academic purposes in the ESP Centre at Damascus University. The research also aims to arrive at implications for pedagogy. we need to consider the discourse itself in the context of the classroom. the speaker. To locate the sources of listening comprehension. account for exhaustive explanation of these problems. ‘We still need research that documents empirically the relationship between what theory says and what learners actually know and more importantly do’.140 Language. there is still a gap between research theory and classroom practice. All students were exposed to spoken texts of general English. They belong to different fields of study. engineering. They were enrolled in a three-month intensive English language course designed to take them from an intermediate level of general English to a level adequate for postgraduate study in their fields of specialisation. and economics. The present research is a further contribution to the investigation of foreign language listening comprehension problems in actual classroom practice. 1994. the present research provides empirical evidence to identify the kinds of listening problem encountered by intermediate EFL learners. The present research is based on two main hypotheses: (1) Learners’ use of ineffective listening strategies may affect their listening comprehension. A questionnaire was designed after a review of the literature (Nunan. They may also emanate from factors related to the speakers’ speech. To . these are considered to be effective strategies of listening comprehension which would help learners to overcome their listening problems (O’Malley & Chamot. On the one hand.3 32.25 Sometimes % 22.0 18. Only 81 questionnaires were accepted for the study. The questionnaire was then administered to a sample of 88 EFL learners during class time. 1995. The insights gained from the pilot study and the comments of the specialists were taken into consideration when modifying the initial draft. and which strategies affect the quality of listening comprehension adversely and lead to students’ problems.4 22.5 8. it becomes important to know what strategies proficient listeners use.6 1.25 2 I use my experience and background knowledge of the topic to understand the spoken text. 3 I listen to every detail to get the main idea of the spoken text. Responses were then computed and frequencies and percentages were calculated. it was given to a pilot sample of 40 students and nine specialists in English language and Education for judgement and amendment. the other seven questionnaires were not taken seriously by the respondents. students use effective listening comprehension strategies such as the use of pre-listening information and background knowledge of the topic to help them understand the text. 1996). If this is the case. They were asked to identify precisely their listening problems by responding to statements arranged according to a five-point scale (never. often.Listening Comprehension Problems 141 ensure the validity of the questionnaire. 1989. and were excluded from the study. Clearly.23 2. Vogely. seldom. Thompson & Rubin.27 40. Table 1 shows that the strategies which students use in listening comprehension tasks are partly effective and partly ineffective. Learner strategies Effective listening strategies improve the quality of listening comprehension. 1.6 Always % 45.3 Often % 29. Table 1 Learners’ perceptions of strategies of listening comprehension Item Statements no.9 .7 33. always) and by providing open-ended responses at the end of the questionnaire to point out the factors which help and hinder their listening comprehension in English. sometimes.3 28. Never % 1. 1 Pre-listening information about the text improves my listening comprehension.4 12. items of the questionnaire were reduced to 34 questions and certain questions were reformulated so as to be clearly understood by the respondents. Oral instructions and explanations were given to the respondents by the researcher himself to avoid any misunderstanding.25 Seldom % 1. Language. and always).4 . students do not focus their attention on the message selectively. when learners try to follow every word they do not know which is the key word or most important word which gives them a clue for understanding the text. 11 I find it difficult to interpret the meaning of a long spoken text.3 Often % 32.4 4.4 19. they skim parts of the message which are not related to their purposes and pay attention to relevant details. but words are not the whole story.8 2. It should be noted that lexis is an important factor in listening comprehension.4% do that sometimes.7 49. They listen to every detail to get the main idea of the spoken text (59. They probably do because they think that every word or detail is important and must be understood. often. Table 2 Learners’ perceptions of listening problems related to the message Item Statements no. Culture and Curriculum 142 On the other hand. If this is so. unfamiliar words. In real-life situations.2 Seldom % 11. They are thus under the false impression that they must understand every word they hear and this exacerbates their anxiety as they panic when they are not able to hear or understand every single word. In our first language. 9. effective listeners do not normally process all words of the discourse.3 22. This way of processing information might be due to learners’ preference for rote-memorisation of learning in general. Furthermore. Contrary to what effective listeners do. we skim over parts of the message and pay attention to relevant parts only. undermine their ability to become good listeners.7 19. Brown (1992) indicates that we do not process discourse as though all of it were equally interesting or equally worthy of being remembered.9 25. This would. Unfamiliar words interfere with my listening comprehension. Never % 1. Table 1 also shows that students partly use ineffective strategies in listening comprehension. in turn. Thus sentences are not processed word by word and the focus is placed on the ideas behind these words and how these ideas are linked together to draw conclusions. difficult grammatical structures. 1997: 86). and the length of the spoken text may present students with listening problems (Table 2). In particular.0 Always % 7. it might be the case that students suffer from information overload in the passage which hinders their ability to monitor the message and get an overall comprehension of the text.7 8. It helps them to relax the intensity of their listening efforts through using clues from the context and background knowledge to understand the text as a whole.1 Sometimes % 48. The listening text The message itself may be the main source of listening comprehension problems. This focus on the underlying meaning of utterances can help learners to overcome their problem of focusing on individual words (McNeill. 10 Difficult grammatical structures interfere with my listening comprehension.9 40.2 6. In other words. This means that meaning exists in the head of the listener besides that which is represented by words and structures. When topic schemata and tasks are activated.2 % sometimes. and consequently miss key words and other information integral to the understanding of the text. A top-down processing strategy in which learners make use of their previous knowledge which is not directly encoded in words is. Students (sometimes or often) find difficulty in doing certain prediction tasks . Unfamiliar words interfere with their listening comprehension (87. Listening task Several interesting tasks and activities encourage listeners to develop their listening comprehension though they encounter certain problems in doing such tasks.7% sometimes. therefore. The length of time students listen may cause memory problems or even fatigue and this would distract listeners’ attention from grasping the meaning of the text. 1985). This might be due to the inadequacy of the bottom-up processing strategy in which learners make use of the analysis of words and sentence structure to enhance their understanding of the spoken text. students usually find it hard to understand such utterances owing to limitations on short-term memory load. and learners may miss the rest of the text when there is a lapse in concentration. They become engaged in a painstaking attempt to unlock the meaning of these structures. Learners also find it difficult to interpret the meaning of a long spoken text (77. This conforms to Vogely’s study (1998) which shows that the difficulty in listening comprehension is partly due to the structural component of the text. they find it difficult to comprehend the meaning of the text. often or always). Those intermediate learners will not be able to retain a long text as their knowledge of the language is limited and their knowledge of the topic is limited. Table 3 illustrates these difficulties. Besides a long text requires much time for listening.Listening Comprehension Problems 143 Students (sometimes or often) showed awareness of listening comprehension problems related to the kind of spoken texts they listen to. effective listeners use background knowledge and relate their prior knowledge or schemata to the new information contained in the spoken text. Difficult grammatical structures have almost the same effect (69. When these listeners find themselves unable to understand them. and this will help them to comprehend the text as they process it. As a long spoken text contains longer utterances with subordinate clauses. often or always). too. listeners construct a meaningful interpretation of the text during the listening comprehension process. often or always).9 % sometimes. This may be attributed to the short memory span for the target language. Some listeners might believe that meaning resides exclusively within those unfamiliar words and structures so they need massive amounts of vocabulary and grammatical knowledge. The solution to this problem would perhaps be to ask learners to relate the text they hear to their background knowledge of the text and to store the meaning and not the linguistic forms of language in memory. This is in line with the findings of previous research which indicate that the memory span for target language input is shorter than for native language input (Call. rather than infer their meaning from the context. This would perhaps lead them to give up and respond negatively to the text. essential as a complementary procedure to the bottom-up strategy of examining words and structures. 4 Always % 1. 12 I find it difficult to predict what speakers are going to say from the title of the spoken text. such as listening activities which are done either in pairs or in groups. students who are not familiar with language cues.9 18. Here we find learners exchanging roles and the interaction is sustained by listening and speaking through participation (Hasan. ‘What could the passage be about?’ are helpful for learners to set up predictions. It should be noted that in real life when we go for a job interview we usually know what the interviewer is going to talk about.0 46. 69.3 37.4 7.4 3.1 2.2 48.4 Sometimes % 40.1 46. .3 7. 18 I find it difficult to do listening activities in group work. 64. Preliminary elicitations such as ‘What do you know about this topic?’.9 22. Never % 11. Thus lack of contextual knowledge and vocabulary will be an obstacle to prediction and comprehension.0 16.7 33. in order to help our learners predict what speakers are going to say we should provide them with enough information before we give them a listening comprehension exercise.3 20.Language. 17 I find it difficult to do listening activities in pair work.9 22. 1988). 20 I find it difficult to write a summary of the spoken text.7 22. 13 After my teacher stops the tape I find it difficult to predict what will come next.2 7.7 Often % 23. This may be due to the techniques which learners use in processing every single word of the text rather than focusing their attention on certain cues which would help them to set up predictions.1%.5 34. students show only minor problems.2 2.4 16. this is something we can predict as we often know some background information about the job and the subject which is going to be discussed. Similarly.9 4. or in what will come next after a certain point.4 (either from the title of the spoken text.4 16. With certain types of activity which are more interactive in nature. This may be attributed to the fact that interactive listening of this sort provides learners with a supportive environment for both listening and speaking. This may be attributed to students’ limited knowledge of the language. 19 I find it difficult to hold a discussion after listening to the spoken text.1 Seldom % 23.2%).4 7.3 11. Such activities would improve learners’ listening comprehension as they encourage students to work with one another and require them to negotiate meaning by listening and asking questions. clichés and collocations will find it difficult to predict a missing word or phrase.1 33.4 11. Culture and Curriculum 144 Table 3 Learners’ perceptions of listening problems: Tasks and activities Item Statements no. or the learners themselves. However. whereas slow speech is below 130 w.2% of students (sometimes 37%.3%) find it difficult to understand natural speech which is full of hesitations and pauses. Listening activities need language input taken from audio or video recordings. Slow speech is characterised by pauses.. Thus 53. It seems possible that such speech should be understood by FL learners without adequate training. 1997) which pointed out that listening comprehension was poorly linked with its related skills of speaking. listeners might end up with the belief that listening comprehension is equivalent to word-for-word processing of information.2% of students (sometimes or often) find it difficult to write a summary of the text.m. The present research shows that students are not trained to practise listening activities in relation to speaking and writing in some cases. live output from the teacher. pronunciation. and writing. Rivers (1981) considers fast speech is the one which is spoken on the average of 220 w. they are slow to recall the meaning of words and phrases spoken too quickly. listening tasks may be facilitated by linking them with other language skills.2%) find it difficult to hold a discussion after listening to the spoken text. if instructors were to reduce the speed of their speech. and 69. This input must be typical of everyday language which contains a few colloquial words and expressions as learners who listen only to formal English may find it difficult to understand such natural spoken texts. The critical question is whether to choose ‘authentic’ or ‘prepared’ input for such activities.p. often 16.p. The speaker Problems of listening comprehension related to speaking can be seen in relation to natural speech. The solution in this case would be to incorporate listening with other skills such as speaking and writing to reinforce learners’ understanding of the spoken text. whereas fast speech is distinguished by the elimination of clausal pausing.Listening Comprehension Problems 145 Finally. Berne (1998) reports on the findings of a study by Herron and Seay (1991) which indicates that the use of authentic as opposed to pedagogical listening passages leads to greater improvement in listening comprehension and performance. 1979). Some learners cannot remember words they have just heard.m. This finding accords with a previous study (Hasan. 69. A middle position is the use of simulated materials which keep many authentic features with shorter presentations. Rost (1994) indicates that many teachers prefer prepared materials with controlled vocabulary. usage and speed in order to allow learners to comprehend more easily. It could be the case that the presentation of simulated input to EFL learners may reduce their difficulty in listening to natural spoken texts. Table 4 also shows that learners encounter listening problems when speakers speak too fast or with varied accents and produce words which are not clearly pronounced. reading. This is in line with the findings of previous research which indicate that hesitations and pauses in spontaneous speech cause perceptual problems and comprehension errors for non-native speakers (Voss. A more effective tech- . Table 4 shows that students (sometimes or often. varied accents. Others prefer authentic material in order to acquaint learners with ‘real’ input which has the characteristics of spoken language and which is not found in written texts to which students are usually accustomed. and a voice heard only on an audio-tape cassette recorder without seeing the speaker. Visual support not only makes the topic more comprehensible to listeners but .9 0 10.4 Sometimes % 44.9% always and 58.2 40. a video. Visual support. and pauses (Lee & Van Patten.8 37 33.6 16.8 25.8 33. 22 I find it difficult to understand the meaning of words which are not pronounced clearly.9 44. This is in line with previous studies which show that ‘the use of video in listening comprehension facilitates information processing’ (Thompson & Rubin. 1996: 333). 25 I find it difficult to understand well when speakers speak with varied accents.6 nique to counteract this problem would be to break the listening text into natural segments or phrases and deliver them as ‘chunks’ or meaningful units of speech and maintain intonation.9 30. 1995).3 9. whether it is in the form of pictures. 1994).9 0 4. etc.0 3.Language. This deprives them of some contextual clues which make the message easily understood as they cannot see the speakers’ faces and gestures.7 Often % 24. Culture and Curriculum 146 Table 4 Learners’ perceptions of listening problems related to the speaker Item Statements no. 27 Tape scripts provided before listening exercises help me understand the text. 24 I find it difficult to understand well when speakers speak too fast. Learners also reported that they find it difficult to understand the meaning of the spoken text without seeing the speaker’s body language. 21 I find it difficult to understand natural speech which is full of hesitation and pauses. charts. Students reported that visual clues in the form of pictures.9 22. they have the added difficulty of remembering the setting and the individual speakers when the speakers are not seen. diagrams. Baltova. emphases.7 0 0 16. Secules et al..6 39. 1992. and charts help them understand the spoken text (41. It can be said that those activities which involve the use of video in presenting listening passages provide interesting and motivating input and facilitate second-language listening comprehension (Thompson & Rubin. Never % 2. 1996.1% sometimes or often).6 Always % 4.5 41.1 45.0 25. diagrams.1 43.).4 Seldom % 23. 26 Visual clues help me understand the spoken text (pictures. or writing helps students understand the text. video. 23 I find it difficult to understand the meaning of the spoken text without seeing the speaker’s body language.9 24.4 27.7 0 4. Moreover.3 0 0 18. 6 41.2 14.9 7. and the recorded message on the audio-tape (Table 5). 31 I find it difficult to get a general understanding of the spoken text from the first listening.4 29. 34 I find it difficult to understand the spoken text which is not of interest to me.6 . 28 I find it more difficult to listen to a recorded spoken text than to my teacher reading aloud. This may be due to the fact that tapescripts allow listeners to check and make sure that they have listened to everything on the tape.2 0 1.7 28.6 12.8 11.9 Seldom % 6.0 40.7 41. why or how questions). it seems logical not to introduce tapescripts unless students have made their initial attempts to understand the spoken text without written support. 33 I find it difficult to answer questions which require other than a short answer (e.8 44.6 % always).2 1. When listeners understand the spoken text without reference to the written form they become more motivated and more confident.6 8. 29 Unclear sounds resulting from poor-quality tape-recorder interfere with my listening comprehension.1% often and 45. 30 Unclear sounds resulting from poor classroom conditions or outside noise interfere with my listening comprehension.7 11.6 28.2 24.4 24. 32 I feel nervous and worried when I don’t understand the spoken text.2 0 18.9 6. Learners also reported that written support in the form of tapescripts provided before listening exercises help them understand the text (27.8 Always % 38.3 29.3 Sometimes % 14. However.g.8 32. These written forms of language act as visual reinforcement for listening. Never % 4.6 1.9 38. the demand for full and complete answers to listening comprehension questions.Listening Comprehension Problems 147 also helps them to reduce the anxiety that can occur when they do not know what speakers are talking about.1 12.8 Often % 35. Table 5 Learners’ perceptions of listening problems related to the listener Item Statements no.3 25.3 44.3 8. Listener attitudes Listeners’ problems may arise from their lack of interest in the spoken text.3 9. good quality tape-recorders. This is quite obvious as learners who are used to listening to their non-native teacher’s accent may find it hard to understand other speakers with different accents. Listeners find it difficult to answer questions which require other than a short answer.9% often). Learners also reported (44. interpretations of what they are listening to. It was pointed out earlier . Other factors At the end of the questionnaire learners were asked to list important factors aiding listening comprehension. Culture and Curriculum Problems in this category may well be directly related to ways of presentation of the spoken text. e. Learners’ answers centred on pre-listening information related to the text. 28.9% often and 38.148 Language. It should be noted that students are not expected to produce 100% correct answers because as Brown and Yule (1983: 59) say. It was found that students find it difficult to understand the spoken text which is not of interest to them (29. why or how questions (44. contextual clues should be provided. Moreover. ‘a student trained in such expectations constantly experiences panic as he practises listening’. Listening. familiar vocabulary. in this case.6% always) that unclear sounds resulting from poor classroom conditions or outside noise interfere with their understanding. These questions which require detailed and long answers may sound misguided.7% often). 40. 25. These factors were in learners’ opinions determinant factors in developing their listening comprehension skills. The study shows that students find it difficult to get a general understanding of the spoken text from the first listening (32% sometimes. Brown and Yule (1983: 57) maintain that only a reasonable interpretation is required.2% always).3% often. contrary to what takes place in real life. However.3% often).4% often and 29. the problem of accent is only temporary and it can be overcome by repeated listening and practice. reading the text before listening to it. reasonable.9% always) feel nervous and worried when they fail to understand the spoken text. Learners have rightly pointed out the importance of pre-listening information and interesting topics in helping them to understand the spoken text.6% sometimes and 41. and interesting topics. They are in reality being tested rather than taught (Sheerin. there are disadvantages: tapes are not always clear. matters of motivation and interest are also important factors in understanding the topic of the spoken text. Finally. 1987).g.7% sometimes. To make things easier. is often treated as a test in which learners are asked to listen to a long stretch of English and to recall the facts. they were misguided by focusing on vocabulary and reading the text before listening to it. Presenting listening exercises through a tape recorder seems to be the most common method of teaching listening comprehension. ‘what native listeners operate with are partial. However. In addition. Students find it easier to listen to their teachers than to a recorded spoken text. and it seems unjustifiable to require of non-native listeners that they do more’. and unclear sounds resulting from poor-quality tape-recorders interfere with students’ listening comprehension as students of this research revealed (41. this last factor may create psychological problems for listeners as 54% (28. However. speakers cannot be seen nor can they be interrupted to ask for clarification as spoken texts are not understood instantly in some cases. It was pointed out earlier that listeners would not be able to keep in memory the information heard from a long text. It can be seen that learners realised the importance of interesting topics which help them to understand the spoken text and considered a boring subject a hindrance to their listening comprehension. and activities to help them to improve their listening comprehension. • Prediction: Ask students to predict the content or what speakers are going to say. absence of visual aids. the speaker and the listener as reported in this research has significant implications.Listening Comprehension Problems 149 that vocabulary should be guessed from the context of the spoken text and learners should first listen to the text before they read it. In reply. (1) Pre-listening • Discussion: Discussions to elicit information about the topic. These problems can direct teachers to determine the causes which make comprehension break down and design remedial tasks for each problematic area. they have rightly sensed the lack of visual aids. based on the information they have already got through the preliminary discussion. Based on the findings of this research the following outline of guidelines of listening activities are proposed for tackling learners’ problems of listening comprehension. Learners were asked to list important factors which hinder their listening comprehension. Discussion This research has investigated learners’ perceptions of listening comprehension strategies and problems. difficult grammatical structures and expressions to be explained through the discussion. unclear pronunciation. Select certain words. their answers centred on poor conditions in the classroom which interfere with clear sounds. it was found that EFL learners were in some respects poorly equipped with effective strategies. This is perhaps due to ineffective ways of teaching by which teachers ask their students to focus on vocabulary before they listen to the spoken text and discourage them from guessing them from the context. They are asked to identify stress patterns. and a long spoken text as important factors hindering listening comprehension. etc. When such remedial tasks are formed listening comprehension skills can be improved. The identification of listening comprehension problems pertinent to tasks and activities. • Questions: Pre-setting questions to be answered upon listening to the text. The evidence presented points out that EFL learners encounter various kinds of listening problems. stress contrasts. the message. skills. Moreover. Moreover. weak forms. learners still emphasise the fact that unfamiliar vocabulary interferes with their listening comprehension. unclear pronunciation and fast speech. unfamiliar vocabulary. a boring subject. and a long text. • Identifying features of natural input: Students listen to natural spoken discourse. On the other hand. . (2) Listening in progress: • Identifying the gist: Students note down main points and key words to work out the gist of the talk. therefore.150 Language. assimilation. • Writing: Students write messages. In addition. that teachers introduce intelligent guesswork as an important strategy to help their students infer unfamiliar vocabulary from the context. • Questions: Students answer comprehension questions while listening to the text. on topics related to the text. Culture and Curriculum • Dictation: Teacher dictates sentences which include features of natural discourse. They represent the suggested mechanism and field-based views of the present research for addressing problems of listening comprehension and presumably similar problems in similar teaching–learning contexts. They look at the transcript as they listen to the spoken text. However. Learners need also to be aware of the factors which contribute to their difficulties in listening. we need to consider the degree of interest and involvement they generate as uninteresting activities may not develop learners’ listening comprehension. select specific information and classify it using the table provided with the text. difficult grammatical structures must be unlocked through a process of inference. It is suggested. teachers should also ask them to draw upon a range of tasks to do while listening. interview or discussion on topics related to the text. In addition. explanation. the findings of the research imply that teachers should design classroom activities which train their students to pay attention to the overall message rather than listen to every single word in order to come to better understanding of the text. • Classification: Students listen to the text. etc. contractions. In short. weak forms. this study has not examined teachers’ views of teaching listening . • Prediction: Teacher plays half a sentence. elision. teachers should design classroom tasks to teach listening comprehension rather than test it. • Speaking: Students act out a dialogue. postcards. • Written Support: After their initial listening. students are provided with the transcript of the spoken text to make sure that they have listened to everything on the tape. etc. encouraging them to use their background knowledge to arrive at better interpretation of the unfamiliar items. Similarly. In this way students can provide and revise their interpretations as the text builds up and students listen carefully both to the text itself and to the suggested interpretation of it. It should be remembered that when designing these activities we need to give clear instructions and offer a specific purpose for the task. In particular. such as the unfamiliar or difficult items in a long spoken text. and practice. Besides asking students comprehension questions after listening to the spoken text. learners try to predict the rest of it. the study helps us to define students’ perceptions of listening comprehension problems and establish realistic measures for treatment which would be incorporated in the design of listening courses and textbooks. (3) Post-listening • Evaluation: Students answer true–false questions or multiple-choice questions as an evaluation of their understanding. 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