Difficulties in learning listening comprehension skill of English majored sophomores at Tay Do University

Abstract

Listening is regarded to be an essential skill that adds to the success of English learning and daily conversation. It is also a difficult skill for learners who study English as foreign language. However, the learners frequently face the numerous obstacles which cause an obstruction in learning listening skill. For this reason, the current research is carried out with the aim of investigating the difficulties in listening comprehension skill encountered by English majored sophomores at Tay Do University. In fact, 60 sophomores majoring in English were selected to take part in the study. The collected data and information from two instruments (questionnaire and interview paper) which were all analyzed. The findings revealed that pronunciation, intonation, accent, vocabulary, grammar, length, speech rate, psychological and background knowledge were difficulties in listening subject encountered by English majored sophomores. Therefore, this research could help students recognize problems and improve their listening ability.