Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Comprehension 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 (OMalley & 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
138
139
Research Findings
Research on second-language listening comprehension draws on studies
done on first-language learning (Anderson & Lynch, 1988; Devine, 1978, 1967;
Duker, 1964; Dunkel, 1991; Keller, 1960). 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 research available on second-language listening comprehension is insufficient. There is little knowledge about how listening takes place. Comparing it
with other language skills, Goh (1997: 161) states that, there are fewer insights
about the process of listening and the way it is learnt. Similarly, Richards (1985:
189) says that there is little direct research on second language listening comprehension. We can say that this statement is still true despite the importance given
to listening comprehension (see Goh, 1997; Brown, 1992; Rost, 1994).
The literature available on L2 listening includes empirical research (Oxford,
1993; Rubin, 1994; Flowerdew, 1994) as well as theoretical and pedagogical studies (Ur, 1984; Rixon, 1986; Mendelsohn & Rubin, 1995). Research on
second-language listening has also attempted to point out the factors that may
influence learners comprehension (Dunkel, 1991; Lynch, 1988; Richards, 1985).
Grant (1997) chooses four strategies which would help learners to listen to
English: activating/building schema, guessing/inferencing/predicting, listening selectively, and negotiating meaning. 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. As Faerch and Kasper (1986: 264) put it, comprehension takes
place when input and knowledge are matched against each other.
Pre-listening activities, in particular, facilitate second-language listening
comprehension (Herron, 1994; Berne, 1995). They help students develop background knowledge and improve their understanding of the spoken text.
Students will be able to generate ideas about the topic and such information will
help them activate relevant schema for the listening text. Students become able to
connect new information with prior knowledge schema. In this way processing
the new language becomes feasible as it becomes connected with concepts and
words students have already used. Research findings have indicated that familiarity with passage content facilitates second-language listening comprehension
(Chiang & Dunkel, 1992; Brown & Yule, 1983).
The difficulties encountered by Arab EFL learners in listening comprehension
have also been pointed out (Hasan, 1993). Yagang (1994) attributes the difficulty
of listening comprehension to four sources: the message, the speaker, the listener
and the physical setting. Higgins (1995) studied Omani students problems in
listening comprehension and found that the factors which facilitate or hinder
listening are speech rate, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Flowerdew and Miller
(1996) studied learners strategies and difficulties in listening to academic
lectures. They found that students problems were speed of delivery, new terminology and concepts, difficulties in concentrating, and problems related to physical environment. Rubin (1994) identified five factors which affect listening
comprehension: text characteristics,interlocutor characteristics,task characteristics, listener characteristics, and process characteristics. Further research investi-
140
141
Never
%
1.25
Seldom
%
1.25
Sometimes %
22.3
Often
%
29.6
Always
%
45.6
1.23
2.4
22.27
40.7
33.4
12.3
28.3
32.0
18.5
8.9
142
On the other hand, Table 1 also shows that students partly use ineffective
strategies in listening comprehension. In real-life situations, effective listeners do
not normally process all words of the discourse; they skim parts of the message
which are not related to their purposes and pay attention to relevant details.
Contrary to what effective listeners do, students do not focus their attention on
the message selectively. They listen to every detail to get the main idea of the
spoken text (59.4% do that sometimes, often, and always). They probably do
because they think that every word or detail is important and must be understood. 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. This would, in turn, undermine
their ability to become good listeners. Furthermore, 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. This way of processing information might be due to learners preference for rote-memorisation of learning in
general. If this is so, 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.
It should be noted that lexis is an important factor in listening comprehension,
but words are not the whole story. Brown (1992) indicates that we do not process
discourse as though all of it were equally interesting or equally worthy of being
remembered. In our first language, we skim over parts of the message and pay
attention to relevant parts only. 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. This focus on the underlying meaning of
utterances can help learners to overcome their problem of focusing on individual
words (McNeill, 1997: 86). 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.
The listening text
The message itself may be the main source of listening comprehension problems. In particular, unfamiliar words, difficult grammatical structures, and the
length of the spoken text may present students with listening problems (Table 2).
Table 2 Learners perceptions of listening problems related to the message
Item
Statements
no.
9.
Unfamiliar words
interfere with my
listening comprehension.
10
Difficult grammatical
structures interfere with
my listening
comprehension.
11
I find it difficult to
interpret the meaning of a
long spoken text.
Never
%
1.2
Seldom
%
11.1
Sometimes %
48.3
Often
%
32.0
Always
%
7.4
4.9
25.9
40.7
19.7
8.8
2.4
19.7
49.3
22.2
6.4
143
144
Never
%
11.1
Seldom
%
23.4
Sometimes %
40.7
Often
%
23.4
Always
%
1.4
3.7
22.2
48.3
20.9
4.9
18.5
34.7
33.3
11.1
2.4
7.4
16.1
46.9
22.2
7.4
11.1
33.3
37.0
16.2
2.4
7.4
16.0
46.9
22.3
7.4
(either from the title of the spoken text, 64.1%, or in what will come next after a
certain point, 69.2%). 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. This may be attributed
to students limited knowledge of the language; students who are not familiar
with language cues, clichs and collocations will find it difficult to predict a missing word or phrase. Thus lack of contextual knowledge and vocabulary will be
an obstacle to prediction and comprehension. 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; 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, 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. Preliminary elicitations such as What do you know
about this topic?, What could the passage be about? are helpful for learners to
set up predictions.
With certain types of activity which are more interactive in nature, such as
listening activities which are done either in pairs or in groups, students show
only minor problems. This may be attributed to the fact that interactive listening
of this sort provides learners with a supportive environment for both listening
and speaking. Here we find learners exchanging roles and the interaction is
sustained by listening and speaking through participation (Hasan, 1988). 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.
145
Finally, listening tasks may be facilitated by linking them with other language
skills. The present research shows that students are not trained to practise listening activities in relation to speaking and writing in some cases. Thus 53.2% of
students (sometimes 37%, often 16.2%) find it difficult to hold a discussion after
listening to the spoken text, and 69.2% of students (sometimes or often) find it
difficult to write a summary of the text. This finding accords with a previous
study (Hasan, 1997) which pointed out that listening comprehension was poorly
linked with its related skills of speaking, reading, and writing. 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.
The speaker
Problems of listening comprehension related to speaking can be seen in relation to natural speech, pronunciation, varied accents, and a voice heard only on
an audio-tape cassette recorder without seeing the speaker.
Table 4 shows that students (sometimes or often, 69.3%) find it difficult to
understand natural speech which is full of hesitations and pauses. 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, 1979). Listening activities need language
input taken from audio or video recordings, live output from the teacher, or the
learners themselves. The critical question is whether to choose authentic or
prepared input for such activities. Rost (1994) indicates that many teachers
prefer prepared materials with controlled vocabulary, usage and speed in
order to allow learners to comprehend more easily. 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. 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. A middle position is the use of
simulated materials which keep many authentic features with shorter presentations. It could be the case that the presentation of simulated input to EFL
learners may reduce their difficulty in listening to natural spoken texts. 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.
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. Slow speech is characterised by pauses, whereas fast speech is
distinguished by the elimination of clausal pausing. Rivers (1981) considers fast
speech is the one which is spoken on the average of 220 w.p.m., whereas slow
speech is below 130 w.p.m. Some learners cannot remember words they have just
heard; they are slow to recall the meaning of words and phrases spoken too
quickly. It seems possible that such speech should be understood by FL learners
without adequate training. However, if instructors were to reduce the speed of
their speech, listeners might end up with the belief that listening comprehension
is equivalent to word-for-word processing of information. A more effective tech-
146
Never
%
2.4
Seldom
%
23.4
Sometimes %
44.7
Often
%
24.6
Always
%
4.9
10.0
25.9
30.8
33.3
9.8
25.9
44.6
16.0
3.7
16.1
43.2
40.7
4.9
24.8
37
33.3
18.6
39.5
41.9
4.9
22.4
27.1
45.6
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, emphases, and pauses (Lee & Van Patten, 1995).
Learners also reported that they find it difficult to understand the meaning of
the spoken text without seeing the speakers body language. This deprives them
of some contextual clues which make the message easily understood as they
cannot see the speakers faces and gestures. Moreover, they have the added difficulty of remembering the setting and the individual speakers when the speakers
are not seen. Visual support, whether it is in the form of pictures, a video, or writing helps students understand the text. Students reported that visual clues in the
form of pictures, diagrams, and charts help them understand the spoken text
(41.9% always and 58.1% sometimes or often). This is in line with previous studies which show that the use of video in listening comprehension facilitates information processing (Thompson & Rubin, 1996: 333). 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, 1996; Secules et al., 1992; Baltova, 1994).
Visual support not only makes the topic more comprehensible to listeners but
147
also helps them to reduce the anxiety that can occur when they do not know what
speakers are talking about.
Learners also reported that written support in the form of tapescripts
provided before listening exercises help them understand the text (27.1% often
and 45.6 % always). These written forms of language act as visual reinforcement
for listening. 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. However, it
seems logical not to introduce tapescripts unless students have made their initial
attempts to understand the spoken text without written support. When listeners
understand the spoken text without reference to the written form they become
more motivated and more confident.
Listener attitudes
Listeners problems may arise from their lack of interest in the spoken text, the
demand for full and complete answers to listening comprehension questions,
and the recorded message on the audio-tape (Table 5).
Table 5 Learners perceptions of listening problems related to the listener
Item
Statements
no.
28
I find it more difficult to
listen to a recorded spoken
text than to my teacher
reading aloud.
29
Unclear sounds resulting
from poor-quality
tape-recorder interfere with
my listening comprehension.
30
Unclear sounds resulting
from poor classroom
conditions or outside noise
interfere with my listening
comprehension.
31
I find it difficult to get a
general understanding of the
spoken text from the first
listening.
32
I feel nervous and worried
when I dont understand the
spoken text.
33
I find it difficult to answer
questions which require
other than a short answer
(e.g. why or how questions).
34
I find it difficult to
understand the spoken text
which is not of interest to me.
Never
%
4.9
Seldom
%
6.3
Sometimes %
14.8
Often
%
35.8
Always
%
38.2
1.2
18.7
41.9
38.2
1.2
24.8
44.4
29.6
1.2
14.8
32.0
40.7
11.3
9.8
11.4
24.6
28.3
25.9
6.1
12.3
44.7
28.3
8.6
8.6
12.3
29.6
41.9
7.6
148
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.
Learners were asked to list important factors which hinder their listening
comprehension. In reply, their answers centred on poor conditions in the classroom which interfere with clear sounds, absence of visual aids, unfamiliar vocabulary, unclear pronunciation and fast speech, a boring subject, and 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. Moreover, they have rightly sensed
the lack of visual aids, unclear pronunciation, and a long spoken text as important factors hindering listening comprehension. It was pointed out earlier that
listeners would not be able to keep in memory the information heard from a long
text. On the other hand, learners still emphasise the fact that unfamiliar vocabulary interferes with their listening comprehension. 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.
Discussion
This research has investigated learners perceptions of listening comprehension strategies and problems. The evidence presented points out that EFL learners encounter various kinds of listening problems. Moreover, it was found that
EFL learners were in some respects poorly equipped with effective strategies,
skills, and activities to help them to improve their listening comprehension.
The identification of listening comprehension problems pertinent to tasks and
activities, the message, the speaker and the listener as reported in this research
has significant implications. These problems can direct teachers to determine the
causes which make comprehension break down and design remedial tasks for
each problematic area. When such remedial tasks are formed listening comprehension skills can be improved. Based on the findings of this research the following outline of guidelines of listening activities are proposed for tackling learners
problems of listening comprehension.
(1) Pre-listening
Discussion: Discussions to elicit information about the topic. Select certain
words, difficult grammatical structures and expressions to be explained
through the discussion.
Prediction: Ask students to predict the content or what speakers are going to
say, based on the information they have already got through the preliminary discussion.
Questions: Pre-setting questions to be answered upon listening to the text.
(2) Listening in progress:
Identifying the gist: Students note down main points and key words to work
out the gist of the talk.
Identifying features of natural input: Students listen to natural spoken
discourse. They are asked to identify stress patterns, stress contrasts, weak
forms, etc.
150
151
152
In C. Zaher (ed.) Proceedingsof the Third EFL Skills Conference: New Directions in Listening
(pp. 1018). The Center for Adult and Continuing Education, The American University
in Cairo, 35 December 1996.
Hasan, A.S. (1988) Variation in spoken discourse in and beyond the EFL classroom: A
comparative study. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Aston.
Hasan, A.S. (1993) Methodology of Teaching English. Damascus: Damascus University.
Hasan, A.S. (1997) Ways of improving teaching listening comprehension to Arabic
speakers in Syria. In C. Zaher (ed.) Proceedings of the Third EFL Skills Conference: New
Directions in Listening (pp. 15971). The Center for Adult and Continuing Education,
The American University in Cairo, 35 December 1996.
Herron C. (1994) An investigation of the effectiveness of using an advanced organizer to
introduce video in the foreign language classroom. The Modern Language Journal 78,
19098.
Herron, C. and Seay, I. (1991) The effect of authentic aural texts on student listening
comprehension in the foreign language classroom. Foreign Language Annals 24, 48795.
Higgins, J.M.D. (1995) Facilitating listening in second language classrooms through the
manipulation of temporal variables. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Kent
at Canterbury.
Higgins, J. (1997) Students listening difficulties: The contribution of speech rate. In
Christine Zaher (ed.) Proceedings of the third EFL Skills Conference: New Directions in
Listening. The Center for Adult and Continuing Education, The American University
in Cairo, 35 December 1996.
Howard, D. (1983) Cognitive Psychology: Memory, Language and Thought. New York:
Macmillan.
Keller, P. (1960) Major findings in listening in the past ten years. Journal of Communication
10, 2938.
Krashen, S.D. (1995) The Input Hypothesis: Issues and Implications. NewYork: Longman.
Lee, J.F. and Van Patten, B. (1995) Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen. New
York: McGraw Hill.
Lynch, A. (1988) Grading foreign language listening comprehension materials: The use of
naturally modified interaction. Dissertation, University of Edinburgh.
McNeill, A. (1997) Some formal obstacles to grasping meaning in spoken English. In C.
Zaher (ed.) Proceedings of the Third EFL Skills Conference: New Directions in Listening. The
Center for Adult and Continuing Education, American University in Cairo, 35
December 1996.
Mendelsohn, D.J. and Rubin, J. (eds) (1995) A Guide for the Teaching of Second Language
Listening. San Diego, CA: Dominie Press.
Nunan, D. (1991) Language Teaching Methodology. Hertfordshire: Prentice Hall.
OMalley, J.M. and Chamot, A.U. (1989) Listening comprehension strategies in second
language acquisition. Applied Linguistics 10 (4), 41837.
Oxford, R.L. (1993) Research update on teaching L2 listening. System 21, 20511.
Richards, J.C. (1985) The Context of Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Rivers, W.M. (1981) Teaching Foreign Language Skills (2nd edn). Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Rixon, S. (1986) Developing Listening Skills. London: Macmillan.
Rost, M. (1994) Listening. London: Longman.
Rubin, J. (1994) A review of second language listening comprehension research. The
Modern Language Journal 78 (2), 199221.
Secules, T., Herron, C. and Tomasello, M. (1992) The effect of video context on foreign
language learning. Modern Language Journal 76, 48090.
Sheerin, S. (1987)Listening comprehension: Teaching or testing. ELT Journal 4 (2), 126 31.
Thompson, I. and Rubin, J. (1996) Can strategy instruction improve listenin g
comprehension? Foreign Language Annals 29 (3), 33141.
Ur, P. (1984)Teaching Listening Comprehension. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vogely, A. (1995) Perceived strategy use during performance on three authentic listening
tasks. The Modern Language Journal 79 (1), 4156.
153
Vogely, A.J. (1998) Listening comprehension anxiety: Students reported sources and
solutions. Foreign Language Annals 31 (1), 6780.
Voss, B. (1979) Hesitation phenomena as sources of perceptual errors for non-native
speakers. Language and Speech 22, 129144.
Wenden, A. (1986) What do second language learners know about their language
learning? A second look at retrospective account. Applied Linguistics 7 (2), 186205.
Yagang, F. (1994) Listening: Problems and solutions. In T. Kral (ed.) Teacher Development:
Making the Right Moves. Washington, DC: English Language Programs Division, USIA.