FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE PROBLEMS EFL ...

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Even though the factors identified through the interview were almost similar to those of the listening difficulties identified though the questionnaire, their details are presented under their respective categories. Let us begin with the listeners’ factors. I. Listener factors This category contains the factors that are related to the listeners. The minor groups of this category include affective factors, fatigue, lack of background knowledge, poor English proficiency, and difficulties related to listening strategies. Each of them is presented as follows. 1) Affective factors Some affective factors might distract learners from listening and understanding. The affective factors that play a negative role in listening comprehension include anxiety, frustration, and resistance. For example, learner (S18) felt depressed when she failed to comprehend: "I felt so depressed because I was totally lost in my personal matter outside class." Another learner (S3) related her comprehension failure to the failure of the listening strategies she applied: "The strategies I learned were not helping me enough." Likewise, learner (S15) experienced similar affective influence when a self-monitoring strategy was not functioning well: "I couldn't get the details out of the text even though I felt I had self-monitored myself . . . Feeling so depressed. It's so difficult for me to feel like giving up." The frustration led to thoughts of giving up the listening task. Some other students also reported that their frustration was related to their unfamiliarity with the speech of the native speakers. Learner (S7) reported, “I have never ever been exposed to the speech of the native speakers until I enrolled in the listening course, so I feel worried whenever I engage in listening to the recordings.” Another Learner (S16) reported, “I didn’t practice listening skills at lower levels, so the listening course here was strange for me. Frankly, when I come to the listening class, I always feel worry.” 2) Lack of background knowledge Some learners experienced problems regarding to interpretation of the perceived input. Some Learners were also unable to find the appropriate meaning or interpretation of particular vocabulary items, expressions, or entire text. The reasons for this might be associated with learners' ability of contextualizing the 59
input, activating related schemata, or simply lack of cultural awareness. One learner (S18) reported that it was difficult for her to understand the message which was related to the historical “the American Civil War”,” I was not a social science student so that I didn’t learn History; it was difficult for me to understand the story.” For learner (S19), the interpretation of the whole text remained problematic, although certain strategies, such as inferencing were involved: "I inferred the word meaning from the context. Sometimes I understood all the words, but when all the parts were put together, I didn't know what the speaker was trying to say." Learner (S20) could not decide how to interpret the meaning of the word "hide" from the context: “Once, I remember, the speakers in the dialogue were mentioning the word ‘hide’ several times, but it was very strange for me. After I went home, I looked it up in the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary. Then, I realized there were several meanings in ‘hide’. But to tell you the truth, I didn’t know which meaning was the right one.” And, learner (S22) did not succeed in applying a prediction skill to listening comprehension due to insufficient background knowledge or schemata: "Prediction was hard for me when I got a topic, story, or report that I have never heard of." 3) Fatigue Some learners mentioned fatigue as one of the causes for not being successful in spoken word processing. For learner (S23) and (S24), their attention or other mental efforts for listening were affected by their overall condition, i.e., whether they were tired or not. As stated by learner (S25): "my attention to listen is depended on whether I am tired or not. When my energy is low, I can't listen very well. Maybe listening to English songs is all right, but not the tests and the assignments." The other learner (S26) also reported: "I had to work full time in the other courses. When I got into the listening class in the hot afternoon immediately after lunch, I was exhausted. I did not feel like using my brain. When I listened to English at that time, I got dizzy." 4) Poor English proficiency The students’ result in the listening course showed that most of the students were extremely weak in their listening comprehension. Many students also admitted (in 60
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ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF
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ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to exp
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3. Methods of the Study------------
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LIST OF TABLES Table-1: Factors rel
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ABSTRACT This study explores the fa
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laboratories of the university. The
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same course to different groups. Fu
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speakers speak, not being able to g
Page 19 and 20: Chapter Two: Review of Related Lite
Page 21 and 22: descriptions concerning the influen
Page 23 and 24: years (Penny Ur, Mary Underwood, Fa
Page 25 and 26: From the above points it seems reas
Page 27 and 28: of main clause and subordinate clau
Page 29 and 30: problem. She says that perception o
Page 31 and 32: given, rate, and pacing of informat
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Page 35 and 36: sounds that are unusual to the L2 l
Page 37 and 38: epetitions and other elaborations a
Page 39 and 40: part of the speech.” This tells t
Page 41 and 42: These factors are important not onl
Page 43 and 44: Samuels, 1994; Ur, 1984; Underwood,
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Page 47 and 48: is the cognitive complexity of the
Page 49 and 50: However, to make the analysis easil
Page 51 and 52: Item No. partly due to the structur
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Page 57 and 58: Item No. Students’ No. Never Stud
Page 59 and 60: Item No. students. In the Ethiopian
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Page 63 and 64: organized into four categories acco
Page 65 and 66: The target students were asked to i
Page 67 and 68: Q2: After you joined a university,
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Page 75 and 76: of delivery of the native speakers.
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Page 93 and 94: 4.6.2.2 Achievement scores in ‘Co
Page 95 and 96: Chapter Five Summary, Conclusion an
Page 97 and 98: Speaker 21. the pronunciation of na
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Page 103 and 104: Bibliography Asher, J. (1969) 'The
Page 105 and 106: Oxford, Rebecca (1993) Research Upd
Page 107 and 108: APPENDIX-A Questionnaire Dear stude
Page 109 and 110: APPENDIX-B Students Interview Guide
Page 111 and 112: Item No. APPENDIX-D Observation che
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