FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE PROBLEMS EFL ...

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to know what the people are going to say exactly. . . . I don't know what they mean." A problem also emerged while the learner (S6) attempted to practice the strategy of directing attention: "What's difficult for me is after focusing my attention; I still can't understand." II. Speaker Factors This category contains the listening difficulties that are attributed to native speakers of English. The minor groups in this category include spoken feature of the native speech, fast speech and the number of speakers in the listening text. Each of them is presented as follows. 1) Spoken feature of the native speech Some learners reported that the difficulties in <strong>EFL</strong> listening comprehension were complicated due to spoken-word recognition problems. Some, like learner (S8), reported that they were having trouble with the matching task between the pronunciation of the spoken words and the words they already knew in their written forms. Others, like learner (S9), also reported that they were unable to recognize the spoken words because of the pronunciation. There were also some learners, such as (S10), who experienced both problems mentioned above. One of the learners (S11) remarked, "I can't listen to phrases clearly." This shows the difficulty of identifying or differentiating individual sounds in a stream of sounds. Similarly, learner (S12) couldn’t recognize key words due to the barriers in perceiving or differentiating sounds that seemed to sound alike to the learner. Here, the students were not able to give good examples. Another learner (S13) was able to identify or differentiate the flow of sounds, but matching the pronunciation with the word meaning was difficult for him. The response from the learner (S14) specified this problem: "Even when the pronunciation is familiar to me, I sometimes forget what the word is." Another learner (S15) encountered both problems addressed above, reporting: "Some spoke very differently. . . . I couldn't hear clearly about the pronunciation. . . I thought of certain words but it turned out that they were the other words instead." 2) Fast speech Some learners reported their failure to process spoken input was due to the speed 63
of delivery of the native speakers. For example, learner (S16) pointed out a general problem when trying to comprehend: "The native speakers usually speak too fast for me to grasp the information. It takes too much time to grasp the information. So, I don't feel like understanding the message." It seemed to learner (S21) that processing input with listening to fast speech took up additional mental efforts and precious processing time; thus, frustration was heightened, “My problems appear when I listen to fast speech. Before I can react, it's over.” For learner (S17), although an effort to grasp the message was attempted, he failed due to the speed of processing problem: "I couldn't react to the words that I listened to as fast as possible, even though I've sensed that they might be the key words." 3) Number of speakers and overlap of speech The other reported issue by the subjects was related to difficulties faced due to the number of speakers involved in a text and due to the overlap of speeches while two or more people are involved in a talk. Learner (S6) reported “it is difficult to identify who is speaking at a moment in a conversation where many speakers are involved.” Learner (S12) responded “The other man starts talking while the first one was talking. If they talk turn by turn, it may be easier for me to identify who is speaking.” Learner (S23) also reported, “Sometimes two persons talk at the same time, so it was difficult for me to differentiate who said what.” III. Text factors This category also contains the listening difficulties that are attributed to the listening materials of the course. The minor groups include the difficulty level of the listening materials and the difficulty of the concept of the listening message. They will be presented in the following section. 1) The difficulty level of listening materials Learners were more inclined to practice listening skills with materials that were not too difficult for them. When the learners encounter listening materials that were above their level to a certain degree, complaints were often made about the difficulties of the listening process. For instance, learner (S30) compared two sources of English listening texts, one a narration that accompanied "the module" and another authentic material from the English service of the “BBC". For the 64
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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
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Chapter Two: Review of Related Lite
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descriptions concerning the influen
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Page 25 and 26: From the above points it seems reas
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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
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Page 43 and 44: Samuels, 1994; Ur, 1984; Underwood,
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Page 63 and 64: organized into four categories acco
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Page 67 and 68: Q2: After you joined a university,
Page 69 and 70: also reported, “What I have learn
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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
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