FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE PROBLEMS EFL ...

4.6.2.2 Achievement scores in ‘Communicative English Skills’ (FLEE 101e)
According to the syllabus published by the Ministry of Education of Ethiopia
(MOE, 1994), by the end of grade 12, the students gain sufficient mastery of the
skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing in English which enable them to
study effectively at school, and to use the language whenever necessary in
everyday situations and in the world of work. Therefore, when the students join
Colleges and Universities, there is an assumption that the students have the
necessary prerequisite skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing in English
that enable them to study effectively at the tertiary levels.
When we come to the particular intent of the point, the participants of this
study have taken English Courses, such as, Communicative English Skills,
Reading Skills, Methods of Teaching English, and Practicum-I including the target
listening course. The researcher has tried to see the students’ results which were
recorded to determine the students’ grades particularly of Communicative English
Skills in which listening is one of the components of the course. The results in this
course were not as low as that of the listening course (with the exception of the
results of some students); however, the students' results in most of the
assessments (of listening, speaking, reading, and writing) in the Communicative
English Skills were not good enough. This shows the learners achievement in the
over all English skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) was low. This may
imply that the learners' English is poor. The learners’ poor English can be one
factor which affected the students listening comprehension.
Effective comprehension in foreign language requires the knowledge of
grammar, vocabulary, and the overall skills of the target language (Rost, 1990;
Rubin, 1994). Therefore, listening comprehension may be difficult for these
students whose English is poor. Further more, it is difficult for such students to
apply the various listening strategies whenever they are engaged in EFL listening.
The finding presented in Table-2a can be evidence for this case, and this is also in
line with Murphy’s study (1985), which shows that students with poor English
proficiency are not able to employ the appropriate strategies whenever they are
engaged in EFL listening activities. Similarly, the study of O’Malley et al (1989)
identified differences in the frequencies and varieties of strategies that more
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