Learners' perceptions about listening comprehension problems, Dissertation

Learners' perceptions about listening comprehension problems, strategies and teachers' solutions to improve students' list - Dissertation Example Additionally, the study establishes that learners encounter a range of listening problems, which can be overcome through various techniques that help learners to utilize effective strategies in confronting them; nevertheless, this literature observes that learners’ perceptions of their listening problems may or may not be valid because several factors may interact to influence their perceptions. This literature makes a clear distinction between listening and comprehension processes with the former requiring no interpretation or reaction to the text while the latter requires the meaningful interactive activity to facilitate understanding of the text. In the context of this research, listening comprehension refers to the manner in which listeners discriminate and construe meaning from information that they receive through their auditory and visual clues to make sense of the communication process. This perspective of listening comprehension is in line with the Second language app roach, according to which listening to verbal language is both a vigorous and intricate process, requiring learners to pay particular attention to selected areas of audio, to make meaning, as well as relate what they hear to their mind frames. Hamouda (2012) argues that, despite its profound significance in foreign language learning, listening has long been ignored in foreign language acquisition, research, teaching, and assessment especially given the little focus on listening problems encountered by L2/F1 learners in listening to spoken English. This literature reports findings from a study that investigates the listening problems experienced by a group of first year English Major Students of Qassim University, which include accent, pronunciation, speed of speech, insufficient vocabulary, different accents of the speakers, poor concentration, anxiety, and bad quality of recording. Knowing the various difficulties learners encounter in listening comprehension is paramount in EFL te aching because it enables EFL teachers to guide learners in developing effective learning strategies that will eventually enhance their English listening competence. Listening plays a very significant role in communication because it enables listeners to take in new ideas and information from discourses; listening takes a lion’s share of the total time spent on communication and it is central to students’ educational development because it is the most frequently used language skill in the classroom. EFL learners have major problems in English listening comprehension because educators overemphasize English grammar, reading, and vocabulary competence areas at the expense of listening skills in EFL teaching courses. This literature suggests that adapting and improving listening materials, and improving teachers' classroom techniques on the part of the teachers, in addition to, improving English proficiency, and improving listening strategies on the side of the students ca n help alleviate the various listening comprehension problems. Graham (2006) explores the perceptions of English students between the age of 16 to18 concerning listening comprehension in French; in addition to that, this literature also examines the students’ viewpoints on the influences that result to either success or failure in listening comprehension assignments. According to this study, a substantial proportion of students in the higher levels of education rate their competence in