Listening Difficulties of Non-English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University, In Vietnam

Abstract

Listening skill plays an important role in studying a foreign language, especially English. However, students face a lot of difficulties in English listening. This study aims to find out the status and difficulties in listening comprehension of 149 non-English majored freshmen majoring in Pharmacy, Accounting, Business Administration, Food Technology, and Information Technology at Tay Do University. A listening achievement test was offered when the participants were studying TOEIC-based course 1. The research results found out some listening problems due to (1) lack of vocabulary knowledge, (2) inability to recognize and distinguish sounds, (3) limited reasoning ability and limited ability to use listening strategies such as judgment, taking notes, or memorizing, and (4) lack of concentration. The above results also showed some issues to which teachers need to pay attention to help learners improve their listening skill.