A Study on Difficulties and Strategies for Improving English Listening Comprehension of First-year English Majors at Can Tho University

Abstract

Listening comprehension is a fundamental skill in acquiring proficiency in a foreign language. For English-majored students, mastering listening comprehension is essential for academic success and practical communication, understanding the obstacles students have to face and the techniques they utilize to overcome these challenges is essential for enhancing their academic performance. This research identifies a range of difficulties related to listening to messages, linguistic features, listeners and problems related to speakers. Moreover, the study identifies cognitive, metacognitive, and socio-affective strategies used by students to enhance their listening proficiency. This mixed-methods research combines surveys and interviews with first-year English students, providing both quantitative and qualitative insights. Quantitative data was collected from 165 first-year English-majored respondents and qualitative data from 10 interviewees among these respondents at the School of Foreign Languages at Can Tho University, Vietnam. The findings show that students face significant challenges in understanding unfamiliar topics, fast speech rates, different accents, and idiomatic expressions. Listener-related factors, such as anxiety, multitasking, and limited vocabulary, further hinder comprehension, while speaker-related factors, including unclear pronunciation and lack of contextual support, also contribute to students’ difficulties. Despite these obstacles, students utilize a combination of cognitive, metacognitive, and socio-affective strategies-most notably, using subtitles, repeated exposure to English audio, note-taking, and focusing on key ideas. These findings offer valuable implications for enhancing teaching practices and fostering an environment conducive to effective communication in language learning.