Understanding EFL students’ listening challenges in General English Course 3: Practices and perceptions at a Vietnamese university

Abstract

Amid the growing importance of English as a global means of communication, this study was conducted to investigate EFL students’ listening challenges, perceptions, and coping strategies in General English Course 3 at a Vietnamese university. The study aimed to identify major difficulties encountered by students in listening comprehension and to explore how learners perceive listening skills and respond to listening challenges in their learning process. Specifically, the research focused on four primary aspects of listening difficulties, including linguistic factors, cognitive factors, affective factors, and external learning conditions. A mixed-methods approach was employed, in which a questionnaire comprising twenty-five items was administered to 94 EFL students, followed by semi-structured interviews with selected participants to gain deeper qualitative insights. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS, while qualitative data were thematically analyzed to supplement and interpret the statistical findings. The findings revealed that students experienced considerable difficulty in listening comprehension, particularly in recognizing fast speech, unfamiliar vocabulary, different accents, and long spoken texts. In addition, affective factors such as anxiety and lack of confidence were found to negatively influence students’ listening performance. Although many students demonstrated awareness of effective listening strategies, their application of such strategies remained inconsistent. Furthermore, the results indicated a discrepancy between students’ perceptions of listening importance and their actual learning practices. The study provides valuable implications for both teachers and learners by highlighting key problem areas in listening instruction and suggesting practical pedagogical solutions to improve listening competence. The findings contribute to a better understanding of EFL learners’ listening challenges in the context of General English courses and offer directions for enhancing listening instruction at the tertiary level.