THE PROBLEMS OF LISTENING COMPREHENSION FACED BY THE THIRD SEMESTER STUDENTS OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT AT UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG

THE PROBLEMS OF LISTENING COMPREHENSION
FACED BY THE THIRD SEMESTER STUDENTS OF
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT AT UNIVERSITY OF
MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG

THESIS

By:
Safrida Nurul Adhayani
201210100311039

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG
2016

THE PROBLEMS OF LISTENING COMPREHENSION
FACED BY THE THIRD SEMESTER STUDENTS OF
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT AT UNIVERSITY OF
MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG

THESIS
This thesis is submitted to meet one of the requirements to achieve
Sarjana Degree in English Language Education

By:
Safrida Nurul Adhayani
201210100311039

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG
2016

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MOTTO AND DEDICATION

“You can if you think you can”
-Safrida Nurul Adhayani“Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dream is more
powerful than the one with all facts”
- Albert Einstein“After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to
climb”
-Nelson Mandela-

The researcher dedicated this thesis to:
My Beloved Parents
My Beloved Grandmother
My Beloved Brothers

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Letter of Authenticity

The undersigned:
Name

: Safrida Nurul Adhayani

SIN

: 201210100311039

Department

: English Language Education Department

Faculty

: Faculty of Teacher Training and Education

I hereby declare that in this thesis there is no thesis or paper that have been
proposed to receive a bachelor degree, and there is no idea or notion written or
published by another person, unless what has been written in this thesis and
mentioned in the references.

Malang, 1௦௧ November 2016

Safrida Nurul Adhayani

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In the name of Allah SWT, God lords the beneficent the merciful and the
creator of everything in universe. The most gracious and the most merciful only
praise to him who has given the writer a capacity to finish the thesis. Peace and
blessing always are upon our prophet Muhammad SAW who has presented al
Qur,an and al Hadist to be Moslem guidance.
Honorable mention goes to my first advisor, Rahmawati Khadijah Maro,
S.Pd., M.PEd and my second advisor, Nina Inayati, M.Ed for their advices and
supports during guiding me in finishing this thesis. Moreover, my great appreciate
addressed to my thesis examiners, Dr. Sudiran, M.Hum and Masyhud, M.Pd for
their valuable suggestions that can make this thesis better than before.
I would like to express my gratefulness and appreciation for my beloved
mother and father, Mrs. Farida Rahayu and Mr. Muhammad Abduh, who always
supporting me to finish this thesis, and for always pray the best for me, and my
beloved dad, Mr. Safwan Noor (Alm), who has always been my spirit to finish

this thesis, and also my beloved brothers, Maulana Wahyu Ramadhan, M. Zakky
Sholihin, M. Hudan Almuhasibi, and M. Haekal who give me endless supports
and nice affection
Lastly, I would like to express my thankfulness for my beloved friend,
Muhammad Firdaus Furqoni, who always gives me advice and support. For all my
family, especially my grandma and cousin, Etty Sri Hartati and Mutia Anisa
Rakhma, who always gives me moral support and motivation. Also to all my
lovely friends Dita Fitriana, Mira, Viona, Monica, Rividha, Fathon, Shilfi, Fian
and my roommates; Aisyah, Syahda, Risdia, Amelia, Ama, Dita Iswara thanks
for friendship, togetherness, support and always be with me, they are all really
mean in my life.
The researcher, 1 November 2016
Safrida Nurul Adhayani

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPROVAL ......................................................................................................... iii
MOTTO AND DEDICATION ..............................................................................v

LETTER OF AUTHENTICITY......................................................................... vi
ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................... viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS..................................................................................... ix
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study .........................................................................................1
1.2 Statements of Problem .......................................................................................4
1.3 Purposes of Study...............................................................................................4
1.4 Significances of Study........................................................................................6
1.5 Scope and Limitation .........................................................................................6
1.6 Definitions of Key Terms...................................................................................6
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Learning English ................................................................................................8
2.2 Learning Listening .............................................................................................9
2.3 The Problem of Listening.................................................................................10
2.3.1 Linguistic Problems ...............................................................................11
2.3.1.1 Grammar ....................................................................................11
2.3.1.2 Pronunciation .............................................................................12
2.3.1.3 Vocabulaty .................................................................................12

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2.3.2 Non Linguistic Problems .......................................................................13
2.3.2.1 Students ......................................................................................13
2.3.2.2 Teacher .......................................................................................14
2.3.2.3 Teaching Method .......................................................................14
2.3.2.4 Teaching Material ......................................................................15
2.3.2.5 Teaching Learning Facilities ......................................................15
2.4 The Solution of Listening Problems ................................................................16
2.4.1 Metacognitive Strategies ...................................................................16
2.4.2 Cognitive Strategies ..........................................................................17
2.4.3 Socio-affective Strategies .................................................................18
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD
3.1 Research Design ...............................................................................................19
3.2 Population and Sample.....................................................................................20
3.3 Research Instruments .......................................................................................21
3.3.1 Questionnaire .........................................................................................21
3.3.2 Interview ................................................................................................23
3.4 Data Collection.................................................................................................24
3.5 Data Analysis ...................................................................................................25

CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
1.1 Findings ...........................................................................................................26
4.1.1

The Problems of Listening Comprehension........................................26
a. Problems Related to the Students .......................................27
b. Problems Related to the Teacher ........................................27
c. Problems Related to the Teaching Method ........................28

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d. Problems Related to the Teaching Material .......................28
e. Problems Related to the Teaching Learning Facilities .......29
4.1.2

The Solution of Listening Comprehension ....................................30
a. Metacognitive Strategies .................................................30
b. Cognitive Strategies ........................................................31
c. Socio Affective Strategies ...............................................31

4.2 Discussion .......................................................................................................34
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
5.1 Conclusion .......................................................................................................37
5.2 Suggestion ........................................................................................................38
REFERENCES
APPENDICES

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List of Table
Table. 3.2................................................................................................................21
Table 4.1.1..............................................................................................................29
Table 4.1.2..............................................................................................................32
Table about the Problems Related to Solution .......................................................33

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List of Appendices
The result of questionnaire
The result of interview

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REFERENCES
Arikunto, Suharsimi. 2002. Prosedur Penelitian (Edisi Revisi V). Jakarta:
Rineka Cipta.
Ary, Donald., Jacobs, Lucy Cheser., Razavieh, Asghar. 2010. Introduction to
Research in Education 8th edition, Wardswoth Cengage Learning.
Canada : Nelson Education Ltd.
Baker, Colin. 2001. Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bingualism
(3rd ed.). Clevedon, UK; Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Bingol, Mustafa et al. 2014. Listening Comprehension Difficulties Encountered
by Students in Second Language Learning Class. Journal of Educational
and Instructional Studies in the World, Volume: 4, Issue: 4, Article: 01.
Bloomfield, A. et al. 2011. What makes listening difficult?:Factors affecting
second language listening comprehension. University of Maryland
Center for Advanced Study of Language.
Buck, G. 2001. Assessing Listening. UK: Cambridge University Press.
Chamot, Anna Uhl. 2004. Issues in Language Learning Strategy Research and
Teaching. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, Vol.1,

No. 1.
Gilakjani,A.P. and Ahmadi, M.R. 2011. A Study of Factors Affecting EFL
Learners' English Listening Comprehension and the Strategies for
Improvement. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 2, No.
5.
Gilakjani, Abbas Pourhosein and Narjes Banou Sabouri. 2016. Learners’
Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A
Literature Review. English Language Teaching, Vol. 9, No. 6.
Ghoneim, Nahed Mohamed Mahmoud. 2013. The Listening Comprehension
Strategies Used by College Students to Cope with The Aural Problems in
EFL Classes: An Analytical Study. English Language Teaching, Vol 6,
No 2.
Goh, Christine C.M. 2000. A cognitive perspective on language learners’ listening
comprehension problems. System, 28.
Goh, Christine C.M. 2008. Metacognitive Instruction for Second Language
Listening Development: Theory, Practice and Research Implications.
RELC Journal, 39.

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Granddol, David. 2000. The Future of English? A guide to Forecasting the
Popularity of the English Language in the 21st Century. United
Kingdom: The English Company (UK) Ltd.
Greenbaum, Sidney and Gerald Nelson.2002. An Introduction to English
Grammar (2nd Ed.). London: Pearson Education Limited.
Hamouda, Arafat. 2013. An Investagation of Listening Comprehension Problems
Encountered by Saudi Students in the EL Listening Classroom.
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and Development, Vol. 2, No.2.
Handayani, Tri Kusumawati. 2010. Problems Faced by The Fourth Semester
Students of English Department in Listening Subject at University of
Muhammadiyah Malang. Malang: UMM.
Harmer, Jeremy. 2001. How to teach English: An introduction to the practice
of English teaching. Longman.
Harmer, Jeremy. 2001. The Practice of English Language Teaching (3th Ed.).
Longman.
Holden, W.R. (2004). Facilitating Listening Comprehension: Acquiring
Successful Strategies. Bulletin of Hokiruku University, 28.
Irmawan, Harido Budi. 2011. The Problems Faced by the Second Year
Students of SMA Shalahuddin Malang in Listening Class. Malang:
UMM.
Janusik, Laura and Andrew D. Wolvin. 2009. 24 Hours in a Day; A Listening
Update to the Time Studies. The Intl. Journal of Listening, 23.
Khader, K. T., & Mohammad, S. (2010). Reasons behind non-English major
University Students’ achievement gap in the English language in Gaza
strip from students' perspectives. Gaza: Islamic University and Al-Aqsa
University.
Launder, A. (2008). The status and function of English in Indonesia: a review of
key factors, Makara, social Humaniora, Vol. 12, No. 1.
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Engish as a Foreign Language in Indonesia: The Context of School Based
Curriculum. Sosiohumanika, Vol. 4, No. 2.
Prijambodo, V. Luluk. 2012. Motivation: A Supporting Factor of the Success
in Second Language Acquisition. Magister Scientiae. Edisi No. 31 –
Maret 2012.

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Rany, Sam et al. 2013. Factors Causes Students Low English Language Learning:
A Case Study in the National University of Laos. International Journal
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An Anthology of Current Practice. New York: Cambridge University
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Richards, J.C. and Theodore S. Rodgers. 2001. Approaches and Methods in
Language Teaching (2nd Ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Rost, Michael. 2002. Teaching and Researching Listening (2nd ed.). Malaysia:
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Sevik, Mustafa. 2012. Teaching Listening Skills to Young Learners Through
“Listen and Do” Songs. English Teaching Forum, No. 3.
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Alfabeta

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter explains about the background of study, the statement of problem,
the purpose of study, the significance of the study, the scope and limitation of study,
and the definition of key terms.
1.1 Background of the study
Language is a daily communication used by society. In communication,
language plays an important role in human’s life. Based on Harmer (2001:32), people
learn a language not only for knowing but also for communication. People use language
to communication with other people to share informations, ideas, and thoughts.
English is known as an international language because all people in every
country in this world use English to communicate with other people from different
country. According to Graddol (2000:2), English plays an important role as a mean of
global communication, a tool for absorbing and disseminating information of science
and technology.
According Baker (2001:6), there are four language skills in English that should
be mastered by students who are studying English; listening, speaking, reading, and
writing. Therefore, the four skills must be learned by students in learning English. The
four basic skills become a fundamental role to the students in studying English. The

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four language skills that are mentioned also have different objective to achieve
especially in listening.
Listening plays an important role in daily communication. Based on Rost
(2011:1), listening is the most important skill for language learning because it is the
most widely used language skill in normal daily life. Listening is also the major
components in learning English. Hamouda (2013:113) states that listening is a basic
language skill, and as such it benefits a important priority among the four skill areas for
language students. In listening, the students are supposed to be able to comprehend what
is being spoken.

Hamouda (2013:117) mentioned listening process involves

understanding a speaker's accent or pronunciation, the speaker’s grammar and
vocabulary, and comprehension of meaning.
Listening comprehension is not only hearing what others say correctly but also
students must construct the meaning of utterance and give appropriate response.
According to Buck (2001:1), listening comprehension is an active process of
constructing meaning which is done by applying knowledge to the sounds that be heard.
One of important aspects in learning English is listening. Listening becomes one
of the basis to learn a language. Listening comprehension can become a difficult subject
to understand for students. Janusik and wolvin (2009:104) discovered that students
spend 24% of their time listening, 20% speaking, 9% writing, and 8% reading.
Hamouda (2013:113) identifies numerous difficulties which can be found in listening
tasks such as unfamiliar accents, pronunciation, fast speech rate, unknown vocabularies,

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lack of concentration, anxiety, and bad quality of recording. It indicates that listening
comprehension skill could be difficult to learn especially for students.
In addition, based on Mendelsohn (1994, in Gilakjani and Ahmadi 2011:977),
the total time spent on communicating, listening takes up 40-50%; speaking, 25-30%;
reading, 11-16%; and writing, about 9%. By this statement, it can be concluded that
listening was one of the important skills in communication but listening also was the
most difficult skill than other English skills such as speaking, reading, and writing. In
addition, according to Bingol et al (2014), students spend 50% of the time operational in
a foreign language is dedicated to listening. It means the mastering of listening is not
easy for students that English are not their first language.
According to the research conducted by Irmawan (2011), it was found that the
comprehension was a problem faced by the second year students at SMA Shalahuddin
Malang in listening class and the teacher tries to solve the problem by giving more
portion on comprehend listening material. From this research finding, the writer
concludes that students in senior high school get difficulties in learning listening,
especially in comprehending the listening material. Another researcher, Handayani
(2010), found that the most of students had problems in linguistic problem related to
grammar that they had problem in understanding tenses in a dialogue. The students also
had problem in terms of non linguistic problem related to physical setting that they had
difficult in understanding a dialogue because of poor quality of tape recorder. From this
research finding, the writer can know that students have problem in learning listening
because of linguistic problems and non linguistic problems.

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Based on the previous explanation, the writer found that there are many students
of English Department who still have problems to develop their listening skill.
Considering the fact stated above, the writer intended to investigate the problems of
listening comprehension faced by the third semester students in 2015/2016 academic
year of English Department at University of Muhammadiyah Malang. In this study, the
writer tries to identify and describe information about the student’s problems of
listening comprehension skill and the way they solve their problems.
1.2 Statement of problems
Based on the background of the study, the researcher stated the statements of
problems in this research as the following:
1. What are the problems faced by the third semester students of English
Department

at

University

of

Muhammadiyah

Malang

in

listening

comprehension course?
2. What are the students’ strategies to solve the problems of listening
comprehension course?
1.3 Purpose of study
Based on the statement of problems above, the researcher stated the purposes of
study are:
1. To find the problems faced by the third semester students of English Department
at University of Muhammadiyah Malang in listening comprehension course.

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2. To know the students’ strategies in solve the problems of listening
comprehension course.
1.4 Significance of the Study
This research have two benefits that are theoretical and practical. Theoretically,
this study is intended to describe students’ problem that focuses on non linguistic issues
to show that it is as one of the problem of listening comprehension for the third
semester students of English Department at University of Muhammadiyah Malang and
how they solve the problem of listening comprehension.
Practically, this study is expected to be beneficial for the third semester students
of English Department at University of Muhammadiyah Malang, the lecturers of
English Department at University of Muhammadiyah Malang, and the further
researchers. First, the researcher hopes that the result of the study give feedback to the
third semester students of English Department at University of Muhammadiyah Malang
to know the problem of listening comprehension and how to solve the problem in
listening comprehension course. Therefore, they will be able to improve their listening
comprehension skill. For the lecturers of English Department at University of
Muhammadiyah Malang, the lecturers who teach listening comprehension course can
improve students’ listening skill. It can be done by having a better understanding of
their students’ problem of listeing comprehension and examining their own teaching
methods. The last benefit is for the future researchers who wish to conduct as the same
topic. The researcher hopes that the result of this study can be continued with different
population and sample.

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1.5 Scope and Limitation
The researcher chooses students’ problem that are two types of problem:
linguistic and non linguistic problems. In this study, the researcher focuses on non
linguistic problems because the previous researcher, Irmawan (2011), focuses on
linguistic problem such as grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. The non linguistic
problems that are used in this research are students, teachers, teaching method, facilities,
and material in learning listening comprehensian course. The limitation of this study is
the third semester students of English Department at University of Muhammadiyah
Malang because they have learned the listening comprehension I to II and will continue
the listeningcomprehension IV.
1.6 Definition of The Key Terms
The purpose of definition of key terms is to define the important terms and to
avoid misunderstanding on the concept that is used in this study. The researcher would
like to present the definition of the key terms as follows:
1. “Listening is the active and dynamic process of attending, perceiving,
interpreting, remembering, and responding to the expressed (verbal and
nonverbal), needs, concerns, and information offered by other human beings”
(Purdy, 1997:8 in Gilakjani and Ahmadi 2011:978).
2. “Listening comprehension is an active and conscious process in which the
listener constructs meaning by using cues from contextual information and from

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existing knowledge” (O‘Malley, Chamot, and Kupper, 1989:19 in Gilakjani and
Ahmadi 2011:978).
3. Linguistic problem is the problems for the students including grammar,
vocabulary, pronounciation, language style, dialect, and background of culture
(Prijambodo, 2012:47).
4. Non linguistic problem is the problems that influence the learning listening, such
as student, teacher, teaching method, teaching material, teaching learning
facilities, time allocation, sociaty, exposure, goals and goverment policy
(Prijambodo, 2012:47).

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