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5. The Factors Making Listening Difficult
According to Rost 1994: 133 learning to listen in our first language is by no means easy. It requires considerable cognitive development and constant
attention to social and linguistic input over a period of several years. However, learning to listen in a second language seems to be even more difficult. While, it
may not require more time to develop, second language listening is confounded by a number of difficulties, they are as follows:
a. Motive
The primary difficulty is developmental. We all learned our first language in order to express and comprehend new ideas and relationships. For example,
we learned to understand the word car about the same time that we learned to understand the basic concepts of a car. L2 acquisition, whether in children or
adults, always takes place at a more advanced level of cognitive and social development, and therefore for many learners, is less closely linked to
cognitive and social motives to use language. b.
Transfer Another difficulty is the psychological problem of transfer-the process of
using knowledge from one concept to learn another concept. When we learn a second language, we tend to filter the concepts of the language through those
we already know in our first language. The second language can thus never truly be learned fresh as an independent system, since it must be filtered
through what we already know about how language works.
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c. Input
Still another difficulty in L2 listening development is access to useful input. Every day we received caretaker language that catered directly for our own
learning capabilities and interest. This language allowed us ongoing opportunities to develop our listening ability. Second language learners,
particularly adults, seldom experience this same access to rich, understandable input. As result, they are deprived of a necessary condition for
full language acquisition-access to understandable and engaging language. Since useful L2 input is not easily available for most learners, it seems to be
that the most successful learners will often be those who develop the social strategy of making friends who will provide them with the right kind of
language input. d.
Neurological development Still another reason may be biological. After the age of twelve or so, certain
processes are completed in the brain’s development and this often prevents
learners from processing new linguistic sounds fully. To summarize, the researcher has to know which factor dominates the
students while she conducts the research. So that, she can uses the suitable technique to improve the students’ listening ability.
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6. Types of Listening