Investigating the Obstacles that Affect EFL Students’ Performance in Listening Comprehension Skills

Abstract

This study aimed at exploring the obstacles that contribute to the obstacles of Red Sea University students come across in English listening comprehension. It evaluates whether the obstacles are connected with the listening text, the speaker, the listener, the environment, or the listening materials. It determines which specific obstacle poses the most difficulty for the students. The study adopted the descriptive method. The subject of the study was a group of first year English students of Red Sea University. The study sample consists of eighty students who took the listening course at Faculty of Education (Arts). Data was gathered by means of questionnaire, listening test, and observation. The researcher used the statistical package for social studies (SPSS package), by using frequencies, percentages, tables, figures, descriptive statistics, standard deviation, one sample T test and one-way analysis of variance. The results of the study confirmed that Red Sea University students face listening problems whenever they are engaged in listening exercises. The study determines fourteen obstacles that affected the students in their listening activities. Furthermore, the current study determined the students’ listening obstacles that came out from the inconvenient listening environment, from the defective listening materials used in the course, and from the students lack of exposure to native speakers. The study showed that the fast speech of native speaker and their pronunciation were posed the most challenged for the students when they are engaged in listening exercises. The researcher recommended that this obstacle needs to draw instructors attention to train the students on listening learning strategies to improve their language skills.