Investigating EFL Students' Listening Skills in Sudanese Universities

Abstract

Listening is considered to be a very important learning tool for all content areas; in the sense that any subject depends mainly on the students’ ability to listen. There is no doubt that listening subskills are essential for any kind of listening in the school or in the university. Due to the argument over the importance of teaching listening in English language classroom, the present study attempts to investigate the proficiency level of EFL students’ listening skills. It also investigates the strategies the students use to improve their listening skills. Further, it attempts to find out how listening is taught at university level. The research was carried out in the department of English, Faculty of Languages, Sudan University of Science and Technology in the first semester of the academic year 2012/2013. The researcher used the Descriptive Analytic method. The tools of the research are two questionnaires, students’ questionnaire and teachers’ questionnaire, and a test for the students. The number of the subjects involved in the study were 90, 60 undergraduate Sudanese EFL learners selected randomly and 30 university lecturers who teach listening skill at university level. The research findings show that the students are not competent in listening skills. Although, the students try to be active listeners by employing strategies to facilitate, monitor and evaluate their listening skill. The research findings reveal that teachers try to encourage their students to be active listeners but they do not use authentic materials when they teach listening. In the light of the results of the study some recommendations were suggested.