A Study on Problems Students Encounter in Listening to Lectures and Note-Taking With Reference to Wro. Siheen College of Business and Management
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Date
2007-02
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
College students need strong oral comprehension skills for access to oral content in
their academic classes. The researcher's increasing involvement with the students at
Wro. Siheen College of Business and Management revealed their overall difficulty m
comprehending and recalling information from oral content lectures. In this study,
problems students encounter in listening to lectures and note-taking was examined.
The required data for the study were collected using content analysis, questionnaires
and interviews. The content of all the fourteen listening section of the course books
were analyzed using a checklist. Seven English language instructors and seventy-one
students of the college responded the items of the questionnaires fully. Among the
seven instructors, three of them were willing to be interviewed and put forward some
additional information regarding the content of the listening texts, teaching strategies
and the problems they observed in their students when they presented listening
comprehension lessons.
Then, using frequency percentages, descriptive analysis was employed to analyze the
responses given to each item in the questionnaire, and the findings of the interview
was analyzed qualitatively. The _ analysis revealed that the students partly used
ineffective strategies in listening comprehension. Besides, they had considerable
problems in comprehending lectures and note-taking. Although the listening texts lack
distinctive features of spoken language, most of them are intended to help students
practice note-taking skills.
Finally, it has been recommended that training should be given to students in skill
areas such as listening comprehension strategies, for example, paying attention to
overall message rather than listening to every single word to come to better
understanding to the text. Moreover, instructors need to ensure that they speak at a
normal speech rate in order to enhance effective listening comprehension in students.
Likewise, instructors should be trained to insert many more overt discourse markers
that highlight the overall structure of their lectures.
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Keywords
Problems, Students, Listening, Lectures