The Use of Learning Strategies to Overcome Difficulties in Academic Listening Class

Abstract

Of the four language skills in English, Listening seems to be the least frequently taught in classrooms in universities in Indonesia. The reasons for this vary, ranging from the lack of facilities to the importance of mastering the skill itself. It is undeniably true that teaching listening is quite complex. It requires not only special equipment, such as computers or CD players, and loud-speakers, but also skilled human resources. The absence of all these factors makes the teaching of listening neglected. Nevertheless, the need to master listening skills has increasingly become obvious as in the future universities across the country are encouraged to conduct Massive Open Online Courses which means students need to have some mastery of English as classes might be conducted in English. This paper tries to examine what difficulties students commonly have in classrooms and how teachers can help them deal with these difficulties by using some strategies. As a case study, the research involves years of teaching Academic Listening classes, interviews with the students and teachers. The results show that there are common mistakes that keep occurring from year to year. The results from the interviews with the students show that they made mistakes for some reasons, such as they did not know how the word was spelled, or they were not able to catch what the speakers had been saying. The students admitted that they had difficulties listening to lectures, talks or conversations in English. It is hoped if teachers are able to examine the causes of these listening difficulties, they can show students strategies which can help them cope with the difficulties and the students can eventually improve the skills on their own.