Methods To Overcome Common Listening Problems Encountered By Thai Students Learning English

Listening is one of the most important skills in learning English as a foreign language. The purpose of this study aimed at investigating problems Thai Students face when listening to spoken English and factors affecting students? listening skills. The participants were 401 undergraduate non-English major students who registered to study Communicative English for Careers in the academic year 2016. They were all Thai. The research instruments used in this study were a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. The statistical techniques used were percentages with the mean value (x) and standard deviation (SD). The findings revealed that the major problem was not being able to have words repeated. The second largest problem was not being able to remember what was heard when distinguishing between similar sounding words. This was followed by not being able to grasp the main ideas. Factors affecting students? listening skills were unfamiliar vocabulary, speakers? speech rates, speakers? accents, a lack of background knowledge about the topic that they hear and a lack of concentration.