Full name: Nguyn Thu Trang Class: 1PGN-22 CRITICAL REVIEW Gilakjani, A.P. & Ahmadi, M. R. (2011).

A study of factors affecting EFL learners English listening comprehension and the strategies for improvement. Journal of Language Teaching and Research 2(5), 977-988. doi: 10.4304/jltr.2.5.977-988 There is no doubt that listening plays a vital role in the total communication process. It is even more significant in the field of second language acquisition. However, listening comprehension is a difficult skill for foreign language learners to develop and for their teachers to assess (Chang & Read, 2006). Therefore, both teachers and students should understand more about this essential skill. Many components of listening comprehension have been reviewed and analyzed in Gilakjani and Ahmadis research A Study of Factors Affecting EFL Learners English Listening Comprehension and the Strategies for Improvement. This study aims at identifying factors which may affect English listening comprehension and strategies which may be taken in order to improve EFL learners ability to listen more effectively. In order to achieve the above mentioned objective, the authors have reviewed the theoretical underpinnings on listening comprehension including its definition and significance; the process and strategies of listening comprehension; the possible obstacles to efficient listening comprehension; methods and activities in teaching listening to EFL students and general teaching principles of listening comprehension. Based on a number of previous studies, Gilakjani and Ahmadi point out that although listening make up the highest proportion of total time spent in verbal communication in both inside and outside the classroom, it has been paid less attention of students than other communication skills. Therefore, ELF students may face many difficulties in learning listening comprehension. This may result from a number of reasons which has been originally proposed in Underwoods research (1989) i.e. incapability of controlling the delivery speed and repetition of the recordings; lack of adequate vocabulary and background knowledge; failure to recognize discourse makers; difficulties in listening in a foreign language and expectation of understanding every single word in the recordings. It is clearly stated in the study that the teachers should take some appropriate methods so as to help students to develop their listening comprehension skill. The authors present five main teaching methods namely cultivating students listening skills, textbook-based learning and other listening contexts, passing on cultural knowledge in language teaching, combining intensive reading, focusing on listening and combining listening with other skills. In addition, it is also important for teachers to know how to design an effective listening comprehension lesson. After researching many issues regarding the nature of listening comprehension, Gilakjani and Ahmadi suggest some ways to improve the quality of EFL listening comprehension teaching. According to the study, teachers should pay attention to the pre-listening stage, where the students can actually activate the background knowledge about the topic of listening text and make some initial predictions about the recording to be played. They can also motivate the students by giving them positive feedback, which 1

may reduce the negative psychological barrier of students in case they have repeatedly fail in understanding what are presented in the listening materials. From my point of view, the authors have achieved their goal which is identifying factors influencing English listening comprehension and strategies needed to help EFL learners to listen more effectively by thoroughly study major aspects of listening comprehension. This study provides a great amount of valuable information which may contribute to the improvement of English listening comprehension. Any teacher can refer to this study for some recommendations on enhancing their teaching techniques. They can also recognize some possible problems with which their students may encounter during their learning. Almost ideas presented in this research are strongly supported by an adequate amount of evidence. Many findings from other researchers studies have been cited, that can make this study more reliable. However, I notice that in the part where Gilakjani and Ahmadi assess the importance of listening comprehension, seven studies are referred to in order to emphasize the significance of listening comprehension, whereas the authors mention only one study to support the argument that listening is paid less attention of students than other skills. I think that the authors should supplement some other evidences to strengthen this argument. The authors have applied the approach of reviewing and analyzing previous studies for this research. This is a comprehensive method, which may contribute to the deduction of the results. In my opinion, these results need to be verified in practice so as to confirm the effectiveness of listening comprehension teaching techniques suggested in this study. In conclusion, in spite of some minor demerits, this valuable study may facilitate anyone who wants to get insight into the teaching of English listening comprehension and provide readers with many useful information as well as teaching methodology. In general, I am quite convinced after reading the study; however, I suppose that further research is needed, especially in practice so that we can understand more about the practicality of proposed techniques of teaching English listening comprehension. References Chang, A. C.-S. and Read, J. (2006), The effects of listening support on the listening performance of EFL learners. TESOL Quarterly 40(2), 375-397. doi: 10.2307/40264527 Underwood, M. (1989). Teaching Listening. New York: Longman