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1. 1 Background of the Study

In learning of the English, students have to learn and practice the four skills;
those are, speaking, writing, listening, and reading. Speaking and writing are as
productive skills; meanwhile listening and reading are receptive skills. Most of
English learner may face more difficult to understand the receptive skills than to
comprehend the productive skills.
Speaking and writing are external process in which the student can observe
directly. Speaking and writing can enable the students to express their feelings and
observations to others. he students cannot write without ideas any more than a
mason can build a brick wall without bricks.
!istening is similar to reading that is an internal process in which the
student cannot observe directly. It means that listening and reading become
problems for most of the students. "ersulessy #$erorge %erman "ersulessy,&'(()
said that
!istening and reading comprehension are both highly complex processes
that draw on the knowledge of the linguistics code #language form),
cognitive processes skills #that process in the mind), schema*based
understanding #background knowledge), and contextual cues both within
and outside the text. +urthermore, he continues by saying that both skills
can be characteri,ed as problem solving activities involving the hypothesis,
the drawing of inferences, and the resolution of ambiguities and
uncertainties in the input in order to assign meaning.
est of English as +oreign !anguage #-E+!) is an English proficiency test
to measure how well the students are capable of mastering English. here are three
section of the -E+! test, those are, !istening section, Structure and .ritten
Expression, and /eading comprehension. It is organi,ed as multiple choices.
It has a phenomenon that listening and reading are always both the difficult
sections in the -E+! test. his study will be focused on the listening skills, since
most of the English 0epartment students who had taken the -E+! test were hard
to do the listening and had a bad score for it.
!istening is one most of the most fre1uently used skills and happens in all
aspects of our daily life #%ook,&'23,p.456). .e listen in different way and for
different reason. +or example we listen to the music, lecture, each other talk, radio,
direction, advertisement, and etc. by the same taken, %owat and 0ankin #+an
7agang,&''8,p.&) said that listening is the ability to identify and understand what
others are saying including the speaker9s accent or pronunciation well, grammar,
vocabulary, and meaning. It is a receptive in oral skills. It refers to the process of
hearing and understanding a message.
:omprehension always plays an important role in listening. ; good listener
must be able to comprehend what he or she hears. <rown #6554,p.&65) explained
that there are four commonly identified types of listening performance. hey are
intensive listening, responsive listening, selective listening, and extensive listening.
hey will be explained in chapter II.
he listening section in -E+! test is divided to three ma=or categories.
hey are listening for short conversations, talks #long conversations), and speeches.
he first section is listening for short conversation. here are two aspects in
this part. hose are listening about what and where. In this section, the students will
hear two speakers talk and then orator will ask what one of the speakers implies and
where the conversation happens.
In the second section, the student will be asked about spoken statements. In
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this part the students will listen the statements and 1uestions which is spoken in
English, followed by responses spoken in English as well. he aspects in this part
are stated as expressions of re1uest, advice, pride, and regret.
he last section of the listening is speech. In this section the student will
hear the orator tells the story, event, history, and etc. he students will be asked for
the main idea, topic, or something that relate to what and who.
Some main problems that students may face difficulty in mastering listening
skill are lack vocabulary and phrases, pronunciations, limited knowledge or
information background, listener distraction, limited attention span, =umping to
conclusions, situational distractions and nervousness #psychological factor).
In order to know difficulties faced by the English Student in comprehending
listening section of the -E+! test, the writer will focus on what difficulties that the
English 0epartment students have in !istening section of the -E+! test and which
part ma=ority of the students make mistakes in comprehending listening section.
1. 2 Problem
<ased on the background above, the problems of this study will be
formulated as follow>
a. .hat difficulties do the English 0epartment students have in !istening
section of the -E+! test?
b. In which part of !istening Sections is difficult for the students?
1. 3 Aim of the study
%aving known that the English department students have difficulties, the writer
has some purposes of the study as follows>
a. o find out the difficulties faced by the English department student in
answering the !istening Section of the -E+! test;
b. o find out in which part of the section is difficult to the English 0epartment
students.
1. 4 Scope of the study
his study will focus on difficulties which are faced by English 0epartment
students of Syiah @uala Aniversity in comprehending listening section and the
part that ma=ority the English students make mistakes in the -E+! test.
1. 5 Significance of the study
his study is intended to discover what factors that make English
0epartment students of Syiah @uala Aniversity difficult in !istening section in
the -E+! test. he writer expects that the result of this study will give
contribution for the English 0epartment student of Syiah @uala Aniversity in
solving the listening section problem in -E+! test. +urthermore, the writer
also expects that this study will be a useful source for other researchers who are
going to perform a research related to similar topic.
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1. !perational "efinition
In this thesis, there are several terms which need further explanation in
order to avoid the ambiguity in understanding them. he description represented
here are valid in the context of thus thesis only. he terms provided in this
research are difficulties, listening, and TOEFL test.
0ifficulties are something that causes trouble in achieving a positive
result or tending to produce a negative result. !istening is viewed theoretically
as an active process in which individuals focus on selected aspects of aural
input, construct meaning from passages, and relate what they hear to existing
knowledge #Malley et al,6555). -E+! stands for est of English as +oreign
!anguage which is kind of English proficiency test to measure the 1ualification
of English abilty.
1. # $ethodology
&.B.& Methodolgy
he methodology that is used in this study is descriptive 1uantitative.
;ccording to Sudarsono #&'((>83), CDuantitative research is a research
procedure which produces data in form of numbers and statisticsE. In descriptive
1uantitative, the writer will describe the fact about situation, symptom, and
variable in number and statistic analysis.
&.B.6 !ocation
his study will be conducted at !anguage :enter of Syiah @uala
Aniversity. It is located on Falan "utroe "hang 0arussalam, <anda ;ceh
municipality.
&.B.8 "opulation and Sample
he population of this study is the English 0epartment students9 batch
6552 #regular class) at English 0epartment of eacher training and Education
+aculty of Syiah @uala Aniversity consisting '4 students. he writer will take
the data from 85 students9 batch 6552.
&.B.4 /esearch Instrument
In collecting the data in this study the writer will use the test and
1uestionnaire.
a. est
est is one of the techni1ues in collecting the data and used to
measure the students9 performances and difficulties in English listening skill.
he form of the test is multiple choices. In order to evaluate the students9
difficulties, the writer will use the converted scoring procedure of the -E+!
test.
b. Duestionnaire
he aim of the 1uestionnaire is to know the factors influence
students9 difficulties in comprehending listening section of the -E+! test. he
writer will apply the closed 1uestionnaire and formulate it with the alternative
answers, which will be chosen by the respondents once that was suitable for
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them. It will be given after the students do the test.
&.B.3 "rocedure of 0ata :ollection
In collecting data for this study, the writer will use the test and
1uestionnaire. In the first session, the samples will take the test. he listening
1uestions consist of 35 items and will be divided into three parts, those are, short
conversations, long conversations, and speech. he type of test is multiple
choices by using four options #;, <, :, and 0) and =ust has one correct answer.
In the second session, the students will be given 1uestionnaires. It is consist of
&3 1uestions that have to be answered by the students. he 1uestions are about
the factors influence the students9 difficulties in comprehending listening section
in the -E+! test.
&.B.2 "rocedure of 0ata ;nalysis
In the test, there are 35 1uestions divided into three parts, those are,
short conversations, long conversations, and speeches. o analy,e the difficulty
of the 1uestion items, the writer will use the formula as below>
.here> p G the level of difficulty
p% G the number of correct answer in high group
p! G the number of correct answer in low group
o find out the part the ma=ority students make mistakes the writer will use
the formula as written by Sud=iono #&''6)>

.here> H G he number of incorrect answer per 1uestion item
I G he number of students
&55J G constant value
dJ G the difficulty percentage per 1uestion items
.here> d G the difficulty percentage per 1uestion items
D G number of 1uestion items #per item multiplied by
&55)
&55J G constant value
0 G the level of difficulty percentage per part of listening
comprehension section
G the total sum of #dKD)
1.% !rgani&ation
his study is divided into five chapters. :hapter I, introduction, deals
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with the background of study, the problem, the aim, the scope, the significance, the
operational definition, the methodology, and the organi,ation of study.
:hapter II presents the review of literature. It consists of definitions of
listening, kinds of listening, and the difficulties in listening comprehension.
he next is chapter III, the research methodology, mainly deals with the
methodology of research, population and sample, instrument for collecting data,
and techni1ues of data collection.
0ata analysis is included in chapter IL. In addition, it is also contains the
discussion and the findings.
+inally, :hapter L covers conclusions and suggestions.
'eferences
;rikunto, S. #6556). Prosedur Penelitian Suatu Pendekatan Praktek. Fakarta>
/ineka :ipta.
<rown, d. #6554). Language Assesment: principles and classroom practice.AS;>
San +ransisco State Anversity.
+lowerdew, % and Miller, !. # 6553). Second Language Listening. AS;>
:ambridge Aniversity "ress.
"ersulessy, $erorge %erman. &''(. Listening and Reading, communication in
Action. :opyright M 6555 :enter for Excellence in Education Iorthern
;ri,ona Aniversity.
#http>KKwww.google.comKari,onavirtualuniversityKssKonlineNcouKcp8b4b
u4Klisteningand reading.htm., accessed on 0ecember 68, 655()
Sharpe, ". F. #6556). Ho to Prepare for t!e TOEFL. Fakarta> <ina /upa ;ksara.
Sud=iono, ;. #&''6) Pengantar Statistik Pendidikan. Fakarta> :L /a=awali.
Sukardi. #6558) metode Penelitian Pendidikan. Fakarta> <umi ;ksara.
7agang, +. #&''8). Listening: Pro"lems and Solution.
#http>KKexchanges.state.gov.KforumKvolsKvol8&Kno&Kp&2.htm., accessed on
0ecember &', 655()

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