Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background

Listening comprehension is a crucial component in language learning (Gilakjani, Sabouri;

2016). According to Rost (2001) and Kurita (2012), the capacity to employ listening as a
learning assistant significantly distinguishes successful and unsuccessful learners. ). Two
researcher also continued that listening skills play a significant role in foreign language
acquisition since linguistic input is essential for learning. Hamouda (2013) demonstrate that
neglect of the ability of listening skills has led to the debate about which of the four
language abilities (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) is the most crucial for learning
and acquiring a second language.

EFL leaners have major difficulty in listening comprehension due to the fact that most of
universities decide to concentrate more on English grammar, reading, and vocabulary
instead of listening and speaking skills (Hamouda,2013). According to Benmezal and
Bensemmane (2022), non-native students sometimes struggle to understand spoken English
due to difficulty recognizing words in a stream of speech. Those author explain that in the
pattern of speech, unlike in writing, where words are clearly distinguished, sounds interact
with one another in such a manner that foreign learners find it difficult to determine where
one word ends and another begins. Furthermore, transformations of sounds across word
boundaries in connected speech, known as phonological processes such as assimilation,
deletion, insertion, and reduction, made words incomprehensible. Meglaoui and Benokba
indicate that EFL learners have problems with listening comprehension as well as
pronunciation, especially listening comprehension difficulties related to different aspects of
connected speech.

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY

Participants

Participants in the current study involve ten English Language Major students. They served as the
listeners in the dictation test and noted down in mere orthographic forms what they could hear
when listening to the five sentences in English, which native English speakers spoke. We targeted
English-majored students because they had studied the subject of English pronunciation and thus
had general understanding of English segmentals and suprasegmentals. They are adaptable to
identifying certain phonological properties like assimilation, insertion, deletion, and linkage and
are expected to be more aware of the phenomena in spoken English than non-majored students
who may not as systematically trained in English pronunciation and phonology. Therefore, the
investigation on these participants could be more informative about aspects of spoken English that
may problematize Vietnamese learners’ comprehension regardless of their training.
Also, by selecting learners who have previously been taught in these categories, the study can
target the specific challenges of connected speech rather than confuse the results with a lack of
basic phonological knowledge. This method assists in determining the extent to which spoken
English impacts Vietnamese learners' understanding. Furthermore, because they represent people
with formal training, any observed challenges identify possible areas where educated learners
struggle, which is useful for establishing tailored teaching tactics.

Data Collection Tools

Dictation Test

The first instrument is the dictation test, which was created to discover the influences of
suprasegmental and segmental features and other aspects of spoken English on Vietnamese
listeners' comprehension. The test consists of five sentences in English spoken by native English
speakers. The first four sentences were gathered from the second edition of the book “English
Pronunciation in Use ,”by Hancock (2017), which encompasses the phenomena of linking,
assimilation, and deletion phenomenon. The final sentence, which was taken from the Cambridge
Dictionary, includes the linking and insertion phenomenon. All sentences are taken from the
lecturer's book and recorded in standard conditions with the highest sound quality. Besides, the
audio merged into one completed file and inserted thirty seconds after the first listening time and
thirty seconds after the second time.

The choice of English accents for the test

We deliberately chose sentences spoken by native English speakers and selected recordings
spoken by speakers of British-English accents because British - English is still one of the main
models used in Vietnam and is still the standard chosen for the most popular learner performance
assessment worldwide, ensuring that exam materials authentically represent real-life speech. Their
natural use of intonation, stress patterns, and quick speech exposes learners to actual listening
circumstances, which are required for proper comprehension assessment. This consistency is
critical for regulating speech factors and ensuring that any reported difficulties in understanding are
attributable to the learners' obstacles, not variations in pronunciation. Besides, both the American
and British English accents that appeared in all sentences helped ensure that the study was not
limited to a particular accent and provided a more comprehensive and general view of learners'
listening comprehension.

3.2. Post Listening Dictation Interview.

Interview post-listening dictation is the second instrument in this research. The interviews took
place after the researchers completed the preliminary analysis of the data collected from the
dictation test It served to get a deeper insight into participants’ difficulties in listening
comprehension and also to double-check the results of the preliminary data analysis. In this
procedure, the questions were created on the basis of issues identified from the preliminary
analysis.
 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION

Deletion

The phenomenon of deletion, where certain sounds or syllables are omitted in connected speech,
has been shown to significantly affect listening comprehension, particularly among learners of
Vietnamese. In natural spoken language, deletion often occurs in rapid speech, where sounds that
are deemed less essential for understanding may be dropped to maintain the fluidity and speed of
communication. This study found that deletion poses a considerable challenge for Vietnamese
learners, as it frequently disrupts their ability to recognize words and parse sentences, leading to
reduced comprehension.

The findings of this study are consistent with those of Ernestus, Baayen, and Schreuder (2002),
who investigated the impact of deletion on Dutch listeners' ability to comprehend their native
language. Their study found that even native speakers struggled with comprehension when
segments of speech were deleted, particularly in cases where the deletions involved consonants or
unstressed syllables. This suggests that deletion is inherently challenging for listeners, regardless
of their proficiency level, as it removes auditory cues that are critical for word recognition.

However, when considering second language learners, the impact of deletion can be even more
pronounced. Research by Field (2008) highlighted that ESL learners, especially those at lower
proficiency levels, often fail to recognize words that have undergone deletion in connected speech.
Field's study revealed that learners tend to rely heavily on each sound within a word to identify it,
and when parts of the word are deleted, their ability to recognize the word diminishes
significantly. This is particularly problematic in languages like English, where deletion is a
common feature in casual or rapid speech.

Furthermore, because of lack of experience in listening when deletion occurs, listeners tend to
look for words that sound similar to the original word to legitimize it as the correct word in the
sentence. The finding is consistent with Wong, Dealey, Leung, and Mok's research findings (2019)
and Meghlaoui and Benokba’s findings (2019). Participants’ dictated answers are often
non-native, tend to be unfamiliar with the usage of consonants not appear in their mother tongue
(Wong, Dealey, Leung, and Mok; 2019). Meghlaoui and Benokba demonstrate that listeners are
unaware of the assimilation and elision features of linked speech since they failed to see them
when writing the offered statements. Thus, using words that sound similar to the original word to
legitimize it as the correct word in the sentence, is the best option.

The work of Hawkins and Cutler (1988) also provides insight into how deletion affects listening
comprehension. Their research on segmentation and lexical access reveals that listeners heavily
rely on word-initial and word-final sounds to identify and segment words. When these critical
sounds are deleted, it can disrupt the entire process of speech recognition, making it difficult for
listeners to parse sentences correctly. Hawkin and Cutler's findings is consistent with the research's
findings. In sentence 3, the deletion of the final sound /t/ in “went on“ made it less recognizable to
listeners, especially those who rely heavily on clear articulation of individual sounds for word
comprehension. Additionally, the delete sound in the word is a verb that carries essential
 information for understanding the sequence of events in the sentence. Missing this word due to
deletion can lead to a substantial loss of meaning. This disruption is particularly problematic for
non-native speakers, who may not have the same level of familiarity with the language's
phonological patterns and therefore struggle more with identifying words when key sounds are
missing.

English learners were able to use context and their understanding of the language's rhythm and
patterns to infer the missing sounds, thereby mitigating some of the listening comprehension
difficulties associated with deletion. This suggests that while deletion is a significant challenge, its
impact can be lessened with experience and higher language proficiency. Interestingly, even though
ten participants of the current research who are in English Language students, the rate of impact on
listening comprehension when deletion appeared in this study was 55%. According to Goh's
finding, participants were Chinese learners at lower levels, so the error rate when deletion appeared
could be higher. Hence, it can be inferred that if Vietnamese learners are at lower standards, the
inaccuracy rate may be higher when deletion appears.

Another important aspect highlighted by Goh (2000) is the differential impact of deletion depending
on the linguistic environment. Deletion occurring at the end of a word, where listeners are expected
to find clear phonetic boundaries, tends to be more disruptive than deletion within a word. This
finding aligns with the research by Hawkins and Cutler (1988), who suggested that listeners rely
heavily on word-initial and word-final sounds for segmentation and identification. When these
sounds are deleted, it not only affects the recognition of individual words but also disrupts the
overall sentence structure, leading to greater comprehension difficulties.