INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ISSN: 2692-5206, Impact Factor: 12,23
American Academic publishers, volume 05, issue 04,2025
Journal:
https://www.academicpublishers.org/journals/index.php/ijai
page 1037
LISTENING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES FACED BY ADULT
LANGUAGE LEARNERS
Pardayeva Aziza Rahmatilloyevna
Senior teacher at Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages
Annotation:
This article explores the multifaceted challenges that adult language learners face
in developing effective listening comprehension skills. It begins by emphasizing the
significance of listening as an active, meaning-making process essential for communication
and language development. The discussion highlights several common difficulties such as
memory limitations, fast speech, limited vocabulary, pronunciation issues, and cultural
unfamiliarity. Drawing on various studies, the article further examines how age-related
cognitive and sensory decline affects auditory processing and comprehension, especially in
second language (L2) contexts. It also reflects on the role of metacognitive strategies and
learner confidence in overcoming these obstacles. The article concludes by urging educators to
apply appropriate teaching methods and strategies that consider the diverse needs and
limitations of adult learners to foster effective listening comprehension.
Key words:
Listening comprehension, adult language learners, second language acquisition,
hearing difficulties, short-term memory, speech rate, pronunciation, vocabulary limitations,
metacognitive strategies, age-related decline, auditory processing, EFL/ESL, communication
skills, language proficiency, listening strategies.
Listening is more than just hearing—it’s the active process of making sense of what we
hear. In both real-life communication and academic settings, listening plays a crucial role,
especially when it comes to listening comprehension skills. These skills, often tested in
language exams, measure a person’s ability to
understand, interpret, and respond to spoken language. In my view, strong listening
comprehension isn't just about catching every word—it's about grasping meaning, tone, and
intention. It reflects how well we can process information in real time, making it a key
indicator of overall language proficiency and effective communication.
If learners want to learn to speak, they should first learn to understand the spoken
language they hear. If learners want to communicate with native speakers, they should first
learn to understand in real language situations to comprehend the main pint of what native
speakers are telling. Therefore, listening is very important to which teachers and learners should
pay enough attention to obtain communication aims. Listening is very important in language
learning because it provides input for learners and it has also an important role in the
development of learners’ language knowledge (Rost, 1994).
Listening has long been recognized as an important skill among the four language skills
that students at the tertiary level need to master. Although listening is important, it is a
neglected skill that researchers only recently began to recognize as compared to speaking,
reading and writing. A review of previous research regarding the four language skills used by
EFL students indicates that listening is a skill that students are often not good at. This claim is
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ISSN: 2692-5206, Impact Factor: 12,23
American Academic publishers, volume 05, issue 04,2025
Journal:
https://www.academicpublishers.org/journals/index.php/ijai
page 1038
in agreement with some recent research studies which show that most students have problems
in EFL listening comprehension. Studies reveal that if typical factors affecting language
learners’ listening comprehension are recognized, students can overcome the difficulty faced in
comprehending listening tasks. Depending on the purpose of the research, factors influencing
L2 listening can be grouped in different categories labelled with different names. The
researchers in this thesis would like to group factors influencing language learners in three
categories: linguistic factors, cognitive factors and affective factors recommended by because it
seems by grouping this way, factors that affect students’ listening comprehension process can be
easily identified. (Minh Trang Nguyen p68)
Linguistic factors refer to language-specific elements such as vocabulary, grammar,
pronunciation, and the complexity of spoken texts that affect L2 listening comprehension.
Cognitive factors involve the mental processes used during listening, such as attention,
memory, processing speed, and the use of listening strategies. These help learners interpret
and make sense of what they hear. Affective factors include emotional and psychological
aspects like motivation, anxiety, confidence, and
attitude
toward the
language. These
influence
a
learner’s willingness to engage with listening tasks and their overall
performance. Together, these categories provide a comprehensive understanding of L2
listening challenges. There are such kinds of listening problems that many adults commonly
face, particularly in the context of listening comprehension. One major issue is short-term
memory, as adults often find it difficult to retain and process information while
simultaneously listening to new input. This can cause them to miss key points or forget the
beginning of a sentence by the time it ends. Additionally, the speed of speech can be
overwhelming, especially when speakers talk quickly or blend words together. Accents and
pronunciation differences further complicate understanding,
as do limited vocabulary, background noise, and unfamiliar cultural references or idioms.
Together, these challenges can significantly hinder effective listening. Different studies about
the use of listening strategies by learners have been carried out. Vandergrift (1999) said that
metacognitive strategies lead to listening achievement when they deal with cognitive strategies.
Less efficient learners utilized cognitive and memory strategies most frequently and social
strategies least frequently.
Higgins (1995) studied Omani students’ problems in listening comprehension and found
that the factors which facilitate or hinder listening are speech rate, vocabulary, and
pronunciation. After examining 81 Arabic speakers learning English as a foreign language for
academic purposes and their perceived LC problems, a study conducted by Hasan (2000)
shows that ‘unfamiliar words’, ‘difficult grammatical structures’, and ‘the length of the spoken
text’ are the most important message factors for listening problems. In terms of speaker factor,
it was revealed that ‘clarity’ was the main cause of EFL listening difficulties. As to listener
factor, ‘lack of interest’ ‘the demand for full and complete answers to listening comprehension
questions’ were the two main difficulties encountered by EFL students.
I also point out that speech rate, vocabulary, and pronunciation are three major factors
that affect listening comprehension. When people speak quickly, listeners may struggle to keep
up, missing key words or ideas before they can process them. A limited vocabulary also makes
it difficult to understand spoken content, especially when unfamiliar words are used without
context. Pronunciation adds another layer of challenge—variations in accent, intonation, or
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ISSN: 2692-5206, Impact Factor: 12,23
American Academic publishers, volume 05, issue 04,2025
Journal:
https://www.academicpublishers.org/journals/index.php/ijai
page 1039
unclear articulation can make even familiar words hard to recognize. Together, these elements
can overwhelm the listener, especially in real-time situations, reducing their ability to fully
understand what’s being said.
Listening comprehension can be challenging for adult language learners, and age plays
a key role. Younger learners often hear sounds more clearly and adapt quickly to new accents
or pronunciation. In contrast, older adults may struggle with hearing clarity due to age-related
decline, making it harder to distinguish unfamiliar sounds in a second language. They might
also process auditory information more slowly, which affects their ability to keep up with
native speakers in real-time conversations. Background noise or fast speech can make it even
harder. These physical and cognitive changes add to the typical challenges of learning a new
language.
The first systematic assessment of listening comprehension in a native language across
the adult lifespan was provided by Sommers. A total of 433 participants in the age group 20—
90 listened to spoken passages and answered comprehension questions. In addition, measures
of auditory sensitivity were obtained from all participants to determine if hearing loss and
listening comprehension changed similarly across the adult lifespan. As expected, auditory
sensitivity declined from 20 to 90 years of age. However, listening comprehension remained
relatively unchanged until approximately age 65—70, with declines evident only for the
oldest participants. This conclusion was also confirmed by follow-up research (Sommers,
2015).
Extensive research led by Hoffman et al. (2017) shows that compared to participants
aged 20 to 29 years, those aged 60 to 69 years had a 39.5 higher odds of bilateral speech-
frequency hearing impairment, which means that they have trouble hearing speech clearly.
Based on empirical evidence, Henry et al. (2017) state that speech comprehension decreases
during healthy aging, especially when speech is fast or presented against background noise.
These agerelated listening and comprehension difficulties are likely the consequence of an
interaction between sensory and cognitive changes. Compared to listening in a native language,
listening in a FL poses more challenges because FL listeners may have varying levels of
proficiency and therefore may be more or less familiar with particular sounds and speech
production patterns in that target language (Güvendir & Hardacre, 2018, p. 1). However, there
are not many studies that provide evidence on the relationship between age and listening
comprehension achievement in a foreign language. One of them was conducted by Seright
(1985) who investigated age and aural comprehension achievement in 36 francophone military
personnel learning English. Younger (aged 17 to 24 years) and older (aged 25 to 41 years)
learners were compared with respect to short-term development in aural comprehension. The
results showed that the achievement in L2 listening comprehension declined significantly with
increasing age, given the same time span and learning conditions. On the other hand, the
relationship between the achievement in L2 listening comprehension and other studied
variables, namely nonverbal intelligence, education and previous English language instruction,
proved to be statistically insignificant.
How Can Teachers Help their Student Overcome their Listening Comprehension
Problems?
Not all the problems described above can be overcome. Certain features of the message and the
speaker, for instance, are inevitable. But this does not mean that the teacher can do nothing
about them. S/he can at least provide the students with suitable listening materials, background
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ISSN: 2692-5206, Impact Factor: 12,23
American Academic publishers, volume 05, issue 04,2025
Journal:
https://www.academicpublishers.org/journals/index.php/ijai
page 1040
and linguistic knowledge, enabling skills, pleasant classroom conditions, and useful exercises
to help them discover effective listening strategies. (Dwi Rara Saraswaty p7) Here are a few
helpful ideas (Hamouda, 2013):
Adapting and Improving Listening Materials. It is obvious that
students differ in their learning styles and ability, therefore, teachers should adopt
and adapt listening materials that match their students’ interest and background
since the listening materials only become stimulating and motivating them when
they are slightly challenging to what they have already known and suit their interest.
Activating your Students’ Vocabulary. From the investigation, one of
the great causes for the students in listening comprehension is their lack of
vocabulary. The majority of all the students report not to have sufficient vocabulary
in listening comprehension and a small number complains that their vocabulary is
too poor to understand. It is, therefore necessary for teachers to equip students with
certain key words needed for listening comprehension since lack of vocabulary
becomes a great obstacle to them in listening comprehension, which is also realized
by Underwood (1989) and Higgin (1995). However, it is better to activate students’
vocabulary by asking them to guess the meaning of words used in the listening
context before explaining the meaning to them, since whenever students are able to
relate what they have already known to what they are supposed to listen for, they are
likely to listen better or more effectively.
Using Different Kinds of Input. The teacher should also provide
students with different kinds of input, such as lectures, radio news, films, TV plays,
announcements, everyday conversation, interviews, storytelling, English songs, and
so on.
Using Visual Aids. Teacher exploits visual aids or draw pictures and
diagrams related to the listening topics to aid students to guess and imagine actively.
Visual aids draw learners’ attentions, increase their motivation on the topic and help
them relate to content of the spoken text, thus listener overcome difficulties such as
unknown words, minimal pairs of words.
Accents. Make students aware of different native-speaker accents. Of
course, strong regional accents are not suitable for training in listening, but in
spontaneous conversation native speakers do have certain accents. Moreover, the
American accent is quite different from the British and Australian. Therefore, it is
necessary to let students deal with different accents, especially in extensive listening.
In conclusion, listening comprehension is a fundamental yet often challenging skill for
adult language learners. It involves more than simply hearing sounds; it requires the ability to
decode, interpret, and respond to spoken language in real time. Various factors contribute to
these difficulties, including limited vocabulary, unfamiliar accents, fast speech, and short-term
memory constraints. Age-related factors such as hearing decline and slower cognitive
processing further complicate the listening process, especially in noisy or fast-paced
environments. Research highlights that while listening comprehension may remain stable until
later in life, age-related changes eventually affect auditory sensitivity and speech understanding.
Moreover, unfamiliar cultural references, grammar complexity, and low language proficiency
can hinder learners' confidence and performance. These challenges underline the importance of
integrating targeted listening strategies and providing meaningful input in real-life contexts.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ISSN: 2692-5206, Impact Factor: 12,23
American Academic publishers, volume 05, issue 04,2025
Journal:
https://www.academicpublishers.org/journals/index.php/ijai
page 1041
Teachers should support learners with age- appropriate methods and resources, helping them
overcome barriers and enhance their overall communication competence in a second language.
References:
1.
Rost, M. (1994). Introducing Listening. London: Penguin books.
2.
Nguyen, M. T. (2020). Understanding Listening Comprehension Processing and
Challenges Encountered: Research Perspectives. International Journal of English Language
and Literature Studies, 9(2), 63–75. https://doi.org/10.18488/journal.23.2020.92.63.75.
3.
Vandergrift, L. (1999). Facilitating Second Language Listening Comprehension:
Acquiring
Successful
Strategies.
ELT
Journal,
53(3),
168-176.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/elt/53.3.168
4.
Higgins, J. "Raising Teachers’ Awareness of the Real-time Characteristics of Their
Classroom Speech." In: D. Mahoney and J.
5.
Hasan, A. (2000). Learners’ Perceptions of Listening Comprehension Problems.
Language, Culture and Curriculum, 13, 137-153. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0790831
0008666595.
6.
Sommers, M. S. (2015). Listening comprehension in middle-aged
adults. American
Journal
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Audiology,
24(2),
88–90.
https://doi.org/10.1044/2015_AJA14-0060
7.
Henry. (2017). Aging affects the balance of neural entrainment and top-down neural
modulation
in
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Güvendir, E., & Hardacre. (2018). Listening and different age
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10. Dwi Rara Saraswaty Universitas Muhammadiyah Palembang
LEARNERS’ DIFFICULTIES & STRATEGIES IN LISTENING COMPREHENSION
11. Hamouda, A. (2013). An Investigation of Listening Comprehension Problems
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Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 2(2), 113-15.
12. Underwood, M. (1989). Teaching Listening. New York: Longman.
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