JOURNAL OF NEW CENTURY INNOVATIONS
Volume–76_Issue-1_May-2025
518
518
518
518
THE DIFFICULTIES THAT ARISE IN CONDUCTING LISTENING
EXERCISES IN ENGLISH LESSONS FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN
Baxriddinova Nasiba Abdumajidovna
Samarkand region, Samarkand city
KIUT English language philology
Abstract:
A critical aspect of learning another language is listening and is
essential when learning English in classrooms. The pedagogical and operational
obstacles that emerge when educators arrange listening exercises among children, even
when listening’s acknowledged significance is taken into account, are substantial. The
most important factors contributing to these challenges include the following among
others: linguistic ones, cognitive, technical, environmental and motivational ones. This
article analyses these issues in-depth through amalgamation of educational scholarship
perspectives, observations in the classroom, classroom examples; which helps
elucidate their contribution in creating educational achievement.
Key words:
Listening skills, Language acquisition, Cognitive development,
Listening anxiety, Listening instruction
In language education, listening is generally considered the most challenging of
the four skills that include listening, speaking, reading and writing, particularly for
children. Unlike reading or writing, listening is an immediate responsive skill requiring
that learners have a little time to contemplate or re-examine the materials presented to
the learners. As both of their primary and cognitive skills are developing, this problem
is particularly problematic for school-age children. Non-native educators frequently
point out many difficulties they face when attempting to incorporate productive
listening activity into their teaching. The ascertainment of these issues is the very core
of developing instruction on language and encouraging the acquisition of language in
its entirety.
Listening exercises are rather challenging due to the cognitive task that the
children in the school face. Children of age 7-14 are developing abilities in attention,
memory and sound discrimination. Listeners in a second language need to differentiate
sounds rapidly, realize when the words start and finish, understand new words, and
interpret meaning simultaneously, when there is a brief exchange. Students usually lose
interest in listening exercises in the case of unfamiliar accents or when speech is
delivered rapidly. One common example might be two native English speakers talking
with each other over the phone so that the students could listen to them on audio.
Although the chosen vocabulary is appropriate for the students’ grade, such aspects as
the pace of delivery, diverse intonations, as well as colloquial connected speech
JOURNAL OF NEW CENTURY INNOVATIONS
Volume–76_Issue-1_May-2025
519
519
519
519
patterns may contribute to the students’ difficulty. Learners may have some problems
with such words as “gonna” (going to) or “wanna” (want to), or the combination of
sounds in phrases like “Didjeet?” as they are not used to hearing contractions and
elisions in formal context. Even though they know the words individually, it is difficult
for them to understand them in quick natural-sounding speech contexts.
It is also shown to be difficult to locate listening materials that are indeed specific
to the developmental level and proficiency levels of the learners. Audio materials
commonly applied in schools could be outdated, too difficult and not appealing to
children’s interest. This challenge is high in the classroom where it is not native and
schools are only as good as what they can buy or give out. Routines of listening often
use the same routines from textbooks which do not reflect the nature of language or the
cultural world for which learners are being educated. Textbooks provide an example
where there is a listening exercise, which deals with buying train tickets in London. If
in their everyday life the students have not been exposed to british monetary system or
troop of public transport, they are on disadvantage during these exercises. An absence
of the necessary background knowledge – schemata, makes it almost impossible to
understand what is being listened to. Listening is effective only if the person can
understand language, as well as the context around it.
Many listening exercises get disrupted by problems associated with equipment
and environment on recurring basis. In the case of inadequate speakers, presence of
outside or in classroom noise, and failure of the equipment, students’ inability to hear
what is presented may occur. In deprived or rural classrooms, teachers often use worn
cassette or CD players that often result in audio distortion. During packed classes,
background sounds from within or outside a room make it difficult for students to
concentrate on what they are learning. In many situations, an entire group of 35
students is all linked to one outdated piece of audio equipment. Some students can
barely hear the recording as they are sitting a far distance, whereas others are troubled
due to the unwanted noise around the audio device. Teacher’s pausing or rewinding to
explain something may disrupt the flow of the exercise sending the students to boredom
or irritation level. Besides, the back row students often claim they can’t hear the
material properly, which makes the activity ineffective for a considerable number of
students.
Children might become bored of listening tasks and are under more pressure if
they continuously cannot understand the material. This breeds a cycle which erodes
students’ interest: If there is confusion about the material, a feeling of boredom is a
common outcome, which can cause their listening skills to continue to deteriorate. As
a rule, hearing is less an active process than speaking and writing, which require
interaction and personal communication; this passivity is increased by the lack of
additional activities or interactive features. Besides, students sometimes feel anxious
JOURNAL OF NEW CENTURY INNOVATIONS
Volume–76_Issue-1_May-2025
520
520
520
520
when it is necessary for them to listen in a foreign language. They fear to miss
important details, answer questions incorrectly or explain to them things that they do
not understand. The anxiety is manifested in physical reaction on the part of the
students—for example, they do not sit still in their chairs, they do not look in the
speaker’s direction, they do not respond to the listening activity. Such anxiety is drawn
out, for example, when a student, for instance, has to note down a text while listening
to it without repetition and answer questions on what has been heard. Not having even
part of the information may change the fact that they can’t do the task and disappoint
them. When the exercise is used for assessment and not for the learning not only
students’ difficulties but also the complexity of assessment are increased.
It is an area that receives a lot of recognition on the part of English teachers in
that they believe they lack confidence in teaching listening skills. This lack in
confidence is a result of poor preparation in selecting, adapting and using listening
resources. Generally, listening exercises are merely turned into ritual – the track is
played a couple of times, followed by a series of quick questions and nothing happens
respectively. During an observed class it was noted that a teacher played audio
materials relating to daily routines without ensuring that the students were well
prepared for the content. without much sign of what was to be ahead the students could
not understand the situation or most of the materials that were being made
conversation. If the activity had been organized based on a structure – presenting
students with key vocabulary, teaching them to predict from visual cues, and revisiting
the answers after listening – this activity would have been much more successful.
In spite of the complexity of these issues, decent solutions are available that may
help to overcome them. First of all, teachers should present vocabulary in advance and
use images, stories, or discussion to introduce context. Listening activities should be
scaffolded: by evaluating general understanding first then detail-oriented
understanding of the activity. It is possible to use visual aids, gestures, and repeat the
key points. What is more, listening exercises should be interactive. Through the process
of breaking up the listening material with such activities such as giving questions to
answer, providing roles, or letting the students act out parts, the teachers would engage
the learners and thus the learners would understand more. Giving student a chance to
talk about what they hear in pairs and groups before and after listening enhances their
understanding of the content. Where such is viable, there will be merging with the use
of up-to-date technology, such as audio devices and multimedia resources, and even
subtitles, which will exponentially accelerate the effectiveness of instruction in
listening.
Productive listening activities conducted in English classes for young students
need attention beyond just the provision of an audio to students and gauging their
comprehension of the content. These challenges have their roots in the complexity of
JOURNAL OF NEW CENTURY INNOVATIONS
Volume–76_Issue-1_May-2025
521
521
521
521
the language, the mental efforts needed, technical issues and the way emotions such as
the motivation and stress affect students. As long as teachers and institutions concern
themselves with the role giving purposeful listening instruction plays in the classroom,
improvement is still a possibility. When prudently chosen materials are combined with
well-designed instruction and techniques, the listening exercises turn into a boon for
acquisition of language instead of an area of difficulty for those who study.
References:
1.
Field J.
Listening in the Language Classroom
. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2008. – 292 p.
2.
Brown H. D.
Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language
Pedagogy
. 3rd ed. – New York: Pearson Education, 2007. – 569 p.
3.
Rost M.
Teaching and Researching Listening
. 2nd ed. – London: Routledge,
2011. – 312 p.
4.
Vandergrift L.
Listening: Theory and Practice in Modern Foreign Language
Competence
. In:
Language Learning Journal
, 2007, Vol. 35(1), pp. 1–13.
5.
Nation I.S.P., Newton J.
Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking
. New York:
Routledge, 2009. – 278 p.
6.
Ur P.
Teaching Listening Comprehension
. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1984. – 138 p.
7.
Graham S.
Listening Comprehension: The Learner’s Perspective
. In:
System
,
2006, Vol. 34(2), pp. 165–182.
8.
Gilakjani A.P., Sabouri N.B. Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in
English Language Learning: A Literature Review. In:
English Language
Teaching
, 2016, Vol. 9(6), pp. 123–133.
9.
Buck G.
Assessing Listening
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. –
287 p.
