AN ANALYSIS OF THE DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY NON-ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS IN LISTENING SECTION OF TOEFL

Abstract

Abstract: TOEFL is one of standardized test which have been applied by many universities especially for the graduation standard requirement for the students, including in University of Islam Malang. The aim of this study is to know students’ difficulties in doing the TOEFL listening section both from external and internal factors. This study uses qualitative research with narrative inquiry design and collected the data by doing an interview. The study was conducted to 5 non-English Department students of UNISMA who were selected through purposive sampling technique based on criterion of students that have taken the TOEFL test in UNISMA. The data were transcribed into a form of words followed by the process of editing then the data were coded and organized in order to provide the final result accordance with the research questions. The finding indicated difficulty from the external factors include: the speakers’ accent, the speakers’ speed, the complexity of sentences, the length of sentences, idioms, unfamiliar vocabularies, extraneous noise, and room temperature. While the internal factors include: the lack of concentration and the difficulty in answering the restatement question, negative question, passive question, contrary meaning question, idiomatic question, long conversation and monolog part question. Therefore, listening skills cannot be improved just in a short time since the listeners need to prepare and take stages both from the external and internal way in order to comprehend the message delivered properly. In addition, it suggested for further researchers to explore the strategies to overcome the difficulties in passing listening TOEFL test.

Key Words: TOEFL, TOEFL difficulties, Listening comprehension