Listening Difficulties and Problems in Using Listening Strategies for EFL High School Students

This study explores the listening difficulties and problems in strategy use confronted by the EFL high school students. The participants of this study were 21 high school students. Data were elicited from learners retrospective self-reports, learner journals, and open-ended questionnaires. The findings indicate that listening difficulties confronted by the occurred mostly in the perception stage. These listening difficulties in turn affected the students strategy use. Five categories of the problems in strategy use are language processing difficulties, strategic problems, testing condition factors, characteristics of the passage, and affective barriers. Based on the findings, pedagogical implications are suggested: Focusing on perception practice in strategy-based listening instruction may be an effective way for successful listening comprehension, until acquire a threshold level of proficiency to fully take advantage of other listening strategies.