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2022, Vol. 6, No. 4, 9997 – 10002

Exploring the Causes of Listening Comprehension Anxiety from

EFL Iraqi students

1
Weam Lateef Fenjan Al-Furaiji
1
Department of English , College of education, Al- Zahraa University for Women ,Kerblaa, Iraq,
[email protected]

Published 17-03-2022

Abstract
However difficult task may seem anxiety, anxiety is a common side effect even when
learning a new language. There are only a handful of studies on Iraqi students who are
taking listening classes to learn English as a second language (EFL). Iraqi EFL students at
Baghdad University in Iraq use semi-structured interviews to discover why listening
comprehension anxiety occurs. Transcripts of the interviews were made available to the
public after they were taped. Listening comprehension was a challenge for the
participants because they were tense. According to the findings of this study, listening
comprehension anxiety can be brought on by three different factors.
Keywords: anxiety, listening comprehension, EFL

1. Introduction
to the worry of misunderstanding, poor
Researchers Kimura (2008), Ko (2010), and processing, or incapacity to react
Lili (2016) have conducted extensive study on psychologically to information offered by
the topic of anxiety caused by learning a others. This concern may manifest itself in a
foreign language, and they are of the opinion variety of ways (p.263).
that individual language abilities have to be
evaluated. According to the findings of many It is essential for students of English as a
pieces of study, all of them are associated with Foreign Language to place a strong emphasis
concern around certain linguistic talents on listening comprehension since studies have
(Abdullah and Rahman, 2010; Elkhafaifi, shown that neglecting to do so reduces pupils'
2005, 2004; Cheng, 2004). The authors capacity to comprehend what they hear. High
Ahmad, Nordin, and Rahman (2013) are all of levels of anxiety have been connected to not
the same opinion that al-Shboul is the most just the academic achievement of students but
talented writer in the industry. In spite of the also their aptitude and their capacity to
fact that studies have shown that speaking skill comprehend what they hear (Moghadam,
is the source of the greatest concern for EFL Ghanizadeh, and Akbari, 2015).
students, a significant number of them
experience anxiety around their ability to A. Problem Statement
comprehend what they are hearing (Young,
1992). Because they are unable to comprehend Students who are studying English as a second
what their classmates are saying, the students language (ESL) usually struggle when it
have a difficult time paying attention in class. comes to listening to activities that use the
You will only be presented with this English language. This is because they are
information once, but you are obligated to expected to hear and grasp everything that the
respond to all of the questions that are based speaker says (Vogely, 1999). When listening,
on it (Vogely, 1999). one must engage in activities such as guessing,
predicting, generalizing, revising, and
The word "listening comprehension anxiety" is verifying the sensory information received
one that may assist us in gaining a deeper (Vandergrift, 1997). It is challenging to
understanding of this matter. According to comprehend what other people are saying
Wheeless (1975), "a receiver's unease" refers when you are nervous about something.

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Journal of Positive School Psychology 9998

According to a plethora of research, anxious A. Listening comprehension Anxiety

pupils have a more difficult time learning
foreign languages (Kim, 2000; Kimura, 2008; Students learning English as a foreign
Vogely 1998). According to the dictionary, language should be concerned about their
"the sense of worry and uneasiness, listening comprehension because research
particularly while speaking, listening, or shows that it can impede their ability to
studying a second language" (Maclntyre and understand what they hear. Students' academic
Gardner, 1994, p.24). The anxiety that Iraqi success, ability, and listening comprehension
students of English as a foreign language have all been linked to high levels of anxiety
experience with listening comprehension was (Moghadam, Ghanizadeh and Akbari, 2015).
the primary subject of this study. This filter allows linguistic input into the
mind's language learning systems when an
B. Research Question affective element is present, says Krashen
(1985).
The aim of the research is to discover what
influences how well people listen. However, B. Previous studies on listening
the following is the research question: comprehension Anxiety

1. What are the causes of listening A great number of research have been carried
comprehension anxiety from EFL Iraqi out in an effort to figure out what it is that
students' perspective? makes students of EFL afraid of listening
comprehension. The anxiety associated with
listening comprehension has been connected to
C. Research Objective
the features of listening tasks in a number of
research, and the results of many of those
The purpose of this research is to figure out
studies support a diverse variety of ideas
what factors contribute to poor listening
(Elkhafaifi,2005). According to the findings of
comprehension. The study's objective, then, is
Scarcella and Oxford's study, students' lack of
as follows:
experience with a variety of hearing activities
and their inability to successfully
D. Significance of the study
communicate in English are the primary
factors that contribute to their concern around
The purpose of this research is to determine
why Iraqi EFL students have difficulty listening comprehension (1992). The
understanding what they are hearing. Their researchers came to the conclusion that the
importance lies in helping Iraqi students avoid factors of speech speed, clarity, and hearing
and control their anxiety during a listening text elements (such as punctuation) all
comprehension class in their schools. contribute to improvements in listening
comprehension (Gonen, 2009).
According to Kim, the primary elements that
2. Literature Review
led to anxiousness over listening
Students learning English as a foreign comprehension were the quality of the text,
language have a difficult time listening to personal circumstances, and variables
English language activities (Vogely, 1999). associated to the procedure (2000). Anxiety
Having the ability to listen includes the ability associated with listening comprehension has
to form hypotheses and make predictions also been investigated from a cognitive and a
about what you're hearing (Vandergrrift, linguistic point of view (Chang, 2008; Golchi,
1997). A person's ability to understand what 2012). It was shown that a lack of self-
they're hearing suffers greatly when they're confidence and role models contributed
stressed. Research suggests that anxiety can significantly to the severity of listening
make it more difficult to learn a language, anxiety. A paucity of studies have been
especially English as a foreign language. conducted on the anxiety associated with
Experience of worry, especially in situations listening comprehension.
involving speaking and listening in another Some experts argue that there has been much
language" (MacIntyre and Gardner, 1994, too little attention paid to study regarding
p.24). hearing comprehension anxiety (Arnold, 2000;

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Journal of Positive School Psychology 9999

Gojion, 2014; Moghadam et al, 2015). Despite (Dornyei, 2007). Purposive sampling was used
the fact that acquiring the auditory to choose the participants for this study
comprehension of a foreign language is a because they were readily available,
highly difficult experience for a lot of compatible, and met some of the criteria the
individuals, it can still be done. According to researcher was looking for (Creswell, 2002).
Krashen (1985), the relationship between
C. Data Collection
anxiety and listening comprehension is a
largely unexplored field of research. Anxiety
Six people were interviewed for this study
about hearing comprehension is still a mystery
using semi-structured interviews. Baghdad
due to the fact that earlier study concentrated University's library was used for the one-on-
on causes and consequences rather than the one interviews. Additional information about
link between anxiety and listening the participants' experiences with listening
comprehension in the process of learning a comprehension anxiety was elicited through
foreign language (Kimura, 2008). semi-structured interviews. Each interview was
It's possible that new insights about listening recorded and lasted between 15 and 25
comprehension anxiety may emerge from minutes. During the semi-structured
research in the future that include participants interviews, candidates were asked 15 questions
from a wide variety of backgrounds and (please refer to Appendix 1). Certain questions
cultures. Concerning Western students, a were crafted after consulting with the
substantial amount of study has been researcher's mentor.
conducted on anxiety as well as listening
comprehension. As a direct consequence of
this, there is a serious dearth of research D. Data Analysis
conducted in other regions of the globe,
notably Arab ones (Al-Shboul et al 2013). The study's data was generated using interview
Students of English as a Foreign Language in transcripts. The interviews had to be recorded,
Iraq could have trouble comprehending what is transcribed, and the transcriptions double-
being said, much like their peers in other checked. Braun and Clarke's step-by-step
countries throughout the globe. As a thematic analysis guidelines were followed by
consequence of this, the research focused the the researcher (2006). As a result, the
bulk of its attention on Iraqi EFL students. following steps were taken: The first step is to
understand your data. The second step entails
3. Methodology developing initial source codes for programs.
Lastly, you're looking for overarching themes.
A.Research Design The fourth person expresses an opinion that
they don't agree with. Clarification is the fifth
To get to the bottom of the phenomenon of task. The sixth person is working on a
listening comprehension anxiety, the document. Interviewed students reported that
researcher took a qualitative approach. A they had difficulty understanding professors
qualitative approach is the best choice for this because of their limited English proficiency, as
study because it focuses on people's thoughts, well as the classroom atmosphere .
feelings, and perceptions (Creswell, 2012).
You can delve deeper into a complex issue 4. Findings and Discussion
using qualitative research. Many people, at
some point in their lives, struggle with Iraqi university students studying English as a
listening comprehension anxiety. For this second language are taking part in a study to
study, a qualitative case study design was used find out what causes listening comprehension
to find out the phenomenon's boundaries (Yin, anxiety the most frequently. Six people were
2009). interviewed for the study, on the other hand.
According to the findings, listening
B. Participants comprehension anxiety can be triggered by
three different factors:
It's the main goal of a qualitative research
project to find out new sources of information A. The problematic nature of listening
on the subject being studied by using sampling comprehension

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Journal of Positive School Psychology 10000

A long conversation can be stressful for some pupils did not have English as their native
people, and if you ask Ahmed what stresses language because of where they grew up,
him out when it comes to listening, he'll which was in rural regions. The four
probably say the speaker's speed, strange fundamental English language skills of the
accent, time constraints, and inability to children were not given a significant amount
concentrate all play a role. He gave examples of attention by the teachers at their schools.
of times when he became worried because the The essentials of reading and writing were all
speaker spoke too quickly and he was unable that was covered in this lesson for the students.
to focus. Even more so, he was convinced that Rami acknowledged that it was challenging for
the different accents had deceived him during him to master listening skills at Baghdad
the listening tests. Apparently, listening University since they were something he had
comprehension in English is not something never done before.
Alil enjoys. According to Ismail, many of the
problems students have with listening He also admitted that he was unable of
comprehension can be traced back to anxiety. reading or writing in the English language.
In class, he got nervous about listening to According to Ahmed, the fact that he only had
speeches he didn't understand because he a limited grasp of the English language made it
could only hear them once. Sarah found it difficult for him to comprehend what other
difficult to maintain focus during lengthy people were saying. When it came to English,
conversations due to her tendency to become the fact that he was so terrible at it made him
distracted. Sarah was also concerned that she feel ashamed to confess it.
would be unable to answer all of the listening Because there was so little emphasis placed on
questions before time ran out. To summarize, vocabulary learning at his high school, he
she said that mastering the art of listening struggled terribly during his time there. In
comprehension is a difficult task. addition to that, throughout his time in school,
he did not participate in any English courses
B. The Classroom Atmosphere
that focused on developing students' abilities
to understand spoken English via listening.
To avoid being teased for not understanding
the listening tasks, Ali provided an honest
5. Conclusion
response to the survey question about the
listening classroom environment. He claimed As a result of their admission, the Iraqi EFL
that the competition among the students had a students admitted that they lacked basic
negative effect on him. Rana attributed her English skills. There was some difficulty
anxiety to a variety of factors, including a lack understanding them because of their poor
of clarity in the classroom, a noisy testing command of the English language. This made
environment, and teachers or proctors. She it difficult for them to understand listening
admitted that when the proctors were strict, tasks, and their grades suffered as a result.
anxiety and stress among the students They also had a problem with a scarcity of
increased. The classroom atmosphere and its experience and knowledge. They had no idea
role in Rami's poor listening comprehension what to do in the listening exercises when it
raised concerns about his ability to understand came to listening strategies. They also had a
what the researcher was saying. Rami skewed view of their own communication
explained that he was stressed out because of skills, especially in terms of listening.
the rivalry among his coworkers. It was also According to Vogely (1999), when teachers
brought up that the recording's sound quality were found to be unaware of listening
fluctuated and that some of his classmates exercises, their students were not receiving
were rude. adequate listening instruction. These findings
are also connected to Joiner's (1986) discovery
C. The low English Proficiency of that low confidence in one's listening abilities
Students can cause listening anxiety. Many factors
A few individuals were curious about the level contribute to students' fear of listening
of fluency that the kids have in the English comprehension, including the difficulty of the
language. During the course of an interview material, the classroom setting, and students'
with Ali, it was found out that almost all of the limited knowledge of the English language.

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Journal of Positive School Psychology 10001

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