Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM

Introduction

Language Learning depends on Listening. Listening provides aural

input that serves as the basis for language acquisition and enables

learners to interact in any spoken communication. (Renukadevi, 2014)

Thus, this stresses that in language learning, the learners' listening ability

plays a significant role in second language acquisition.

           In an online published article from the British Council of the

Philippines by Cabigon (2015), key stakeholders from the government,

academe, private and non-government sectors acknowledged that the

Philippines is doing fine in terms of English Competency; however, even if

the Philippines has one of the most populated English-speaking nations,

the degree of fluency is still not that enough. Hence, the stakeholders

suggested that the country needs to step up in providing improved

teaching and learning of English to develop it as a vital skill in the

workplace.

Filipinos are non-native speakers of the English Language, and they

are good secondary speakers of the English Language. The Philippine

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Educational System fully mandated a policy that the English language

should be the medium in teaching and learning subjects in all schools.

However, Formal English Language Learning in the Philippines faces a

significant challenge. According to Loreto (2000), secondary students do

not have adequate language skills essential to their academic training.

Also, Correa (2004) stated that since these students are instructed with the

use of the English Language, their classroom participation has become an

unwelcome activity because they have difficulties in grappling for words

to sufficiently express themselves in English.

           In the K to 12 Language Arts and Multiliteracies Curriculum, as the

framework of the English Subject (from Grade 1 to 12) highlighted one of

the principles that All Languages are interrelated and interdependent—

that the facility in the first language strengthens and supports the learning

of other languages. Thus, acquiring a set of skills in one language provides

the basis for the development of the second language. It follows that any

collective underlying proficiency that takes place in one language will

have a beneficial effect on the other language. However, most Filipinos

continue to demonstrate less ability in the English Language.

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           In the K to 12 English Curriculum, one of its compositions is the

intended outcomes for the students to demonstrate after completing the

course, from Grade 1 to Grade 12. One of its ultimate goals is to produce

graduates who possess Communicative Competence. 

Communicative Competence, as part of the 21st Century Skills,

intends to help students keep up with today's development. The essential

factor that constitutes Communicative Competence is the use of

Communication Skills—speaking, listening, reading and writing.

           Now, given the idea from one of the guiding principles of the K to

12 English Curriculum in Language Acquisition, which is the facility of

learning the second language, to strengthen the first language is a must.

Hence, exposure to both languages is must because all languages are

interrelated and interdependent.

           According to Renukadevi (2014), to awaken the awareness of

language or to acquire language, it is through listening that would enable

the human to understand the beauty of the language. Moreover, he

stressed out that in communicative language teaching, the basis for

communicative Competence is listening as it provides and develops

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learners to interact in spoken communication. Hence, listening forms the

concrete basis for language learning and proficiency.

Among the other macro-skills in the English Language, people are

exposed to listening. Morley (2003) noted that people are expected to

listen as twice as much as they speak, four times that they read and five

times more that they write. However, Brown as cited by Murcia (2006), she

stated that a significant number of courses in listening comprehension in

many schools continue to demonstrate that listening skill is still regarded as

the least important skill. Unlike other skills, listening is not directly taught in

the classroom.

The Department of Education of the Republic of the Philippines

released the Memorandum No. 560 S. 2008, Special Program in Foreign

Language which aims to let the school develop students' skills in listening,

reading, writing and speaking and viewing as it is fundamental to

acquiring communicative competence in a second language. However,

though the curriculum has changed, in the K to 12 English Curriculum,

upon the review of the researcher, listening comprehension as a topic is

not part of instruction, but it is only integrated into the suggested activities

given. Unlike the other macro-skills, like speaking and reading, they have
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their content for discussion. Thus, as the government’s branch in

education, it is imperative that DepEd should take measures in maximizing

the efficiency of student learning by incorporating listening skills within the

curriculum.

           In an article written by Scott Peri (2017) titled "Listening is a 21st

Century Skill", it highlights the importance of listening as a skill in

understanding messages through speaking. Moreover, it also discusses the

importance of education in career development. The most important

thing for teaching students is the career readiness skill, and listening has

been identified as one of the top skills that employers seek. However, very

few educators provide instruction in listening, and as a result, students do

not understand that listening is an active process because no one has

shown them how.

           Also, in the 2014 Survey of the Graduate Management Admission

Council about the skills that are in demand on the companies as a basis

for hiring, the top four skills employers seek for new hires fall under

communication, in which Listening Skill comes second after Oral

Communication skill. It shows that listening is vital to be part of the

instruction to meet the demands globally.

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           Listening is a vital component in the language classroom because it

provides the input for the learner (Peterson 2001). Moreover, as Rost noted

God, without understanding the input at the right level, learning cannot

merely start. Hence, listening plays a vital role in everything that we do

and is fundamental to speaking. Rivers (2001) made a stand that

communication is not considered a process unless what is said is

comprehended by another person. Thus, teaching the communication of

spoken speech is essential to be noted as one of the primary aims of

communication. Now, being that communication is a two-way process,

how will one respond if what has been said is not understood, this is where

listening takes place. The other macro skills should not overshadow

listening comprehension because this may be the key to effective

communication in using the second language.

The teaching of listening skills towards comprehension is not given

equal emphasis to the other skills. Philippine institutions aim to produce

students who are well taught and acquainted with their second

language, which is English but is not part of the National Achievement Test

and the National Career Assessment Examination.

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The proposed setting of the study is one of the universities in

Cagayan de Oro. The institution's vision and mission are summed up with

the idea of developing students into a Total Person- mature and

responsible individual who are intellectually, professionally and technically

competent. Developing an individual into a total person deals with holistic

development and part of which is Communicative Competence.

Moreover, in the proposed setting, no studies were found regarding the

listening comprehension of the students. Hence, it is clear that the

researcher intends to examine and explore the listening comprehension

level of the students concerning the variables that may affect their

comprehension and performance in using the listening skill as part of the

communication process. 

Conceptual Framework

           This paper is anchored on the concept of DeVito’s (2000) Stages of

Listening. He described listening as a complex process because many

factors can interfere with listening; and to be a successful listener, one

must be able to manage mental tasks at the same time. Thus, he divided

the listening process into five stages: receiving, understanding,

remembering, evaluating and responding. 

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           In this paper, the stages of listening by DeVito will be used as a basis

of examining and describing the listening comprehension level of the

participants, where they would be tested through a set of listening

comprehension exercises which are anchored on the concepts under the

stages of listening. 

           The first stage is Receiving. This stage refers to the act of an

intentional focus on listening to a speaker's message. Receiving is an

essential stage where an individual hears a message sent by a speaker.

Furthermore, receiving is a highly selective process, the listener listens

carefully to the messages that are more of value and at the same time

gives less attention to the messages that have less value. For example, the

listener may focus on what the instructor says regarding what will appear

in the examination rather than listening to any routine announcements. 

           The second stage is understanding; this is the stage where listeners

give meaning to the spoken message, this where giving implications to

the messages that have another meaning beyond its surface meaning.

Listeners' understanding includes both thoughts that are expected as well

as the emotional tone that accompanies the thoughts. In this stage, the

listeners are expected to relate the new information to what they already
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know, they should be able to see the speaker's message but without

judging the message until they fully understand the intended message,

and they should be able to rephrase the speaker's ideas.

           The third stage is Remembering. This stage requires the listener to

retain the received messages and understand it. Furthermore, this stage

also requires the listener to identify the central idea of the propositions,

summarize the messages in a more easily retained form, and identify the

organizational pattern to organize what the speaker says.

           The fourth stage is Evaluating. This stage consists of judging the

value of the message. The listener's own biases and prejudices become

especially influential; however, evaluation is more like critical analysis. This

stage requires the listeners to distinguish facts from opinions, personal

interpretations as well as those made by the speaker. Hence, this stage

lets the listener critically comprehend the content of the message.

           The fifth stage is Responding. This stage is also referred to as

feedback. Responding in the listening process may be in the form of

verbal or nonverbal feedback about the message of the speaker.

           The Stages of Listening by DeVito would be the basis of examining

and rating the Listening Comprehension Level of the Participants. The

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formulation of the Listening Exercises, particularly on the construction of

the questions, would be anchored on these stages. The Receiving and

Responding Stage will be tested as one through an activity, titled “Listen

and Do it!" Moreover, the Understanding, Remembering and Evaluating

will be verified through Multiple Choice Items, where there will be a

recorded article or passage, as the basis on the questions for the multiple-

choice questions.

The researcher of this study aims to identify, explore and examine

the level of listening comprehension of the Senior High School Student

concerning the variables defined by the researcher. These variables were

chosen thoroughly through the further readings of the researcher about

the topic. The reasons for selecting the variables would be explained after

the presentation of the schematic diagram.

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INDEPENDENT VARIABLES
DEPENDENT VARIABLE

Students’ Profile
Students’ Listening Comprehension
Gender Level

Attitude Towards Listening Receiving and Responding

Remembering
Status of the Learning Environment Understanding
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Figure 1: Schematic Presentation, showing the interplay of the variables.

The schematic diagram presents the interplay of the independent

and dependent variables considered in the study. However, in this

section, independent variables would be discussed by showing different

studies that would support the decision of the researcher in choosing

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them as a variable in affecting the listening comprehension level of the

participants.

The presented independent variables are in connection with the

students’ profile; these variables are essential in the students’ listening

comprehension level.

The first variable under the profile of the students is gender.

According to Larry and Kittie Watson (2000), authors of the book "Listen

Up", gender differences have shown various styles in listening. It reveals

that women are described to be people-oriented listeners, while men are

action-oriented listeners. However, there is little shred of evidence that

suggests that no one gender is a better listener, hence; it is still the desire

of the researcher to include this as a variable to test whether gender is a

variable that affects the listening comprehension.

The second variable is the attitude towards listening. Attitude is a

mental, emotional and behavioral predisposition organized by the

individual based on his experiences and motives to any issue (Taysi 2019).

An attitude is a form of the motivation of how a person's interest affects

the outcome of a process (Kirk 2019), hence, having a positive outlook

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towards the importance of listening as a skill would be a benefit of

developing one's listening comprehension.

The third variable is the status of the learning environment.

Specifically, the classroom size, location, facilities and equipment,

materials and assessment tools which affect the academic performance

of the students and which is also in connection with holistic development

and that includes listening comprehension. A study conducted by

Sulemen (2014) at the Secondary Schools in Pakistan, reveals that students

who have been exposed to a better learning environment show proficient

performance, thus, the study recommended that the learning

environment of the school should be well-organized and planned.

The fourth variable is the exposure of the participants to the

Listening Activities. The study of Liu (2008) reveals that different strategies

implemented across listening comprehension develops proficient listeners.

Moreover, Aquino (2004) stated that to let the students practice listening;

teachers should provide stimulating activities, requiring students to take

notes, listen to radio, TV news, theater shows because giving the students

an array of activities would let them learn in the best way.

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The researcher critically chooses the variables presented and

explained above. The studies and concepts presented would prove that

these variables are factors to be considered that may affect the listening

comprehension level of the participants, which is also considered to be

the dependent variable.

These dependent variables shall be quantified and related through

the responses of the participants in correlation with questions designed to

specifically define these characteristics.

Statement of the Problem

This study aims to explore and describe the listening comprehension

level of the senior high students of Capitol University, School Year 2019-

2020, in relation to the identified variables.

Specifically, this seeks to answer the following questions:

1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of the following:

1.1 Gender

1.2 Attitude towards listening

1.3 Status of the Learning Environment

1.4 Exposure to Listening Activities

2. What is the listening comprehension level of the participants?

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3. Is there a significant difference in the students’ listening

comprehension level when grouped according to:

3.1 Gender

3.2 Attitude towards listening

3.3 Status of the Learning Environment

3.4 Exposure to Listening Activities

Hypotheses

Problem 1 and 2 are hypothesis free.

Problem 3 will be tested using the 0.05 level of significance

Ho1: There is no significant difference of the students’ listening

comprehension level and Gender

Ho2: There is no significant difference of the students’ listening

comprehension level and their attitude towards listening

Ho3: There is no significant difference of the students’ listening

comprehension level and the status of the learning environment

Ho4: There is no significant difference of the students’ listening

comprehension level and their exposure to listening comprehension

Scope and Limitation of the Study

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           The study is limited in examining and describing the listening

comprehension level of the senior high school students of Capitol

University concerning the identified variables. 

In describing the profile of the respondents, as the variables that

affect the listening comprehension level, a researcher-made survey

questionnaire would be used. The questionnaire would be divided into

five parts that correspond to the variables identified under the Students

profile, and these are: Gender, Attitude towards listening, Status of the

Learning Environment and Exposure to Listening Activities

In examining the Listening Comprehension Level of the Participants,

a researcher-made activity will be used. There will be two types of

listening exercises that would be implemented, and these exercises are

anchored on the Stages of Listening by DeVito (2000). The Receiving and

Responding Stages will be tested through an activity, titled "Listen and Do

it!" The Remembering, Understanding, and Evaluating Stages will be tested

with an audio-recorded passage and a 5-item multiple-choice test. An

English Teacher will record the audio.

Significance of the Study

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           One of the objectives of the English Language seeks to develop

competencyitizenship and to address the communication needs of

Filipino students for English, which is emerging as the international lingua

franca (Secondary English Curriculum 2002). This is to make the students

equipped to face the real world with all its competition and requirements.

           The result of this study would have essential bits of informationaid

the respondents of the study as it provides the stakeholders with a clearer

understanding on the factors that affect the listening skills of the students.

For the students, it is imperative to develop their listening skills for

them to understand the lectures that are imparted by their teacher

verbally. This would also help them to identify the various techniques on

improving their listening skill for the benefit of their language class, and it

would also help them for other aspects in everyday communication. Thus,

it would make them assess themselves in terms of their listening capability,

attitude towards listening, the effects of listening and their classroom

listening practices which they will not think in a usual setting.

        For the teacher, through the implementation of the discussion,

through a student-centered approach and being the facilitator of the

class, it will remain that it is their responsibility to develop the listening skill
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of the students. This will lead them to have an easy way of teaching for

further instructions and will give those ideas on how to do such a thing.

          For the administrators of the school, as they will have a collaborative

discussion regarding the development of the curriculum, this study will

help them by giving insights on how they can be able to construct the

curriculum to attain the Total Person development, as stated in their vision

and mission.

The most neglected skill that everyone knows would be the answer

to our journey of discovering the ways for better education for all. Finally,

this study will contribute to education as well as to the general area of

education.

Definition of Terms

For the convenience of the readers and in the interest of the clarity

and understanding of concepts and terms used in this study, the following

are hereby defined operationally

Attitude. This term refers to the students’ motivation in the process of

learning. In this study, the term shall refer to the general impression of the

student in the English subject which forms part of the characterization of

the subject respondents.

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Comprehension. This term refers to the act of understanding verbal and

written information. In this study, this shall refer to the ability of the students

to grasp information in the course of learning the English language.

Evaluating. This term refers to the last stage of listening. This aims to let the

listeners interpret or judge the whole message of the passage. In this

study, this shall refer to the processing of information being input through

listening.

Gender. This refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys

that are socially constructed. This includes norms, behaviors and roles

associated with being a woman, man, girl or boy, as well as relationships

with each other. As a social construct, gender varies from society to

society and can change over time. (WHO, n.d.) In this study, it shall refer

to the demographic characteristic describing whether an individual is

male or female.

Learning Environment. This refers to the physical set up of the classroom,

the human behavior, the mode and means of the teaching and learning

process, and the learning resources. In this study, this shall refer to the

external environment that the student is surrounded with in learning

English.
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Listening Skill. This term refers to communication skills that are used to

improve the learners ability to understand the verbal information from the

teacher. In this study, it shall refer to the end result of the research and the

combination of comprehension coupled with the learner’s listening.

Listening Comprehension. This term refers to the act of understanding

verbal information through listening. In the study, this shall refer to the

ability of the learner to understand the verbal information being delivered

to them.

Listening Exercise/ Listening Activity. This term refers to the activity

conducted in this research. Specifically, the recorded audio passage with

five multiple-choice items and the “Listen and Do it” activity.

Receiving and Responding. Term refers to the first stage of Listening. This

pertains to the process of listening where students listen to instructions and

do what is instructed. In this research, this shall refer to the input and

output response and the learner’s reaction to the instructions given to

them.

Remembering. This term refers to the second stage of listening. This

requires that listeners identify and recall facts from the recorded audio. In

this research, this shall refer to the dependent variable measured by

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methodology as that characteristic of recollection as measured in the

research.

Understanding. This term refers to the third stage of listening. This requires

the listeners to comprehend the verbal message. In this research, this shall

refer to the dependent variable which refers to the participant’s

comprehension as measured in the research.