THE STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN LISTENING TO LONG CONVERSATION OF TOEFL LIKE TEST AT ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OF BUNG HATTA UNIVERSITY

Abstrak

Listening plays an important role in communication as it is said that, of the total time spent on communicating, listening takes up 40-50%; speaking, 25-30%; reading, 11-16%; and writing, about 9% (Gilakjani and Ahmadi, 2011). In listening to TOEFL like test, listening to long conversation is one of the problems that might be faced by the students. The purpose of this research was to analyze the students’ difficulties in listening to long conversation of TOEFL-like test at English Department of Bung Hatta University. Specifically, it is aimed at describing the students’ difficulties to answer question in long conversation consisting of main topic, purpose, detail informationa, and conclusion.

The design of this research was descriptive research. The population of this research was the second year student at the English Department of Bung Hatta University. The sample members were 23 students, chosen by using total sampling technique. The data were collected through listening TOEFL-like Test. It is a standardized test, and it has been used in many countries. ETS (English Testing Service) has tested the validity, reliability, and accuracy of TOEFL itself.

In general, the result of data analysis showed that the students had moderate difficulty to answer listening to long conversation in TOEFL like text. Specifically, the result of the research showed that students’ difficulties to answer main topic in long conversation of TOEFL like was at the level of low difficulty (30.43%). It was also found that  students’ difficulties to answer purpose in long conversation of TOEFL like was at the level of moderate difficulty (60.86%). Next, students’ difficulties to answer detail information in long conversation of TOEFL like was at the level of moderate difficulty (60.05%). Last, students’ difficulties to answer conclusion in long conversation of TOEFL like was at the level of high difficulty (78.26%).

Based on the result of this research, it can be concluded that the students’ difficulties in listening  to long conversation of TOEFL like test at English Department of Bung Hatta University was moderate. Related to this, the lecturers are suggested to improve their students’ ability in doing listening to long conversation of TOEFL like test by giving more exercises, and tips to do the TOEFL test. Also, the students are suggested to learn more about the listening to long conversation of TOEFL like test and to do more exercises to improve their ability. And suggestion for the next researcher is to do relevant research from different point of view of listening to long conversation of TOEFL like.

Key words: Listening, listening long conversation, TOEFL test.