Listening Difficulties among Non-Native Speakers of Arabic

Abstract

This qualitative study analyzed the listening difficulties of 19 students learning Arabic as a foreign language in the Sultanate of Oman from a social-constructivist perspective. Analysis of the data obtained from interviews and students' diaries has indicated that learners experienced five listening difficulties that occurred either in the classroom setting, in their real-life conversation with Omanis or while listening to TV and radio programs. It was found that their listening difficulties were related to speed of speech, quickly forgetting what was heard, missing the next part when thinking about meaning, the inability to understand what they had heard and inability to match the sound of the word with what they already know.This paper also investigates and analyzes the causes of listening problems. The most frequent difficulties seemed to result from the lack of opportunities to practice Arabic. It has been also found that cultural differences have a strong relationship to listening comprehension problems.