Rahmi, M. Reza. 2021. Students’ Difficulties and their Causes in Listening Comprehension at the Eleventh Grade of Mathematics and Natural Science Class of Madrasah Aliyah Negeri 1 Tapin in Academic Year 2019/2020. Sarjana’s Thesis, English Language Education Study Program, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Lambung Mangkurat University, Banjarmasin. Advisors: (1) Dr. Cayandrawati Sutiono, MA., (2) Nasrullah, M.Pd., BI.

Keywords: Causes, Comprehension, Difficulties, Listening.

Listening is one of the most crucial skills in learning English. However, it has many difficulties which makes it one of the most difficult to comprehend. Unfortunately, it is the least researched and the least received attention in second language acquisition. Moreover, this research is aimed to find out the listening difficulties and what causes them in listening comprehension.

This research was administered by using survey method. The sample were the 11^th students of Mathematics and Natural Science Class of Madrasah Aliyah Negeri 1 Tapin in academic year 2019/2020. Purposive sampling technique was used. The instruments used were questionnaire. Percentage counting was used to analyze the findings.

The findings showed there were 14 listening difficulties and 2 listening difficulties causes. The listening difficulties were divided into linguistic difficulty category.The linguistic listening difficulties were reduced forms (90%), vocabulary (80.8%), colloquial language (78.3%), accent (41.7%), slang (42.5%), cultural knowledge (46.7%), daily utterances (18.3%), repetitions (20%), rephrasing (37.5%), elaboration (35%), insertions (42.5%), stress (28.3%), rhythm (37.5%), and intonation (41.7%). The listening difficulties causes are divided into three categories, similarly the low phonological knowledge (79.167%) and insufficient listening vocabulary (73.3%).  In conclusion, there were listening difficulties and their causes that occurred in the eleventh grade of Mathematics and Natural Science Class of Madrasah Aliyah Negeri 1 Tapin in academic year 2019/2020.

The researcher had several suggestions. The readers and EFL students were suggested to execute listening exercise with multiple media. The teachers and lecturers were advised to support the students by conducting specified listening exercise according to the kinds of listening difficulties. The other researchers were recommended to find the other listening difficulties; linguistic and non-linguistic, to find the other causes of listening difficulties, and to modify the research subject, methodology, or instruments to discover different results.