Arab Educational Information Network

The paper analyzes listening comprehension of English language skills for the first grade students at the Department of English Language Arts / Al-Yarmouk University College at Baquba city - Diyala - Iraq. The paper is attempted to answer the following questions: 1) what are the factors that determine students' interest in learning English? 2) How frequently listening educational instruments are used to improve the listening skills for student? 3) What are the common difficulties that face the respondents in the questionnaire implemented in this paper in terms of listening comprehension? Thus, the paper aims to find the factors influencing English listening comprehension and the strategies to be taken to improve students’ listening comprehension. The study used questionnaire for the collection of quick, valid, and update data from the respondents and it found the following : 1) accent, colloquial expression, pronunciation, lack of time, speech speed, and limited knowledge of vocabulary and structures of sentences were the problems which always existed during the process of listening exercises, while others not . 2) Approximately 50% of respondents do not want to learn English because it is difficult. 3) Students rarely used learning aids such as TV, radio, internet, tape recorder, and traveling to improving their listening skills. (Published abstract)