5

Chapter 2
Literature Review

A study of English Listening Skills from Movies and Cartoon according to CEFR
Standard and English Listening Strategies of Junior English Major Students, Faculty of Liberal
Arts and Science, Kasetsart University, Kamphaeng Saen Campus. The researchers have
researched related theories, concepts, and research to use as a basis as following:

2.1 Related Theories and Concepts

2.1.1 Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR)
2.1.2 Definition of Listening Skill
2.1.3 English Listening Strategies
2.1.4 The Problems of English Listening
2.1.5 Classification of English Movies and Cartoons according to CEFR levels
2.2 Related research

2.1 Related Theories and Concepts

2.1.1 Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR)

The CEFR stands for the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
​(Council of Europe, 2022) which is a system used to measure a person's ability to speak and
understand English and a global standard. There are six levels of CEFR which are widely
accepted in Europe: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2. Each level has details as follows:

[Link] Beginner level (A1-A2)

CEFR Level A1-A2 is the beginning level. This means that a person knows just a few
words and phrases in English, and can only use these to communicate very basic information.
Learners are able to understand and use common expressions and basic phrases.
In terms of listening, they can understand very simple, everyday phrases and the highest
frequency vocabulary if they are spoken slowly and clearly. They can follow simple directions
and requests.
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[Link] Independent level (B1-B2)

Level B1-B2 is the next level up from Level A1-A2. They can communicate in English
without much difficulty to quite fluently in English and naturally, even on more abstract subjects.
They can have longer conversations and write texts on different topics, and can use different
kinds of sentence structures and vocabulary.
In terms of listening, they can follow a wide range of different types of conversations and
lectures. They can also follow more complicated talks.

[Link] Proficient level (C1-C2)

Level C1-C2 is the next level up from B1-B2. They can write clear, well-structured to
effectively organized texts, and they can communicate thoughts clearly and precisely. They can
also understand lengthy and complicated texts. They truly get what they read or hear. In addition,
they can express themselves almost effortlessly in English. They can also read between the lines
and communicate shades of meaning. In academic or professional settings, they can follow
complex discussions and contribute to them effectively.
In terms of listening, they can follow lengthy and complicated conversations and almost
any type of lecture. They can pick up on subtleties and nuances and understand different accents.
They can understand extended speech, even when it is not clearly structured and when delivered
quickly. They fully understand television programs and movies. They can also understand the
ideas and details of complex audio recordings on both concrete and abstract topics.

2.1.2 Definition of Listening Skill

Morley and Rost (2001), listening is a basic ability that is important to communicate in
daily life, and it is the ability to understand native speech and develop to understand the other
languages.
According to Wills (2006), listening is one of the most important components in all five
English competences, which is why listening deserves particular attention. The process of
listening involves understanding a speaker's accent, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and
comprehension of meaning. Dunkel (1986) suggests that developing proficiency in listening skill
is the key to achieving proficiency in speaking.
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Harmer (2001), agrees that listening is special because listening comprehension is a

process of receiving, processing, and interacting with the relevant knowledge which our mind
has to complete instantly. The definition of listening includes "active listening.” It is a skill in a
sense that it's a related but distinct process than hearing which involves merely perceiving sound
in a passive way while listening occupies an active and immediate analysis of the streams of
sounds. What 'listening' really means is 'listening and understanding what we hear at the same
time'. So, two concurrent actions are demanded to take place in this process. According to
Kijpoonphol (2008), the topic being spoken, the rate of delivery, redundancy, and prosodic
features are all factors that impact listening skill. Students do not have an innate understanding of
what effective listeners do; therefore, it is the responsibility of teachers to share that knowledge
with them and the most valuable way to teach listening skills is for teachers to create an
environment which encourages listening, for instance, using fun media to catch learners’
attention and develop their listening skill (Gilakjani & Ahmadi, 2011).
Listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying. This involves
understanding a speaker's accent or pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and grasping the
meaning (Howatt & Dakin, 1974).
Hamouda (2013), EFL learners have crucial problems in listening comprehension
because schools, and universities pay attention to grammar, reading, and vocabulary. Listening
and speaking skills are not significant parts of many books and teachers do not consider these
skills in their classes.
Therefore, using various English listening strategies can help the listeners to better
understand the speakers and improve their English listening skill.

2.1.3 English Listening Strategies

National Capital Language Resource Center (2004), stated that listening is an activity that
helps language learners receive auditory input. It is the foundation of language learning and
helps learners communicate with others verbally. In learning a language, learners should be
developed to be able to handle listening behavior in various situations, dealing with input that
comes in a variety of formats. Including being able to manage the purpose of listening, these
things will help learners develop listening strategies along with the ability to choose listening
strategies that are appropriate to each situation. Listening strategies are techniques that help to
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understand and focus on direct listening inputs. English listening strategies can be divided into
two main parts as follows:

1) Top-down strategies
Top-down strategies in listening refer to cognitive processes and techniques that involve using
prior knowledge, context, and expectations to comprehend spoken language. These strategies
start with a general understanding of the topic or situation before listening to the specific content.
Top-down listening strategies include:

1.1) Listening for the Main Idea

Listening for the Main Idea is the act of focusing on the primary or central message that a
speaker is conveying during a conversation. It means tuning into the overarching theme or point
and identifying what the core of the message is, rather than getting bogged down by all the
details.

1.2) Predicting
Prediction is essentially a strategy of using reasoning and making assumptions about how
a story will unfold. The listeners first browse the topics and clues related to the listening
materials, and then use the original knowledge to process the newly acquired information, and
finally get the knowledge related to the listening materials and predicting from the context.

1.3) Drawing Inferences

Drawing inferences is the process of deriving conclusions or judgments based on the
information provided, even if those conclusions aren’t explicitly stated. The listener can use
acoustic, vocal, lexical or contextual information relevant to the listening material to guess the
meaning of the message or to compensate for missing information.

1.4) Summarizing
Summarizing involves distilling the primary ideas, arguments, or points of a piece of
content into a shorter, and concise form. It means capturing the essence of what has been said,
usually without including every specific detail.
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2) Bottom-up strategies
Bottom-up strategies in listening refer to cognitive processes and techniques that involve
focusing on the individual elements of spoken language, such as sounds, words, and grammar, in
order to comprehend the overall message. These strategies start with analyzing the auditory
information itself and gradually build up to a complete understanding. Bottom-up listening
strategies include:

2.1) Listening for Specific Details

Listening for details is to concentrate on particular pieces of information, detail, or
distinct facts within a conversation. While the main idea provides an overarching view, listening
for specific details involves catching the finer points, examples, statistics, or other pieces of
information that support or elaborate on the main idea.

2.2) Recognizing cognates

Recognizing cognates refers to identifying words based on their shared root, suffix, or
prefix, and have similar meanings. They will differ only slightly in spelling and pronunciation
depending on the language of the speakers.

2.3) Recognizing word-order patterns

Recognizing word-order patterns involves understanding the typical arrangement of
words in a sentence or phrase in a particular language. Different languages have distinct word
orders, such as subject-verb-object in English, and recognizing these patterns is crucial for
understanding and producing coherent sentences in a given language.

2.1.4 The Problems of English Listening

According to Yagang (1993), the problems of English listening skill come from four
sources: the message, the listeners, the speakers, and the physical environment.
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[Link] Problems caused by the message

The message had difficult vocabulary, technical terms, linking words, difficult
grammatical structures, slang and idiomatic expressions, a lack of transitional words, and
incorrect collocations. In many cases, listeners cannot guess what speakers are going to say, such
as in daily life conversations, an interviewer's questions, and news reports on the radio. The
recordings on tape or messages on the radio cannot be slowed down. Furthermore, it is
impossible to ask the speaker to repeat something, as in a conversation.

[Link] Problems caused by the listeners

The listeners had poor grammar knowledge, poor vocabulary knowledge, a lack of
pronunciation knowledge, a lack of listening skills practice, a lack of self-confidence, and a lack
of background knowledge. Many listeners panic and lose their concentration when they hear an
unfamiliar segment. Consequently, they miss portions of the passage that might have helped
clarify the unfamiliar word or segment.

[Link] Problems caused by the speakers

The speakers had various accents, speaking too fast, monotone, unclear pronunciation,
reduced forms, the speakers not using sufficient redundancy, and the pitch and intonation. The
listeners will be in trouble when the speakers use natural speech full of intonations, pauses and
hesitations.

[Link] Problems caused by the physical environment

The physical environment problems such as noise, poor loudspeaker, poor audio and
video, and poor room. The noise surroundings interfered with the listeners' ability to listen well.
Pawongpon (2012) showed that noise interfered with good listening. Wood (2002) describes this
as one of the external obstacles. It is an uncontrollable factor that can happen anywhere.
Moreover, poor classroom conditions and the lack of visual clues (pictures, diagrams, charts,
video, etc.) that help listeners to understand spoken texts and poor quality equipment also have
an impact on listening comprehension problems.
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According to The Thaiger website (2019) provided that there are six reasons Thailand’s
English proficiency skills are the lowest in Southeast Asia such as Thailand’s education is a rote
system, critical thinking skills are not taught, Thai education concentrates on grammar, Thai
teachers are poorly trained, Native English teachers are unqualified, and The Thai Ministry of
Education. All of these things affect Thai students. students are likely to just copy what the
teacher writes on the board and memorize it. When learning English, grammar and vocabulary is
written on the board. Students copy and memorize. There’s no discussion, no questioning the
teacher and no thinking for themselves.

According to Kanatip Soonthornrak also known as Loukgolf (2021), a well-known

English teacher in Thailand. He said in a Southeast Asia globe’s interview on the topic of
“What’s causing Thailand’s poor English language proficiency?” that “People make fun of others
all the time. When we hear something strange, something we don’t understand, we might try to
have fun with it. That makes Thai students have a fear of being mocked by peers and prevents
themselves from practicing their English listening and speaking skills. Furthermore, Kunthida
Rungruengkiat (2021), a member of Thailand’s progressive Move Forward Party and a well
known education reform advocate, continued that Thailand’s low English proficiency is partly a
result of the way in which Thai schools implement the country’s main national examinations, the
multiple-choice Ordinary National Educational Test (O-NET). She said that the test should
measure thinking skills or other skills except memorisation – the whole exam has to be reformed.
Kunthida also highlighted teachers and assessors not being properly trained when changes are
made in school textbooks and curriculum – like the spelling of certain words, reading
comprehension questions, and transitioning to written exams from multiple choice.

Subsequently, all of the researchers stated above are the problems of Thai’s listening
proficiency. Therefore, listening to English from movies and cartoons can be one of the valuable
ways to develop learners' English listening skills because they activate learners’ enthusiasm for
listening. Moreover, using a variety of listening strategies is a useful concept to help in solving
the listening skills problems.
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2.1.5 Classification of English Movies and Cartoons according to CEFR levels

Due to the English listening problems mentioned above, various English teaching
institutes, in Thailand such as Angkriz, the famous English Academy by Kanatip (LoukGolf)
Soonthornrak and his sister, Saranee (Yui) Soonthornrak, Globish Academia, an Online English
Learning Institute, and in foreign country such as FluentU, a well-known languages learning
academy, and EF Education First, an international organization specializing in language training,
have suggested that improving English listening skills is important for individuals to practice
more easily listening skills from media sources such as: movies, cartoons, YouTube, etc. They
should start from the beginner level to the proficient level. These media allowed students to gain
knowledge, amusement, and attention in English listening. Thus, they classified English movies
and cartoons according to CEFR level are presented as follows:

[Link] Classification by LoukGolf’s Netflix English Room (2021)

1) Beginner level (A1-A2)
1.1) Over the moon
1.2) We bare bears
1.3) Minions
1.4) Wish dragon
1.5) The worst witch

2) Independent level (B1-B2)

2.1) Friends
2.2) Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events
2.3) Stranger Things
2.4) Beauty and the Beast (2017)
2.5) The Queen’s Gambit
3) Proficient level (C1-C2)
3.1) House of cards
3.2) Sherlock
3.3) The Crown
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3.4) Peaky Blinders

3.5) The Danish Girl

[Link] Classification by Netflix (2020)

1) Beginner level (A1-A2)
1.1) Next Gen

2) Independent level (B1-B2)

2.1) Riverdale

3) Proficient level (C1-C2)

3.1) Sherlock

[Link] Classification by Globish Academia (2020)

1) Beginner level (A1-A2)
1.1) We bare bears

2) Independent level (B1-B2)

2.1) Stranger Things

3) Proficient level (C1-C2)

3.1) Sherlock

[Link] Classification by FluentU (2023)

1) Beginner level (A1-A2)
1.1) Toy Story
1.2) Finding Nemo
1.3) Cast Away
1.4) (500) Days of Summer
1.5) Despicable Me 3
1.6) The Boss Baby
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1.7) The Son of Bigfoot

1.8) The LEGO Batman Movie

2) Independent level (B1-B2)

2.1) The Social Network
2.2) The Hangover (2009)
2.3) The Hunger Games
2.4) Twilight
2.5) The Break-up
2.6) Forrest Gump
2.7) Wonder
2.8) Beauty and the Beast (2017)
2.9) Titanic
2.10) Harry Potter
2.11) Pirates of the Caribbean

3) Proficient level (C1-C2)

3.1) The Terminator
3.2) Thor: Ragnarok
3.3) The Big Sick
3.4) It
3.5) Wonder Woman
3.6) Logan
3.7) Get Out
3.8) Split
3.9) Loving Vincent
3.10) Star Wars
3.11) Lord of the Rings
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เขียนแบบที่ 1:
To conclude, ‘We bear bears’ is at the Beginner level (LoukGolf, 2021 & Globish
Academia, 2020), ‘Beauty and the Beast’ is at the Independent level (LoukGolf, 2021 &
FluentU, 2023), and ‘Sherlock’ is at the Proficient level (LoukGolf, 2021 & Netflix & Globish
Academia, 2020)

เขียนแบบที่ 2:
To conclude, LoukGolf (2021) and Globish Academia (2020) stated that ‘We bear bears’
is at the Beginner level (A1-A2). LoukGolf (2021) and FluentU (2023) stated that ‘Beauty and
the Beast’ is at the Independent level (B1-B2). LoukGolf (2021), Netflix (2020), and Globish
Academia (2020) stated that ‘Sherlock’ is at the Proficient level (C1-C2).

2.2 Related research

There were previous studies that specifically examined English proficiency of Thai
learners using the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR),
development of English listening skills by using media such as movies, TV programs, YouTube,
and Podcast, and English listening strategies. Therefore, this research will focus on English
Listening Skills from Movies and Cartoon according to CEFR Standard and English Listening
Strategies.

2.2.1 CEFR Level

[Link] Thai First-Year University Students’ English Proficiency on CEFR Levels:
A Case Study of Walailak University, Thailand (2019)
Waluyo (2019) examined the English proficiency of Thai EFL learners on CEFR
levels. By using Walailak University – Test of English Proficiency (WU-TEP), a
comprehensive university standardized test framed by the Classical Test Theory (CTT)
and CEFR, measured the English proficiency of 2248 Thai EFL learners (74% female
and 26% male). The results of the analyses revealed that 77.3% of the students were at
the levels of basic users (A1 and A2) in CEFR. Such levels are equal to the abilities of
primary and junior high school students in the Thai education system.
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2.2.2 Development of English listening skills by using media

[Link] Developing English Listening Skill by Using TV Program for
Mattayomsuksa III Students (2018)
Kannika, M. and Chano, J (2018) studied the effectiveness of learning activities
and developing English listening skills through television programs following the
effective criteria of 70/70, and the index of development of learning in English listening
activities by using television programs with a concentration on Mathayomsuksa 3
students, and they investigated students' opinions on English listening skills via
television programs. The sample of this research consisted of 28 Mathayomsuksa 3
students who are studying in the first semester of the academic year 2016 at
Fadadsoongyangwittayakarn School. All participants were selected by Cluster Random
Sampling. The tools used in the study included a lesson plan which used 8 television
programs for English listening comprehension and the 30 questions listening skills test
that had the difficulty (p) from 0.34 – 0.67. The discrimination (B) was 0.33 – 0.72. The
reliability of the questions was 0.81. The measurement of students' opinions on learning
through television programs was discriminative ranged from 0.33 – 0.79, and the
reliability was 0.86. The statistics used in the study included the mean, standard deviation
and test statistics t-test (Dependent Sample).

[Link] DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH LISTENING COMPREHENSION

ACHIEVEMENT USING PODCAST FOR GRADE-10 STUDENTS AT CHIANG DAO
WITTAYAKOM SCHOOL, CHIANG MAI (2022)
Jantee (2022) investigated 32 Grade-10 students’ English listening comprehension
achievement using Podcast, and study students’ satisfaction towards instructions of
English listening comprehension using Podcast at Chiang Dao Wittayakhom School in
Chiang Mai. The research instruments included Podcasts, lesson plans, English listening
comprehension achievement test, and satisfaction questionnaires. The data were analyzed
by mean, standard deviation and t-test for dependent samples. Jantee found that the
students' English listening comprehension achievement after using Podcast was
significantly higher than before at .05 level, and the students' satisfaction towards English
listening comprehension instruction was at a high level. ( x̅ =4.32, S.D. = 0.81)
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[Link] THE USE OF YOUTUBE ENGLISH EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS IN

IMPROVING LISTENING COMPREHENSION (2023)
Sembiring and Katemba (2023) used YouTube's educational English videos to
enhance students’ listening skills. They used a Google Form online as the survey
methodology for this quantitative research. The target population for the research was
senior high school students taking English classes. Due to the application's beneficial
effects on the student's hearing, the data analysis showed that the student can enhance
their listening comprehension with YouTube's educational English videos. The results of
this research suggested that watching English instruction videos on YouTube can improve
students' listening comprehension. The results were supported by every student, who
agreed that using YouTube to improve their listening comprehension could be helpful.

[Link] English Major Students’ Perceptions Towards Watching English Movies

In Listening And Speaking Skills Development (2018)
Liando, Sahetapy, and Maru (2018) investigated 67 English major students at one
university in North Sulawesi’ perceptions towards watching English movies to develop
listening skill and speaking skill. The instrument used in the data collection was a
questionnaire that consists of three parts for finding out the background of the
respondents, English movie watching perceptions, and level agreement towards English
movies. The findings indicated that English major students are aware that they can
improve their listening skill by watching English movies. English major students believe
that English movies are more effective than other media as teaching tools and they
believe that they can improve their speaking and listening skills by watching English
movies. Students think watching English movies has a more direct influence on listening
skill compared to speaking skill.

2.2.3 กลวิธีการฟัง
[Link] ABILITY IN ENGLISH LISTENING COMPREHENSION AMONG
THAI EFL STUDENTS AT THE INSTITUTES OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN THE
CENTRAL REGION OF THAILAND (2017)
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Rakyoo and Rattanawanitpun (2017) investigated the ability in English listening

comprehension of students in the Institute of Physical Education in the central region of
Thailand comparing with the Ministry of Education [MOE] criteria, and comparing the
ability in English listening comprehension among students studying in different campuses
and different faculties. Of 952 fourth-year undergraduate students studying in academic
year 2015, 274 students from 3 faculties were simply randomized by means of
proportional stratified random sampling technique to take a 40-item English listening
comprehension test constructed by the researcher. The test aimed at evaluating students’
English listening comprehension skills including identifying the main idea and specific
details, drawing inferences, predicting, and summarizing. The statistical packages were
administered in order to test the research hypotheses in forms of One Sample t-test
comparing with the MOE criteria and the test of One-way Analysis of Variance. They
found that the ability in English listening comprehension of students in the Institute of
Physical Education in the central region of Thailand did not meet the criteria set by the
Ministry of Education with the mean score of 15.27. The lowest average score was shown
on drawing inferences skill.