A diagnosis of listening comprehension difficulties using an IELTS listening test sample : the case of master students at the university of Bejaia

الملخص EN

The present study attempts to diagnose EFL students' listening difficulties.

To achieve this aim, an IELTS listening test sample was administered to seventy-one MA students specialized in Didactics of Foreign Languages and Linguistics at the Department of English, the University of Bejaia.

This paper relied exclusively on the analysis of the obtained results from the IELTS listening test.

The study revealed that most test takers have a variety of listening problems.

These problems are mainly related to two factors; the text and the listener.

The major problem associated with the factor of "text" is the inability to detect meaning expressed in different grammatical forms and sentence types.

This was due to limited vocabulary and grammatical knowledge.

The main listening difficulty related to "the listener" factor is the inability to listen for specific information and detailed information, which requires the listener to find out key words.

Actually, understanding EFL students' listening difficulties can help teachers to choose more effective learning strategies that can help develop students' listening skills.