Abstrak
The objectives of this research were to describe the level of students’ listening comprehension and the factors that caused difficulties in learning listening of the eight-grade students of SMP Negeri 6 Tarakan. This research employed a quantitative descriptive design. The subject of this research were the eight-grade students of SMP Negeri 6 Tarakan which consist of 30 students taken by using cluster random sampling technique. The data were collected using a listening test and questionnaire. A test contained 25 questions and a questionnaire contained 28 statements related to difficulties in learning listening. The findings from this research were that the level of students’ listening comprehension was very poor with mean score of 48, and the majority of students (23 out 30) found difficulties when learning English, especially learning listening. There were several factors of difficulties faced by students when learning listening. Those difficulties were related to (1) the quality of the recorder which showed that 60 % of students felt difficult; (2) the culture differences which showed that 53% felt very difficult; (3) the accents which showed that 83% of students felt students; (4) the unfamiliar words which showed that 76% of students felt difficult; (5) the length and speed which showed that 73% of students felt difficult; (6) the physical conditional with showed that 73% of students felt difficult; and (7) the lack of concentration which showed that 80% of students felt difficult. Thus, the highest factor of difficulties in learning listening by the eight-grade students of SMP Negeri 6 Tarakan was difficulty related to accents.