Research with ESL students studying at North American universities has indicated that Chinese students have difficulties in understanding academic lectures, taking notes, writing assignments, and giving presentations although they have obtained high TOEFL scores. The study investigates their English academic listening challenges as reported by seventy-eight Chinese students at an American university. This paper focuses on Chinese students' reported confidence in their English abilities for academic listening. Their self-ratings show that reading ability and grammar are the strongest areas, and listening and speaking are the weakest areas. Ninety-two percent of the participants reported having difficulties in understanding English academic lectures. Arts students who had been studying at this American university for less than one year reported that they could only understand sixty to seventy percent of the lectures in their majors. (Contains 4 tables.)