The teaching of English in public and private institutions in the Ecuadorian context has been the subject of research since there are substantial differences in both educational systems. Thus, the purpose of this study was to compare the main difficulties that listeners from public and private high schools face when doing listening comprehension activities due to the importance of this skill for communication. It is important to remark that the conditions in terms of teachers’ methodology are different in both types of institutions. The participants were 1536 Ecuadorian senior-high school students enrolled in 12 high schools, and 10 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers. We used a descriptive mixed-method approach, which included the application of students’ questionnaires and teachers’ interviews to know their perceptions about listening difficulties in the classroom. The data analysis method was used to evaluate the answers to the students’ questionnaires and the teachers’ interviews. Findings indicate that students in public high schools face more difficulties regarding listening comprehension activities, especially while trying to understand main ideas, predicting content, comprehending general ideas when listening for the first time, feeling anxious when they do not understand a passage, and using background knowledge of a topic to understand listening activities.