Despite consistent calls for authentic stimuli in listening tests for better construct representation, unscripted texts have been rarely adopted in high-stakes listening tests due to perceived ...inefficiency. This study details how a local academic listening test was developed using authentic unscripted audio-visual texts from the local target language use (TLU) domain without compromising the reliability of the test results and validity of the score interpretations. The purpose of the listening test was to identify international students who need additional language support at a U.S. university. We show that efficiency persists when using authentic unscripted texts that are representative of the local context both at the test development phase and at the classification phase where placement decisions are made in a dependable manner. Expert judgments highlighted the improved correspondence of the listening test using locally sourced audio-visual texts to the local TLU domain, providing additional support for using the listening test for local placement purposes. Additionally, dimensionality assessments demonstrated that test design decisions inevitably entailed with using authentic unscripted texts did not threaten the internal structure of the test. We argue that local resources are indispensable in developing authentic test stimuli and in supporting the validity of local test interpretation and use.
This study aims to investigate different types of English listening instruction, listening self-efficacy, and listening strategy use, particularly the mediating role of self-efficacy between ...listening instruction and strategy use. We first examined the types of L2 instruction being employed in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) listening classrooms and then we looked into the relationships between L2 listening instruction, listening self-efficacy, and listening strategy use. The results of exploratory factor analysis demonstrated four types of English listening instruction: process-based instruction, comprehension-based instruction, self-regulation-based instruction, and strategy-based instruction. The results of structural equation modeling showed that listening self-efficacy mediated the relationship between strategy-based instruction and listening strategy use, and self-regulation-based instruction and listening strategy use. This study has implications for understanding the effectiveness of different listening teaching practices in enhancing self-efficacy and strategy use.
Dual vocabulary approach via both explicit (focus on form) and incidental learning of new words has been shown to be more beneficial for new vocabulary learning than incidental learning only. Most ...previous studies implemented focus on form (henceforth FonF) after incidental learning. However, the present study introduced incidental learning and FonF simultaneously. The motivation for the present study came from the Interaction hypothesis and arguments put forward by Long (1996; 2015) and Doughty (2001), who claim that brief shifts of learners' attention to form (explicit learning) during a meaning-focused activity (incidental learning) is of paramount importance to help learners make the form-meaning connection. In other words, incidental learning and explicit learning need to be simultaneous. The present study examined the impact of different timing of dual explicit (FonF) exposure to 20 new words and incidental learning via listening to a podcast containing these words. The study contrasted three possible timings: when listening is preceded by explicit exposure to new words (FonF+Listening), when listening is followed by explicit exposure (Listening+FonF) and when explicit exposure is simultaneous with listening to the podcast (FonF while listening). These conditions were additionally compared to an explicit-only condition. One hundred and thirteen Algerian adult EFL students were assigned to one of the following experimental groups: FonF+Listening, Listening+FonF, FonF while listening and a comparison group (explicit-only). Participants in each group completed a vocabulary pre-test, and after a one-week interval, each group received one treatment session. Participants within the experimental groups completed a listening comprehension task to test whether they were focused on meaning while listening to the podcast, and were exposed, in a different order, to a list of the 20 new words along with their L1 translation on-screen. Participants within the comparison group were only exposed to the list of the new words on-screen. Based on immediate post-testing, the FonF while listening group showed a higher form recognition ability than the remaining two groups, while there was no significant difference in meaning recall between the three experimental groups. Lexical performance in the three incidental and explicit groups was not better than that in the explicit-only group, suggesting that a dual vocabulary approach can be as effective as a single approach. Finally, the present study showed a clear advantage for the learning of nouns over learning of verbs and adjectives.
In this thesis, I adopt an empirically driven phenomenological approach to study the perceptual experiences of contemporary headphone users, analysing data collected through interviews with an array ...of listeners to crystallize novel conceptual models. While existing headphone-listening research has attended more precisely to sociological concerns, the project of the thesis is to engage in greater depth with the perceptual-phenomenological realities of such practices and their philosophical, cultural, and aesthetic consequences, drawing especially from Maurice Merleau-Ponty's embodied phenomenology of perception to do so. I ask a series of research questions that probe various facets of headphone listening, all of which are constructed in the light of three relationally conceived themes: space, embodiment, and materiality. First (Chapter 2), I investigate the perceived spatial location of headphone sound in relation to the body, interrogating certain issues surrounding the phenomenology of in-head sound localization to theorize the notion of sonic floodings. Second (Chapter 3), I account for the intimacy of listening to mediated voices through headphones, examining how the body of the voice is perceived in spatial terms to conceive of the intercorporeal incorporation of virtual bodies during headphone listening. Third (Chapter 4), I move to the edges of the body, investigating how the materiality of headphone technologies can enter into a listener's awareness over time as a fleshly extension of the listening body. Fourth (Chapter 5), I query the received portrait of headphone listening as an intrinsically anti-social practice by attending to the interpenetrations of the 'interior' and 'exterior' lifeworlds of the headphone user. The result is an account of headphone listening that aims to challenge, nuance, and extend prevailing scholarly accounts, one structured as an embodied-spatial trajectory that blossoms outwards from the perceived interior of the lived body through the skin towards the wider intersubjective lifeworld.
Research has shown that person factors and strategic processing are associated with L2 listening comprehension. Few studies, however, have considered to what extent person factors and strategic ...processing account for the variance of L2 listening comprehension. This study aims to investigate the predictive power of person factors (i.e., aural vocabulary size, listening metacognitive knowledge, and listening self-efficacy) and listening strategy use (i.e., top-down strategies and bottom-up strategies) on L2 listening comprehension. Data collected from a survey among 367 Chinese EFL undergraduate students were analyzed using a partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach. The results of the study indicate that altogether 20.9% of the variance in L2 listening comprehension could be explained by person factors and strategic processing. Aural vocabulary size and listening metacognitive knowledge were significant predictors of L2 listening comprehension whereas listening self-efficacy was not. Listening strategies were not significant predictors of L2 listening comprehension. Person factors did not indirectly predict L2 listening comprehension through listening strategies, either. Implications for listening instruction are considered.
In recent years, English instruction has emphasized the importance of listening comprehension; however, playing CDs in class is still the most widely used approach to practicing English listening ...skills in Taiwan. It is obvious that this training approach cannot satisfy individual needs, thus reducing the effect of promoting English listening comprehension performance. Thus, the study proposes a novel video-annotated listening review mechanism (VALRM) with two review modes - the delayed and immediate review modes to enhance learners' listening comprehension performance. This study examines the effects of learners in the experimental group using the VALRM and those in the control group using Youtube with self-determined listening review mechanism (SDLRM) on English listening comprehension performance. Analytical results show that the learners with the VALRM support achieved significantly better listening comprehension performance than those of using the SDLRM. More importantly, the experimental results confirm that the learners in the experimental group had significantly better listening comprehension abilities even though removing the VALRM support than those of the control group removing the SDLRM support. Additionally, the interview results show most of the interviewees agreed that using the VALRM is more effective in promoting English listening learning performance than using the SDLRM because they could find out the unclear parts and replay them easily and efficiently. The main contribution of this study is to present an effective computer-assisted English listening learning tool based on the two review modes provided by the proposed VALRM in an autonomous learning environment.
•Successful prior knowledge-sensory input integration facilitates L2 acquisition.•Fast-rate listening with pre-listening transcript reading improves L2 listening.•Left AG/ STG activity relates to ...integration of prior knowledge and sensory input.•Left AG/ STG activity related to predictive coding predicts L2 learning success.•Compensating for challenging input with prior knowledge leads to effective learning.
This study explores neural mechanisms underlying how prior knowledge gained from pre-listening transcript reading helps comprehend fast-rate speech in a second language (L2) and applies to L2 learning. Top-down predictive processing by prior knowledge may play an important role in L2 speech comprehension and improving listening skill. By manipulating the pre-listening transcript effect (pre-listening transcript reading TR vs. no transcript reading NTR) and type of languages (first language (L1) vs. L2), we measured brain activity in L2 learners, who performed fast-rate listening comprehension tasks during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Thereafter, we examined whether TR_L2-specific brain activity can predict individual learning success after an intensive listening training. The left angular and superior temporal gyri were key areas responsible for integrating prior knowledge to sensory input. Activity in these areas correlated significantly with gain scores on subsequent training, indicating that brain activity related to prior knowledge-sensory input integration predicts future learning success.
Emotion in second language acquisition (SLA) has recently received greater attention because it is largely implicated in daily conversations, which may affect second or foreign language (L2) use ...including listening comprehension. Most research into emotion and L2 listening comprehension is focused exclusively on anxiety, with an attempt to reduce its negative effects on individuals’ listening performance. With the arrival of positive psychology in SLA, researchers began to take a holistic view of a wider range of emotions including enjoyment that language learners experience during their L2 communication. The current study explored the relationships among listening anxiety, enjoyment, listening comprehension performance, and listening metacognitive awareness among a group of 410 international students in a Canadian university. Correlational analyses showed that listening anxiety was negatively correlated with enjoyment. However, these two variables shared only 18% of their variance, indicating that listening anxiety and enjoyment are related but independent emotions. This study suggests that anxiety and enjoyment in L2 listening are not the opposite ends of the same emotional continuum, but each serves a different purpose. L2 learners should work to find intriguing and enjoyable experiences in language learning, rather than focusing merely on reducing anxiety.
The objective of the research was to find out whether or not the use of Dictogloss technique can improve students’ listening ability. Besides, it was to find out the activeness learning of short ...conversation or narrative text is implemented in listening ability. The method of this research was Classroom Action Research by using Kurt Lewin’s model. The researcher used 2 cycles. Subject of the research in the third semester English Department of Muhammadiyah University of Bone. The instruments of the research were observing, questionnaire, and English test which was divided into three parts, they were diagnostis test, cycle test 1 and cycle test 2. This research revealed that there were 37,95% improvements of the student’ mean score from D-test to cycle test 1 in the first cycle and 61,22% improvements of the students’ mean score from the cycle test 1 in first cycle to the cycle test 2 in the second cycle. The observation result showed that the method could also increase the student team work through discussion in group, add their new vocabularies, increase their pronunciation and student’ involvement, it could be concluded that Dictogloss technique could improve the students ability in listening at the third semester English Department students of Muhammadiyah University of Bone and this Classroom Action Research was success because it had gained the target.
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