Does listening comprehension improve as a result of a short study abroad experience?

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Àngels Llanes ◽  
Goretti Prieto Botana
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Costa Rica ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Oral Fluency ◽  
Learning Contexts ◽  
To Receive

The need to function in multilingual environments and the fact that study abroad (SA) is believed to be one of the most efficient language learning contexts (Collentine, 2009) have boosted the popularity of SA programs. While numerous recent studies have examined the SA impact on oral fluency, vocabulary or writing, among others, certain areas, such as listening skills (Llanes, 2011), have yet to receive substantial attention. In an attempt to address this issue, a pretest-posttest design study was conducted to gauge the listening skills of 12 college students at the beginning and the end of a 5-week SA experience in Costa Rica. Results from non-parametric tests revealed that despite the brief duration of the program, participants’ overall listening comprehension improved significantly. Individual analysis revealed that significant gains emerged in exit tasks in which the topic of conversation was kept consistent, suggesting that contextualization plays a crucial role in input comprehension.

scholarly journals UTILIZING YOUTUBE TO DEVELOP NURSING STUDENTS’ AUTONOMOUS LEARNING AND LISTENING COMPREHENSION: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Michael Recard ◽  
Sandra Sembel ◽  
Shinta Hasibuan
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Nursing Students ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
English Language ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Autonomous Learning ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Comprehension Skills

<p>Industrial Revolution (IR) 4.0. is about dealing with digital-native students  and developing autonomous learning. One possible strategy to deal with these issues is using YouTube as a tool for English language learning. There have been some studies discussing the effectiveness of using it, yet we still have niches; for instance, deeper and wider contexts and respondents. Thus, this study aims to examine students’ autonomy over their learning and whether YouTube can develop the listening comprehension skills of nursing students in a Faculty of Nursing in Tangerang. To achieve the first aim, quantitative and qualitative studies were conducted, while for the second aim, an experimental study was used. The experimental study involved an experimental group consisting of 16 students and a control group consisting of 16 students. The result shows that the participants consider YouTube as a useful support to develop their autonomy in learning English and YouTube video has been successful to develop their listening skills.</p>

scholarly journals Incorporating Culture into Listening Comprehension Through Presentation of Movies

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Kusumarasdyati Kusumarasdyati
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Written Form ◽  
Instructional Aid ◽  
Target Culture

The use of movie videos as an instructional aid in the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL) should be encouraged due to various pedagogical benefits. This article attempts to suggest a technique of utilizing movies in English listening classes in order to improve the aural perception skills of the learners. It comprises three stages:previewing, viewing, and postviewing. In the previewing stage, learners read a bried description of the theme of the movies to activate their prior knowledge, guess the meaning of certain keywords presented in sentential contexts, or familiarize-either with or without any subtitles-and while doing so they are supposed to answer several questions in written form. Finally, the learners are enganged into a postviewing activity in the form of contrasting cultures reflected in the movies. This technique of teaching listening has proved to be effective in developing listening skills in a foreign language and sentizing them to the target culture, which is an inseparable aspect of language learning.

scholarly journals EXTENSIVE LISTENING AND VIEWING IN ELT

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 237
Author(s):  
Francisca M. Ivone ◽  
Willy A. Renandya
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Extensive Reading ◽  
Learning Contexts

Inspired by the success and informed by the principles of the Extensive Reading (ER) approach, Extensive Listening (EL) and Viewing have started to gain the attention of both L2 researchers and practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to examine the theoretical and research base of EL and the extent to which it is similar to or different from ER, discuss its language learning benefits for L2 students in different learning contexts, and explore different ways EL can be productively implemented in the classroom. Practical suggestions on how to source for freely available EL materials on the Internet and how these can be pedagogically used to enhance language proficiency are also offered. We believe that EL, when systematically implemented, can not only enhance students’ listening skills but also have a positive influence on the students’ overall language development.

scholarly journals TEACHING LISTENING COMPREHENSION AT A NON-LINGUISTIC UNIVERSITY: FACILITATION THROUGH INTERNALIZATION OF CONNECTED ENGLISH SPEECH FEATURES

2018 ◽  
pp. 183-189
Author(s):  
I. N. Kosheleva
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Phonological Features

Listening is not only one of the most important language skills, which is necessary for everyday communication, but an integral part  of foreign language learning. It is evident that the students need an  effective training in building auditory skills. However, proper  attention is seldom paid to the process of listening to the English  speech, altering phoneme recognition in the stream of speech, which  often causes difficulties in audio-comprehension. The subject  of this research is facilitation of teaching listening comprehension to  the students of non-linguistic universities. The purpose of the article is to identify the core phonological features of coherent  English speech and provide the examples of activities aimed at their  recognition. The methodological framework of the conducted  research is represented by bottom-up approach to teaching listening  and the tenet that speech perception and comprehension by ear is a  process. Therefore, the ability to correctly decode phonemes, words,  phrases and infer meaning plays an utmost role. In thiscontext the students’ wrong answers should be analyzed, it contributes to determining the point of misunderstanding. It is  shown that making students aware of phonological features  of  coherent English speech helps them to overcome difficulties in  audiotext perception and thus enhances teaching listening  comprehension. The results of the research can be of interest to  both foreign language teachers and to the researchers dealing with  English phonetics learning. Finally, the conclusions are drawn that a  successful development of listening skills requires a combination of  the bottom-up and top-down approaches. This enables teaching staff  to create favorable conditions for acquisition of one of the most challenging language skills.

Assessing Listening Abilities

1998 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 171-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoff Brindley
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Testing ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Comprehension Skills ◽  
Listening Ability ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Limited Coverage

Over the last two decades, research has highlighted the important role that listening plays in language acquisition (Brown and Yule 1983, Ellis, et al. 1994, Faerch and Kasper 1986, Feyten 1991, Long 1985), and listening comprehension skills have begun to receive a lot more systematic attention in language teaching classrooms. A wide range of books, articles, and materials aimed at assisting teachers to develop learners’ listening skills are now available, and a variety of comprehension-based methodologies have been proposed (see, for example, Anderson and Lynch 1988, Courchene, et al. 1992, Rost 1990; 1994, Underwood 1989). However, although many of the tasks used for teaching listening are virtually identical to those which appear in tests, assessment of listening ability has received relatively limited coverage in the language testing literature.

scholarly journals Dynamic Assessment in the EFL Classroom: The Case of Listening Comprehension

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Hamza Alshenqeeti ◽  
Grami Mohammad A. Grami
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
English Language ◽  
Dynamic Assessment ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Test Reliability ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Post Test ◽  
The University

The current study evaluates the potential of dynamic assessment (DA) in listening comprehension classes. DA is based on the sociocultural aspect of the Vygotskyan theory. It facilitates language improvement because DA assumes that mental instruments mediate psychological exercises. Although DA has been extensively analyzed, few studies have investigated its impact on listening comprehension in the language classroom. This study intends to fill the research gap in listening comprehension studies using DA as a mediation tool. The purpose of the current study therefore is to assess the effects of dynamic assessment on listening comprehension. A total of fifty-six English as a foreign language (hereinafter EFL) learners took part in the present examination. The subjects took a general placement proficiency test developed by the English Language Centre within the university to ensure participant homogeneity. The researcher recorded pre-test and post-test results of the participants and coded the values quantitatively. Data management and analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The results were statistically analyzed using one-way ANOVA to test reliability and validity. The relevance of DA in enhancing listening comprehension is clearly supported by the fact that DA students’ results outperformed their counterparts in the study. The study findings also indicated a need for language educators to utilise mediation techniques in order to enhance students’ listening skills.  Educators are advised to apply more DA approaches to mitigate student resistance to classroom instructions. These discoveries underscore the efficacy of DA and suggest its inclusion in the language-learning curriculum.

scholarly journals A Comparison of Spanish Second Language Acquisition in Two Different Learning Contexts: Study Abroad and the Domestic Classroom

2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Segalowitz ◽  
Barbara Freed ◽  
Joe Collentine ◽  
Barbara Lafford ◽  
Nicole Lazar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
The United States ◽  
Oral Fluency ◽  
Context Of Learning ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Study Abroad Program

In this paper, we report the results of a study that compared differences in the linguistic gains made by native English-speaking students from the United States who were studying Spanish in one of two different contexts of learning. One was a regular university classroom situation in Colorado; the other was a study abroad program in Alicante, Spain. We examined the gains students made on a number of linguistic dimensions: oral proficiency, oral fluency, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and communication strategies. In addition, we investigated the relationships between these variables and a variety of background factors, including aspects of language learning readiness. As far as we know, this is the first study to examine such a comprehensive array of variables associated with linguistic performance as a function of context of learning. Each of the individual studies that contributed to the full report of this project can be found in a special issue of the journal Studies in Second Language Acquisition edited by Collentine and Freed (2004). When those studies are looked at as a whole, they lead to general interpretations that were not immediately apparent when considering each of the reports separately. In this paper, we review these results, discuss the larger picture that emerges, and speculate on future questions about the effects of the study abroad experience on second language acquisition (see also Freed, Segalowitz & Dewey, 2004, for a related study).

scholarly journals The Impact of Cultural Background on Listening Comprehension of Saudi EFL Students

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Hamad Al-khresheh
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Saudi Students ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Listening Process ◽  
The Impact

One of the most critical areas where considerable attention is required in teaching a foreign language involves listening skills. Listening plays an essential role in both communication and learning, and it is one of the most crucial necessary language skills in the field of language learning. Recent studies in foreign language listening have extensively focused on the prevailing difficulties of listening. There has been little research on the cultural- background as a sociolinguistic dimension of listening. Therefore, this study set out to determine whether Saudi EFL students face particular difficulty in their listening comprehension, to identify possible reasons for the problems, and to find out whether the cultural- background affects the listening process. To achieve these objectives, a triangulation method was followed. A diagnostic test and a questionnaire were used on a group of 31 Saudi students of English and a reflective essay was carried out on eight EFL teachers. The findings suggest, first, that listening is the most challenging language skill and, second, that Saudi EFL students encounter substantial difficulty in the perception, parsing, and utilization phases of their listening comprehension for many reasons. The findings also suggest that the cultural background has a significant effect on their listening process. This study is expected to contribute markedly towards increasing the understanding of listening difficulties in language learning, and improving the teaching-learning process, by recommending effective remedies for addressing such challenges.

scholarly journals The students' perception on the use of computer assisted language learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 174-186
Author(s):  
Kartika Marta Budiana ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Computer Assisted Language Learning ◽  
English Learning ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Foreign Language Acquisition ◽  
Positive Impression

While listening comprehension is the heart of language, but it is the least understood and researched skill. This is the reason why particular attention must be given to listening comprehension as a skill required in foreign language acquisition and especially in part played by listening skills. This study aims to see the effect of computer assisted language learning (CALL) applied to students` listening performance. This study adopts a qualitative approach. Data were collected using questionnaires. The findings in this study reveals Students`-perceptions and feedback on CALL. It shows that many of the students feel easier in understanding the listening material using CALL. It also shows that many of the teachers interested using CALL but not interested with the LMS provided. It can be concluded that most of the students have a positive impression about the use of CALL in English learning, especially for Listening.

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