L2 proficiency as predictor of aptitude for interpreting

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Jesus Blasco Mayor
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
L2 Reading ◽  
Base Level ◽  
Initial Assumption ◽  
L2 Listening ◽  
Consecutive Interpreting

This study reports findings from an experiment that was conducted to investigate language proficiency as an indicator of future interpreting performance. The initial assumption was that Spanish undergraduate translation and interpreting students had an insufficient command of L2 skills to start interpreter training. We hypothesized that an intensive teaching module on L2 phonology and listening comprehension would improve their academic performance in interpreting. Several tests were used to evaluate participant L2 listening comprehension (TOEFL), L2 reading comprehension (TOEFL), L2 grammar (TOEFL), and L1 verbal fluency (WAIS-III). Only those related to L2 are reported here. A consecutive interpreting test was given at the end of the first interpretation module. The students’ self-perception regarding L2 issues was assessed using two questionnaires and an interview. The results suggest that L2 listening comprehension training aided in consecutive interpreting performance. Language proficiency was also found to correlate with interpreting scores. A base level of L2 proficiency for interpreting training is suggested. We conclude that L2 listening comprehension proficiency has a significant effect on undergraduate students’ interpreting ability and is therefore a suitable predictor for interpreting aptitude. Consequently, L2 listening skills should be included in the interpreting program curriculum, preferably before interpretation classes start.

Contribution of English aural vocabulary size levels to L2 listening comprehension

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guohui Du ◽  
Zuwati Hasim ◽  
Fong Peng Chew
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Predictive Capacity ◽  
Frequency Level ◽  
L2 Listening

Abstract This study investigated the relationship between English aural vocabulary size and L2 listening comprehension among 288 Chinese tertiary EFL learners who had mastered the first 1,000-word frequency level and were at the intermediate level of language proficiency. The Listening Vocabulary Levels Test and College English Test Band 4 were employed to measure participants’ aural vocabulary size and L2 listening comprehension proficiency, respectively. Aural vocabulary size was found to be moderately correlated with L2 listening comprehension proficiency (r = 0.38, p < 0.01). A step-wise regression analysis showed that the second 1,000-word frequency level could explain 12% of the variance in L2 listening comprehension proficiency, and academic words could add an additional 4% predictive capacity to the regression model. A hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the most frequent 2,000-word families and academic words could predict 14.5% of the change in L2 listening comprehension proficiency for the relatively low L2 proficiency group. However, aural vocabulary size had little impact on L2 listening comprehension proficiency for the relatively high L2 proficiency group. Findings suggest that high-frequency and academic words significantly contribute to the prediction of L2 listening comprehension proficiency, but the predictive power of aural vocabulary size decreases with increased language proficiency.

Listening strategies used by adult learners of Japanese to comprehend satellite television programs

1998 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 139-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyoko Seo ◽  
Marilyn McMeniman
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Text Comprehension ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Important Variable ◽  
Comprehension Strategies ◽  
Television Programs ◽  
Media Technology ◽  
Satellite Television ◽  
L2 Listening ◽  
Listening Strategies

Abstract This paper identifies listening comprehension strategies from the perspective of cognitive psychology, with a focus on the experience of Australian learners of Japanese as a foreign language (L2). In this study, a listening strategy is conceptualised as a mental operation undertaken by a learner to solve a listening comprehension problem in a non-interactional situation. Reading researchers in L2 identified one of the variables which affects text comprehension as formal schema or discourse organisation of text (Meyer and Freedle, 1984; Carrell and Eisterhold, 1988; Carrell, 1991). However, this variable has not been the subject of intensive and extensive research in L2 listening and consequently, there is little empirical evidence which has explored this important variable. With the increased availability of media technology, satellite programs offer rich content and have the potential to provide such information. This paper investigates how news and drama texts may affect the choice of listener strategies, and discusses how the strategies selected by listeners relate to L2 learners’ language proficiency. To collect data on strategies, an introspective ‘think-aloud’ procedure is used and the results are analysed quantitatively.

Effects of working memory on L2 linguistic knowledge and L2 listening comprehension

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Miki Satori
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Processing Efficiency ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
L2 Listening ◽  
Group B ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This paper examined the relationship between working memory (WM) and L2 linguistic knowledge as well as L2 listening comprehension with 150 Japanese EFL learners. The study also investigated the extent to which these relationships vary across L2 proficiency levels. The results in the study were as follows: (a) WM capacity was more strongly associated with L2 listening comprehension, L2 perceptual processing, and L2 syntactic parsing processing in the lower-proficiency group than in the higher-proficiency group; (b) L1 WM capacity still accounted for the unique variance in L2 listening comprehension after adjusting for the L2 language-related variables in the lower-proficiency group. The results suggest that the relationship between WM capacity and L2 listening comprehension may be mediated by L2 proficiency and depend on the domain-general processing efficiency reflecting central executive attention when the listening comprehension task requires conscious attention for less proficient listeners. The findings provide suggestive evidence for variation in the role of WM in L2 listening comprehension across proficiency levels and the significant role of L1 WM capacity in L2 listening comprehension as the general cognitive factor independent of L2 linguistic knowledge for L2 learners with limited linguistic knowledge.

scholarly journals Vocabulary and listening in English among L1-Spanish learners: a longitudinal study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Martin Aioz Pinillos
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Second Language Listening ◽  
Listening Ability ◽  
L2 Listening

Second language listening causes situations of stress and negative perceptions among learners and teachers. Research has suggested that L2 listening and vocabulary knowledge are related. However, this relationship has been barely explored, and in most cases with inadequate instruments. This thesis is an attempt to bridge those gaps by examining the contribution of the language learners’ vocabulary size to their listening ability. A bilingual multiple-choice vocabulary test, based on the official vocabulary list in a standardized language exam, was created to assess the vocabulary size of L2-English learners. Its 81 items were delivered first orally, and then in writing. The ability to comprehend aural texts was assessed through the listening paper in the same standardized examination. 284 language learners took the vocabulary and listening tests. After an observation period of 35 weeks, the study participants were given the same tests. Both datasets were analyzed with the Rasch model to determine the participants’ abilities and the item difficulties. Evidence from data analyses supported the following findings: 1) A strong and positive relationship exists between L2 vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension. 2) Aural and written vocabulary knowledge are two dimensions that should be assessed and investigated separately, particularly in relation to listening comprehension. 3) Aural vocabulary knowledge is a better predictor of listening comprehension than written vocabulary knowledge, especially among language learners with comparatively weaker listening skills. 4) Knowing 71.71% of the words featured in a listening comprehension test is sufficient to answer 72% of its questions correctly. 5) Language learners increase their aural and written vocabulary size, and improve their listening ability after attending classes for about 35 weeks. This improvement is particularly acute among lower-level learners. Based on these results, L2 learners, teachers and researchers should focus more on the aural form of words to improve listening comprehension.

Retention of televised advertising in L2: An experiment with Chinese–English bilinguals

2020 ◽  
pp. 136700692094813
Author(s):  
Özlem Özdinç
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Reading Skills ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Online Video ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
L2 Reading ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
Video Sharing ◽  
Visual Inputs ◽  
L2 Listening

Aim: This paper examines bilinguals’ retention of a television (TV) advertisement in their second language (L2) to test whether L2 competence, liking for the advertisement, and involvement with the advertised product cause a change in L2 retention. Methodology: An experiment exposed 304 Chinese–English bilinguals to audio-visual advertisements that were technically (e.g. similar executions) and linguistically alike (e.g. discourse with similar ratios of ‘content words-to-grammatical lexicon’) in their native language (L1; control) and L2 (treatment). Data and analysis: Content analysis of four unstructured items operationalised L2 advertisment memory by ranking retention scores from 0 to 4. We performed t-tests (with Cohen’s d) and F-tests to compare retention across the levels of independent variables. Findings: L2 proficiency did not facilitate meaning-deduction from within context, but the length of bilinguals’ residence did, indicating that subjects linguistically adapt to their L2 environment in time. Content features (e.g. message clarity) increased liking for the L2 advertisment while execution (e.g. music) increased L2 advertisement memory. Involvement with the advertised product did not affect L2 retention. Originality: Print stimuli use has limited the utility of earlier findings from research on advertising to bilinguals for exercising one language skill (i.e. L2 reading). The use of audio-visual stimuli to exercise concurrently L2 listening and reading skills have been rare despite the increased consumption of TV advertisements through online video-sharing platforms. Implications: When designing audio-visual inputs for bilinguals, ‘what’ (i.e. content) hardly matters in relative to ‘how’ (i.e. execution) unless bilinguals orient themselves to the natural contexts of their L2 settings. Firms in bilingual markets can optimise their communicative (e.g. belief reinforcement or creating awareness) and behavioural objectives (e.g. sales) by provoking the peripheral processing of their straightforward messages using appeals (e.g. music, emotional, and animated visuals) for longer retention among their non-native-speaker targets.

scholarly journals The Impact of Consecutive Interpreting Training on the L2 Listening Competence Enhancement

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 72
Author(s):  
Tongtong Zhang ◽  
Zhiwei Wu
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Active Listening ◽  
Selective Listening ◽  
Listening Skill ◽  
Listening Ability ◽  
L2 Listening ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Consecutive Interpreting

In recent years, a growing number of people have taken up interpreting training, with the intention of not only developing interpreting skills, but improving language proficiency as well. The present study sets out to investigate the impact of English-Chinese consecutive interpreting (CI) training on the enhancement of the second language (L2, English) listening competence. An empirical study was conducted on 50 interpreting student beginners to assess the effect of two different interpreting training modes on students’ English listening ability. The study indicates that CI training can enhance students’ L2 listening competence, specifically intensive listening skill and selective listening skill, but to a varying extent. Active listening, when trained as a stand-alone rather than a built-in component in the curriculum, contributes more to improving students’ listening ability. In view of this, pedagogical implications for interpreting training and L2 listening teaching are discussed.

scholarly journals Second Language Listening Comprehension Gain From Aural vs. Audio-Visual Inputs: The Case of EFL Arab Learners

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 911-921
Author(s):  
Anwar A. H. Al-Athwary ◽  
Nada M. Lasloum
Keyword(s):  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Visual Medium ◽  
Second Language Listening ◽  
Post Test ◽  
L2 Listening ◽  
Visual Materials ◽  
L2 Vocabulary ◽  
Experimental Group

This study aims at finding out which medium is best for the acquisition of L2 listening skills, aural or audio-visual listening comprehension. Sixty EFL Arab learners were asked to sit for pre- and post-tests. The post-test proved a significant improvement in the performance of the students of the experimental group who were exposed to audio-visual medium. This outperformance of the experimental group appeared in their ability to distinguish the meanings of several words in the pre- and post-tests. They were able to identify most of the L2 vocabulary, grammar and syntax because of using the audio-visual materials. The experimental group managed to understand the linguistic information and they were also able to answer the questions in both given tests correctly. On the contrary, the performance of the control group was clearly poor in terms of the L2 vocabulary, grammar and syntax and the reason is referring to the use of the traditional material which is the aural one. The subjects of the experimental group were interested in learning listening by using audio-visual materials because it helps them to develop the listening skills faster, unlike the subjects of the control group. Therefore, the results show that multimedia is effective in enhancing the skills of listening comprehension of female Saudi EFL learners.

The relationship between vocabulary knowledge and L2 reading/listening comprehension: A meta-analysis

2020 ◽  
pp. 136216882091399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Songshan Zhang ◽  
Xian Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Text Comprehension ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
L2 Reading ◽  
Vocabulary Depth ◽  
L2 Listening ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
L2 Reading Comprehension

This study set out to investigate the relationship between L2 vocabulary knowledge (VK) and second-language (L2) reading/listening comprehension. More than 100 individual studies were included in this meta-analysis, which generated 276 effect sizes from a sample of almost 21,000 learners. The current meta-analysis had several major findings. First, the overall correlation between VK and L2 reading comprehension was .57 ( p < .01) and that between VK and L2 listening was .56 ( p < .01). If the attenuation effect due to reliability of measures was taken into consideration, the ‘true’ correlation between VK and L2 reading/listening comprehension may likely fall within the range of .56–.67, accounting for 31%–45% variance in L2 comprehension. Second, all three mastery levels of form–meaning knowledge (meaning recognition, meaning recall, form recall) had moderate to high correlations with L2 reading and L2 listening. However, meaning recall knowledge had the strongest correlation with L2 reading comprehension and form recall had the strongest correlation with L2 listening comprehension, suggesting that different mastery levels of VK may contribute differently to L2 comprehension in different modalities. Third, both word association knowledge and morphological awareness (two aspects of vocabulary depth knowledge) had significant correlations with L2 reading and L2 listening. Fourth, the modality of VK measure was found to have a significant moderating effect on the correlation between VK and L2 text comprehension: orthographical VK measures had stronger correlations with L2 reading comprehension as compared to auditory VK measures. Auditory VK measures, however, were better predictors of L2 listening comprehension. Fifth, studies with a shorter script distance between L1 and L2 yielded higher correlations between VK and L2 reading. Sixth, the number of items in vocabulary depth measures had a positive predictive power on the correlation between VK and L2 comprehension. Finally, correlations between VK and L2 reading/listening comprehension was found to be associated with two types of publication factors: year-of-publication and publication type. Implications of the findings were discussed.

Partial and synchronized captioning: A new tool to assist learners in developing second language listening skill

ReCALL ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 178-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Sadat Mirzaei ◽  
Kourosh Meshgi ◽  
Yuya Akita ◽  
Tatsuya Kawahara
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Listening Skill ◽  
Second Language Listening ◽  
L2 Listening ◽  
Word Selection

AbstractThis paper introduces a novel captioning method, partial and synchronized captioning (PSC), as a tool for developing second language (L2) listening skills. Unlike conventional full captioning, which provides the full text and allows comprehension of the material merely by reading, PSC promotes listening to the speech by presenting a selected subset of words, where each word is synched to its corresponding speech signal. In this method, word-level synchronization is realized by an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system, dedicated to the desired corpora. This feature allows the learners to become familiar with the correspondences between words and their utterances. Partialization is done by automatically selecting words or phrases likely to hinder listening comprehension. In this work we presume that the incidence of infrequent or specific words and fast delivery of speech are major barriers to listening comprehension. The word selection criteria are thus based on three factors: speech rate, word frequency and specificity. The thresholds for these features are adjusted to the proficiency level of the learners. The selected words are presented to aid listening comprehension while the remaining words are masked in order to keep learners listening to the audio. PSC was evaluated against no-captioning and full-captioning conditions using TED videos. The results indicate that PSC leads to the same level of comprehension as the full-captioning method while presenting less than 30% of the transcript. Furthermore, compared with the other methods, PSC can serve as an effective medium for decreasing dependence on captions and preparing learners to listen without any assistance.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document