The Effects of Cultural Familiarity and Question Preview Type on the Listening Comprehension of L2 Learners at the Secondary Level

Chapelle (2003) proposed three general types of input enhancement that help L2 learners “acquire features of the linguistic input that they are exposed to during the course reading or listening for meaning” (p. 40): input salience, input modification, and input elaboration. In 2010, Cárdenas-Claros and Gruba argued that Chapelle’s different types of input enhancement “can be and have been operationalized through help options” primarily utilized in the teaching of reading, listening, writing, grammar, and vocabulary such as glossed words, video/audio control features, captions, subtitles, and grammar explanations (p. 79). As understood from Cárdenas-Claros and Gruba’s classification of help options, input enhancement can only be accomplished through one process: salience, modification, or elaboration. In this article, we argue that YouTube comments have the potential to be (1) a help option that facilitate both listening comprehension of the videos and vocabulary learning and that (2) input enhancement accomplished by comments can be achieved by a combination of different types of input enhancement. Put another way, the aural input of a YouTube video can be salient, modified, and elaborated, thanks to the various types of comments YouTube videos often receive.

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One size fits all? In search of the desirable caption display for second language learners with different caption reliance in listening comprehension

Language Teaching Research ◽

10.1177/1362168819856451 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 136216881985645 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ping-Jung Lee ◽

Yeu-Ting Liu ◽

Wen-Ta Tseng

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Foreign Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Listening Comprehension ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Transient Nature ◽

Significant Difference ◽

L2 Learners ◽

Comprehension Aids ◽

The Impact

Existing research has established captions as effective second-language (L2) or foreign language (FL) listening comprehension aids. However, due to the transient nature of captions, not all learners are capable of attending to captions in all cases. Previous work posited that to leverage the impact of technologies in learning and instruction, a better understanding of the interplay between technology and cognition is warranted. In this vein, the current study set out to investigate the effects of four different caption modes (full vs. partial vs. real-time vs. control) on the listening comprehension of 95 high-intermediate Taiwanese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) with different caption reliance (i.e. more-caption-reliant vs. less-caption-reliant). The results showed no significant difference between the participants’ listening comprehension outcomes under the four caption conditions when their caption reliance was not considered. However, when this was considered, the differences among the four caption conditions became salient, which was suggestive of the selective effect of captions on L2 learners with different caption reliance. While less-caption-reliant L2 learners had the best listening comprehension outcome under the partial-caption condition and the worst under the full-caption condition, more-caption-reliant L2 learners exhibited the best performance under the full-caption condition yet the worst under the partial-caption condition. The finding underscores the importance of considering L2 learners’ processing profiles when utilizing captioned videos as multimodal instructional/learning materials and speaks to the need of utilizing differentiated video materials for optimal listening outcomes.

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L2 Listening Comprehension: Is it a Language Problem or Listening Problem?

English Linguistics Research ◽

10.5430/elr.v6n1p14 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 14 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Mostafa El-dali

Keyword(s):

Listening Comprehension ◽

Major Question ◽

First Year Students ◽

Spoken English ◽

Language Problem ◽

L2 Learners ◽

Comprehension Process ◽

Faculty Of Education ◽

L2 Listening ◽

Language Environment

In a foreign language environment, students typically have limited exposure to the language outside formal classrooms. Therefore, their ability to comprehend spoken English may be limited. To add to this problem, L2 learners often regard listening as the most difficult language skill to learn. On the other hand, it is noticeable that L2 listening remains the least researched of all four language skills. Accordingly, the present study is based on the commonly believed premises that (1) investigating the listening comprehension process can provide useful insights into teaching listening and (2) learners who learn to control their listening process can enhance their comprehension, and their overall proficiency may be highly developed.The present study reports on the results of an empirical study on forty-six L2 learners of English. The subjects were equally divided into two groups. The first group (N=23) represents first year students (Beginners) in the Department of English at the Faculty of Education, Menufia University, Egypt. The second group (N=23) represents fourth year students (Advanced) in the same department. The major question that this study attempts to answer is “whether listening comprehension a language problem or listening problem?” The instruments of this study consist of five tasks: pre-test, questionnaire, classroom instruction sessions, post-test, and interviews. The data analysis had a quantitative and a qualitative part. Results were obtained and conclusions were made.

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Listening comprehension and individual differences in working memory capacity in beginning L2 learners

Letrônica ◽

10.15448/1984-4301.2014.1.16839 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 113

Author(s):

Aline Fay ◽

Augusto Buchweitz

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Listening Comprehension ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Memory Capacity ◽

L2 Learners

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Is less more? Effectiveness and perceived usefulness of keyword and full captioned video for L2 listening comprehension

ReCALL ◽

10.1017/s0958344013000256 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

pp. 21-43 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Maribel Montero Perez ◽

Elke Peters ◽

Piet Desmet

Keyword(s):

Content Analysis ◽

Listening Comprehension ◽

Meaning Making ◽

Perceived Usefulness ◽

Control Group ◽

Perceived Need ◽

The Third ◽

L2 Learners ◽

University Level ◽

L2 Listening

AbstractThe aim of this study was twofold: we investigated (a) the effect of two types of captioned video (i.e., on-screen text in the same language as the video) on listening comprehension; (b) L2 learners’ perception of the usefulness of captions while watching L2 video. The participants, 226 university-level students from a Flemish university, watched three short French clips in one of three conditions: the control group watched the clips without captions (N = 70), the second group had fully captioned clips (N = 81), the third group had keyword captioned clips (N = 75). After each clip, all participants took a listening comprehension test, which consisted of global and detailed questions. To answer the detailed questions, participants had access to an audio passage of the corresponding clip. At the end of the experiment, participants completed a questionnaire and open-ended survey questions about their perception of captions. Our findings revealed that the full captioning group outperformed both the no captioning and the keyword captioning group on the global comprehension questions. However, no difference was found between the keyword captioning and the no captioning group. Results of the detailed comprehension questions (with audio) revealed no differences between the three conditions. A content-analysis approach to the questionnaire indicated that learners’ perceived need for full captions is strong. Participants consider captions useful for speech decoding and meaning-making processes. Surprisingly, keyword captions were considered highly distracting. These findings suggest that full rather than keyword captioning should be considered when proposing video-based listening comprehension activities to L2 learners.

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They Made it! Enhancing University-Level L2 Learners’ Listening Comprehension of Authentic Multimedia Materials with Advance Organizers

The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher ◽

10.1007/s40299-012-0012-6 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 22 (2) ◽

pp. 193-200 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Chen-Hong Li

Keyword(s):

Listening Comprehension ◽

Advance Organizers ◽

L2 Learners ◽

University Level

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How much vocabulary is needed to use English? Replication of van Zeeland & Schmitt (2012), Nation (2006) and Cobb (2007)

Language Teaching ◽

10.1017/s0261444815000075 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 50 (2) ◽

pp. 212-226 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Norbert Schmitt ◽

Tom Cobb ◽

Marlise Horst ◽

Diane Schmitt

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Listening Comprehension ◽

Learning Opportunities ◽

Vocabulary Knowledge ◽

Word Knowledge ◽

Word Families ◽

Written Texts ◽

L2 Learners ◽

Knowledge Requirements ◽

Esl Learners

There is current research consensus that second language (L2) learners are able to adequately comprehend general English written texts if they know 98% of the words that occur in the materials. This important finding prompts an important question: How much English vocabulary do English as a second language (ESL) learners need to know to achieve this crucial level of known-word coverage? A landmark paper by Nation (2006) provides a rather daunting answer. His exploration of the 98% figure through a variety of spoken and written corpora showed that knowledge of around 8,000–9,000 word families is needed for reading and 6,000–7,000 for listening. But is this the definitive picture? A recent study by van Zeeland & Schmitt (2012) suggests that 95% coverage may be sufficient for listening comprehension, and that this can be reached with 2,000–3,000 word families, which is much more manageable. Getting these figures right for a variety of text modalities, genres and conditions of reading and listening is essential. Teachers and learners need to be able to set goals, and as Cobb's study of learning opportunities (2007) has shown, coverage percentages and their associated vocabulary knowledge requirements have important implications for the acquisition of new word knowledge through exposure to comprehensible L2 input. This article proposes approximate replications of Nation (2006), van Zeeland & Schmitt (2012), and Cobb (2007), in order to clarify these key coverage and size figures.

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