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 An Experimental Study of the Effect of Content Schema on English Listening Testing of Non-English Majors

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 183
Author(s):  
Yue Mao ◽  
Yifei Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Listening Proficiency ◽  
Listening Process ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Analyze Data

Listening occupies one of the most preliminary parts in foreign language learning and becomes more and more important. Pre-listening process of listening comprehension owns two models, bottom-up and top-down. The latter that emphasizes the introduction of background knowledge is tightly related to content schema. The aim of the study is to examine the impact of content schema on listening comprehension and to find whether there is difference of the impact of content schema on students of different levels of listening comprehension by conducting an experiment. About 189 participants from Zhejiang University were divided into control group (CG) and experiment group (EG). Both the two groups did pretests, tests and questionnaires. CG and EG were separately divided into high- and low-level groups based on the pretest scores. Independent sample T-test was used to analyze data. The results showed that content schema negatively affected listening comprehension and it had stronger impact on students with low listening proficiency.

scholarly journals EXPLORING ENGLISH LISTENING PROBLEMS AMONG EFL STUDENTS AT IAIN KUDUS

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Azizah Maulina Erzad
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
English Education ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Education Department ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Physical Conditions ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Listening Process

Listening comprehension becomes one of the most difficult skills for most of English learners especially EFL learners. As a foreign language, English is rarely used in communication by EFL learners in their daily life. Therefore, the learners or students always face some difficulties/problems in listening comprehension. It can be seen from the results of their tests. The purpose of this study is to investigate the problems occur in listening class of EFL students at IAIN Kudus and the solutions to overcome those problems. The EFL students in this study refer to the English Education Department students of IAIN Kudus. The participants of this study are the second semester of English Education Department students. This study is a qualitative research. Observation, interview and documentation were conducted to collect the data. By conducting this study, several problems in listening comprehension can be revealed. The listening problems encountered by the EFL students are the pronunciation (accents), speedy delivery and length of the listening, physical conditions, unfamiliar vocabularies and terminologies, and limited facility for listening. Some actions should be done to overcome these obstacles occurred during listening process. The solutions to overcome the problems are students should be focus, practice more in listening English, memorize vocabularies, and prepare a language laboratory.

The impact of computer-assisted language learning on Iranian EFL students’ vocabulary learning

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 210-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ali Rahimi ◽  
Samira Mouri
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Computer Assisted Language Learning ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Experimental Group

This study aimed to explore the impact of computer-assisted language learning on Iranian EFL students’ vocabulary learning. Participants of the study were 76 students – 29 males and 47 females – learning English as a foreign language in Parto, Sadr, Poyesh and Andishe Institutes in Ahvaz who were selected after taking the Nelson English Language Test as a proficiency test. They were randomly divided into two groups. One group was taken as control and the other as experimental group. Both groups participated in the teacher-made test of vocabulary, Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT), and Word-Associates Test (WAT) as pre-test. During class sessions the control group was taught the vocabulary, in the conventional way, through the printed textbook while the experimental group taught by the software version of the same book. Three ANCOVAs were run to compare the performance of experimental and control groups after the treatment period. The results of the ANCOVAs revealed that using vocabulary learning software was more effective than using printed book on vocabulary learning, vocabulary breadth, and vocabulary depth of the participants. The results of the present study could help EFL course book designers, foreign language institutes, educational planners, material developers, teachers, and learners to provide a better context for EFL learning. Keywords: computer-assisted instruction, computer-assisted language learning, information communication technology, vocabulary breadth, vocabulary teaching software.  

Language learning strategy use in context: the effects of self-efficacy and CLIL on language proficiency

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-220
Author(s):  
Nils Jaekel
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Strategy Use ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
The Impact

AbstractLanguage learning strategies (LLS) are suggested to facilitate learning and support learner autonomy. The integration of content and language in foreign language education increases the cognitive work load. Furthermore, self-efficacy has been identified as a key predictor for strategy use and language achievement. The present study aimed to (1) investigate LLS use in content-based versus traditional foreign language environments and (2) assess the impact LLS use and self-efficacy have on language proficiency. Participants were Year 9 Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and regular English as a foreign language (EFL) students (N=378) in Germany. Structural equation modelling, controlling for a range of confounding variables, showed that (1) there was no difference in LLS use between CLIL and EFL students. (2) LLS use had a negative impact while self-efficacy predicted higher language proficiency. These results suggest that students may best be supported by enhancing their self-efficacy while they should carefully choose their strategies.

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

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 484-506
Author(s):  
Mohammad Hamad Al-khresheh
Keyword(s):  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
The Impact

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 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.

Effects of Adding Subtitles to Video via Apps on Developing EFL Students’ Listening Comprehension

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1191
Author(s):  
Thuraya Alabsi
Keyword(s):  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Superior Performance ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Paired Samples ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Additional Value ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Experimental Group

It is unclear if using videos and education apps in learning adds additional value to students’ listening comprehension. This study assesses the impact of adding text to videos on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ listening comprehension. The participants were 76 prep college EFL students from Taibah University, divided into two groups. The semi-experimental measure was employed to compare the experimental group and the control group. The experimental group watched an English learning video and then wrote text subtitles relating to the video using apps, and later took a listening test to evaluate their ability in acquiring information through the videos. The control group watched videos during live lectures but did not add subtitles on the content they viewed. A paired samples t-test was used to assess the extent of listening comprehension achievement and posttest results were compared. Results revealed statistically significant increases in posttest listening comprehension scores. The result indicated superior performance and a significant positive impact through teaching/learning via video watching and adding text apps.

scholarly journals Understanding the information literacy experiences of EFL (English as a foreign language) students

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 552-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Johnston ◽  
Helen Partridge ◽  
Hilary Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Literacy Practice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Literacy Experiences ◽  
Relational Approach ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – This paper aims to outline research that explores the information literacy experiences of English as a foreign language (EFL) students. The question explored in this research was: how do EFL students experience information literacy? Design/methodology/approach – This study used phenomenography, a relational approach to explore the information literacy experiences of EFL students. Phenomenography studies the qualitatively different ways a phenomenon is experienced in the world around us. Findings – This research revealed that EFL students experienced information literacy in four qualitatively different ways. The four categories revealed through the data were: process, quality, language and knowledge. This research found that language impacted on EFL students’ experiences of information literacy and revealed that EFL students applied various techniques and strategies when they read, understood, organised and translated information. Research limitations/implications – This research was conducted in a specific cultural and educational context; therefore, the results might not reflect the experiences of EFL students in other cultural or educational contexts. Practical implications – The findings from this research offer an important contribution to information literacy practice by providing important insights about EFL students’ experiences and perceptions of information and learning that can be used to inform curriculum development in second language learning contexts. Originality/value – There is currently a lack of research using a relational approach to investigate EFL students’ experiences of information literacy. There is also limited research that explores the impact language has on information literary and learning in EFL or English as a second language (ESL) contexts.

scholarly journals THE USE OF YOUTUBE TO SUPPORT EFL STUDENTS' LISTENING SKILLS

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Ignasia Yuyun ◽  
Fitri Yanti Simamora
Keyword(s):  
Learning Process ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Private University ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Authentic Material ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Teacher Needs ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Teaching Learning

Authentic material in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom, particularly in listening,  encourages students to apply actual language or authentic speech. In this digital era, Information and Communication Technology (ICT)  plays a pivotal role for the teacher's resources to support the teaching-learning process in the classroom. The teacher can find free resources on the Internet by browsing Google, Yahoo, and YouTube. Using YouTube videos can improve students' listening comprehension as it brings many benefits to learners. YouTube is a tool of authentic material to support the student to focus more on listening. The teacher needs to encourage student's motivation in the teaching-learning process. Therefore, this study investigates how YouTube Video is a teaching tool to improve student's listening comprehension skills. There were eight participants from the English Department in a private university in Jakarta. The data was collected through class observation and interviews to observe EFL students' progress in the learning process of listening. This study revealed that YouTube video benefits EFL learners, such as improving students' confidence, enjoying the learning process, making the learning process more fun, and increasing students' interest in learning.

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