The effects of a metacognitive intervention on lower-proficiency EFL learners’ listening comprehension and listening self-efficacy

Focusing on the teaching of listening strategies to second language (L2) learners, this study sought to revisit Renandya and Farrell’s (2011) claims that explicit listening strategy instruction for lower-proficiency learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) is a fruitless endeavor. As such, we implemented a quasi-experimental study to measure the effectiveness of a metacognitive intervention for a convenience sample of lower-proficiency (CEFR A2) Japanese university EFL learners ( n = 129). The training program focused on an explicit process-based approach, involving integrated experiential learning tasks and guided reflections, to develop learners’ L2 listening skills. Data collection consisted of TOEIC® test scores, listening comprehension tests, cloze tests, a listening self-efficacy questionnaire, and a post-treatment survey. While the training program was received favorably by students, and students displayed a slightly more confident stance towards listening in their L2, we were unable to find any strong empirical evidence that our lower-proficiency EFL learners’ listening performance improved. As such, these results provide evidence of a potential proficiency threshold for EFL learners to start to benefit from a strategy-focused metacognitive intervention.

DIFFICULTIES OF THE SOUND OF A FOREIGN LANGUAGE SPEECH PERCEPTION AND METHODS OF OVERCOMING ITS

This article is a study that presents an analysis of the difficulties of the perception of speech in a foreign language and the mechanisms to overcome them. There are the following difficulties associated with the hearing process: difficulties associated with content of text or video, and the actual language difficulties text or video materials; the difficulties related to the structure of the text or video; the hardship of the perception of text or video. The authors of the study, analyzing existing domestic and foreign methodological literature to work with text, consider visual supports (symbols, pictures, graphs, charts, etc.) and verbal support (key words, examples of exercises, etc.) as a means of facilitating the teaching of listening skills. Notes the important role of the teacher and his methodical literacy in learning listening, which depends on the mechanism of presenting sound material and ways of working with it. The technology of teaching types of speech activity, which is subdivided in this study into the following steps: conduct a briefing, an introduction to issues of text, perception of text / video materials; monitoring and checking understanding of the text / video. Underlining that the distinguishing feature of the hearings is his inner nature, which is reproduced later in speaking listening, using the lexical units and grammatical material that has been learned by him while listening audio or video recording.

EFL MATERIALS IN TEACHING LISTENING: PERSPECTIVES FROM INDONESIA AND VIETNAM

The practices of selecting and using materials for the teaching of listening skill have not yet been examined widely in the literature of materials development in language teaching (Hill & Tomlinson, 2013). This paper presents a cross-analysis of type, selection procedures, and design of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) materials for teaching listening at two public universities, one in Vietnam and the other one in Indonesia. This paper is built upon 15 years of personal experience of two lecturers who have worked in the education system of Vietnam and Indonesia. The analysed data included the course profiles, syllabi, and listening materials used in the two EFL undergraduate language education programs. By providing revealing comparisons of the selection and usage of EFL listening materials in two language programs in Indonesia and Vietnam, this paper hopes to contribute to the literature of materials development and selection for language teaching in Asia as well as around the world.

English majors’ perceptions of their teachers’ use of ICT in teaching of Listening-Speaking courses at Ho Chi Minh City Open University

This research investigated the perceptions of English majors at Ho Chi Minh City Open University of the use of ICT by their teachers in teaching their Listening-Speaking classes. Twenty- eight out of about 700 freshmen and sophomores who were studying the subject in-charged by 9 different teachers volunteered to participate in semi-structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed qualitatively. The findings indicated that in general, the students have positive attitudes towards their teachers’ use of ICT in teaching English Listening-Speaking courses. Nonetheless, the interviews revealed the students’ difficulties and recommendations, which the school and the teachers should take into account. These findings set the ground for teaching recommendations and suggestions for future research presented at the end of the paper. Keywords: Students’ perception, English majors, English listening and speaking subject, use of ICT.

Multimodal Second-Language Communication: Research Findings and Pedagogical Implications

This article reviews research findings involving visual input in speech processing in the form of facial cues and co-speech gestures for second-language (L2) learners, and provides pedagogical implications for the teaching of listening and speaking. It traces the foundations of auditory–visual speech research and explores the role of a speaker’s facial cues in L2 perception training and gestural cues in listening comprehension. There is a strong role for pedagogy to maximize the salience of multimodal cues for L2 learners. Visible articulatory gestures that precede the acoustic signal and the preparation phase of a hand gesture that precedes the acoustic onset of a word provide a priming effect on perceivers’ attention to signal upcoming information and facilitate processing, and visible gestures that co-occur with speech aid ongoing processing and comprehension. L2 learners benefit from an awareness of these visual cues and exposure to input.

Evaluation of the teaching and learning in listening subject

This research aims to benchmark the practice of teaching listening subject being conducted in the English Department at State University of Gorontalo against the best practices which have been based on research and sound knowledge in the world of English language. The teaching of listening is now influenced by the rise of communicative language teaching which views language teaching as giving communicative competence to learners, not only grammatical competence as the earlier view held. The participant of the research is the third-semester of the English Department in the academic year of 2019. This present study is conducted to evaluate the teaching of listening skills in the English Department at Gorontalo State University. Evaluation in this study is to benchmark the current practice of teaching listening in the English Department of State University of Gorontaloto the research-based practice. Research finding suggests that the teaching of listening to the English Department students partly has followed methodologies proposed by Richards and Goh (2008). This study shows that in general the practice of the teaching of listening at the English Department of State University of Gorontalois based on research-based methodologies. However, there are some points that need to be improved. Since the result of the study has addressed only some of the issues in the teaching of listening, therefore, future research on other issues of listening teaching needs to be done.

Practitioners respond to Suzanne Graham's ‘Research into practice: Listening strategies in an instructed classroom setting’

In her article, Graham (2017) concludes ‘that very little of the research regarding the teaching of listening has made it into the classroom in England, not least in a positive way’ (p. 117). She suggests that teachers rarely delve into the process of second language (L2) listening in class; instead, listening comprehension is treated more as a test than a task. She continues that there is an over-application of the widely shared findings that pre-listening tasks aid listening comprehension – particularly tasks which involve predicting the vocabulary which will be heard during the listening task. Given the suggestion that learners find listening tasks difficult has been addressed within schools simply by making such tasks easier, Graham feels a more pedagogically apt approach might be to examine more closely what has made the task difficult and to modify teaching to address this.

Comprehending misunderstanding

© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved. Michael Swan and Catherine Walter take issue with the current emphasis in the teaching of listening and reading on higher-order skills-and-strategies training. They argue that L2 learners typically already possess the relevant skills and strategies necessary for listening and reading in L2, and, by implication, can and do deploy them. Further, they claim that research evidence provides little support for skills-and-strategies training. In this Counterpoint article, I subject these claims to closer scrutiny and find them wanting. I also argue that even if the need for 'training' is questionable, skills-and-strategies instruction nevertheless offers rich and varied language learning opportunities through the ways it directs learners to engage with text.