This study presents a systematic review of the empirical research on primary school students' first language listening skills. In total, 27 studies were selected and reviewed. The purpose of this review is twofold. First, outcome variables of listening skills were labeled according to the conceptual HURIER model of Brownell ( 2006). Results showed that most studies evaluated listening skills as the ability to remember, understand or interpret the auditory message. Second, important correlates according to the model of Palardy and Rumberger (2008) were related to primary school students' listening skills. At the classroom level, a significant relationship was found between students' listening skills and teaching practices (e.g. listening strategy instruction) as well as classroom features (e.g. classroom noise). At the student level, a significant relationship was found between students' listening skills and their cognitive skills (e.g. working memory) and background characteristics (e.g. socioeconomic status). Based on these results, suggestions for further research and practice are discussed.

This study aimed to provide a more comprehensive view on the relationship between metacognitive awareness, intrinsic and extrinsic listening motivation, and L1 primary school students' critical listening skills. A critical listening test and different self-report questionnaires were administered to 649 native Dutch-speaking sixth-grade students. Quantitative data analysis techniques, including a series of one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVAs) and a structural equation model (SEM) were used to analyze the data. The results indicated that high-level listeners were more aware of different factors of metacognition (i.e., person knowledge, problem-solving, and directed attention) and more intrinsically motivated to listen compared to average and low-level listeners. Further, complex structural relationships among students' motivation, metacognitive awareness, and critical listening skills were found. The results showed that both intrinsic and extrinsic listening motivation were antecedents of students' reported awareness of metacognition. The findings also suggested that metacognitive awareness mediated the relationship between motivation and critical listening skills.

Effective listening comprehension skills are an important prerequisite for the academic success of primary school students. However, the assessment of listening skills in the instructional language appears to have received only scant attention in the literature. Therefore, the goal of the present study was twofold. Firstly, a comprehensive listening test was developed and different aspects of construct validity supporting the use of the listening test were explored. The listening test was administered to 1001 sixth-grade primary school students in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. Next, the test items were controlled for item difficulty and discrimination, dimensionality, model-data fit, local item independence, monotonicity, and gender differential item functioning. The final listening test consisted of 24 multiple-choice and open-ended test items. Secondly, the listening test was used to identify differences between students' listening skills based on gender and home language. The results indicate that gender was not significantly related to listening comprehension skills, but L1 Dutch-speaking students significantly outperformed L2 Dutch-speaking students. This study also covers possible further fine-tuning of the instrument.

Despite the importance of listening, little investigation of potential correlates of listening comprehension in the language of schooling is done. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate which student-and class-level characteristics are related to sixth-grade students' listening skills in Flanders. A sample of 974 students in 70 classes completed a listening test in order to gather information on their ability to understand and interpret oral information. Further, different questionnaires were administered to the students, their parents and teachers. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis with multilevel design showed that the differences in listening comprehension skills could be primarily attributed to differences in student-level characteristics. The results indicated that students with higher working memory ability, more vocabulary knowledge and lower extrinsic listening motivation performed significantly better on the listening test. In addition, the educational level of the parents and the language diversity in the class was significantly related to students' listening skills in the language of schooling. This study is an important starting point in unraveling the black box of listening skills in the elementary school context. Suggestions for further research and practice were made.

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