Effects of Speech Rate and Background Noise on EFL Learners’ Listening Comprehension of Different Types of Materials

Abstract

The present study examined the effects of speech rate and background noise on EFL learners' listening comprehension of film and textbook materials. The participants listened to eight different types of dialogues with different conditions in the speech rate, the background noise, and the types of learning materials, and their listening comprehensibility was measured. For the speech rate factor, either a fast or a slow speech rate was used. The background noise effect was executed by adding crowd talking noise to the dialogue. The script was adapted from either textbook materials or film materials. The results showed that each factor had an influence on learners' listening comprehension. Though the readability, word levels, and the number of words were at the same level, the scores when textbook materials were used were significantly higher than that of the film materials. Regarding the textbook materials, they had higher scores with the slow speech than the fast speech, and also the scores in the silent condition were higher than that of the noise condition. The students' listening comprehension score was the lowest where there was background noise and a fast speech rate.Keywords: listening, authenticity, speech rate, background noise, material type IntroductionIn the language education field, various types of materials have been used for listening instruction. Among others, films have been used for a variety of purposes, such as motivational improvement, intercultural communication, and grammar instruction (Akimoto & Hamada, 2007;Hammer & Swaffar, 2012;Johnson, 2008).Although both learners and instructors recognize the advantages of films as teaching materials, studies related to the use of cinematic materials in language teaching are scarce. Most studies on the use of films are concerned exclusively with student motivation or merely report how films have been used in lessons (Hirano & Matsumoto, 2011;Johnson, 2008;Shea, 1995). Consequently, little is known about the effects of films on learners' listening comprehension abilities. Some studies have examined speech rates and the use of collocations in films (Furuchi, 2011;Nitta, Okazaki, & Klinger, 2010a). In addition, a few studies have been conducted on the linguistic characteristics of film materials. Nevertheless, there is much work to be done in this area, including the need to examine the most challenging factors for learners in regard to the comprehension of films.Fast speech rate and presence of background noise are distinctive linguistic features that make comprehension of films difficult for English language learners. Fujita (2014) conducted a longitudinal study examining the effects of using films as teaching materials on learners' listening comprehension. Fujita's study found that fast speech rate and presence of background noise prevent learners from optimal Ryoko FujitaThe Journal of Asia TEFL Vol. 14, No. 4, Winter 2017, 638-653 639 comprehension. Porter and Roberts (1981) also point out that fast speech rate and background noise are factors tha...

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