Second and Foreign Language Listening: Unraveling the Construct

Tafaghodtari, Marzieh H.

doi:10.2466/pms.107.5.99-113

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…In fact, L2 listening success is contingent on a minimum of three variables: linguistic, strategic and learner variables (Buck, 2001). Metacognition, as a strategic variable, contributed to the findings of studies conducted by Tafaghodtari and Vandergrift (2008) and by Cross (2011). This linguistic variable is a strong factor that contributed to L2 listening performance.…”

Section: Downloaded By [Korea University] At 03:28 27 December 2014mentioning

confidence: 86%

The Role of Metacognition in the Development of EFL Learners’ Listening Skill

Bozorgian

2014

International Journal of Listening

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This study investigated the impact of metacognitive instruction on the listening skill, and metacognitive knowledge of a group of male students (N = 30) who were learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Iran. The study participants spoke Persian as a first language and were high-intermediate EFL learners. The participants received a guided lesson plan in metacognition (planning, monitoring, and evaluation) through a pedagogical cycle approach over a semester (eight weeks). International English Language Testing System listening tests (practice) were used to track the participants' listening performance. Participants also completed a Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire, which examined their use of metacognitive awareness when engaged in listening tasks. Results indicated that the students improved their listening skill after being taught about metacognition; however, no significant use of metacognitive awareness was reported. This study concludes with a discussion of some potential implications, and provides scope for future research. INTRODUCTIONListening plays a basic role in communication, but in pedagogy and research on second and foreign language (L2/FL) learning, it has received less attention than other conventional skills. The reasons for this inadequate attention are the dearth of research and the complexity of the process of learning listening skill (Lynch, 2011). However, in the last decade, some studies (Cross, 2011;Goh, 2008;Vandergrift, 2007) have focused on developing listening skill through metacognitive instruction. Using metacognitive instruction not only helps listeners to improve their listening performance, but it also helps teachers to rethink how they teach listening skill in the classroom. Metacognitive instruction requires teachers to prepare a lesson plan, which highlights listening process more than listening product. This notion of sequential learning tasks in a lesson plan assists listeners to control listening input strategically.To help L2/FL listeners to enhance their listening performance, language teachers should pay considerable attention to the listening pedagogy and emphasize the process of listening skill instruction. In some language classrooms, listening products are the core of listening instruction, and lesson plans in listening instruction are of no use due to time constraints. This lack of BOZORGIAN substantial trend towards lesson plans in listening instruction leads L2/FL students to think that listening skill is the most difficult skill to improve in language learning. Attaining a high level of listening performance is an important purpose for many language learners and is a central pedagogical objective of some language teaching courses. Listening skill plays a pivotal role in L2/FL learning; however, it is not easy for listeners to develop, particularly in a foreign language learning context. Thus, teachers should help listeners to develop a pedagogical understanding of metacognition.

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Section: Downloaded By [Korea University] At 03:28 27 December 2014mentioning

confidence: 86%

The Role of Metacognition in the Development of EFL Learners’ Listening Skill

Bozorgian

2014

International Journal of Listening

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“…Although the development of metacognitive awareness stays unclear, the learners' improvement in listening achievements could indicate the positive role of the bottom-up training in the practice. Previous researchers have observed that metacognition could only account for the limited variance of listening comprehension, that of 13% (Vandergrift et al, 2006), 3% (Tafaghodtari & Vandergrift, 2008), 22% (Goh & Hu, 2013). So, still, a large portion of listening variance could be explained or determined by other factors such as linguistic knowledge, memory capacity, bottom-up skills, social-affective factors and so on (Vandergrift & Goh, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of web-based metacognitive listening on Chinese university EFL learners' listening comprehension and metacognitive awareness

Pei

Suwanthep

2019

Indonesian J. Appl. Linguist.

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The present study examined the effects of web-based metacognitive listening practice on L2 learners’ listening comprehension over 14 weeks. Participants (N = 67) came from two intact classes of intermediate EFL university learners in China. The experimental group was involved in the web-based metacognitive listening practice built on the metacognitive listening principles. The control group undertook a traditional web-based listening practice with the same listening materials texts, yet without training on their metacognitive awareness. TOEFL tests and MALQ were used to track the development of listening achievements and metacognitive awareness. ANCOVA was employed to detect the differences between the two groups regarding listening achievements and metacognitive development. The results show that the experimental group made significantly greater gains than the control group in listening achievements. However, the development of metacognition remained inconclusive. The study concludes that metacognitive listening practice under web-based environment could outperform the traditional web-based listening practice in improving listening achievements among Chinese intermediate EFL learners. Besides, some recommendations for further study are discussed.

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“…According to Graham and Macaro (2008, p. 750), the following set of listening strategies (i.e., conscious plans to manage incoming speech (Rost 2011)) are generally associated with successful listening outcomes: (1) making predictions about the likely content of a passage; (2) selectively attending to certain aspects of the passage (i.e., deciding to "listen out for" particular words or phrases or idea units); (3) monitoring and evaluating comprehension (i.e., checking that one is in fact understanding or has made the correct interpretation); and (4) using a variety of clues (linguistic, contextual and background knowledge) to infer the meaning of unknown words. There is evidence to suggest that more successful Lx listeners naturally deploy these listening strategies when faced with a listening task, while less skilled Lx listeners do not, unless they are explicitly (Cross 2010;Diaz 2015;Seo 2005) or implicitly trained to do so (Tafaghodtari and Vandergrift 2008;Vandergrift and Tafaghodtari 2010). Although these classroom interventions differed in terms of number and type of listening strategies (explicitly or implicitly) taught to Lx listeners, they all used elements of metacognition: development of the ability to recognise the mental processes involved in listening comprehension, the ability to examine the (social, cognitive and affective) factors that impede, slow down or facilitate listening, the ability to identify what contributes or hinders sound or word perception, or the ability to choose strategies that foster overall listening development and comprehension (see Vandergrift and Goh 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing Oral Comprehension Skills with Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education

2019

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The development of oral comprehension skills is rarely studied in second and foreign language teaching, let alone in learning contexts involving students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE). Thus, we conducted a mixed-methods study attempting to measure the effect of implicit teaching of oral comprehension strategies with 37 SLIFE in Quebec City, a predominantly French-speaking city in Canada. Two experimental groups received implicit training in listening strategies, whereas a control group viewed the same documents without strategy training. Participants’ listening comprehension performance was measured quantitatively before the treatment, immediately after, and one week later with three different versions of an oral comprehension test targeting both explicit and implicit content of authentic audiovisual documents. Overall, data analysis showed a low success rate for all participants in the oral comprehension tests, with no significant effect of the experimental treatment. However, data from the intervention sessions revealed that the participants’ verbalisations of their comprehension varied qualitatively over time. The combination of these results is discussed in light of previous findings on low literate adults’ informal and formal language learning experiences.

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Second and Foreign Language Listening: Unraveling the Construct

Cited by 7 publications

References 17 publications

The Role of Metacognition in the Development of EFL Learners’ Listening Skill

The Role of Metacognition in the Development of EFL Learners’ Listening Skill

Effects of web-based metacognitive listening on Chinese university EFL learners' listening comprehension and metacognitive awareness

Developing Oral Comprehension Skills with Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education

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