Listening Comprehension Analysis

On the impact of teaching listening comprehension strategies on the improvement of listening comprehension ability of Iranian EFL learners

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the influence of teaching listening comprehension strategies on the improvement of listening comprehension ability of Iranian EFL learners. In doing so, 80 upper-intermediate students were chosen to take Interchange Placement Test. The students were divided equally into two groups: experimental group and control group. They were given a strategy use questionnaire. According to the results of the study, the experimental group showed higher levels of proficiency in comparison with the control group after receiving instruction. Therefore, it was concluded that

They are used to plan for thinking about the process of learning and also to monitor their comprehension and production (Brown, 2007).

Cognitive Strategies: These strategies are confined to some special learning tasks which include more direct manipulation of the learning material itself. These strategies are as follows:

Inferencing: Listeners provide in the missing information like the meanings of unknown words and parts of a text when they are listening by using keywords and context.

Elaboration: Listeners relate new information to existing knowledge in order to a provide a more complete interpretation.

Prediction: Helps listeners to predict what comes next through anticipating the content based on the topic or title before they listen and they predict the details when they are listening.

Conceptualization: Listener relates new information to a more general and wider situation or context to make a better interpretation of it.

Fixation: Listener pays a closer attention to a small part of spoken text to make a better comprehension of it.

Reconstruction: Listener uses new words from the text to make to meaning of the original

Determine learners’ needs and the resources available for training.

2. Select the strategies to be taught.

3. Consider the benefits of integrated strategy training.

4. Consider motivational issues.

5. Prepare the materials and activities.

6. Conduct explicit strategy training.

7. Evaluate and revise the strategy training.

Goals of Strategy Instruction:

Strategy instruction tries to provide learners with the instruments to do the following (Cohen, 2003):

• Self-diagnose their strengths and weaknesses in language learning

• Become aware of what helps them to learn the target language most efficiently

• Develop a broad range of problem-solving skills

• Experiment with familiar and unfamiliar learning strategies

• Make decisions about how to approach a language task

• Monitor and self-evaluate their performance

• Transfer successful strategies to new learning contexts

Cohen (2000), defined language learning and language use strategies as processes which are consciously chosen by learners. However, language learning strategies are used to improve learner knowledge of a given language, and they comprise affective strategies, cognitive strategies, meta-cognitive strategies, and social