Extensive Listening for Beginners: Listening Development and Student Perceptions

The present study examined and compared the effect of two types of listening instruction (intensive vs. extensive listening) on improving listening competence by Korean EFL learners addressing two questions: (1) which type of instruction is more effective in enhancing listening competence of lowlevel learners and (2) how each type of instruction is perceived by the learners. The study was conducted in three intact beginning level EFL classrooms: One served as control group; two classes received intensive and extensive instruction, respectively. Two sets of TOEIC listening tests were used as pre and posttests to measure listening competence, and a questionnaire was administered to two experimental groups in the last week. According to the result, the extensive listening group demonstrated significantly higher achievement in listening, indicating that extensive listening is more effective, particularly to lowlevel learners

Extensive Listening for Beginners:

Listening Development and Student Perceptions*

김보람서울여자대학교

by Korean EFL learners addressing two questions: (1) which type of instruction

is more effective in enhancing listening competence of low-level learners and (2) how each type of instruction is perceived by the learners The study was conducted in three intact beginning level EFL classrooms: One served as control group; two classes received intensive and extensive instruction, respectively Two sets of TOEIC listening tests were used as pre- and post-tests to measure listening competence, and a questionnaire was administered to two experimental groups in the last week According to the result, the extensive listening group demonstrated significantly higher achievement in listening, indicating that extensive listening is more effective, particularly to low-level learners The result from the survey data also revealed positive student perceptions of extensive listening in general, corroborating the quantitative result Pedagogically, the findings of the study suggest that there are key factors to consider for successful implementation

*This work was supported by a research grant from Seoul Women’s University (2019).

- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15755/jfs.2019.47.11

of extensive listening instruction

Keywords: Listening Development, Low-level Learners, Extensive Listening,

Intensive Listening, Student Perceptions

in language learning and acquisition are widely recognized and appreciated (Day

& Bamford, 1998, 2004; Krashen, 2004; Mori, 2015; Waring & McLean, 2015), researchers have begun to apply ER approach to teaching listening The most essential concept of ER includes reading in large quantity, its focus on meaning and broad understanding, and speedy reading (Carrell & Carson, 1997; Grabe & Stoller, 2001) In order to see the effect of ER, reading extensively and consistently over substantial period of time is required (Grabe, 2009), so enjoyable reading materials for students become the key factor to motivate them

to continue for a relatively long time (Mori, 2015) Adopted from the concept of

ER, a new approach to teaching listening, extensive listening (EL) incorporates

“massive amounts of comprehensible and enjoyable aural input via television, radio, video and Internet sources, or audio books” (Chang, Millett, & Renandya,

2018, p 3)

Despite growing attention to the need for EL to improve L2 learners’ listening competence (Chang & Millett, 2014; Ridgway, 2000; Stephens, 2010), the number of empirical research into the benefits of EL is still insufficient Nevertheless, some studies have shed light on the positive effect of EL on enhancing listening fluency (Chang, 2011; Chang & Millet, 2014) and developing overall listening comprehension skills (Onoda, 2014; Zhang, 2005) Particularly in

an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) setting, where there is a dearth of exposure to listening input, EL seems very attractive in the way that it is to provide ample amount of comprehensible listening input for foreign language learners Considering low-level learners, who tend to feel insecure about their language ability, it is never too much to emphasize the importance of comprehensible input However, very little is known about the effects of EL on improving beginner students’ listening competence In this regard, the purpose of the present study is to investigate the impact of extensive listening instruction in comparison with that of intensive listening on low-level students’ listening competence In addition, students’ attitudes toward listening practice and perceptions of EL and IL instruction are surveyed and examined

II LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Intensive Listening (IL) and L2 Research

While extensive listening (EL) is rather a new and unconventional approach

to teaching listening, intensive listening (IL) has been more widely implemented

in L2 classrooms since the early days of English language teaching Although IL lesson format has been modified over the years, the three-stage format continues

to feature as presented in Figure 1 In a traditional IL lesson, teachers used to

present all the new vocabulary at pre-listening stage which students are expected

to encounter, but more current and common policy is to teach only critical vocabulary before listening Pre-teaching all the new words in listening passage was called into question on the grounds that students’ attention ends up being misdirected to the language of the spoken text rather than its meaning (Field, 2008) Some L2 research provides negative evidence for the effect of vocabulary instruction as pre-listening support on listening; previewing vocabulary was not helpful in enhancing listening performance (Berne, 1995; Chang & Read, 2006)

Figure 1 Format for an IL Lesson (Adapted from Field, 2008)

Multiple paused play is one of the major features of IL instruction based on the accepted belief that multiple replays will increase students’ understanding of listening passage Teachers play and pause the recording in order to check

answers for the detail questions during micro-listening At post-listening stage, paused play is used as a way of improving students’ phonological perception and training intonation patterns Paused play often takes the form of shadowing, word-for-word repetition, i.e., parroting Students repeat speech immediately after hearing it Some studies conducted in EFL settings lend support to the effects of shadowing on developing listening skills (Commander & Guerrero, 2013; Kato, 2009; Miyake, 2009; Mori, 2011; Murphey, 2001; Nakayama & Suzuki, 2012; Tamai, 1997) According to Hamada (2016), shadowing is effective particularly

to low-level learners

In addition to shadowing, dictation is often employed in IL instruction since

it suits the focus of IL, listening for precise sounds, words, and details Besides, dictation is highly recommended for promoting listening comprehension according

to the literature on teaching listening (e.g., Celce-Murcia, 1996; Davis, 1995; Gilbert, 1996; Rost, 1991; Ur, 1991) Dictation is carried out after micro-listening, and students check and correct what they jotted down reading the transcript In terms of the effect of dictation, positive evidence is found in several studies (Kiany & Shiramiry, 2002; Kuo, 2010; Rahimi, 2008), whereas contradictory one

is also reported in Jafarpur and Yamini (1993)

IL instruction tends to be very teacher-centered: The teacher prepares pre-set questions; the teacher makes decisions about the correctness of student answers; the teacher decides where to pause and which parts to replay Furthermore, it has received the criticism that IL instruction is geared for testing listening, not teaching it For instance, Brown (2011) points out that “playing audio and asking comprehension questions, or even playing audio and asking students to complete tasks, is merely testing” (p.36) Concerning the benefits of IL, Field (2008) claims that it equips students with automatic processing skills for aural input through repeated exposure to the target language by multiple replays He adds another benefit; IL instruction assists students in developing test-task familiarity, which leads to passing exams Considering earlier research into IL approach along with the discussion of its weaknesses and strengths, a question may arise as to whether IL instruction is beneficial particularly for lower-level learners The present study is to clarify and explore the assumption that IL is more appropriate

to teach low proficiency students given that their attention centers around the effort of decoding unfamiliar sounds when listening (Oakeshott-Taylor, 1977; Osada, 2001).

2 Extensive Listening (EL) and L2 Research

Spurred by extensive reading (ER), extensive listening (EL) has started to gain support in L2 teaching and listening research Just like the case of ER, the underlying concept of EL is that “listening is best learned through listening” (Renandya & Farrell, 2011, p 56) According to the proponents of

EL, students should listen to a great amount of engaging and enjoyable materials within their language competence in order to develop listening competence (Chang & Millett, 2014; Renandya & Farrell, 2011; Ridgway, 2000; Stephens, 2010) Since EL is a relatively new and experimental approach for L2 teachers, they need basic guidelines to follow in order to plan and carry out an EL course In this regard, Renandya and Jacobs (2016) have proposed seven principles as guidelines for successful implementation of

EL instruction Three major principles are discussed in depth with relevant research data in the following

The first principle concerns the most critical factor in EL instruction, the issue of quantity of listening materials There is a consensus view that the more exposure to listening input is guaranteed, the more likely a student’s listening competence is to progress But then how much listening input is needed for optimal outcomes, that is, the positive effect of EL on improving students’ listening comprehension and overall listening competence? According to ER studies, students are required to read a book (5,600 words on average) at least every week (Nation & Wang, 1999) for more than six months (Krashen, 2004; Nakashini, 2015) in order to build reading fluency Chang (2011) demonstrates the positive evidence of EL instruction carried out in the mode of simultaneous reading and listening The experimental group read and listen at the same time to audio graded readers (an average of 1.08 to 1.50 books) each week for 26

weeks After the reading-while-listening program, their listening fluency significantly improved as compared to that of the control group Chang and Millett (2016) conducted a 15-week EL program, which was much shorter than Chang’s (2011), but they incorporated an extended listening-focused activity in addition after reading-while-listening The EFL students in Taiwan read and listened to an audio book every week and had to complete a listening assignment within a week; they worked on listening comprehension questions listening to the same audio book, but without looking at the book this time The number of assignments completed varied depending on the three experimental groups Only those who finished 11 to 15 assignments after reading-while-listening class showed salient progress in general listening competence, measured by TOEIC listening.

The second principle focuses on quality of listening materials Ridway (2000) contends that students should “practice listening comprehension, not listening

incomprehension” (p 184), which is often the case for IL instruction The

listening materials in EL instruction are supposed to serve as comprehensible input for students, so they need to be pitched at or even below students’ current level of listening proficiency considering that students’ listening vocabulary is generally lower than their reading one Speech rate (i.e., a speaker’s articulation speed) is one of the factors that contribute to successful listening comprehension; comprehension levels decrease as speech rates increase (Chang, 2018) Speech rates can be calculated by words per minute (wpm) (Tauroza & Allison, 1990), which is the most widely used measurement According to Buck (2001), the average speech rate for English speakers is between 150 and 180 wpm, but teachers should adjust speech rate to their students’ present level of listening competence Vocabulary and grammar structures are also affecting factors of listening comprehension Graded audiobooks (e.g., graded readers from the Oxford Bookworms series) are highly recommended for EL materials in the way that they give access to large amounts of listening materials at varied levels of language proficiency (Renandya & Farrell, 2011)

The third principle promotes the use of simultaneous reading and listening, i.e., reading while listening in EL instruction L2 learners suffer from various

sources of listening problems, which impede the processing of listening input Among them, speech rate, distraction, and difficulty in recognizing words they are familiar are identified as the top three challenging sources (Renandya, 2011; Wang & Renandya, 2012; Zeng, 2007) Hence, listening without any support can

be very demanding Especially for lower-level learners, listening to incomprehensible input can be very discouraging, which may hamper their motivation to keep practicing listening Some L2 research indicates that reading-while-listening mode is beneficial to lower-level learners in the sense that

it allows them to process the spoken text more efficiently (Chang, 2011; Mareschal, 2007) Moreover, several L2 researchers offer support in favor of the argument that a more accessible skill (reading) may be used to complement a less accessible one (listening) (Chang, 2009; Chang et al., 2018; Stephens, 2010) Some research into EL compared the effectiveness of reading-while-listening vs that of listening-only and revealed that simultaneous reading and listening was more effective in enhancing listening comprehension and fluency (Brown, Waring,

& Donkaewbua, 2008; Chang & Millett, 2014; Chang et al., 2018)

3 Research Questions

In view of the literature reviewed above, both IL and EL, discretely have their own strengths Despite the argument that both approaches are all essential for students to become good listeners (Brown, 2011), there is the need to examine which approach is more favorable to low proficiency students in an EFL setting, where the classroom may be the only venue for language input Thus, how to present listening materials is a very critical issue Besides, it is often unlikely for low-level learners to find themselves a learning approach that suits them, nor are they able to adapt themselves to any learning environment This calls for substantial empirical evidence supporting either approach, IL or EL The only study located in the literature is Chang (2012): Two intact classes at a university in Taiwan served as IL and EL group, respectively; after the intervention, listening competence of EL group was significantly enhanced, and

they outperformed IL group There is only limited number of research comparing the effects of IL vs EL on developing listening competence Hence, the purpose

of the present study is to investigate whether two types of listening instruction (IL: Focusing on decoding sounds and details vs EL: Providing a large amount

of listening input with a focus on general meaning) are effective in enhancing listening competence of low proficiency students Furthermore, students’ perceptions of each type of instruction were surveyed and analyzed in order to provide EFL listening teachers for beginners with insightful and practical implications The subsequent research questions are:

1 Which type of instruction between intensive and extensive listening is more effective in improving listening competence of low-level students?

2 What are students’ attitudes towards studying listening and perceptions of each type of instruction?

III METHOD

1 Participants

The participants in the study were 88 undergraduate students enrolled in a required semester-long English course at a university in Seoul, Korea They were mostly freshmen majoring in different fields of Humanities and Social Sciences with little exposure to spoken English outside of class The students were drawn from three intact classes at a beginning level based on their TOEIC scores They attended the course twice a week for 75 minutes each class The three classes were randomly assigned to serve as experimental groups (IL and EL groups) and one control group The same instructor was in charge of the three classes There were more than 88 students at the beginning of the study, but two students were excluded in data analysis because they were absent from treatment sessions more than twice The participants were required to take the placement test, the TOEIC

to register for the course Only listening part scores of the TOEIC were used as pre-test scores The TOEIC listening scores of the participants ranged from 85 to

295 out of 100 items, with the maximum total score of 495 A one-way analysis

of variance (ANOVA) was performed and the result indicated that the differences

in the means of the three groups were not significant (F[2, 85] = 126, p =

.882), thereby justifying treating the three groups equivalent in terms of English listening proficiency

2 Instruments and Materials

1) Measures of Listening Competence and Student Perceptions

The study utilized the TOEIC in order to measure overall listening competence of the participants Since only listening parts were employed due to the focus of the study, the maximum total score was 495 Two weeks before the registration period the students took the TOEIC, which was used as a pre-test, and another TOEIC was administered by the university during the last week of the course, and the listening scores were taken as post-test scores

In order to explore students’ perceptions of either type of listening instruction (IL or EL) and their attitudes towards learning English and listening comprehension, a questionnaire was composed incorporating 8 items (see Appendix) The items deal with three areas: General interest and confidence and anxiety in learning English, evaluation of course materials and the difficulty level, and evaluation of the type of listening instruction focusing

on its effectiveness For each item from 1 to 7, there are three options to

choose: Yes, No, and I don’t know The last item of the questionnaire is an

open-ended question intended to gain deeper insights into their perceptions In this question the students are to state any strengths and weaknesses of the course they experienced

2) Study Materials and Treatment

(1) The intensive listening (IL) group

The study materials for IL group was a formal listening textbook, Q: Skills for success, listening and speaking (Intro), published by Oxford, consisting of

short conversations and speeches The students received instruction geared for the

IL format (as in Figure 1) with each unit of the textbook During the pre-listening, the topic of the listening text and new vocabulary were introduced Then in while-listening stage, questions for main ideas and details were given and students’ comprehension was checked When their responses were not correct, the instructor repeated the part and elicited answers from the students At post-listening, grammar points were briefly explained; a dictation task in the form

of filling in blanks was done; and its transcript was given for the students to check their answers Finally, conversation questions related to the topic were presented and discussed in pairs or groups Two class sessions every week were conducted following the IL format described

(2) The extensive listening (EL) group

Considering that EL materials should be set at or below students’ proficiency level, Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) was put to use in order to choose adequate materials for the participants Based on the two sets of VLT, 1000-level (Nation, 2001) and 2000-level (Schmitt, Schmitt, & Clapham, 2001) tests, the stage-one graded readers with audio files were selected from Oxford Bookworm series for simultaneous reading and listening EL group reached 93% in the 1000-level test and 67% in the 2000-level test, respectively The audio books are regarded suitable for L2 young adult learners at a low level (Chang, 2009, 2011; Chang

& Millett, 2016) Before the study, a pilot group of students had previewed and recommended 14 books of their own interest among the stage-one readers The books have four to ten chapters with 400 headwords containing an average of

5456 words in total One audio book was covered each week, and the books were presented according to the length as in Table 1 After each chapter, the instructor paused the audio file and answered questions from the students, and

gave a summary of the chapter Doing reading while listening in first class session, EL group was exposed to the speech rate ranging from 77 to 107 wpm, which was regarded adequate for low-level students The students in EL group returned the book they had read and listened to after class.

Table 1 Fourteen Stage-One Graded Readers for Treatment

In second class session, a listening-only exercise with 70 questions was given on the same reader they read and listened to in first class session Reading-while-listening mode is useful to provide students with more comprehensible input and decrease their anxiety in listening, but there is concern that students may depend excessively on written texts without paying attention to listening input Hence, EL group worked on 70 comprehension check-up questions

in several formats (writing short answers, matching, and gap-filling) as they listened to the audio file without the book According to Chang et al (2018) and Nation and Newton (2009), repeated listening is viewed as effective and

beneficial to students in developing fluency in listening The listening-only exercise in second class served the purpose of repeated listening and increasing exposure to listening input Each audio file was played at a faster rate (150 wpm) than in first class (77 to 107 wpm) A speaking task followed the listening-only exercise The students worked together in groups discussing how to change the ending of the story, and one of each group members presented their revised ending of the story in class.

(3) The control group

The same 14 readers used in EL group were covered as reading texts without listening The students in control group read one book per week In first class session, the first half of the book was covered and the rest in second class The instructor explained meanings of some important words and described main characters before reading The students then completed comprehension check-up questions for each chapter and compared their answers in pairs Finally, they worked in groups sharing their opinions on given discussion questions

3 Procedure

Two weeks before the study, the TOEIC as a pre-test was administered to all the participants, and only the EL group took Vocabulary Levels Test to select listening materials suitable for their proficiency level In the first week of the course, an introduction to the course was made along with clear objectives In case of EL group, the concept and expected learning outcomes of EL instruction (e.g., obtaining listening fluency) were explained Besides, in second class session

a sample EL lesson was given including reading-while-listening and listening-only exercises because the students had never experienced any extensive reading or listening instruction IL and control groups also received each corresponding sample lesson during the second class of the first week The total intervention period was 14 weeks from week 2 to week 15 Two experimental groups (IL and EL) were given corresponding treatment delineated in the earlier section All

the participating students took a final exam during the class in week 16, the final week The students in experimental groups completed a questionnaire regarding perceptions of IL or EL instruction after the exam The TOEIC as a post-test was administered on Saturday of the final week since all the students taking the required course had been arranged to take the TOEIC on the same day

4 Data Analysis

The dependent variable was the pre- and post-test scores of the TOEIC The principal independent variable of interest was different treatment conditions This variable was labeled Condition, which had three levels: Control, IL (Intensive Listening), and EL (Extensive Listening) The other independent variable was Time with two levels, pre-intervention and post-intervention In order to examine the effect of treatment conditions on developing listening competence, a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures was conducted with the TOEIC LC scores as the dependent variable: Condition was treated as a grouping factor, while Time served as a repeated measure factor In order to make the discussion of the results more accessible for accurate interpretation, a one-way ANOVA was performed as well with post-test scores as the dependent variable The alpha level was set at 01 experiment-wise Concerning the questionnaire, its responses collected from the experimental groups were analyzed by frequency analysis, and some insightful written comments from the open-ended question were translated into English and reported

IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

1 The Effect of IL vs EL on Listening Competence

The first research question examined which form of listening instruction is more effective in enhancing overall listening competence of beginning-level

students The means and standard deviations for pre- and post-tests by control and experimental groups are presented in Table 2 It appears that experimental groups performed better on the post-test TOEIC than control group Between experimental groups, EL group seems to have outperformed IL group as seen clearly in Figure 2.

Table 2 Descriptive Statistics for Control and Experimental Groups

on TOEIC Listening Parts (Total Score = 495)

Control (n = 30) 180.83 (47.51) 176.67 (47.48)

Note Numbers in parentheses are standard deviations

Figure 2 Comparison of Means by Groups

In order to see if the differences found in the groups are statistically significant, a two-way ANOVA with repeated measures was conducted As shown