an investigation into the effects of extensive listening on pre intermediate learners’ vocabulary learning and their attitudes towards extensive listening at the asian international school

From the results of this study, extensive listening could help to enhance the students‘ receptive vocabulary knowledge significantly, especially word meanings and word aural forms.. Ther

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL

MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL

Ho Chi Minh City, May 2019

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL

-

NGUYEN NGOC LY

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTS OF EXTENSIVE LISTENING ON PRE-INTERMEDIATE LEARNERS’ VOCABULARY LEARNING AND THEIR ATTITUDES TOWARDS EXTENSIVE LISTENING AT THE ASIAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

Major: TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES Major code: 60140111

MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL

Supervisor: NGUYEN THUY NGA (PhD.)

Ho Chi Minh City, May 2019

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that the thesis entitled ―An Investigation into the Effects of Extensive Listening on Pre-Intermediate Learners’ English Vocabulary Learning and Their Attitudes towards Extensive Listening at The Asian International School‖ is my own work

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis does not contain material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis

by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma

No other person‘s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of the thesis

This thesis has not been submitted for the award or any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution

Ho Chi Minh City, May 2019

NGUYEN NGOC LY

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am using this opportunity to express my special thanks to everyone who supported and encouraged me throughout the time I worked on this thesis Without their help, I could hardly finish this research

First and foremost, I am thankful for the assistance given by my supervisor,

Dr Nguyen Thuy Nga Without her assistance and dedicated involvement in every step throughout the process, this thesis would have never been accomplished As a novice researcher, I am fortunate to have worked with her She has not only helped

me gain more knowledge but also encouraged me to overcome the difficulties in conducting this research

Second, I would like to show gratitude to all my teachers who have given extremely interesting lectures and all the staff of the postgraduate school and librarians during the Master course at Ho Chi Minh City Open University I am motivated to widen my knowledge continuously in this field thanks to their advice and encouragement

Third, I am deeply indebted to all my colleagues and my students at The Asian International School for all their enthusiastic help and support that gave me the best condition to conduct my research

Most importantly, none of this could have happened without my family and friends Getting through my dissertation required more than academic support, and I have many people to thank for listening to and, at times, having to tolerate me over the past three years Hence, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to my family and friends for their unconditional love and sacrifice

NGUYEN NGOC LY

ABSTRACT

Vocabulary is considered one of the most important things in second language learning Hence, vocabulary has been taught to students at The Asian International School right from their start of learning English Nevertheless, in truth, the students have to struggle with difficulties in vocabulary learning Therefore, the research aimed to investigate whether extensive listening affected vocabulary learning of the students in this school and their attitudes towards extensive listening practice Eighty students were selected non-randomly as a control group and an experimental group After taking Listening Vocabulary Levels Test as a pretest, besides studying the formal English curriculum of the school, the control group received intensive listening practice while the experimental group practiced extensive listening During listening practice, both the two groups were all required

to do one listening journal per week as their listening practice report After 12 weeks, the participants in the two groups took a posttest (Listening Vocabulary Levels Test) Then, the survey was delivered to the experimental group to investigate their attitudes towards extensive listening practice

From the results of this study, extensive listening could help to enhance the students‘ receptive vocabulary knowledge significantly, especially word meanings and word aural forms Moreover, the more the students practiced extensive listening, the higher improvement they somewhat had on receptive vocabulary knowledge In addition, the students in general had positive attitudes towards extensive listening Overall, due to the impressive contributions of extensive listening brought to most students‘ vocabulary learning, it is aspired for this study to suggest implications and recommendations for future studies within the aims to help students enhance their vocabulary learning significantly

TÓM TẮT

Từ vựng được xem như là một trong những điều quan trọng nhất trong việc việc học ngôn ngữ thứ hai Do đó từ vựng được dạy cho các em học sinh ở trường Quốc Tế Á Châu ngay từ lúc các em bắt đầu học tiếng Anh Tuy nhiên, trên thực tế các em phải đối diện với những khó khăn trong việc học từ vựng Chính vì thế, bài nghiên cứu này nhằm mục đích điều tra xem việc nghe theo sở thích có ảnh hưởng đến việc học từ vựng của các em hay không và thái độ của các em này với việc luyện nghe theo sở thích Tám mươi em học sinh được chọn không ngẫu nhiên vào hai nhóm: nhóm kiểm soát và nhóm thực nghiệm Sau khi làm bài kiểm tra Nghe Từ Vựng Theo Các Cấp Độ, cùng với việc học tiếng Anh theo chương trình học, nhóm kiểm soát luyện nghe theo yêu cầu và nhóm thực nghiệm luyện nghe theo sở thích Trong quá trình luyện nghe, tất cả học sinh của hai nhóm đều được yêu cầu làm một nhật kí nghe mỗi tuần để báo cáo việc thực hành nghe Sau 12 tuần, những học sinh này thực hiện lại bài kiểm tra Nghe Từ Vựng Theo Các Cấp Độ Cuối cùng, các học sinh trong nhóm thực nghiệm làm một bài khảo sát để điều tra thái độ của các em đối với việc luyện nghe theo sở thích

Từ kết quả của bài nghiên cứu, việc nghe theo sở thích có thể giúp học sinh tăng cường khả năng nhận biết nghĩa của từ khi nó xuất hiện trong văn nói Hơn nữa, việc luyên nghe theo sở thích càng nhiều thì học sinh sẽ càng cải thiện được phần nào về kiến thức nhận biết từ vựng Thêm vào đó, phần lớn các học sinh đều

có thái độ tích cực đối với việc luyện nghe theo sở thích Nhìn chung, do những đóng góp ấn tượng mà việc nghe theo sở thích mang lại cho việc học từ vựng của hầu hết các em học sinh, bài nghiên cứu mong muốn đưa ra những gợi ý và đề xuất cho những nghiên cứu tiếp theo có cùng mục đích giúp học sinh cải thiện việc học

từ vựng đáng kể

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TÓM TẮT iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

LIST OF FIGURES viii

LIST OF TABLES ix

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS x

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background of the study 1

1.2 Statement of the problem 3

1.3 Purposes of the study and research questions 6

1.4 Significance of the study 7

1.5 Scope of the study 7

1.6 Outline of the study 8

1.7 Definitions of key terms 9

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 10

2.1 An overview of listening comprehension 10

2.2 Intensive listening and extensive listening 11

2.2.1 Intensive listening 11

2.2.1.1 Definition of intensive listening 11

2.2.1.2 Intensive listening purposes and characteristics 12

2.2.2 Extensive listening 14

2.2.2.1 Definition of extensive listening 14

2.2.2.2 Extensive listening purposes and characteristics 14

2.2.3 The differences between intensive listening and extensive listening 16

2.3 Vocabulary and its crucial issues 19

2.3.1 The importance of vocabulary in second language learning 19

2.3.2 Distinguishing between second language vocabulary learning and acquisition 19

2.3.3 Vocabulary learning 20

2.3.3.1 Word repertoire 20

2.3.3.2 Receptive vocabulary knowledge 21

2.3.3.3 Review of receptive vocabulary knowledge tests 22

2.4 The relationship between types of extensive listening practice and vocabulary learning 27

2.5 Previous studies 30

2.5.1 The effects of extensive listening on vocabulary learning 30

2.5.2 Learners’ attitudes towards extensive listening practice 38

2.6 Research gaps 39

2.7 Research framework of the study 40

2.8 Summary of Chapter 2 43

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 44

3.1 Research site 44

3.2 Participants 46

3.3 Research design 47

3.4 Instruments 52

3.4.1 Receptive Vocabulary Knowledge Test 53

3.4.2 Listening journal 55

3.4.3 Questionnaire 56

3.4.4 Reliability and validity of Listening Vocabulary Levels Test and Questionnaire 60

3.4.4.1 Reliability and validity of Listening Vocabulary Levels Test 60

3.4.4.2 Reliability and validity of questionnaire 61

3.5 Listening activities for both the control group and experimental group 62

3.5.1 Criteria to set up extensive listening practice 62

3.5.2 Activities plans for both the control group and experimental group 63

3.6 Data collection 65

3.7 Data analysis 66

3.7.1 Research question 1 66

3.7.2 Research question 2 67

3.8 Summary of Chapter 3 68

Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 69

4.1 Participants‘ listening habits 69

4.1.1 Control group’s listening habits 69

4.1.2 Experimental group’s listening habits 70

4.2 Participants‘ receptive vocabulary knowledge test scores 76

4.2.1 Pretest and posttest results 76

4.2.2 The relationship between listening practice and receptive vocabulary knowledge test scores 79

4.3 Participants‘ listening difficulties 86

4.4 Participants‘ attitudes 88

4.5 Discussion of findings 90

4.5.1 Participants’ listening habits 90

4.5.2 Participants’ receptive vocabulary knowledge 92

4.5.3 Participants’ listening difficulties 94

4.5.4 Participants’ attitudes 94

4.6 Summary of Chapter 4 96

Chapter 5: CONCLUSIONS 97

5.1 Main conclusions of the research 97

5.2 Contributions of the research 99

5.3 Pedagogical implications of the research 99

5.3.1 Pedagogical implications for administrators 100

5.3.2 Pedagogical implications for teachers 100

5.3.3 Pedagogical implications for students 100

5.4 Limitations of the research 101

5.5 Recommendations for further research 101

5.6 Summary of Chapter 5 102

REFERENCES 103

Appendix 1 – Listening Vocabulary Levels Test 112

Appendix 2 – Questionnaire 116

Appendix 3 – Listening practice for the CG and EG 120

Appendix 4A – Listening Journal Template for the EG 122

Appendix 4B – Listening Journal Template for the CG 123

Appendix 5 – Lesson Plans 124

Appendix 6 – Material‘s resources for the treatment of EL 130

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2 1 Theoretical framework 41 Figure 3 1 Comparison of gender distribution between the CG and EG 47 Figure 4 1 The relationship between listening practice and RVK in the CG 81Figure 4 2 The relationship between listening practice and the improvement of RVK

in the CG 83Figure 4 3 The relationship between listening practice and RVK in the EG 84Figure 4 4 The relationship between listening practice and the improvement of RVK

in the EG 85

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2 1 Differences between intensive listening and extensive listening 18

Table 2 2 Summary of Receptive Vocabulary Knowledge tests 26

Table 2 3 Summary of EL‘s effects on vocabulary in previous studies 36

Table 3 1 Schedule for teaching and treatment each week 49

Table 3 2 The research design 51

Table 3 3 Results of the pilot of the LVLT 54

Table 3 4 The items in the questionnaire 57

Table 3 5 The difference between the mean scores of two pilot groups 61

Table 3 6 Timetable of data collection 66

Table 4 1 The time the CG spent on IL 70

Table 4 2 The frequency of the EG‘s listening habits 71

Table 4 3 The total time the EG spent on EL 73

Table 4 4 The percentage of the EL materials used 74

Table 4 5 The percentage of not suggested and suggested materials 74

Table 4 6 Mean difference of the pretest scores of the two groups 76

Table 4 7 Mean difference of the posttest scores of the two groups 77

Table 4 8 Mean difference between the pretest and posttest scores of the CG 78

Table 4 9 Mean difference between the pretest and posttest scores of the EG 78

Table 4 10 Results of the participants‘ RVK test scores 79

Table 4 11 The amount of listening practice time of the two groups inside classrooms 80

Table 4 12 The relationship between listening practice and RVK in the CG 81

Table 4 13 The relationship between listening practice and the improvement of RVK in the CG 82

Table 4 14 The relationship between listening practice and RVK in the EG 84

Table 4 15 The relationship between listening practice and the improvement of RVK in the EG 85

Table 4 16 Difficulties affecting listening comprehension 87

Table 4 17 The participants‘ attitudes towards EL 88

Table 4 18 The participants‘ opinions towards EL 89

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter demonstrates the general introduction of the study with six major sections First, the background provides the context and the aims of this present study Second, the statement of the problem presents a short, succinct explanation of problems related to vocabulary learning students are facing and proposes a solution for these problems Then, the purposes of the study illustrate how the study will be conducted and draw out the research questions Next, the significance of the study describes which contribution the study will make to broad literature Then, the scope of the study covers the upper and lower limits of the area the study involved Finally, the thesis structure is mentioned to summarize all major chapters in the study

1.1 Background of the study

Every child starting to learn a language needs to begin with acquiring vocabulary It is necessary to study vocabulary firstly in the early stages of learning

a second language (Nation, 2002) The importance of learning vocabulary has been proved by several researchers (Lado, 1955; Wilkins, 1972, as cited in Thornburry, 2002; Ferreira, 2007; Nation, 2008; Hyso & Tabaku, 2011; Larsson, 2014; Viera, 2017) Due to the importance of learning vocabulary, researchers suggested various aspects of a word, which learners need to acquire According to Nation (2001), when students learned a word, they learned its aspects such as form-meaning connection, written form, spoken form, word parts, collocation, and grammatical functions Most of these characteristics belong to word meaning, form, and use In addition, learners were recommended obtaining sufficiently both productive and receptive vocabulary knowledge when they learned a word (Schmitt, 2000) Schmitt proposed that receptive vocabulary knowledge was the ability to understand a word

in listening and reading while productive vocabulary knowledge highly required learners to use a word in speaking and writing (2000) Due to a wide range of

vocabulary‘s aspects, it cannot be avoidable that learners got troubles with mastering all of these Hence, it is necessary to find an appropriate method to learn vocabulary

There are a lot of evidences that a new way to learn vocabulary – extensive listening could improve vocabulary knowledge by encouraging learners to listen to whatever they were interested in for pleasure and whenever they had convenience (Waring, 2008; Ucán, 2010) Most studies examined the effects of extensive listening on vocabulary learning both in receptive and productive knowledge but it rarely got high achievements in productive vocabulary knowledge research It may

be due to the reason that listening was a receptive skill, which provided spoken information from a speaker to a listener rather than the listener produced language (Tavil, 2010; Aguilera & Filologia, 2012) For example, Yuksel and Tanriverdi found that watching captioned movie clip extensively influenced positively on vocabulary knowledge, but it achieved more significantly in receptive vocabulary knowledge than in productive vocabulary knowledge (2009) Therefore, the present study aims to take the advantages of extensive listening on learners‘ receptive vocabulary knowledge instead of covering both receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge

Extensive listening is a rather good way to help learners enhance vocabulary knowledge, especially receptive vocabulary knowledge, but there are still restrictions on research studies related to the effects of extensive listening on vocabulary learning First, previous studies paid little attention to directly construct extensive listening practice enhancing vocabulary learning For instance, Ucán (2010) conducted a research study with the aim to find out the benefits of extensive listening in a bigger issue – English language teaching Another example is Renandya‘s (2012) study whose main purpose was to suggest materials and methods for extensive listening and mentioned briefly the effects of extensive listening on vocabulary learning Second, previous studies rarely combined several extensive

listening materials in a single study For example, Brown, Waring, and Donkaewbua (2008) and Suggate, Lenhard, Neudecker, and Schneider (2013) just let participants choose only stories for extensive listening practice; Yuksel and Tanriverdi (2009) required participants to watch a popular American television series Fortunately, in

2015, Bozan provided several extensive listening materials but the purposes of the study mainly focused on learners‘ proficiency level, not only vocabulary Last but not least, in most research, it lacked attention to measure word aural forms in receptive vocabulary knowledge (Brown et al., 2008; Suggate et al., 2013) With great efforts, the study aims to give several types of extensive listening practice to students in order to enhance their receptive vocabulary knowledge, specifically, both word meanings and word aural forms

This section has just described the background of the study The next one presents the problems, which learners have to deal with while learning vocabulary

in detail and the solution to solve these problems

1.2 Statement of the problem

Learners in general believe that learning vocabulary in another language is not easy for them In fact, people have explored many difficulties when learners acquired vocabulary in second language learning for several years If learners do not change the way to study vocabulary, they will continue to have trouble with some typical problems as presented in the followings Firstly, it is impossible to remember

a word if learners do not practice it frequently Learners got troubles with how to retain words, which have been learnt for a long-term memory (Nation, 2007) Secondly, learners face with the problems such as learning word meanings, pronunciations, and spellings For example, Lado (1955) found that words in two different languages had largely different connotations, which could cause difficulty

in meanings In another study, Higa found that a huge number of words were more difficult to learn than others that might be because of its pronunciation, part of speech, similar forms, and the ways to learn these words (1965, as cited in Nation,

2001) Then, the level of these above difficulties might depend on the way to measure the knowledge of the words, for instance, productive knowledge or receptive knowledge and the learners‘ level of language proficiency In another study, vocabulary used in literary texts was difficult to understand because participants did not know word meanings in English Literature as well as how to infer word meanings from context (Sedau, 2004) Moreover, in Renandya and Farrell‘s (2011) research, students reported they had problems with new word meanings, and they were not able to recognize word spellings Recently, Rahmawati (2012) and Rohmatillah (2017) found that when students did vocabulary tests, they had to face such problems For example, they also had most difficulties in vocabulary meaning, pronunciation, and spelling Overall, when learners learn vocabulary, they have to face with lots of difficulties with the ability to understand the words, which is related to receptive vocabulary knowledge

In Vietnam, students who study English find difficulties in studying due to their small vocabulary size For example, Le, P H H (2001) mentioned that students in non-English majors found hard to get high scores in tests when they learned English because of their vocabulary size limitation Similarly, in 2016, the survey conducted by Nguyen, T T H and Pham, T T M showed that more than half of 400 students in Ha Noi had difficulty in learning English vocabulary However, the particular difficulties in learning receptive vocabulary knowledge have not been much mentioned in previous studies in Vietnamese teaching contexts Presumably, due to insufficient vocabulary, Vietnamese students have to struggle more or less with learning English

Especially, at The Asian International School, where this study was conducted, students have chances to study and use vocabulary proficiently because most of them have studied vocabulary for several years Unfortunately, the reality goes far beneath expectations Being a teacher of English at the school, the researcher has noticed that the students have certain difficulties when they study

vocabulary, and other teachers of English at this school have the same concerns In particular, when the students join in English conversations as listeners with teachers

or classmates, or when they do listening exercises, they struggle very hard to interpret the speakers‘ meaning due to the new or unknown vocabulary Besides that, when they are involved in listening exercises, they often forget how to write the words they‘ve known that makes them could not catch up the correct messages

of the speakers Nevertheless, these difficulties above are just observed individually from the teacher‘s viewpoints; so far, at The Asian International School, there have been no formal studies investigating on how to resolve these problems

The problems learners have to face when they learn vocabulary in another language are discussed above As mentioned in the background of the study, extensive listening is considered to be a good and appropriate learning method to resolve these problems Previous studies have primarily focused on the relationship between single types of extensive listening practice and vocabulary learning and paid attention to the effects of extensive listening on vocabulary Several studies have found that there was a significantly positive relationship between extensive listening and vocabulary (Elley, 1989; Mason, 2004; Brown et al., 2008; Yuksel & Tanriverdi, 2009; Hyland & Malmaith, 2010; Suggate, Lenhard, Neudecker, & Schneider, 2013; Bui, T M., & Do, T P T, 2016; Widodo & Rozak, 2016) Other studies have focused on the effects of extensive listening on particular aspects of vocabulary learning such as written form, meaning, and form-meaning connection recognition They found that extensive listening positively affected on these particular aspects of vocabulary learning (Brown et al., 2008; Ucán, 2010; Renandya, 2012; Bozan, 2015; Meier, 2015) In short, extensive listening strongly relates to vocabulary learning Hence, the study is conducted to apply extensive listening to investigate whether extensive listening effects positively on receptive vocabulary knowledge

1.3 Purposes of the study and research questions

The present study is conducted with the aims:

- (1) to investigate the effects of extensive listening on vocabulary learning,

in this case referring to receptive vocabulary knowledge of intermediate students at The Asian International School;

pre (2) and to examine the participant students‘ attitudes towards extensive listening practice

Hence, the study is conducted to answer two questions:

1 To what extent does extensive listening affect the pre-intermediate students’ receptive vocabulary knowledge at The Asian International School?

2 What are the participant students’ attitudes towards extensive listening practice?

From the first research question above, the hypothesis is presented as following:

Students at pre – intermediate level who participate in extensive listening practice at The Asian International School will have higher achievement on receptive vocabulary knowledge test‘s scores than students who participate in intensive listening practice

For the second question, the participants may have positive attitudes towards extensive listening as learners who practice extensive listening report that is discussed obviously in Chapter 2

The aims and research questions of this study have just presented The next section explains how this study is worth to be carried out

1.4 Significance of the study

The findings of this study redound to the positive effects of extensive listening on vocabulary learning in foreign language learning today First, the present study could provide appropriate extensive listening practice with various listening materials such as stories, audiobooks, podcasts, and videos for learners to acquire English vocabulary effectively It may be useful for learners who want to enhance their receptive vocabulary knowledge, especially word meanings and word aural forms Learners are also encouraged to do extensive listening practice on their own both inside and even outside classrooms Second, the more students practice extensive listening, the better results they somewhat have on their receptive vocabulary knowledge Third, the study also helps teachers who teach vocabulary or listening know how to apply various extensive listening materials to help their students in vocabulary learning Thus, schools that apply the suggested approach derived from the results of this study will be able to train students better in learning vocabulary For the national perspective, so as to contribute to teaching vocabulary methodology in the development of teaching methodology in Vietnam, the present study is conducted with the desires that its findings will help to reveal critical areas

in vocabulary learning Especially, extensive listening affects receptive vocabulary knowledge including word meanings and word aural forms that most researchers might not concern to investigate Hence, a new method to learn vocabulary may be

arrived at in this study

1.5 Scope of the study

With the limitation of time, ability, and research conditions, the study limited its participants to 80 students of four classes at The Asian International School Besides that, the study just focused on measuring the students‘ receptive vocabulary knowledge to see the effects of extensive listening and investigating their attitudes towards extensive listening Clearly, the receptive vocabulary knowledge could be

considered the recognition of words from hearing or seeing the words (Harmer, 2001) Nevertheless, from the aims of this research to conduct extensive listening practice, the measurement of vocabulary knowledge just focused on measure the recognition of word meanings and word aural forms by only listening to the words Hence, the study only aimed to discover the effects of extensive listening on students‘ receptive vocabulary knowledge including word meanings and word aural forms and their attitudes towards extensive listening practice

1.6 Outline of the study

The study includes five main chapters:

Chapter 1 is the Introduction, which provides general introduction of the

study in terms of background of the study, statement of the problem, aims of the study and research questions, the significance of the study, the scope of the study, and the outline of the study

Chapter 2 is the Literature Review, which reviews and analyzes literature

relating to the study such as listening comprehension, intensive listening, extensive listening, vocabulary and its crucial issues, the relationship between extensive listening practice and vocabulary learning, and previous studies The research gaps and research framework are also presented

Chapter 3 is the Methodology, which gives a detailed description of the

methodology used in this research This chapter includes research site, participants, study design, instruments, intensive listening and extensive listening practice, collection of data, and data analysis

Chapter 4 is Findings and Discussions of the study, which discusses and

analyzes the collected data Then, some crucial discussions were drawn from the findings

Chapter 5 is Conclusion, which shows the research conclusion The

contributions, pedagogical implications, limitations, and recommendations for

further research are also mentioned in this chapter

1.7 Definitions of key terms

The definitions of keys terms used throughout the study are presented as followings:

Extensive listening: is a listening method which provides a lot of enjoyable

and understandable materials to listen for pleasure

Intensive listening: is a listening method in which learners may listen to

every aspect of the listening texts and show how they understand the texts

Receptive vocabulary knowledge: is the learners‘ ability to understand a word

when it appears in listening or reading texts

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews the related literature with four major points First, it is a short overview of listening comprehension in English language learning The next sections present the definitions and characteristics of intensive listening as well as extensive listening to describe the differences between intensive listening and extensive listening Followings are the presentations of the importance of vocabulary in second language learning and essential issues in vocabulary learning Then, the relationship between extensive listening practice and participants‘ receptive vocabulary knowledge is discussed in detail The last points review the effects of extensive listening on vocabulary learning and the learners‘ attitudes towards extensive listening in previous studies to find out research gaps and research framework for the study

2.1 An overview of listening comprehension

To learn a language, listening comprehension is one of the key parts that provides students sources of language inputs For instance, Osada (2004) states that listening is so important that take surprising attentions during the 1990s when aural comprehension starts to be a major concern of studies Besides that, Gilakjani and Ahmadi (2011) also agrees that listening comprehension is significant to language learning Rost explains the importance of listening comprehension in learners‘ language development due to the inputs it provides (1994, as cited in Gilakjani & Ahmadi, 2011) and because it is a language skill used almost widely (2002, as cited

in Gilakjani & Ahmadi, 2011) Besides that, listening comprehension gives learners useful ability to understand speakers‘ messages using their feelings in listening practice (Gilakjani & Sabouri, 2016) To sum up, it can be stated that listening comprehension is a primary skill to learners in language learning Hence, this raises the issue what listening comprehension process entails before moving to discuss on intensive and extensive listening

Several researchers defines listening comprehension in various ways Listening comprehension take place when listeners could understand what they heard (Brown & Yule, 1983) The listeners could indicate their understanding by answering the questions based on the texts Buck (2001) points another definition that listening comprehension is a top-down process including different types of processing that may happen at one time or at different orders In addition, Chenxing (2005) states that listening comprehension is a complicated decipher process covering several basic processes These processes depends on previous knowledge, linguistic competence, and psychological variables That means listeners receive aural inputs then produce meanings and integrate what they hear with their existing knowledge In short, listening comprehension is a complex process that listeners hear and combine a variety of knowledge processing to understand what they hear

It can be inferred that no matter what ways of listening the learners use, they have to go through listening comprehension There are two opposite listening ways, for instance, intensive and extensive listening Several researchers have discussed

on the definitions as well as characteristics of intensive and extensive listening (Kim, 2004; Holden III, 2008; Waring, 2008; Rost, 2011; Matsuo, 2015) The three following sections provide the definitions and characteristics of two mentioned listening methods and significant differences between them

2.2 Intensive listening and extensive listening

2.2.1 Intensive listening

2.2.1.1 Definition of intensive listening

As it can be considered, intensive listening (IL) is a type of listening practice, which listeners just focus exactly on what they have heard According to Rost (1991, 2011), IL could be defined as listening closely to a text within analyzing the inputs including specific sounds, words, phrases, grammatical, and pragmatic units

IL is a listening approach that involves a set of established exercises to perform a

task related to sound, particular language items, and authentic information (McDonough and Shaw, 1993, as cited in Kim, 2004) Similarly, Renandya (2011) suggests that this listening approach aims to instruct vocabulary and grammar to learners Additionally, learners listens to search for details and reacted to specific questions in this type of listening (Field, 2008) In conclusion, IL is a listening approach in which learners may listen to every aspect of the listening texts and show how they understand the texts

2.2.1.2 Intensive listening purposes and characteristics

IL includes four crucial purposes and four main characteristics related to lesson plan, typical activities, listening methods, and materials

IL requires listening for particular purposes First, IL aims to teach new grammar and vocabulary According to Renandya (2011), an IL lesson targets to introduce new vocabulary and grammar to learners The second aim of IL is to practice listening to details or specific information For example, McDonough and Shaw (1993) propose that IL requires learners to acknowledge particular language items, sounds, or details based on the facts of the texts (as cited in Kim, 2004) Similarly, Chang (2012) also states that IL aimed to help learners listen for comprehensive purposes such as listening for specific information, exact words, and details Also, IL aims to focus on accuracy (Ferrato & White, 2004, as cited in Bui and Do, 2016) that means listeners respond exactly to the requirements of listening texts

Consistent with the above purposes, IL has four characteristics First, teachers usually apply IL following a typical lesson plan Renandya (2011) proposed a format of an IL lesson in which includes three steps: pre-listening, while-listening, and post-listening In this IL lesson, teachers may spend no more than a fifth of classroom time requiring learners to listen to the passage and to do listening tasks Learners listens to a two- or three-minute passage twice or three

times, and then, they do some tasks or activities Second, IL provides several activities for learners to develop listening strategies For example, according to Rost (2011), those activities are pause and paraphrase, listening close, error identification, elicited repetition, word spotting, grammar processing, translation or simultaneous interpretation, close activity, and types of dictation such as jigsaw, group, and fast-speed dictation Third, as discussed on the definition, IL methods includes analyzing grammatical and pragmatic units, specific sounds, words, and phrases (Rost, 2011) and searching for details and reacting to specific questions (Field, 2008) Learners have to finish listening tasks under the limited time (Ferrato

& White, 2004, as cited in Bui, T M & Do, T P T., 2016)

Finally, the chosen listening materials for IL are frequently more difficult and shorter passages, which are selected by teachers The amount of listening materials

is little due to time constraints Moreover, the speed of listening recordings is slow enough for learners to hear (Ferrato & White, 2004, as cited in Bui, T M & Do, T

P T., 2016) Overall, IL requires learners to listen and do a variety of listening activities for particular purposes by following a three-stage lesson plan and particular listening methods Besides that, because of the time limitation, the amount, speed, and difficulty of listening materials are adjusted to appropriate learners‘ levels of proficiency

Besides IL, another important listening approach that contributes a lot to listening is extensive listening Several researchers pay more attention to extensive listening due to its great effects towards English learning (Waring, 2008; Ucán, 2010; Renandya, 2010; Chang, 2012; Bozan, 2015; Matsuo, 2015) The following section discusses the definition, purposes, and characteristics of extensive listening

2.2.2 Extensive listening

2.2.2.1 Definition of extensive listening

Several researchers defines extensive listening (EL) as listening for pleasure while listeners were comprehending a large amount of meaningful input (McDonough & Shaw, 1993, as cited in Kim, 2004; Waring, 2008; Ucán, 2010; Rost, 2011; Milliner, 2017) According to Rost (2011), learners listens for pleasure that means learners listened to relax, and they feel comfortable when they practice

EL Waring (2008) give a similar definition that EL concerns developing the listeners‘ ability to build their listening speed and to understand every detail in a large amount of understandable language In 2011, Renandya and Farrell also highlights that EL provides several kinds of listening activities for listeners to gain a large quantity of enjoyable and comprehensive inputs Similar to Renandya and Farrell‘s definition, Milliner (2017) states that EL engages learners to choose huge amounts of listening texts which are at or under their level of proficiency In conclusion, it can be understood that EL is a listening method which provides a lot

of enjoyable and understandable materials to listen for pleasure

2.2.2.2 Extensive listening purposes and characteristics

Four important purposes and related characteristics of EL are exposed in this section The four main characteristics discuss on the way to practice listening, typical listening activities, methods, and materials

EL‘s purposes concentrate on listening for pleasure to enhance listeners‘ understanding the listening texts by acquiring vocabulary incidentally and focus on fluency First, EL can help learners learn vocabulary unexpectedly For example, EL could help improve learners‘ vocabulary knowledge as well as their word recognition skill by meeting the word repeatedly (Renandya, 2011) Second, EL helps listeners understand comprehensive inputs in a fair and flowing way In fact,

EL could help them foster their overall global comprehension (McDonough &

Shaw, 1993, as cited in Kim, 2004) Hence, it is not essential for learners to understand every word in the listening materials Finally, EL aims to enhance listeners practice for fluency In fact, Ferrato and White (2004) highlight that EL focuses on fluency by listening repeatedly (as cited in Bui, T M & Do, T P T., 2016)

EL includes four main characteristics including on the way to practice listening, typical listening activities, methods, and materials Firstly, to practice EL, learners listen for pleasure both inside and outside classrooms Learners are motivated when they participate in EL because there is no pressure for them For example, EL motivates learners by giving them enjoyable activities without any pressure and no explicit exercises (Hollen III, 2008; Úcan, 2010) Listeners could practice EL not only inside classrooms but also outside classrooms (Waring, 2008; Úcan, 2010; Renandya, 2010) Secondly, EL provides several kinds of activities such as narrow listening, teacher read-alouds, storytelling, repeated listening, dictation, dictogloss (Renandya, 2011); listen and predict, tell and check (Renandya, 2012) Fourthly, EL methods are various depending on listeners Ferrato and White (2004) stresses on the EL methods that listeners could decide whether they stop listening or listen repeatedly if they want to (as cited in Bui, T M & Do, T P T., 2016) and there are not pre-set questions or tasks in listening practice (Chang, 2012)

The last but most important characteristic of EL is that providing learners large quantities of self-selected materials, which are at the right level, little higher,

or lower than learners‘ current level to help them fully understand In EL, learners could understand more than 90 percent of listening materials they choose (Waring, 2008) or the materials equal or lower than from one to two levels as comparing with their current level (Renandya, 2011; Milliner, 2017) Moreover, learners could choose more difficult materials after building enough listening for fluency As an illustration, Holden III (2008) suggests that the listening materials should be easy to

understand fully above 70% what the learners have heard Besides that, learners are the center of their learning due to having the right to choose their own materials Holden III (2008) states that learners could choose what they want to listen and determine to quit listening to unsuitable materials That could motivate learners to practice listening and maintain practicing (Milliner, 2017) Finally, several types of listening materials are provided in EL practice in large quantities To take full advantage of EL, EL may provide learners a wide range of target language texts to choose (Mayora, 2017) Thus, EL practice could combine several kinds of listening materials such as films, movies, songs, stories, audiobooks, TED talk, and podcast (Waring, 2008; Renandya, 2010; Matsuo, 2015) Learners could have a wide selection of listening materials for EL practice In addition, the listening materials may have faster speed with easier and longer passages (Ferrato & White, 2004, as cited in Bui, T M & Do, T P T., 2016)

In brief, EL provides learners numerous meaningful, enjoyable, and understandable listening materials and listening activities that they can choose or be given by teachers to listen at their convenience without any pressure or given tasks

2.2.3 The differences between intensive listening and extensive listening

As can be seen, IL and EL are two opposite approaches to practice listening The differences between IL and EL are described as followings

First, EL does not focus on teaching target words as IL, but EL can help learners acquire vocabulary incidentally The main objective of IL is to teach learners new grammar and vocabulary (Renandya, 2011; Chang, 2012) while EL could help gain learners‘ vocabulary knowledge by meeting the word repeatedly (Renandya, 2011)

Second, learners just listen for details in IL practice while EL provides them substantial comprehensive inputs Field (2008) proposes that in IL, learners search for details and react to specific questions Different from IL, EL does not encourage

learners to understand every detail but foster their overall global comprehension (McDonough & Shaw, 1993, as cited in Kim, 2004) and build their listening speed

by listening repeatedly (Waring, 2008)

Third, IL could provide listeners accurate listening practice while EL could help listeners practice for fluency Ferrato and White (2004) highlight the different focal point that IL focuses on accuracy while EL focuses on fluency (as cited in Bui,

T M & Do, T P T., 2016)

Next, IL may require learners to follow rigid lesson plans while in EL, learners can listen for pleasure both inside and outside classrooms In an IL lesson, teachers and students may follow a three-step sequence suggested by Chang (2012) However, in EL practice, learners could receive a lot of interesting listening inputs and practice listening for pleasure inside classrooms or autonomous learning outside classrooms (Waring, 2008; Ucán, 2010; Renandya, 2010; Renandya & Farrell, 2011; Chang, 2012; Matsuo, 2015)

Another difference between IL and EL is shown in diverse listening activities IL provides several activities for learners to develop listening strategies such as pause and paraphrase, listening close, error identification, elicited repetition, word spotting, grammar processing, etc (Rost, 2011) However, EL provides several kinds of activities such as narrow listening, storytelling, repeated listening, dictation, listen and predict, etc (Renandya, 2011; 2012) to focus on understanding the general meaning of listening texts and practicing listening speed

The difference of listening materials leads to listening methods of IL and EL are also contrasted Listeners have to react to specific questions or tasks in IL (Field, 2008) Nevertheless, Chang (2012) states that students have no requirements to answer pre-set questions or tasks with EL as in IL Also, Ferrato and White (2004) also stresses on the limited time that learners must follow in IL while in EL listeners

could stop listening if they don‘t like or listen again and again if they want (as cited

in Bui, T M & Do, T P T., 2016)

Last but not least, IL materials are often more difficult, lower speedy, and shorter passages given by teachers in a small amount Otherwise, EL materials are much easier, faster speedy, and longer passages that are selected by learners or teachers in a large amount (Ferrato & White, 2004, as cited in Bui, T M & Do, T

P T., 2016)

To conclude, EL is an enjoyable way to listen while IL that has specific requirements in listening lessons The following table presents a summary of IL and EL‘s differences (see Table 2.1)

Table 2 1 Differences between intensive listening and extensive listening

- Teach new grammar and vocabulary

- Listen for specific details or special

- Rigid lesson plan

- Listening activities: fast-speed

dictation, pause and paraphrase,

listening close, etc

- Listening methods: specific

questions or tasks; must finish under

the required time

- Listening materials: more difficult

and shorter passages chosen by

teachers; not much in the amount,

and lower speed

- Listen for pleasure without explicit exercises inside or outside

classrooms

- Listening activities: narrow listening, teacher read-alouds, storytelling, repeated listening, etc

- Listening methods: no questions or tasks; stop when students are not interested in; listen repeatedly if they want

- Listening materials: easier and longer passages chosen by teachers or

learners; lots in the amount, and faster speed; several kinds of materials (films, songs, stories…)

This section has just presented the different characteristics of IL and EL The following one will discuss on vocabulary and its repertoire in learning English

2.3 Vocabulary and its crucial issues

2.3.1 The importance of vocabulary in second language learning

Vocabulary is the priority to learn a new language because people almost use words to express their own ideas and understand others The importance of vocabulary is noted in Thornburry‘s (2002) book by citing Wilkins‘ statement In the early 1970s, Wilkins states that ―…while without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed‖ It can be seen that vocabulary is the most important thing in language learning because people use vocabulary to express and transfer their messages Schmitt (2000) also emphasizes the importance of vocabulary acquisition as the core of communicative competence and target language acquisition Recently, Alkhofi (2015) states that vocabulary is the most crucial part of language because vocabulary provides most of the important features of a language such as idioms, phrasal verbs, collocations, and phrases Overall, vocabulary is important in language learning because it is the basis component of language use However, there exist two terms of gaining vocabulary discusses by some researchers, such as vocabulary learning and vocabulary acquisition (Krashen, 1981; Ellis, R., 1994) The following section presents the discussion on this issue

2.3.2 Distinguishing between second language vocabulary learning and acquisition

Some researchers have debated about the differences between second

language vocabulary acquisition and learning Krashen (1981) mentions that the term acquisition is different from learning due to the learning environments For

example, the formal environments such as classrooms provides learning ability while informal environments give the essential inputs for acquisition It means that

learners will pick up another language subconsciously in acquisition and then study

it consciously in learning Krashen also concludes that learners could achieve vocabulary both in acquisition and learning in the classroom Therefore, it is not easy to distinguish between learning and acquisition Ellis, R (1994) argues that it

is not certain to be successful for researchers, especially for teachers to demonstrate

if the knowledge learners own was acquisition or learning Hence, Ellis posites that

it could be interchangeable to use the two terms In conclusion, the words

acquisition and learning can be exchanged to use without any affecting the way in

which the two terms accomplish Therefore, the two terms are used interchangeably

in this study

2.3.3 Vocabulary learning

Although vocabulary is very important to learners who learn a second language, there is not necessary to study all the words in the vocabulary as well as all aspects of a word Nation (2001) emphasizes that even English native speakers might still have limited vocabulary size of English Hence, it is important to know what is involved in knowing a word, especially receptive vocabulary knowledge The following sections will clear the issue up

collocations, and constraints on use (e.g register, fluency, and so on) Later, Thornburry (2002) confirms Fountain and Nation‘s view that learners acquire a word in two ways in terms of receptive knowledge and productive knowledge Receptive vocabulary knowledge usually comes before productive vocabulary knowledge, so learners often understand a word before being able to say Miller (1999) considers that knowing a word revolves such similar properties (as cited in Sydow, 2015) Nevertheless, Miller mentions that people often express themselves both through contextualized words and isolated words with sentences Hence, although people might not be able to know all the features of a word, it cannot be assumed that they are unaware of that word absolutely In conclusion, knowing a word is a huge complex process including separate smaller processes such as knowing its form, meaning, and use and often happening by understanding a word before saying it In addition, knowing a word does not mean that learners must be able to describe all of its features The next part presents in details the aspects of words – receptive vocabulary knowledge that this study aimed to measure

2.3.3.2 Receptive vocabulary knowledge

Several researchers have their own ways to define receptive vocabulary knowledge (RVK) but with one meaning that is the learners‘ ability to understand a word when it appears in listening or reading texts For instance, Harmer (2001) shows that RVK could be seen as the recognition of words when learners hear or see the words They might not recall or produce the words through writing in RVK Nation (2001) and Hajiyeva (2015) also stress on RVK as passive vocabulary because this kind of knowledge could be activated by outside stimuli In RVK, learners are able to understand the words while they are reading or listening (Zhou, 2010; Alkhofi, 2015; Faraj, 2015; Maskor & Baharudin, 2016) then also recalling the words (Hajiyeva, 2015) In short, if learners understand a word when they meet that word in listening or reading texts, they may have receptive knowledge of that word That leads to choose the appropriate way to measure how learners

comprehend the words by listening or reading them To measure RVK, it must be using receptive vocabulary measure Nizonkiza (2016) proposes that matching, multiple choice, and yes/no formats could be used to measure RVK In addition, the test-takers could be required to translate the words from second language to first language or indicate word meanings (Šišková, 2016)

2.3.3.3 Review of receptive vocabulary knowledge tests

The study aimed to investigate the effects of EL on students‘ RVK, hence the vocabulary test must be satisfied with the requirement of testing RVK which can include word meaning and word aural form recognition In addition, whether the test

is suitable or not, it depends on the way to test the words – RVK or productive vocabulary knowledge and the learners‘ level of language proficiency (Higa, 1965,

as cited in Nation, 2001) Due to the wide range of RVK tests designed by several researchers, it is necessary to review these RVK tests to find out which one is most

appropriate for the present study‘s measurement

Date back to the history of testing vocabulary knowledge, researchers have created several tests to measure vocabulary size by assessing learners‘ ability to recognize a word‘s meaning by given its written form For example, Vocabulary Levels Test is one of the most crucial tests to measure RVK (Read & Nation, 1986; Nation, 1983, 1990, as cited in Read, 2000; Nation, 2008) The test format is word written form that means matching the definition with the written form However, the reliability of measuring learner‘s ability to access the word and understand sentences is suspicious A clear difference between RVK and productive vocabulary knowledge measurement in this test is not precise (Nation, 2008) Like the Vocabulary Levels Test, the Eurocentres Vocabulary Size Test is a long-established checklist of words and non-words, develops by Meara and Buxton (1987, as cited in Laufer & Nation, 1999) The Eurocentres Vocabulary Size Test aims to measure RVK following frequency levels of words (Read, 2000) This test is reliable decision-making and estimating vocabulary size but without checking understanding

of each word directly Another crucial vocabulary test – the Vocabulary Size Test, which proposes by several researchers (Nation, 1983, as cited in Read & Nation, 1986; Nation & Beglar, 2007), helps teachers to measure learners‘ written receptive vocabulary size at specific aspects as knowledge of written word forms and the form-meaning connection (Nation, 2008) Because the test is developed by four-multiple-choice format, its level of difficulty is less than Vocabulary Levels Test and Eurocentres Vocabulary Size Test Nevertheless, due to this format, students can guess the answer without previous vocabulary knowledge In another research, Paul, Stallman and O‘Rourke (1990) found that low ability readers guessed only 21% of the answers and 35% of the guessed answers were correct In addition, most

of test-takers in the high ability and low ability groups chose the answers due to the words‘ association and knowing the answers This states that guessing is not a predominant problem in multiple-choice tests In general, these types of tests provide valid results of measuring vocabulary knowledge in size

Nevertheless, these tests only measure RVK by recognizing written forms and form-meaning connection without spoken form recognition It still lacks of the measurement of aural vocabulary knowledge The present study is focused on EL practice; hence, it cannot deniable to have a RVK test which measures learners‘ vocabulary knowledge in spoken form recognition Moreover, Nation (2008) urges that ―If the course focused heavily on reading, the vocabulary test should be a receptive test where learners see a foreign word and have to choose or provide a meaning for it‖ (p.148) Therefore, it is requisite to have a listening RVK test that requires learners to hear the spoken form of a word and select a suitable meaning for that word

There have been a few research studies, which report on listening vocabulary measurement Most of the listening vocabulary tests have narrow replications due to their existed weaknesses Firstly, Dictation Levels Test adapted by Fountain measures recognition of spoken and written form, word meaning of the form, word

meaning in context, collocation and grammatical patterns (Fountain & Nation, 2000) However, it measures a little productive knowledge, e.g., spelling Also, Fountain and Nation found that the context of a word could make the word meaning difficult when it appears in different graded dictation tests McLean, Kramer, and Beglar (2015) also shows that a listening vocabulary test mainly focuses on orthographic knowledge which might conclude confounding variables in the test format Orthographic knowledge is the knowledge for being able to perform through reading and writing (Milton, Wade, & Hopkins, 2010) Therefore, Dictation Levels Test still lacks measuring phonological knowledge which is crucial for performing speaking and listening ability according to Milton et al (2010) In addition, Nation (2008) states that the test could not be considered absolutely as a vocabulary test Although Dictation Levels Test can be used to measure vocabulary growth as a pretest and a posttest and satisfies a wide range of aspects of knowing a word, there

is some doubt about to what extent aural vocabulary knowledge is measured in the test

Secondly, with the great attempts to produce an aural vocabulary size test combining measuring both orthographic (word written forms) and phonological vocabulary knowledge (word aural forms), Milton and Hopkins (2006) create a yes/no format test named AuralLex The test provides many advantages such as administering quickly, applying to various proficiency levels of learners, correlating strongly at 67 with listening and 71 with speaking as comparing with the International English Language Testing System (Milton et al., 2010) However, the test has some major weaknesses as failing to measure orthographic vocabulary size (reading scores at 22, and writing scores at 44 (Milton et al., 2010)) and the degree test-takers know each target word‘s meaning (Read, 2000) Even so, the results from the test promote many researchers to build valid tests measuring aural vocabulary knowledge

Fortunately, in 2015, McLean et al made a Listening Vocabulary Levels Test with great efforts to fill the gap in the literature on vocabulary knowledge measurement The LVLT aims to measure RVK including word meanings and word aural forms from the first five 1000-word frequency levels from Nation‘s (2012) British National Corpus/Corpus of Contemporary American English word lists and from Coxhead‘s (2000) Academic Word List proposes (as cited in McLean et al., 2015) This test is a bilingual test adapted from the Vocabulary Size Test version Japanese on Paul Nation‘s publication on the website of Victoria University of Wellington Due to its bilingual format, the LVLT provides some advantages such

as the test-takers could show their word meaning knowledge and each distractor could be less difficult For example, direct translations don‘t require much cognition

in the time constraint (McLean et al., 2015)

The strengths of the LVLT are demonstrated in McLean et al.‘s study by investigating aspects of validity, carelessness, and guessing The results showed that the difficulty of tested items was reasonable because the test-takers who had higher scores were getting closer to the top of a figure and lower-scoring test-takers were closer the bottom Then, the LVLT had a reasonably strong relationship with the Test of English for International Communication scores, e.g., the Pearson correlation of 54 (p= 0001) Other issues such as guessing and carelessness were very small in the amount For example, items below the test-takers‘ ability that were not identified and answered correctly had an extremely high correlation with the original data In addition, the results from the interview also demonstrated that the LVLT is a precise aural vocabulary knowledge measurement of test-takers who confirmed that the format was easy to grasp and it was relevant to them The four-multiple-choice format was appropriate with receptive vocabulary measurement proposed by Nizonkiza (2016) Last but not least, the preliminary validity evidence provided by McLean et al proved that LVLT is an appropriate test to measure RVK including word meanings and word aural forms for diagnostic and achievement purposes

The above discussion shows the strengths and weaknesses of each RVK test The summary of these discussed tests was presented in Table 2.2

Table 2 2 Summary of Receptive Vocabulary Knowledge tests

Tests Measure Format Researchers Reliability and validity

Vocabulary

Levels Test

learners‘

ability to recognize meaning of a word by given its written form

Word written form –

definition matching

Nation (1983, 1990,

as cited in Read, 2000) Read and Nation (1986), Nation (2008)

no reliable evidence on measuring learners‘ ability to access the word,

doubtful distinction between RVK and productive knowledge

Meara and Buxton (1987, as cited in Laufer &

Nation, 1999), Read (2000)

reliable decision – making, reliable estimating vocabulary size,

lack of checking understanding of each word directly

Vocabulary

Size Test

learners‘

knowledge of written word forms and the connection between form and meaning

choice

four-multiple-Nation (2008)

acceptable results of measuring vocabulary size,

guess the answer without previous vocabulary knowledge

Dictation

Levels

Test

orthographic knowledge

aural format (Fountain &

Nation, 2000)

lack of measuring phonological knowledge AuralLex measuring

orthographic and

phonological vocabulary knowledge

yes/no format Milton and

Hopkins (2006)

failure of measuring orthographic

knowledge and the degree test-takers know each target word

meaning Listening

Vocabulary

Levels Test

RVK including aural forms and meanings

choice format

multiple-McLean et

al (2015)

high validity on measuring aural word knowledge, low carelessness & guessing

Because of its strengths and appropriacy to measure RVK which obtains both word meanings and aural forms, the study with the great attempts adapted the LVLT

to make this test more appropriate with the participants

In brief, the section discusses the importance of vocabulary, what is involved

in knowing a word focusing on RVK and the review of RVK tests The following section continues with a discussion on the relationship between EL practice and vocabulary learning

2.4 The relationship between types of extensive listening practice and vocabulary learning

Several previous studies found the effects of single types of listening practice such as to stories, audiobooks, podcasts, films or movies, songs, and talks on vocabulary acquisition The results from previous studies show that the above types

of listening practice are used extensively to enhance learners‘ vocabulary knowledge (Elley, 1989; Mason, 2004; Mason, Vanata, Jander, Borsch, & Krashen, 2008; Brown, Waring, & Donkaewbua, 2008; Hyland & Malmaith, 2010; Lee, M., Lee, S., & Krashen, S., 2014; Lenhart, Lenhard, Vaahtoranta, & Suggate, 2017)

First, storytelling is an activity which has been widely applied and has brought a positive effect on vocabulary learning For instance, in 1989, Elley discovered that young learners could learn vocabulary incidentally when they listened to stories during one week Later, Mason (2004) also used follow-up tests for 118 freshmen in two colleges and found that storytelling helped students remember the words more than just studying a list of words Similarly, in another study, Mason et al (2008) explored that listening to stories provided higher vocabulary acquisition than word list studying These results confirm that although learners acquire more or less vocabulary from storytelling than studying a list of words, learners could remember words acquire from storytelling longer than just studying words decontextualized Other researchers also indicated that listening to

stories within visual supports (Brown et al., 2008; Soleimani & Akbari, 2013; Lee et al., 2014; Arast & Gorjian, 2016; Kalantari & Hashemian, 2016; AminAfshar & Mojavezi, 2017) or even without visual supports (Hyland & Malmaith, 2010; Mostafa, 2016; Lenhart et al., 2017) could enhance vocabulary learning and vocabulary retention Hence, learners could acquire vocabulary incidentally thanks

to listening to stories

Second, several researchers also found that learners could acquire vocabulary incidentally from listening to audiobooks (Chang, 2011; Laroui, 2015; Saka, 2015; Moore & Cahill, 2016) For example, the results in Chang‘s (2011) 26-week study showed that who obtained reading while listening to audiobooks gained almost 566 words but the others who did not listen to audiobooks only gained 123 words Moore and Cahill (2016) stated that audiobooks could be explored as a mean to gain general knowledge and develop vocabulary in long-term studies with teenage participants However, in 2015, Saka found that audiobooks affected positively 65 students‘ vocabulary acquisition when they participated in listening activities outside classrooms in an only three-day period research Most of the participants in Laroui‘s (2015) study also reported that they listened to audiobooks to enhance their listening comprehension and gain new vocabulary Thanks to these invaluable findings, it could be concluded that listening to audiobooks extensively is beneficial

to incidental vocabulary learning in spite of the time constraint

Third, acquiring vocabulary incidentally through podcasts has been explored

by several research studies (Lu, 2007; Putman & Kingsley, 2009; Farshi & Mohammadi, 2013; Meier, 2015) These studies suggest that incidental vocabulary acquisition may happen through listening to podcasts extensively but through enough exposures necessary for incidental vocabulary acquisition It means that each word needs to be met at least 15 times (van Zeeland & Schmitt, 2013) to 20 times (Brown et al., 2008) Thus, learners could practice listening to podcasts repeatedly outside classrooms to enhance vocabulary acquisition