The effects of explicit listening strategy instruction on the listening comprehension of English as second language (ESL) community college students

Abstract

This mixed methods study explored the effects of explicit listening strategy instruction on the beginning-level ESL learner's listening comprehension at a community college in Northern California. Most previous studies measured the effectiveness of listening strategy instruction by comparing students' test scores, but little research explored the students' listening strategy development and their perceptions of the strategy instruction. Furthermore, no prior research exists on the effects of listening strategy instruction among community college students. The researcher employed the concurrent triangulation approach, collecting and analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data simultaneously. Data sources included interviews, a listening test, background surveys, and classroom observations. A total of 52 students participated in the research, including 30 in the treatment group and 22 in the control group. Based on the initial findings, the researcher provided explicit instruction of listening strategies to the treatment group. The qualitative findings of the present study showed positive changes in students' listening strategy use after the strategy instruction. In addition, the findings revealed that students noticed improvement in their listening abilities and other areas as a result of efficiently utilizing the listening strategies. The quantitative findings resulting from the independent sample t-test revealed a statistically significant difference in gain score means between the control and treatment groups. Thus, the qualitative and quantitative findings converged and suggested that the explicit teaching of listening strategies did have positive effects on community college ESL students' listening comprehension. This study has implications for the fields of research methods, language teaching pedagogy, listening strategies, strategy instruction, and strategy assessment among ESL and EFL learners. More research on explicit listening strategy instruction in adult education would further expand the current understanding of the effects of strategy instruction and to identify curricular implications.

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