Strategies for interactive listening in modern foreign language learning

Abstract

In two-way interactive listening, listeners are expected to use interactional skills or strategies to understand meaning, recognize interlocutors’ intentions, make responses, and establish common ground. However, strategy use can be affected by learner differences and affective factors. The present study investigated the effects of group difference (students majoring in five modern foreign languages) and an affective factor (self-perceived communication confidence) on Chinese native speakers’ strategies for interactive listening. A questionnaire survey was conducted to explore the listening strategies used by 445 college students, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 students to uncover listening difficulties in their language majors. A two-way between-groups MANOVA test revealed statistically significant main effects for language majors and communication confidence on overall and on certain types of strategy for interactive listening. Spanish language majors were found to use strategies more frequently than English, French, German, or Japanese major students. Students in all five language majors with higher self-perceived communication confidence used inference-making, phonological and nonverbal strategies more frequently than low-confidence students. Certain listening difficulties were found to be language specific. In general, vocabulary size as well as lexical segmentation were reported as main listening difficulties, followed by morphological and syntactic variation, and fast speech rate.

Keywords:

• Interactive listening
• strategy
• communication confidence
• modern foreign language

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The reason for choosing the five modern languages was because they are the most popular five languages with academic degrees offered in universities in Taiwan.

2 The CAPJHSS, consisting of Chinese, mathematics, English, social science and science tests, is a large-scale, nationwide criterion-referenced test for senior high school or five-year college entrance. The test results of the five academic subjects are classified at three levels – ‘A’ (Mastery), ‘B’ (Fundamental), and ‘C’ (Improvement Needed) – respectively. In the present study, the English level of the majority of the 2015 and 2016 five-year college enrollment in this university was ‘A’ (H. Hsieh, personal communication, January 5, 2021).

3 The language proficiency level for the five groups of students was simply a reference. Since the students are required to pass the language proficiency test before graduation, some of them had already taken the tests (or even obtained a higher level), others had not (but might have already reached B1 level), by the time of data collection.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mu-Hsuan Chou

Mu-Hsuan Chou is a professor in the Department of Foreign Language Instruction at Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages, Taiwan. She has published research papers in English for Specific Purposes, Reading Research Quarterly, Language, Culture and Curriculum, the Journal of Educational Research, TESOL Quarterly, and Educational Psychology. Her current research interests include educational psychology, language assessment, learning strategy, and EFL teaching and learning.