7.3.2　Pedagogical Implications

7.3.2PedagogicalImplications

Thefindingsofthisstudysuggestthefollowingpedagogicalimplications.

Textrepetitioninlisteningcomprehensionisclearlyhelpfulinfacilitatinglearners'listeningcomprehension,anditisespeciallyhelpfulforlearnerswithlowlisteningproficiency.Inanauthenticcommunicativesetting,however,repetitionoforalinputmayonlyhappenwhenrequestedbythelistener.Therefore,inorderforlearnerstodevelopthecompetenceneededforlisteninginarealcommunicativecontext,teachersneedtoreducerepetitionovertime.Inotherwords,repetitionoflisteningtextsmaysuittheneedsofbeginners,butthefinalgoaloflisteningteachingistoenablelearnerstobeabletocomprehendinputinauthenticlisteningsettings.Itissuggestedthereforethatforlearnerswithlowlisteningproficiency,EFLteachersshouldstartwithprovidingopportunitiesforrepeatedlisteningandthengraduallymovetowardthefinalstateofone-timelistening.Withregardtothedifficultylevelofthelisteningtexts,instructionshouldaimonlytoprovideinputthatisslightlyabovethelearners'currentlevelofcompetence.AsarguedbyRost(2011,p.152),“Byreceivinginputthatisprogressivelymorecomplex,thelearnernaturallyacquireslisteningability”.Therefore,EFLteachersshouldchoosereasonablychallenginglisteningmaterialstosuitlowproficiencylisteners,andastheircompetencedevelops,thelisteningtextscangraduallyincreaseinlinguisticdifficulty.

Listeningtextsnotonlyservelearnersasatoolforpracticinglisteningbutalsoasasourceofincidentalvocabularyacquisition.Therefore,whendesigninglisteningtextsforthepurposeofincidentalvocabularylearning,EFLteachersshouldkeepthefollowingissuesinmind.

(a)Newwordstobelearnedincidentallyinthelisteningtextsshouldbelimitedtoaverysmallpercentageofthetotalwordsinthetext.AsnotedbyRead(2004,p.150),“thevocabularylearninggoalsforminimumlevelsofbothlisteningandreadingcomprehensionneedtobesetsomewhathigherthan95percentcoverage”.Hu&Nation(2000)alsoarguedthatlearnersneedtoknowatleast98%ofthewordsinordertoreadindependently.“However,thereissimplynotenoughevidencetoconfidentlyestablishacoveragerequirementforlisteningatthemoment”(Schmitt,2008,p.331).Theprimaryaimshouldbetoensurethatlearnersareabletocomprehendthetext.Onlywhenthepercentageofnewwordsislowcanlearnerspossiblyattendtounknownwordsandguesstheirmeaningseffectively.

(b)EFLteachersshouldmaximizemeaning—focusedexposureaswellasprovidingexplicitvocabularyinstruction.Repetitionofthetargetwordsisanimportantconditionforincidentalvocabularyacquisitiontooccur.Consideringthatwhatisretainedbythelisteneristheencodedinformationinmemory(Danks&End,1987),wordswhichleavemoretracesinmemory(suchasfrequentlyrepeatedwords)maybemoreeasilyunderstoodthanthoseleavingfewertracesinmemoryduringlisteningcomprehension.Asdescribedpreviously,themaximumexposurestothetargetwordsinthisstudywereonlysix,whichprobablycouldonlyleaveveryslighttracesofwordforminmemoryandwasnotsufficientforform-meaningmappingbythelearners.AccordingtoWebb(2007:64),when“learnersmeetunknownwordstentimesincontext,sizablelearninggainsmayoccur”.Schmitt(2008)suggestedthat8-10readingexposuresmaygivelearnersareasonablechanceofacquiringaninitialreceptiveknowledgeofwords.Therefore,itisadvisedthateachtargetwordshouldoccurseveraltimesindifferentcontextsinthelisteningtasks.AsarguedbyHuckin&Coady(1999,p.185)“therearesomanyvariablesinvolvedinlearningawordthatitisimpossibletodetermineanyonethresholdfornumberofexposures.Muchdependsonsuchfactorsastheword'ssalienceinagiventext,itsrecognizabilityasacognate,itsmorphology,thelearner'sinterest,andtheavailabilityandrichnessofcontextclues”.

(c)Thelinguisticpropertiesofthelisteningtexts:

Thecontentoftextsshouldbefamiliartothelearners.Nassaji(2003)foundthatthemostfrequentlyusedknowledgesourceforlexicalinferencinginreadingcomprehensionisworldknowledgeandthisfindingsuggeststhatcluesresidinginbackgroundknowledgewillassistcomprehension.EFLteachersshoulduseordeviselisteningtextsthathavecontentrelatedtothelearners'backgroundknowledge.

Thesentencesinwhichthetargetswordsareembeddedshouldprovidecluesforlearnerstoinferthemeanings.Previousstudies(e.g.,Bengeleil&Paribakht,2004)revealedthatwhenusingcontextualclues,learnerstendtouselocalco-textclues(wordswhosemeaningscouldbeinferredbyusingtheimmediatesentencecontext)toinferwordmeaning.Theyfoundthatlearnersfirststudythesentencecontainingthetargetwordtoinferthemeaningandonlylaterresorttotheco-textbeyondthetargetwordsentenceifnecessary.

Wordswhichcontributetotheunderstandingofthetopicoftextsinalisteningtaskaremorelikelytobeunderstoodthanwordsdescribingfactualdetailsinthesamelisteningtask.Therefore,thetargetwordsshouldoccurinthesentencesrelatingthetopicofthetext.

Oneofthemosteffectivewaysofimprovingincidentallearningisbyreinforcingitafterwardswithintentionallearningtasks.Therefore,follow-upworkisnecessarytopromoteawarenessoftheunfamiliarlexicalitemsinordertodeepenandextendthelearners'partialknowledge.Someafter-listeningvocabularywork(e.g.,pronunciationhelp,reconstructionactivities,etc.)shouldbedevisedtoconsolidateandmaintainthepartialandvaguevocabularyknowledgethatlearnershavegainedfromlisteningtasks.

EFLteachersshouldrecognizethat,eventhoughitmaybetime-consumingtopreparelisteningtextsandfollow-uptasks,theymaybenefitbothlisteningcomprehensionandvocabularyacquisition.

Metacognitiveawarenesstrainingneedstobeconductedoveraperiodoftime,andlearnersalsoneedtimetograduallyactonthemetacognitivestrategiestheyhavereceivedtrainingin.Themetacognitivelisteningstrategytraininginthestudywasconductedforonlyfiveminutes,anditwasclearlytooshortforthelearnerstoautomatizestrategyuse.Learnersalsoneedtoapplythetaughtstrategiesbeyondtheclassroomlisteningcontexts.Long-termtrainingcanprovidelearnerswithmoreopportunitiestoapplythelearnedstrategiesinreallifelisteningactivities.L2researchontheeffectoftrainingoninferencingmeaninginlisteningcomprehensionisextremelyscarce.Theuseofthelexicalinferencingstrategyhasbeenmostlyexaminedinreadingcomprehensionresearchbuthasbeenshowntobenotalwayseffective.Forinstance,Hamada(2009)examined5Japanesecollege-levelESLlearners'meaninginferencingbehaviorsovera4-weekperiod,andfoundthelearnersdidnotshowaconsiderablechange.Althoughsomestudies(e.g.,Fraser,1999)provedL2lexicalinferencingstrategytrainingtobehelpfulinreadingcomprehension,thegeneralizabilityoftheirfindingstothelisteningisyetunclear.Therefore,inordertodrawpedagogicallyusefulconclusions,moreresearchregardingtheeffectofL2word-meaninginferencetrainingisneeded.Moreover,inferencinginlisteningmaybeproblematicandEFLteachersshouldbecautiouswhenencouraginglessproficientstudentstoinferwordmeaninginlisteningcomprehension.Lessproficientlistenersmayexperiencedifficultyinusingappropriateknowledgesourcestoinferwordmeaning,andonceanincorrectinferenceismade,itmayharmtextunderstanding.Field(2008)recommendedthatlistenersshouldchecktheirinterpretationsagainstincominginformation.SoEFLteacherscaninstructstudentstolistentotextsembeddedwithunknownwordsbyaskingthemtoidentifyunknownwords,reportwhattheythinkthemeaningsofthewordsareandhowtheyarriveatthemeanings.Thentheteachercanaskthestudentstolistenagainandencouragethemtocheckiftheirinferencematchestheexistingtextualinformation(Lee&Cai,2010).