Do Context-Rich Lessons Improve Learners’ Listening Comprehension Performance?

Abstract

This action research project explores whether context-rich lessons produce better listening comprehension results than context-poor lessons. Video clips and professional quality images improved contextual support to scaffold listening comprehension. Listening segments were adapted from a podcasting site. Fifteen upper intermediate Asian learners participated by completing a pre-study listening skills questionnaire and participating in two context-rich and two context-poor lessons featuring listening texts and comprehension gap-fills. Post-listening questionnaires provided learners’ evaluations of their listening experience. A post-project questionnaire surveyed impressions of the two lesson types. Outcomes from context-rich lessons were compared with contextpoor lessons by correlating learners’ post-listening questionnaires with listening comprehension scores to assess whether their reflections matched performance. Results showed listening comprehension scores were higher for context-rich lessons and that learners preferred this approach.