Abstract
This study was intended to investigate the relationship between working memory, anxiety and Iranian EFL learners’ listening comprehension. For the purpose of this study, 60 Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners were selected among 80 students at a private language institute in Hamadan, Iran. They participated in a homogeneity test (Oxford Quick Placement Test) to determine their homogeneity level. At first, two working memory span tests was administered to participants. Moreover, foreign language listening anxiety questionnaire and listening comprehension tests were applied as another data gathering instruments. Pearson’s Product moment correlation and one-way ANOVA were used to analyze the data. It was revealed that there was a strong, negative relationship between FL listening comprehension and listening anxiety. The study showed that a large number of the students experience high level of anxiety. Consequently, they were poor in their listening comprehension test implementation. Also, regarding working memory, it was found that working memory is an efficient and paramount prophesier for EFL listening comprehension. Learners with larger working memory capacity more likely have better abilities in listening. In addition, this study provides some pedagogical implications on EFL teaching.
Highlights
Listening is regarded as the most frequently-used language skill (Scarcella and Oxford 1992), plays a vital role in communication (Mendelsohn 1994), and “is probably the least explicit of the four language skills, making it the most difficult skill to learn” (Vandergrift 2004)
The results showed that there was a reverse correlation between foreign language listening anxiety and listening comprehension and a statistically negative association between foreign language anxiety and listening comprehension, while foreign language anxiety and foreign language listening anxiety enjoyed a significant positive relationship
The primary goal of the current study was to specify the relationship between listening comprehension, working memory, and foreign language listening anxiety
Summary
Listening is regarded as the most frequently-used language skill (Scarcella and Oxford 1992), plays a vital role in communication (Mendelsohn 1994), and “is probably the least explicit of the four language skills, making it the most difficult skill to learn” (Vandergrift 2004). As described by Oxford (1993), is regarded as a complex problem-solving skill which is the recognition of sounds. According to Buck (2001), for instance, listening comprehension is an active process of constructing meaning and this is performed by applying knowledge to the incoming sounds. Lynch and Mendelsohn (2002) claim that listening comprehension consists of a variety (2018) 3:20 of related processes comprising oral word recognition, perception of intonation patterns and interpretation of the relevance of what is being said to the current topic. For O’Malley and colleagues (1989), what makes listening an active process is that listeners focus on selected aspects of the aural input and construct meaning by relating what they hear to their prior knowledge
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