Investigating the Effect of Reduced Forms Instruction on EFL Learners’ Listening and Speaking Abilities

Abstract

Listening comprehension is usually considered as one of the most difficult language skills to EFL learners due to the unavoidable presence of “reduced forms” in authentic speech. This study was an attempt to investigate the effect of explicit “reduced forms” instruction on Iranian EFL learners’ overall listening comprehension and their ability to recognize and produce them in their daily conversations. The participants of this study were 50 intermediate English learners who were randomly assigned as the experimental and the control groups of the study. Three pre-tests were administered at the commencement of the study to see if the participants of both groups were at the same level of listening comprehension and “reduced forms” awareness. After the pre-tests, the participants in the experimental group received instruction on “reduced forms” while the control participants continued their regular classes. At the end of the 10-week instruction, the participants were given three post-tests to see if they have improved their listening comprehension ability and their ability to recognize and produce the “reduced forms” recurrently in their daily speech. Although the control participants have significantly improved their listening comprehension, the fact that the experimental participants had outperformed implied the efficacy of “reduced forms” training on the overall listening comprehension’s betterment. The results also revealed that the experimental participants significantly improved their “reduced forms” awareness as well as their ability to produce “reduced forms” at the end of training course while the control participants didn’t.