Moroccan Tertiary Students’ Ability in Comprehending Listening and Reading in Argumentative Discourse

Abstract

Listening and reading are indisputably receptive skills that provide learners with language input through the discourse they see or hear. Teaching them separately at the University level has many benefits as well as stumbling blocks in the learning process. Thus, many researchers argue for integrating listening into reading since there is a significant positive correlation between them. Admittedly, the present research is a plea for the idea of integrating the two skills to enhance a high level of learners’ comprehension. To attain this objective, this study is an attempt to determine whether there is a significant relationship between listening and reading in argumentative discourse. To test this hypothesis, 92 Semester 4 participants studying at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Moulay Ismail in Meknes, ENS (Ecole Normale Supérieure) in Meknes, as well as the Faculty of Language, Letters, and Arts, Ibn Tofail in Kenitra were administered listening and reading proficiency tests to examine their abilities in comprehending listening and reading texts in the argumentative mode of discourse. To this end, two types of instruments namely Pearson product-moment correlation and simple linear regression have been used to analyze the data collected. The results revealed that there is a positive correlation between listening and reading (r= .60, p=< 0.001). Therefore, given this positive correlation, several pedagogical recommendations related to its pedagogical implications have been put forwards for practitioners and syllabus designers to reflect on and draw on to strengthen students’ listening and reading abilities in argumentative discourse.