Research Note: The Effect of Visuals on Listening Comprehension: A Study of Japanese Learners' Listening Strategies

Abstract

This study aims to identify listening comprehension strategies used by adult Japanese native speakers and monolingual Australian learners of Japanese language. It investigates how two different listening contexts (audiovisual and audio-only) may influence listeners' choice of strategies and how the strategies chosen relate to learners' proficiency. In this study, a listening strategy is conceptualised as a mental operation undertaken by a learner to solve a listening comprehension problem in a non-interactional situation. To collect data on strategies, a concurrent think-aloud procedure is used and the data are analysed quantitatively. The study identified nineteen strategies which were labelled under the three general categories of ‘cognitive’ strategies (11), ‘metacognitive’ strategies (7) and ‘other’ strategies (1).