Abstract
The purpose of this experiment was to explore whether listening positions (close or distant location from the sound source) in the classroom, and classroom reverberation, influence students’ score on a test for second-language (L2) listening comprehension (i.e., comprehension of English in Swedish speaking participants). The listening comprehension test administered was part of a standardized national test of English used in the Swedish school system. A total of 125 high school pupils, 15 years old, participated. Listening position was manipulated within subjects, classroom reverberation between subjects. The results showed that L2 listening comprehension decreased as distance from the sound source increased. The effect of reverberation was qualified by the participants’ baseline L2 proficiency. A shorter reverberation was beneficial to participants with high L2 proficiency, while the opposite pattern was found among the participants with low L2 proficiency. The results indicate that listening comprehension scores—and hence students’ grade in English—may depend on students’ classroom listening position.
Highlights
The Swedish National Agency for Education—the central administrative authority for public school in Sweden—organizes nationwide tests on a yearly basis
We have previously found in our research that a long reverberation time can improve recall for words spoken in English and Swedish when compared with a short reverberation time, at least when the signal-to-noise ratio is low [5,6]
The two independent samples, the group who took the listening comprehension tests in the classroom with the long reverberation time and the group who took the test in the classroom with short reverberation time, had comparable scores on the baseline L2 proficiency reading test (Mlong = 7.5, SD = 2.6, N = 64; Mshort = 8.0, SD = 3.1, N = 61), and the scores did not differ significantly, t(123) = 1.00, p =
Summary
The Swedish National Agency for Education—the central administrative authority for public school in Sweden—organizes nationwide tests on a yearly basis. One of the tests—that is part of a larger test battery that is supposed to measure second language proficiency—is English listening comprehension. In this test, the pupils listen to spoken conversations that are played back through loudspeakers, typically stationed at the front end of the classroom. The pupils listen to spoken conversations that are played back through loudspeakers, typically stationed at the front end of the classroom This circumstance could lead to a situation wherein the pupils are not taking the test under equal premises, which could have unfair consequences for grades based on task scores. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the interaction between classroom acoustic factors (i.e., reverberation) and distance between listener and sound source
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