The Role of Task and Listener Characteristics in Second Language Listening

Tineke Brunfaut,Andrea Révész

doi:10.1002/tesq.168

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between second language (L2) listening and a range of task and listener characteristics. More specifically, for a group of 93 nonnative English speakers, the researchers examined the extent to which linguistic complexity of the listening task input and response, and speed and explicitness of the input, were associated with task difficulty. In addition, the study explored the relationship between L2 listening and listeners’ working memory and listening anxiety. The participants responded to 30 multiple-choice listening items and took an English proficiency test. They also completed two working memory tasks and a listening anxiety questionnaire. The researchers analysed listening input and responses in terms of a variety of measures, using Cohmetrix, WebVocabProfiler, Praat, and the PHRASE list, in combination with expert analysis. Task difficulty and participant ability were determined by means of Rasch analysis, and correlational analyses were run to investigate the task and listener variables’ association with L2 listening. The study found that L2 listening task difficulty correlated significantly with indicators of phonological, discourse, and lexical complexity and with referential cohesion. Better L2 listening performances were delivered by less anxious listeners and, depending on L2 listening measure, by those with a higher working memory capacity.

Highlights

This study investigated the relationship between second language (L2) listening and a range of task and listener characteristics
In order to establish the difficulty of the 30 SMW items to obtain a measure of listening task difficulty for research questions (RQs) 1 and 2, estimates were obtained by running a dichotomous Rasch model with the facets participant ability and item difficulty (Linacre, 1989)
In line with previous findings that lexical complexity has an effect on task difficulty (e.g., Nissan et al, 1996; Revesz & Brunfaut, 2013), we found that four lexical complexity characteristics of the listening passages significantly correlated with task difficulty

Summary

Introduction

This study investigated the relationship between second language (L2) listening and a range of task and listener characteristics. The participants responded to 30 multiple-choice listening items and took an English proficiency test They completed two working memory tasks and a listening anxiety questionnaire. Among the listening task factors that have been investigated are task input variables such as passage length, speech rate, linguistic complexity, and text content; variables related to task procedures, such as the nature of the task instructions and the number of times listening; and task response characteristics such as the item type, or the length and complexity of the required response (for comprehensive reviews, see Bloomfield et al, 2010; Vandergrift, 2007). The ability to integrate in real time information from the various knowledge sources is considered crucial for successful listening comprehension (Rost, 2005) This process is highly automatized, requiring little or no conscious attention from proficient listeners, but demands more controlled, conscious processing from those with more limited L2 knowledge and/or less efficient processing skills (Segalowitz, 2003). Given that WM is limited in capacity (Baddeley, 2000), less automated processing is more taxing. Buck (2001), Vandergrift (2007), and others have suggested that this leads to partial comprehension or miscomprehension by L2 listeners

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion