Aural Texts Research Articles

Capturing the situated, dynamic nature of EMI-lecture listening comprehension in real time

Abstract English-medium instruction (EMI) potentially offers pedagogical efficiency by simultaneously providing access to academic content and English affordances. EMI’s efficacy and effectiveness, however, remain unproven with questions concerning students’ language proficiency unresolved. As listening to lectures holds a central role in tertiary education and the development of language skills is founded on second-language listening ability, key concerns for stakeholders are knowing how much of an EMI lecture students can understand and what factors impact their lecture listening comprehension. Current methodologies used to capture listening comprehension data, such as tests, surveys, summaries, and transcript markings do not capture the idiosyncratic, volatile, and multifaceted reactions to aural text phenomena that learners encounter during a lecture. This study, therefore, uses an innovative foot switch mechanism to capture comprehension data in real time as students participated in an EMI lecture. These data were then used to guide a stimulated recall. The data showed learners failing to comprehend extensive sections of the lecture while deeper analysis identified sections of the lecture where issues concerning prior taught knowledge, top-down schema building, lexical, and bottom-up identification of sounds coincided for multiple learners. Extrapolating from these points of convergence, pedagogical recommendations are provided.

The Effect of Infographic Media Assisted by Aural Text on Improving Understanding of the Fiqh of Worship in Elementary School Students

This research investigates the influence of infographic media assisted by aural text on the understanding of fiqh worship among elementary school students. The research method employed is an experimental design with a Posttest-Only Group Design. The data were collected using probability sampling and cluster sampling techniques and gathered through observations, interviews, documentation and tests. Data analysis was conducted using a t-test. The study's results, which involved 34 students at MI Darul Ulum, indicate that the use of infographic media assisted by aural text significantly improves the understanding of fiqh worship among students in Grade III A as the experimental group. In contrast, the understanding of students in Grade III B as the control group shows less significant improvement. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that the use of infographic media assisted by aural text is effective in enhancing students' understanding of fiqh worship, emphasizing the importance of media in religious education at the elementary school level, and providing significant implications for the development of more innovative and effective teaching methods in the future.

Literature of the Black Diaspora and the Performance of Caribbean and African American Aural Texts

The second half of the twentieth century, witnessed a new kind of literature often referred to as "Literature of the Black Diaspora; its appearance and acceptance into mainstream world literature was not without hostilities: overcame what seems like a futile effort, and now a major world literature. One salient feature of literature of the black Diaspora is the representation of aural texts in its composition and reception. This paper is therefore designed to examine the concept and performance of Afro-Caribbean and African American aurality as African legacy and constituent of the Black Literature. This paper, with reference to specific oral and aural texts, discovers that the performance of orality and aurality is a veritable heritage of the Caribbean and African American poetry and this criticism of the black vernacular tradition ranging from the spirituals and blues to jazz, calypso, reggae, hip-hop, gospel, and other contemporary poetic forms indicates that African American and Afro-Caribbean music is particularly rich in mixture of African tradition. The tradition was heralded by the forceful movement of Africans from their native land, through the middle passage, and their ultimate adaptation to a new land. Thus, music is to Africa as the anvil is to the blacksmith, and slavery was the surface on which American and Caribbean music was forged no matter how refined they are now. Aside emotional needs, as with Baldwin and Du Bois, music gives black people ―ability to say ―things‖ that otherwise cannot be said- blurs that boundary between the white man and the black man‖.

The Impact of Vocabulary Preteaching and Content Previewing on the Listening Comprehension of Arabic-Speaking EFL Learners

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of pre-listening activities on Arabic-speaking EFL learners’ comprehension of spoken texts. Background: This study aims to contribute to the current research and to increase our understanding about the effectiveness of pre-listening activities. Specifically, this study seeks to clarify some of the research in this area that seems to be incongruent. Methodology: The study investigates two widely implemented activities in second language (L2) classrooms: vocabulary preteaching and content previewing. Ninety-three native-Arabic speaking EFL learners, whose proficiently levels were beginner, intermediate, or advanced, were randomly assigned to a control group or one of three experimental groups: the vocabulary-only (VO) group, content-only (CO) group, or vocabulary + content (VC) group. Each of the experimental groups received one of the treatments to determine which pre-listening activity was more effective and whether additional pre-listening activities yield additional comprehension. Listening comprehension of the aural text was measured by a test comprising 13 multiple-choice and true-false questions. Contribution: The present study provided additional explanations regarding the long-standing contradicting results about vocabulary preteaching and content previewing. Findings: The results showed that pre-listening activities had a positive impact on Arabic-speaking EFL learners’ listening comprehension, with the VO group significantly increasing their scores on the posttest compared to those of the control or other groups. Vocabulary preteaching was particularly beneficial for more advanced learners. With regard to which pre-listening activity contributed the most to better listening comprehension, vocabulary preteaching was the most effective. Content previewing did not increase comprehension for the CO group and had no additional benefit for the VC group. Recommendation for Researchers: This paper recommends that researchers explore new pre-listening activities that have never studied. Future research should be extended to include other nations and contextual situations to extend our knowledge about the effect of pre-listening activities. As far as listening comprehension can only be achieved when listeners are attentive and engaged, the listening text should be interesting and the lexical coverage of the listening text should be appropriate for all participants. Future Research: The results are to be interpreted carefully because they are limited by the students’ L2 proficiency, demographic, and cultural backgrounds (i.e., first language (L1) proficiency, age, gender, Middle Eastern culture). Results might be quite different if the study was conducted with different populations who have different life and language learning experiences (Vandergrift & Baker, 2015). Therefore, the results of this study indicate there is much room for improvement and a need for further research.

GoPro(blem)s and possibilities: Keeping the child human of colour in play in an interview

In response to the call for papers for this special issue and the questions it poses, the authors show how the ontological posthumanist shift of agential realism does not erase but keeps the child human of colour in play, despite the inclusion of the other-than-(Adult)human in its methodologies. Through a montaging technique, the authors explore the philosophical complexity of ‘decentering without erasure’ by re-turning to data from a large international research project – Children, Technology and Play (2019–2020). Through an agential realist reading of interview data ‘of’ ‘seven-year-old’ Henry when visiting him at home in an informal settlement in Cape Town, they show what else is going on, and the politically radical and subtle philosophical difference this makes for reconfiguring child subjectivity. To do more justice to the complexity of reality, the analysis bounces around like Henry's sack ball and zooms in on the role apparatuses such as GoPros play in research. The authors ‘follow the child’ literally but differently, without excluding or erasing the more-than-(Adult)human. In meeting Henry, they also meet Eshal, who introduces the GoPro(blem). By diffractively reading Karen Barad's scholarship through visual and aural texts, the authors respond to the question of how posthumanist research makes a difference to childhood studies. They show how the agential realist move(ment) from Object and Subject to Phenomenon explodes ageist, ableist, racist, extractive and settler-colonial logics in education research.

Students’ Perspectives on Extensive Listening Through YouTube

The paper reports a case study method exploring the perceptions of 10 students enrolling a listening class in terms of their experience when taking extensive listening, primarily by using YouTube. A closed-ended questionnaire was delivered and FGD through a semi-structured interview was utilized as a datacollecting method. The results of exploring the students’ perspectives indicated that: (1) they can do extensive listening via YouTube to improve their listening fluency anytime and anywhere; (2) they can learn the pronunciation of new vocabulary and grammar through extensive listening; (3) they can pertain the topic of aural text from context; (4) the speed change function and the subtitle function is occasionally used to solve their confusion on new phrases; (5) some commercials may be as information to support their English learning; (6) they find an unreliable or unstable internet connection in some cases. Therefore, it is suggested that teachers set the teaching and learning activities and environment that can encourage students to experience extensive listening. Besides, it is also suggested that the institution management provide good Internet accessibility in the teaching and learning environment.

Old Wine, New Bottles: Record Collecting, Jazz Reissues, and the Jazz Tradition

ABSTRACT This article argues that reissues – whether in the form of repackaged and re-released recordings that have gone out of print, recordings republished in new media with the change of playback technology, or collected as historical compilation albums – form a hub of activities by jazz collectors, critics, producers, and historians – roles often filled by the same person. As curated aural texts, reissues, in recurring fashion over jazz’s recorded past, form connective tissue for the distorted historical narrative of jazz as representing a “coherent whole.” The article tracks three broad historical moments in which reissues have played a crucial role in constructing the “jazz tradition” commonly portrayed in textbooks: (1) the rise of the reissues market through Commodore Records, (2) the pairing of collected tracks on compilation albums with a flourishing jazz history book trade in the postwar era, and (3) combining nostalgia for music of past decades with the advent of new recording and playback technology, and the move to remastered, completist collectors' series exemplified by Mosaic Records at the turn of the 21st century. The article ends with speculation about how the most recent uptick in reissuing might aid in disrupting the “jazz tradition” edifice.

The effect of input characteristics and individual differences on L2 comprehension of authentic and modified listening tasks

Within the task-based language teaching approach, the effect of input characteristics has been more centered on written than on aural texts. Moreover, the interplay of input characteristics and individual differences (IDs) has been insufficiently investigated. The current study sets out to address these gaps by comparing L2 learners’ comprehension of authentic and modified versions of two lectures and how IDs mediate the role of input condition in listening comprehension in an EAP context. The input was manipulated in terms of lexical sophistication and cohesion measures following previous research and informed by Natural Language Processing tools (e.g., Coh-Metrix, TAALES). Language aptitude, listening anxiety, task difficulty, task engagement, topic familiarity, and input condition (i.e., authentic and modified) were used as explanatory variables of listening comprehension as measured by 30 multiple-choice questions. The results of the Linear Mixed Effects Model suggested that the modified condition was significantly easier when IDs were controlled for, and engagement level and topic familiarity mediated the students’ performance in the authentic and modified conditions. While high engagement and high topic familiarity were necessary for successful performance in the authentic condition, the opposite was true in the modified condition.

Reading While Listening (RWL) in an Extensive Listening Course to Reduce Student Teachers’ Foreign Language Listening Anxiety (FLLA)

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J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and intellectual history

ABSTRACTRecent thinking about Intellectual History has moved beyond studying only verbal texts, to encompass other kinds of visual and aural texts that can be vehicles for generative thought. Where might music fit into this expanded conception? If ideas are defined purely as concepts that can be expressed in words, music can be no more than an “epiphenomenon”, a consequence or representation of ideas that lie behind it, but not capable of embodying those ideas in itself. Yet to many musicians, it seems obvious that music can function as a way in which ideas are developed and worked out. What kinds of knowledge might be embodied in music, then, and how do its meanings change over time? In this paper, I examine some of these issues through consideration of one of the key texts of Western art music, J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, exploring how it was conceived in a liturgical context in Bach’s time, how its meaning changed when transposed to the very different milieus of concert performance in nineteenth-century Berlin and colonial Sydney, and as it has been re-imagined in a variety of recent staged and recorded versions.

A comparative study of video presentation modes in relation to L2 listening success

Video comprehension involves interpreting both sounds and images. Research has shown that processing an aural text with relevant pictorial information effectively enhances second/foreign language (L2) listening comprehension. A hypothesis underlying this mixed-methods study is that a visual-only silent film used as an advance organiser to activate learner prior knowledge, followed by a subsequent full audiovisual presentation (V→V+A), yields the most facilitative effect on L2 learner video comprehension compared with a full audiovisual presentation (V+A) and a visual-only silent film presentation followed by audio-only narration (V→A). The authors showed a video to 124 intermediate L2 English university-level students in Taiwan, and measured their video comprehension using a multiple-choice listening test. They also conducted a survey and a focus group discussion to provide a more comprehensive analysis. The results show the V→A Group was substantially lower in video comprehension performance; the results of the V→V+A Group, however, did not differ substantially from those of the V+A Group. Although the results failed to confirm the hypothesis that a visual-only silent film showing followed by a full audiovisual presentation would be most effective in facilitating video comprehension, the L2 learner preference for and positive response to such a viewing experience contributes to L2 listening pedagogy.

Supporting Listening Comprehension and Vocabulary Acquisition with Multimedia Annotations

This study extends Mayer's (1997, 2001) generative theory of multimedia learning and investigates under what conditions multimedia annotations can support listening comprehension in a second language. This paper highlights students' views on the effectiveness of multimedia annotations (visual and verbal) in assisting them in their comprehension and acquisition of vocabulary from aural texts. English-speaking college students listened to a 2 min 20 sec historical account in French presented by a computer program. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four listening treatments: the aural text (a) with no annotations, (b) with only verbal annotations, (c) with only visual annotations, and (d) with both visual and verbal annotations. For purposes of this paper, 20 students were purposively selected to participate in interviews. Overall, students remembered word translations and recalled the passage best when they had selected both verbal and visual annotations while listening. Students' voices reflected these results and revealed that they should have options for viewing material in both a visual mode and a verbal mode in a multimedia listening comprehension environment. This study provides qualitative evidence for a generative theory of multimedia learning that suggests that the availability and the choice of visual and verbal annotations in listening comprehension activities enhances students' abilities to comprehend the material presented and to acquire vocabulary.

Approaching L2 Listening Comprehension for Advanced Learners: Using Reading as a Pre-Listening Task

ABSTRACT Listening comprehension is an active multidimensional process of constructing meaning by applying linguistic and topic knowledge to incoming aural texts (Buck, 2001; Field, 2004; Long, 1989, Rivers 1983, Vandergrift, 1999). Listening has been regarded as the most widely used language skill in normal daily life in the case of L2 English (Morley, 2001; Rost, 2001), and yet it is also the most difficult language skill area in L2 regardless of the target language due to its evanescent nature (Buck, 2001, 1995; Field, 2004; Graham, 2006; O'Malley, Chamot, & Küpper, 1989; Vandergrift, 1999). In this study, 20 advanced L2 Korean learners used reading rendition or translation as pre-listening strategy for two semesters. Using their survey responses, I first examine the effectiveness of pre-listening rendition activity when the topic of reading rendition and the listening are held constant. And then, I examine what factors of the reading rendition contribute to listening effectiveness. I conclude that prelistening reading rendition enhances L2 listening comprehension when the topic of reading and listening text are held constant. And according to learner responses, background knowledge and vocabulary are the primary factors that make pre-listening reading rendition effective.

Approaching L2 Listening Comprehension for Advanced Learners: Using Reading as a Pre-Listening Task

ABSTRACT Listening comprehension is an active multidimensional process of constructing meaning by applying linguistic and topic knowledge to incoming aural texts (Buck, 2001; Field, 2004; Long, 1989, Rivers 1983, Vandergrift, 1999). Listening has been regarded as the most widely used language skill in normal daily life in the case of L2 English (Morley, 2001; Rost, 2001), and yet it is also the most difficult language skill area in L2 regardless of the target language due to its evanescent nature (Buck, 2001, 1995; Field, 2004; Graham, 2006; O'Malley, Chamot, & Küpper, 1989; Vandergrift, 1999). In this study, 20 advanced L2 Korean learners used reading rendition or translation as pre-listening strategy for two semesters. Using their survey responses, I first examine the effectiveness of pre-listening rendition activity when the topic of reading rendition and the listening are held constant. And then, I examine what factors of the reading rendition contribute to listening effectiveness. I conclude that prelistening reading rendition enhances L2 listening comprehension when the topic of reading and listening text are held constant. And according to learner responses, background knowledge and vocabulary are the primary factors that make pre-listening reading rendition effective.

Mediated dialogue and the microgenesis of second language listening comprehension

This paper presents and discusses quantitative recall data from a longitudinal study that investigated the effects of Dynamic Assessment (DA) on diagnosing and promoting listening comprehension in French as a second language. We first define the theoretical concept of DA based on Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, which integrates mediation and assessment into a unified pedagogical activity; next we outline the research design of the study, rooted in Vygotskyan genetic methodology; finally, we provide a microgenetic analysis of learner recall of idea units contained in three different authentic aural text genres. The data show improvement in listening ability as measured by an increase in the number of idea units recalled over time and as a result of mediation. It also shows that learners are able to transfer their ability, to some extent, to more complex texts. We explain the constraints on transferability.

Pushed Output, Noticing, and Development of Past Tense Morphology in Content-Based Instruction

This study examines the effects of learners' production (i.e., pushed output) during a multi-stage reconstruction task on learners' noticing of Spanish past tense morphology, aural text comprehension, and development of preterite/imperfect usage in writing. Participants included 47 intermediate L2 Spanish learners in a content-based course at the university level. One group of learners (+output) listened to a series of passages and engaged in text reconstruction tasks. The other group (−output) listened to the same texts but answered multiple-choice comprehension questions instead of reconstructing the texts. Learners' notes during the listening phase of the tasks served as a noticing measure, and writing tasks were used as pre- and post-treatment measures. Results reveal that the +output group (a) reported more noticing of words overall, but not of past tense forms; (b) comprehended more information from the text; and (c) showed evidence of past tense development in their writing.

Standard Arabic: An Advanced Course

This course is designed for students who have completed a first-level course in Arabic and wish to pursue the subject to degree level. It aims to develop thoroughly the four basic language skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening, making extensive use of authentic Arabic materials. Each of the twenty chapters is based around a particular topic relating to the culture, history, politics, geography or society of the Arab Middle East, to give students an insight into important aspects of the region. This topic-based approach allows students to tackle vocabulary and structures in a coherent and concentrated manner. Each chapter contains materials for translation into and from Arabic, aural texts, precis passages, suggested oral discussion topics, and a variety of exercises including comprehension in English and Arabic. Accompanying cassettes and a teacher's handbook are available separately.

Scribal Errors or Phonetic Spellings? Samuel as an Aural Text

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to establish the "phonic" nature of some of the socalled "corrupt" passages in the MT of Samuel. We are particularly interested in Samuel's "aural" characteristics which might be represented in the phonetic spellings. This aural aspect of the narrative is clearly attested in cases where the Ketib and the Qere give two variant forms of the same word or phrase. In such cases, the K. usually represent "phonic" reality by a phonetic spelling. By contrast, the Q. points to the "correct" historical spelling. Such aural features can be demonstrated in other ways in the MT of Samuel, especially when 2 Sam. xxii is compared with its duplicate text, Ps. xviii. These variant forms are caused by phonological phenomena such as assimilation, metathesis, palatalization, vowel sandhi, consonantal sandhi, and glide. These examples are not exhaustive, but they are sufficient to show that many of the often-asserted "scribal errors" are actually rather phonetic spellings and do reflect the "economy" of pronunciation. Such phonic realization in writing is attested not simply in poetic texts but also in prose sections of 1-2 Samuel. Hence, our topic is not so much a problem of literary-linguistic composition as a matter of the method of writing, i.e. graphic and graphemic representation of an aural text.

Bottom-up or Top-down Processing as a Discriminator of L2 Listening Performance

Studies in reading comprehension and listening comprehension have investigated the processing skills used by skilled and less-skilled readers/listeners. Some of these studies observe that skilled readers/listeners are those who are better able to engage in top-down processing whereas others maintain that they are better able to engage in bottom-up processing. This study investigates the kind of processing skill that is more important in discriminating the performance of L2 learners on listening test items in large-scale public examinations in Hong Kong over a period of seven years. Two variables were investigated: the schema type of the aural text and the question type. Two types of schema were identified: the first type is referred to as the 'non-matching' schema type in which the schema activated by the initial linguistic input is not congruent with the subsequent linguistic input. Candidates need to be able to process the incoming linguistic cues rapidly and accurately, and to revise their developing schema accordingly in order to get the correct answer. The second type is referred to as the 'matching' schema type in which the schema activated by the initial linguistic input is congruent with the subsequent linguistic input. Hence candidates could rely on top-down processing to get the correct answer. Two types of questions were also identified. The first type is 'global' questions which required candidates to understand the text as a whole and to draw conclusions or inferences. Hence, candidates need to process all the key linguistic cues rapidly and accurately in order to get the correct answer. The second type is 'local' questions which only required candidates to pick out specific details. Hence, even if candidates failed to process some linguistic cues, they would still be able to get the correct answer. The mean criterion scores for the correct answers, which indicate the performance of the candidates who chose these answers in the entire paper, were compa

Authentic Listening in Spanish: How Learners Adjust Their Strategies to the Difficulty of the Input

* Susan M. Bacon, University of Cincinnati Input is considered critical in second-language to be more difficult; and second, that those who (L2) comprehension and acquisition.' Since adjusted their strategies between passages would Ks-ashen (1981; 1978) popularized the notion of exhibit a higher level of comprehension and the quality and variety learning. The findings have implications forboth of input have been widely studied. Besides sendthe use of authentic listening materials in instrucing a message, input provides linguistic evidence tion, and also listening-strategy research. that the leamer uses to new language (Sharwood Smith). More recently, L2 methodReview of Literature ologists are taking another hook at the message in input, that is, the need to expose learners to Input. The act of listening involves an interacnatural and authentic language (Bacon, 1989; tion of input, task, and individual variables. 1987; Breen; Dunkel; Lund; Morrison; Rings; Ks-ashen (1989) argues that listeners and readers Rogers & Medley; Weissenreider).2 This kind of acquire language from comprehensible input, input provides the learner with both linguistic which renders formal instruction unnecessary, and cultural information that may not be availeven counterproductive.3 He cites several studies able in pedagogical texts. to support his hypothesis that learners who are Coincidental to the focus on authentic lanallowed time for free reading, for example, acguage, one finds concern with investigating quirevocabuharymore efficiently andwithdeeper learner strategies in comprehending and cornmeaning than from formal instruction. Some municating in the L2 (Alexander & Judy; Bacon evidence exists, as well, to suggest that children & Finnemann, A Study, 1990; Chamot & new vocabulary in Li by listening to Kupper, 1989; Chamot, O'Mahley, Kuppes& aural text. Studies in L2 by Peterson and Benson Impink-Hernandez; Ehrman & Oxford, 1990; both underscore the importance of content-area Fujita; O'Malhcy & Chamot, 1990; Oxford & instruction as the medium for teaching listening Crookall; Oxford, Crookall, Cohen, Lavine, & skills. Nyikos; Oxford, Lavine & Crookall). The quesLeamers are usually exposed to some form of tions addressed in this paper consider how heammodified, rather than authentic input. Several es-s comprehend and heam from authentic aural studies have examined how teachers and others input: First, what is the relationship between L2 alter input intended for learners: In a study of listening-passage difficulty and heamesstratenative speakes-/nonnative speaker (NS/NNS) gies?; and second, how do listening-passage conversations, Des-wing foundthatNSs increased difficulty, strategy variation and individual difthe amountof background detail they provided to fes-ences interrelate to ps-edict levels of compreNNSs when there were communication difficulhension and learning? In order to answer these ties. Furthermore, in a review of teacher input questions, the study examined the strategies stustudies, Chaudron found ample evidence that dents reported in relation to their level of comprespeakers deliberately slow their rate of speech hension and learning of new information while when they know their audience is NNS. The listening to two radio broadcasts in Spanish. It absolute rate of speech directed toward beginwas hypothesized, first, that all listeners would ners was showed to 100 wpm. Whether or not employ a significantly greater proportion of butthese kinds of modifications have bearing on tom-upto top-down strategies onapassagejudged comprehension and heaming is less clear: On the