Effects of Strategy Instruction on Korean Middle School Students EFL Listening: Focusing on Learner Proficiency and Listening Text Types

Abstract

The present study investigates the effects of listening strategy instruction with regard to learner proficiency and types of listening texts. The purpose of this study is to expand our understanding of listening strategy instruction to facilitate more effective foreign language listening in Korean EFL classrooms. This paper proposes three main research questions regarding the following issues: (a) the impact of metacognitive and cognitive listening strategy instruction on Korean EFL learners listening comprehension

(b) the differences in the effects of listening strategy instruction between more proficient and less proficient learners

and (c) the differences in the effects of listening strategy instruction when learners encounter monologue and dialogue texts.

The experiment for this study was conducted at Y Middle School in Seoul, South Korea, during the fall semester in 2012. Four classes from the 9th grade, a total of 180 students, participated in this research and were randomly divided into two different groups, serving as the control group and the experimental group, each with 90 students. Both groups covered the same course materials, followed the same syllabus, and were instructed by the same teacher. The only difference between the two groups was the type of listening instruction.

Major findings of the data suggest that listening strategy instruction has a statistically significant impact on Korean EFL students listening skills. In addition, a general tendency shows that more proficient learners were able to use more metacognitive and cognitive strategies while listening to foreign language texts in English. Finally, the effect of strategy instruction is slightly higher when students listen to monologues rather than dialogues, potentially due to the fact that monologue texts are found to be more challenging for EFL learners to comprehend.

The results not only provide support to previous studies but also illustrate significant evidence that strategy instruction for language learners can help develop their listening skills. This study is particularly meaningful in that it filled the gap in the academia of L2 listening by providing data in an EFL context in Korea and considering learner proficiency and listening text types as potential variables that may also play a role in successful strategy instruction.