The Effect of Pre-listening Activities via the Moodle Platform on EFL College Learners' Listening Performance and Listening Proficiency

• Main Authors: Ya-wen Tsao, 曹雅雯
• Other Authors: Ya-chin Tsai
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/57588639373232655069

碩士 === 國立嘉義大學 === 外國語言學系研究所 === 99 === Over the last few decades, there has been growing importance on research in listening comprehension, which is significant to second language learning. The use of technology in language learning has increased so that the learning of listening becomes more accessible and flexible. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether pre-listening via the Moodle platform was facilitative to the development of listening performance and listening proficiency. A total of 124 EFL undergraduates of the intermediate level were invited to participate in this seven-week study. They were divided into two groups. One was the Control Group and the other was the Experimental Group. Prior to the seven-week pre-listening activities, the pretests of TOEIC and GEPT were delivered to the two groups. Then, the Experimental Group were notified the weekly listening-comprehension activity. A week prior to each weekly listening-comprehension activity, the associated audio file were uploaded onto the Moodle platform as pre-listening material for the Experimental Group to access. Upon the completion of the seven-week pre-listening activities, the posttests of TEOIC and GEPT were given to the Control Group and the Experimental Group. Based on Moodle‟s record in the end of the study, the Experimental Group was classified into three subgroups: (1) the Comparison Group: Participants who never did pre-listening, (2) the Discontinuous Group: Participants who missed pre-listening for at least one week, and (3) the Continuous Group: Participants who never missed pre-listening. The Continuous Group was found to make significant progress over time while the other two subgroups did not. In addition, the Continuous Group significantly outperformed the other two subgroups in the average performance of the seven weekly listening-comprehension activities, but there was no significant difference between the Discontinuous Group and the Comparison Group. The findings seem to indicate that only when students are continuously iii engaged in pre-listening can they make substantial progress. Therefore, the learners should be encouraged to continue with pre-listening in order to improve their listening performance and listening proficiency.