Impact of audio-viewing materials on Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners’ listening comprehension

Abstract

Listening comprehension serves as a precursor to speaking and thus it is essentially important in learning a second language. How listening comprehension of EFL learners can be ameliorated has long been an obsession for L2 teachers. This study intended to 1) examine whether the listening comprehension of Iranian upper intermediate EFL learners was significantly influenced by audio viewing materials, and 2) find out whether variables such as age and gender could affect the learners’ listening abilities. To meet the objectives of the study, 40 L2 learners studying English at several language institutes in Shahreza were selected, and were included in the study after taking part in an OPT. The participants were then divided into two groups of equal size i.e. the experimental group (EG) and the control group (CG). While the former was exposed to the treatment (i.e. audio viewing materials), learners in the latter listened without having access to the scripts. Scores obtained from pretest and posttest enabled the researcher to conduct independent-samples t test as well as multiple regression analysis, and come up with the following results: 1) While the level of listening comprehension of the two groups was roughly equal at the beginning of the study, the EG learners outperformed the CG learners on the listening comprehension posttest, which could be attributed to the treatment they were provided with (i.e. access to audio viewing materials), and 2) Multiple regression analysis revealed that the only independent variable which could exert significant influences on the learners’ listening comprehension was their access to audio viewing materials, and that gender and age could not significantly affect the learners’ listening comprehension scores. The study concludes with pedagogical implications for language teaching.