Developing Listening Comprehension in esl students at the Intermediate Level by Reading Transcripts While Listening: a cognitive Load Perspective

CHAPTER III.RESEARCH QUESTION

The foregoing discussion leads to the question--if the proficiency level of the learners hasa bearing on their ability to handle cognitive load, and students do benefit from reading atranscript while listening, to what degree does reading-while-listening as a tool for teachinglistening skills to ESL learners benefit the overall listening comprehension of intermediate-levelstudents? The results from this study will contribute to our understanding of how to use RWL,more specifically, if the pedagogical strategy of reading-while-listening (RWL) is an effectivewayofimproving thelistening skillsofintermediate-level students.

Method

Thissectionwillsetforththeparticipants,theinstruments,procedures,andanalysisusedinthisstudy.

Participants

The participants in this quasi-experimental study were enrolled in two pre-existingintermediate-level ESL classes at Brigham Young University’s English Language Center (ELC)in Provo, Utah. There were 18 students in each class. At the beginning of the semester, studentshad been randomly placed in one of the two classes. One class served as the control group andthe other class served as the treatment group. These students ranged in age from 18-40. Theaverage age in the treatment class was 21 and the average age in the control class was 23. Thegender of the students was 10 females and 7 males in the treatment class and 9 females and 8males in the control class. The participants were international students from many differentcountries who had all scored similarly on placement tests that they took upon entering the ELC.Nearly half of the students in both classes spoke Spanish as a native language, followed byJapaneseandPortuguesespeakers,and1or2 students in each class spoke Korean,Arabic,and French as their native language. The participants were intermediate high on the ACTFL scaleand could understand information in simple speech on familiar topics.They were able tocomprehendinformationina"controlledlisteningenvironmentwheretheyhearwhattheymayexpect to hear," depending largely on context and high-frequency vocabulary (ACTFLProficiencyGuidelines,2012).