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摘要：This study investigated (a) the lexical demands of academic spoken English and (b) the coverage of the Academic Word List (AWL) in academic spoken English. The researchers analyzed the vocabulary in 160 lectures and 39 seminars from four disciplinary sub-corpora of the British Academic Spoken English (BASE) corpus: Arts and Humanities, Life and Medical Sciences, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences. The results showed that knowledge of the most frequent 4,000 word families plus proper nouns and marginal words provided 96.05% coverage, and knowledge of the most frequent 8,000 word families plus proper nouns and marginal words provided 98.00% coverage of academic spoken English. The vocabulary size necessary to reach 95% coverage of each sub-corpus ranged from 3,000 to 5,000 word families plus proper nouns and marginal words and 5,000 to 13,000 word families plus proper nouns and marginal words to reach 98% coverage. The AWL accounted for 4.41% coverage of academic spoken English. Its coverage in each sub-corpus ranged from 3.82% to 5.21%. With the help of the AWL, learners with knowledge of proper nouns and marginal words will need a vocabulary of 3,000 and 8,000 word families to reach 95% and 98% coverage of academic spoken English, respectively. [Copyright The American University; published by Elsevier Ltd.]

摘要：This study looks at the effect of developing L2 listening fluency through extensive listening to audio graded readers. A large bank of listening fluency development questions (2,064 items) was constructed based on ten Level 1 graded readers. Three groups of L2 students were engaged in one of three different input modes while studying ten graded readers over a 13-week period: reading only, reading while listening, and listening only. All participants were given one pre-test (60 items) before the intervention and one post-test consisting of three texts (180 items) after the intervention. All the passages were delivered at the same speech rate, and the participants were allowed to listen only once. The post-test results demonstrate that the reading plus listening group produced the most consistent and significant outcome compared with the reading-only and listening-only groups. The results have some implications for developing L2 listening fluency. Adapted from the source document

摘要：This paper contributes to L2 listening pedagogy by exploring listening instruction and examining teachers' authentic listening lessons. Listening instruction has yet to be investigated systematically, and the literature has typically relied on anecdotal and intuitive accounts of what takes place in listening lessons. Therefore, this paper reports on a practical investigation into listening pedagogy through a review of 30 listening lessons taught and recorded by ten EFL instructors in Japan. Lesson content was transcribed and coded according to a priori categories informed by the literature. These categories included, among others, comprehension questions, bottom-up listening activities, and metacognitive listening strategies. Results revealed some teachers using a range of techniques while others limited their teaching to product-based approaches. The paper provides empirical descriptions of L2 listening instruction in practice and discusses pedagogic implications stemming from the results, including suggestions for how language teachers can expand their repertoires for the teaching of listening. Adapted from the source document

摘要：Help options, or in-built application resources designed to provide assistance, have long been an integral component of computer-based second language (L2) listening materials. Despite their potential to promote comprehension and efficiency, research on the role of help options has lagged. Previous research has found that learners do not often make use of help options. With a focus on the interventions listeners may deem relevant for comprehension and task completion, the aim of this qualitative study is to examine the interactions of language learners as they use, or do not use, these potentially assistive resources. Data were gathered from 15 adult learners of English who worked with a set of Longman English Interactive(copyright) (2008) listening exercises over three one-hour sessions. Within two studies, each participant was interviewed on three and six different occasions. Through our cyclical analysis of the data, five themes emerged: Relevance, Challenge, Familiarity, Recovery and Compatibility. We define and discuss each theme, and we conclude the article with suggestions for further research. Adapted from the source document

摘要：This study explores the differential effects of medium of delivery of aural input during listening tasks on learners noticing and type of comprehension (top-down and bottom-up) of Spanish object pronouns during focus on form listening tasks. Twenty-two college students enrolled in second year Spanish in a technology-enhanced classroom participated in the study. Two types of medium of delivery of input were compared: mobile assisted language learning (MALL), which is learner manipulated, and instructor manipulated language learning (IMLL). A quasi-experimental design was used -- treatment and immediate tests -- in order to measure participants' reported noticing and type of comprehension. Noticing was operationalized using think-aloud protocols, and measured on the post-test exposure comprehension assessment tasks. The findings of the study, interpreted within the attentional SLA framework, indicate that learners in the MALL group demonstrated significantly higher levels of reported noticing, bottom-up comprehension, and top-down overall comprehension than learners in the IMLL group. Directions for future research as well as pedagogical implications of the use of mobile technology and task-based listening activities are offered. Adapted from the source document

摘要：French learners at university meet difficulties in the comprehension of oral English. Being in a formal context of language learning, they need to develop language awareness to compensate for insufficient exposure to the English language. To meet the students' needs, data was collected in order to pinpoint the main errors made by French learners in listening tasks. The errors were then analyzed and put into perspective with the system of oral English; a connection clearly appeared between the errors and what is barely heard or cannot be heard in reference to written English, hinting at what could cause poor oral comprehension. Three areas of knowledge appeared to be missing in the students' background: the links between morpho-syntax and phonology, the mastery of phonological data found in dictionaries and the possible recourse to strategies in order to compensate for what has not been heard properly. These issues were addressed in an on-line program designed for non-beginners of English at university. This paper deals with the assessment of the progress made by users of the program in a formal learning situation. Two groups of learners were considered: students whose major is English, and students for whom the study of English is optional. Two series of tests were implemented, before and after the use of the program. The tests focused on the ability of learners to read IPA transcription, to count syllables in oral English, and to pronounce auxiliaries and prepositions in different contexts. The results to be discussed establish that the two groups of learners significantly improved their knowledge of oral English. Of particular interest is the fact that, even if the two groups had significantly different knowledge of oral English before using the program, with non-specialists of English having poorer knowledge, the two groups obtain similar results on the post-test, showing greater progress on the part of the non-specialists. All learners appear to improve dramatically their knowledge of IPA and their ability to use it. The progress measured by the tests was corroborated by other modes of assessment: a survey on the students' judgment as regards the usefulness of the program, and individual interviews focusing on what the students recall from the content of the program. In the latter, the students used relevant meta-linguistic and meta-cognitive expressions, showing their ability for further progress in developing listening abilities in English as a Second Language (ESL). Adapted from the source document

摘要：The Assessment of Language Competence (ALC) certificates is an annual, international testing program developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research to test the listening and reading comprehension skills of lower to middle year levels of secondary school. The tests are developed for three levels in French, German, Italian and Japanese, and at two levels in Chinese and Indonesian. There is a mixture of target language and English questions in the Level 2 and 3 tests. Some teachers have raised this as a concern in the belief that all questions should only be offered in English for the sake of fairness. Their view is that the tests are unduly difficult when they are designed with questions in the language. Arising from this concern, the aim of the research to be reported in this paper was to investigate the effects of the language of the question on student performance. We drew on data from a trial test and a final listening test, a questionnaire administered to students to gauge their perceptions of the tests and an examination of public documentation about the ALC. For the statistical analysis, we used Item Response Theory for calibrating items and for comparing item difficulty estimates, and fit statistics to verify how well items with English and target language question formats worked together. We found that where the questions involved listening for simple, explicitly stated information, students found the items in the target language relatively easier. In questions that required students to listen for global meaning, language choice either did not matter or tended to favour items in English rather than the target language. Furthermore, each of the six tests with some items in English and others in the target language showed a high level of reliability and fit to the single latent scale, indicating that items were functioning consistently regardless of the language of the test question. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Ltd., copyright holder.]

摘要：This study investigated the relationships among the quality of L2 test takers' notes evaluated in terms of different levels of information and test takers' performance on open-ended listening tasks tapping into different comprehension subskills. In addition, this study examined the invariance of the structural relationships among the variables across two different note-taking formats, that is, a blank format and an outline format, by employing a multi-group structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. The results indicated that note quality measures, in particular the number of topical ideas found in the notes and the organization of these notes, may be good indicators of test takers' second language academic listening proficiency. It was also found that despite the invariance of structural relationships among variables across the two note-taking formats, the associations between the open-ended listening measures and note quality measures were slightly stronger in the outline format than in the blank format. The implications of these results for L2 academic listening assessment are considered. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Ltd., copyright holder.]

摘要：Informed by dual coding theory, this study explores the role of the visual content in L2 listeners' comprehension of news videotexts. L1 research into the visual characteristics and comprehension of news videotexts is outlined, subsequently informing the quantitative analysis of audiovisual correspondence in the news videotexts used. In each of five lessons, ten pairs of Japanese EFL learners participated in a sequence of tasks in which they listened to, and discussed various facets of their comprehension of news videotexts. The pairs' dialogue acted as the unit of analysis for exploring the effect of visual information on their comprehension. The qualitative analysis illustrated that various attributes of the visual content, such as audiovisual correspondence, impacted on comprehension. Moreover, other influences of the visual content found were its general utility in facilitating comprehension, inhibiting of attention to, and processing of audio information, and stimulation of learners' expectations and inferencing of content. Based on these findings, learner variability aspects and several implications for related L2 listening pedagogy are discussed. Adapted from the source document

摘要：The goal of this study was to explain individual differences in both native and non-native listening comprehension; 121 native and 113 non-native speakers of Dutch were tested on various linguistic and nonlinguistic cognitive skills thought to underlie listening comprehension. Structural equation modeling was used to identify the predictors of individual differences in listening comprehension and to test for differences between the native and non-native participants. Listening comprehension for native speakers was found to be a function of knowledge of the language and the efficiency with which one can process linguistic information, while listening comprehension for non-native speakers was a function of knowledge and reasoning ability. Working Memory did not explain unique variance in listening comprehension in either group. Differences in experience with the Dutch language are likely to explain the observed pattern of results for both groups. Adapted from the source document

摘要：This cross-sectional study examined the effect of general proficiency and study-abroad experience on pragmatic comprehension in second-language English. Participants were 25 native English speakers and 64 Japanese college students of English divided into three groups. Group 1 (n= 22) had lower proficiency and no study-abroad experience. Group 2 (n= 20) and Group 3 (n= 22) had higher proficiency than Group 1 but differed in their study-abroad experience. Group 2 had no study-abroad experience, but Group 3 had a minimum of 1 year of study-abroad experience in an English-speaking country. They completed a pragmatic listening test measuring their ability to comprehend conventional and nonconventional implicatures. Group performance was compared for the comprehension accuracy scores and response times. There was a significant effect of proficiency on response times but no effect of study-abroad experience. Comprehension accuracy scores revealed mixed findings. It was advantageous for students to have study-abroad experience in the comprehension of nonconventional implicatures and routine expressions but not in indirect refusals.

摘要：This paper presents a comprehensive overview of lexicogrammatical devices which highlight important or relevant points in lectures. Despite the established usefulness of discourse organizational cues for lecture comprehension and note-taking, very little is known about the marking of relevance in this genre. The current overview of lexicogrammatical relevance markers combines a qualitative and quantitative investigation of 160 lectures from the British Academic Spoken English (BASE) corpus. These markers could mostly be classified according to their main element into adjective, noun, verb and adverb patterns. Verb patterns were the most common, followed by noun patterns. The verb pattern V clause (e.g., remember slavery had already been legally abolished) and the noun pattern MN v-link (e.g., the point is) are the predominant types of relevance markers. The discrepancy between the prevalent markers and what may be thought of as prototypical or included in EAP textbooks as relevance markers also demonstrates the need for corpus linguistic research. Implications for EAP course design, teaching English for lecturing purposes, and educational research are discussed. [Copyright The American University; published by Elsevier Ltd.]

摘要：This article reports on a small-scale study of the effect of metacognitive instruction on listeners' comprehension. Twenty adult, Japanese, advanced level EFL learners participated in a task sequence, or 'pedagogical cycle', of predicting, monitoring, problem identification, and evaluating in each of five listening lessons aimed at promoting their comprehension of television news items. A comparison of pre-test and post-test scores illustrated that three of four less-skilled listeners made notable gains across the five lessons, whereas only one of four more-skilled listeners improved. Findings add support to the view that metacognitive instruction utilizing a pedagogical cycle may help less-skilled listeners to develop their listening ability, though there seems to be a threshold for higher skill levels beyond which effects are minimal. Adapted from the source document

摘要：For many years, research effort has been devoted to understanding the nature of listening strategies and how listening strategies used by good listeners can be taught to so-called ineffective listeners. As a result of this line of research, strategy training activities have now become a standard feature of most modern listening coursebooks. However, in this article, we maintain that given the lack of evidence of success with this approach to teaching lower proficiency EFL learners and the fact that strategy training places a heavy burden on teachers, an extensive listening approach in the same vein as an extensive reading approach should be adopted. Adapted from the source document

摘要：This study investigated whether the modality effect of content presentation modes on students' cognitive load and listening comprehension depends on the moderating effect of the learners' language proficiencies in a mobile learning context. One hundred and sixty-two students majoring in English in a technology university used personal digital assistants (PDAs) as the learning tool for a mobile listening comprehension activity. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two presentation modes: (1) a single mode in which students were engaged in auditory materials only and (2) a dual mode in which they were exposed to audio and textual inputs simultaneously. Hierarchical regression was employed to examine the moderating effect of the learners' proficiencies. The results confirmed the moderator role of English proficiency on cognitive load: students with lower proficiency appeared to be more perceptive of the text aid. However, the moderating effect was not obtained on the task performance in that students provided with the dual mode outperformed their single mode counterpart across the proficiency level. This study recommends that written text be displayed when students are engaged in a mobile English listening comprehension task to reduce learners' cognitive load. The study also provides pedagogical implications for mobile language learning. Adapted from the source document

摘要：This study investigated the effects of training learners of English as a foreign language with different rates of speech and controls over speech rate. Subjects were put into one of four treatment groups: (A) trained on listening comprehension materials recorded at a fast speed, (B) trained on slow recordings, (C) given some choice about the speed, and (D) allowed sometimes to pause playback. The group that was trained on slow materials fared the best, apparently because their bottom-up processing improved. Other groups seem to have developed their strategic listening skills more, but these did not always transfer as well to other contexts. It was also found that learners performed better when they paced their training over several days. Adapted from the source document

摘要：This article reports on an investigation into the development of the listening proficiency and strategic behaviour of 15 lower-intermediate learners of French in England. We consider whether listeners remain in the same listening proficiency group after six months, and whether changes in strategy use are related to movement or non-movement between listening proficiency groups. We also examine whether learners' strategic behaviour reflects their teachers' approaches to listening. Data were gathered at two time points from a recall protocol which learners completed after listening to short passages and from verbal reports made by learners while they completed a multiple choice listening task. Teacher interviews provided information on how listening had been presented in learners' classrooms. We detected little movement by students across the listening proficiency groups between the two time points. In spite of some changes in frequency of strategy use, we also observed stability in manner of use by some learners. Differences in strategy use were more evident between groups (non-movers, improvers and decliners) than between uses from Time 1 to Time 2. We conclude by discussing the pedagogical implications of these findings. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright holder.]

摘要：This study investigated the effects of using two types of written advance organizers, key sentences and key vocabulary, on the improvement of EFL learners' listening comprehension. 108 second year university students at the higher and lower listening proficiency levels were randomly assigned to one control group and two experimental groups. Prior to the treatment, all the groups were measured on a listening pretest. The pretest score was used as a covariate to adjust for the initial difference in listening proficiency. Prior to the listening, the first experimental group received a list of key sentences (Previewing Sentences, PS) and the second experimental group received a list of vocabulary items (Vocabulary Pre-teaching, VP). The control group did not receive any kind of advance organizer. After treatment classes, all groups were again measured on a posttest to compare their improvement in listening. The results of the statistical analysis (ANCOVA) showed that the students who received advance organizers demonstrated significant improvement on the listening comprehension posttest while the control group did not. Although participants' listening proficiency had a significant effect on listening comprehension performance, there was no interaction effect between the use of advance organizers and the listening proficiency level. The pedagogical implications of the study are also discussed. [Copyright Elsevier Ltd.]