An investigation into the relationship between individual differences and use of listening comprehension strategies by tertiary level advanced learners of English

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the use of listening comprehension strategies by advanced learners of English. The study also explores possible relationships between use of strategies and some individual differences such as gender, perceived level of English, and listening task performance. Data was collected from a sample of 65 advanced level undergraduate preparatory program students at School of Foreign Languages at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale. Two instruments were administered: Listening Comprehension Strategy Questionnaire prepared in two forms, adapted from Vandergrift(2006) Goh (2000) O’Malley(1985); and TOEFL Listening Comprehension Test. The data was analysed through SPSS 16.0. Data analysis revealed that “going on listening despite difficulty”, “getting on back despite losing concentration”, “reconstructing meaning”, “encouraging himself to continue listening” and “trying to relax before/during listening” were the most preferred items. While “imitating physical actions”, “taking notes as sentence”, “giving rewards”, “asking for clarification” and “paying attention to visuals” were the least common strategies preferred in listening lessons. According to the findings, there were significant differences in the use of “transfer, note taking and prediction” strategy types during the listening task with regard to gender. However, no statistically significant relationship was found between the listening comprehension strategy use and the listening comprehension achievement. The study concludes that although students may have strong preferences for certain listening comprehension strategies, probably performance in listening comprehension is influenced by other stronger factors which this study did not control.