EFFECTS OF PRE-LISTENING TASK TYPES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF EFL LEARNERS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION ABILITY

Abstract

This study sought to examine the effects of pre-listening tasks in promoting the listening comprehension ability of Iranian English foreign language (EFL) learners. To undertake the study, Sixty-three female EFL university students were chosen to engage three task-based activities namely, podcast, video and topic preparation tasks. They were first homogenized by a Cambridge preliminary English test (PET), and then assigned into three groups comprising 21 students in each. The first group was randomly assigned into a podcast, the second group was nominated video-based, and the last group was invited to speak out around the topic. A teacher-made test of listening comprehension was employed to gauge students’ listening performance. Each group was assigned jigsaw and filling the gap task to screen the effect of instruction. After collecting the data, one-way ANOVA and multiple regression analysis were conducted to determine the facilitative task. The results revealed that podcast-based task significantly promotes students’ listening performance ability. This finding suggests that teachers can incorporate podcast as a pre-listening task to foster students’ listening performance. The finding may help EFL teachers and materials developers put more focus on the podcast as a pre-listening task to gain better results in the teaching and learning process.