The Use of a “Think-Pair-Share” Brainstorming Advance Organizer to Prepare Learners to Listen in the L2 Classroom

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of prelistening activities, particularly interactive brainstorming advance organizers that used a “Think-Pair-Share” structure, on the listening comprehension performance of L2 junior high school students. The term advance organizer is defined as a teaching activity that helps build or activate L2 learners’ prior knowledge for a listening task, or as the provision of support to promote learning. The results show that the participants who had the advance organizer of picture brainstorming scored substantially higher than those in the vocabulary brainstorming group or the control group. The differences between the vocabulary brainstorming group and the control group, however, failed to reach a significant level. The findings suggest that the use of certain advance-organizer activity in the prelistening stage helps L2 learners comprehend a text better, and that L2 learners agree with the effectiveness associated with the use of brainstorming advance organizers as an instructional strategy in helping them activate their prior knowledge, boost their confidence for the test, reduce their performance anxiety, make connections with their own life experiences, and inspire new thoughts.