The effect of linguistic choices in note-taking on academic listening performance: a pedagogical translanguaging perspective

Abstract The inherent complexity of listening activities poses considerable challenges to second language listeners. For decades, researchers have been exploring effective strategies to help improve L2 learners’ listening proficiency. Note-taking, which is frequently and strategically employed to complete listening tasks and to learn content, has also been examined extensively from various perspectives. However, it seems that little is known about the effect of L2 learners’ linguistic choices in note-taking on their listening performance. Employing pedagogical translanguaging as an analytical lens, the current research sets out to investigate whether or not L2 learners’ multilingual notes, compared to monolingual notes, significantly enhance their performance in academic listening activities. Conducted in a Chinese university EFL context, this study adopts a mixed-methods approach. A total of 90 participants were assigned to three groups and were asked to take notes in Chinese, English, and a combination of all languages, symbols, drawings, etc., respectively. Data were collected from the results of two listening tasks (a listening comprehension test and a retelling task), a questionnaire survey designed to focus on their attitudes to the linguistic choices they made in note-taking, and the multilingual notes taken. The findings revealed that students who were allowed to make full use of their linguistic and semiotic resources in note-taking were able to perform significantly better in both listening tasks. The same group of students also demonstrated a diverse and flexible mobilization of their multilingual and multimodal assets in the notes they took. This study provides evidence for applying pedagogical translanguaging as an effective approach in designing note-taking instructions. It is suggested that L2 learners should be encouraged to deploy their entire linguistic repertoire when taking notes during listening activities, which could lead to improved performance.