Teaching how to Listen. Blended Learning for the Development and Assessment of Listening Skills in a Second Language

Abstract

This paper discusses the integration and effectiveness of blended learning for the development and assessment of listening skills in a second language. The development of oral abilities (listening and speaking) is one of the most challenging and neglected aspects of second language learning (Vandergrift & Goh 2012, Graham & Santos 2015). Listening comprehension work in particular is crucial in the early stages of second language acquisition, and, therefore, for ab-initio language students, for whom processing and decoding auditory input can be very challenging. In 2014 a set of online listening quizzes was created and integrated into two ab-initio Italian courses. The aim was to offer engaging, flexible listening comprehension practice and assessment, which would extend the students’ learning experience, stimulate their learning motivation and allow for a better use of face-to-face teaching in the classroom environment. Having conceptualised listening as a process rather than a product we designed tasks to teach learners how to listen, rather than merely test their comprehension. The validity of the quizzes as a means for the development of listening skills and as a tool for formative and summative assessment was subjected to systematic analysis via an online student survey. The large amount of data collected reveals that the quizzes were a key element in the development of listening skills and the delivery mode did not only meet the students’ learning needs but it was clearly preferred to in-class assessment.

The Effect of the Online and Offline Blended Teaching Mode on English as a Foreign Language Learners’ Listening Performance in a Chinese Context

“…Previous studies displayed two major themes, namely, experience of learners on learner autonomy and motivation ( Garrison and Kanuka, 2004 ; Ige and Hlalele, 2017 ; Anthony et al, 2019 ; Dolores et al, 2019 ), and the impact on the language ability, including reading, writing, listening, and vocabulary of learners ( Caruso et al, 2017 ; Kazakoff et al, 2018 ). Regarding the first theme, studies focus on the experience of learners, examining how blended learning has the potential to enhance both the effectiveness and efficiency of meaningful learning experiences ( Garrison and Kanuka, 2004 , p. 95).…”

“… Kazakoff et al (2018) confirmed that the blended learning approach contributed to the development of reading ability in learners of English. Likewise, Caruso et al (2017) discussed the integration and effect of blended learning on the development and assessment of listening skills in a second language. In addition, Miyazoe and Anderson (2010) delved into the effect of blended courses on learning outcomes and perceptions of students to online writing with the employment of three different online writing tools in an English as a foreign language (EFL) blended learning setting, and the results suggested a positive effect on the language learning progress of students.…”

Yabancı dil olarak İngilizce öğretiminde çağdaş öğretim türleri: harmanlanmış öğrenme & ters-yüz sınıf

“…As it is a popular contemporary approach in language teaching, researchers have put emphasis on investigating the effectiveness of it in teaching and learning and learners' perceptions/attitudes towards it. As for EFL teaching, there have been various studies in the literature investigating the use of blended learning in teaching of the language skills and sub-skills (eg., for listening : Caruso, Colombi & Tebbit, 2017;Tran & Ma, 2021; for speaking: Wang, 2020; for reading: Bataineh & Mayyas, 2017; for writing : Challob, Bakar & Latif, 2016; for grammar: Al-Bataineh, Banikalef & Albashtawi, 2019; for vocabulary: Ebadi & Ghuchi, 2018). Majority of the studies have resulted that blended learning has positive effects on learners' performances in the related skills.…”

“…In the study conducted by Caruso et al (2017), the researchers have investigated the effects of blended learning on the learners' listening skill in Italian. Instead of face-to-face mode, the students had online listening quizzes in which they could have the chance to do the tasks in quizzes through multiple access enabling them to study in a flexible way.…”

Investigating metacognitive strategy awareness for multimodal listening

“…In addition, many researchers in this field (Roussel et al, 2019; Vandergrift and Goh, 2012) observe the predominance of teachers testing learners listening comprehension as compared with teaching students how to process listening input. As Caruso et al (2017) posit, one of the main problems associated with current approaches is that listening comprehension has focused solely on testing students to listen to audio tracks and indeed according to Kok (2018), language learners either receive little help from their teachers or are left to take care of their listening skills by themselves. This study contributes to filling the gap as suggested by both Caruso et al (2017) and Kok (2018) in adding to research that will have an impact on teaching practices.…”