A Study Of Task-Supported Text Listening Comprehension In Efl Classroom

The present study mainly examined the effects of three task-supported forms (repetitionof input, question preview and answer option preview) on listening comprehension of thestudents at different listening proficiency levels and on the tasks with different difficultylevels and their interaction effects. Specifically, the present study was conducted aroundthe following questions: In the classroom setting1. What are the effects of three task-supported forms on text listening comprehension?2. What are the effects of three task-supported forms on text listening comprehension ofthe students at different listening proficiency levels?3. What are the effects of three task-supported forms on the tasks with different difficultylevels?4. What are the interaction effects of the three task-supported forms?All the above questions will be difficult to be answered without empirical evidence.The study involved15natural classes, which were selected from76classes; thestudents were903non-English majors at Henan University of Science and Technology.The fifteen classes were allocated to three groups at random. The groups wererandomly assigned to different treatments. The classes in each group were assigned todifferent input frequency according to the timing of their class in which the experimentwas conducted. Immediately after the listening tasks, all the participants completed thefeedback of questionnaire as required. After class interviews were conducted individuallyaccording to the availability of each individual.According to the analysis of results, the major findings are as follows:First, input frequency does not always lead to listening comprehension performanceimprovement. After several repetitions, the effects of input frequency stop functioning andeven lead to decline in listening performance. In a word, more does not always lead to thebetter.And input frequency produces more salient effects just for middle level students,whereas high level and low level learners benefit less from input frequency.The optimal point in listening comprehension has not been found yet. On the basis of the analysis results, in view of the influence of affective factors, it is considered thatrepetition times of listening texts had better not exceed four times.Second, question preview plays a facilitative role in listening comprehension task forall the students. But more proficient students benefit more. Under the conditions of onlypreviewing questions, the effects of input frequency are not found.Third, answer option preview plays different roles with different input frequency. Atone and two exposures, answer option preview plays no positive role, even interferes withlistening comprehension, only when the listening texts are repeated three or four timesdoes answer option preview begin to be helpful to listening comprehension performance.And under the conditions of previewing both questions and answer options, all the studentsneed the support of repetition.There is no significant difference between previewing both questions and answeroptions and only previewing stem questions without additional support of input frequency.It is clear that this study suffers a few limitations in the research design. They aremainly in relation to the methodological issues.First, the15experimental classes are intact natural classes that extraneous variablesmay have influenced the results.Second, we need to be cautious in drawing conclusions about the influence of thestudents’ level of listening proficiency, because we made an essentially arbitrary divisionbetween three listening proficiency levels at the final listening exam score.Third, analysis of the study took a class as a unit, but the comparisons of classeswithin a group or between groups in this study may not be well-grounded. Because thefifteen classes are regarded as equal only their overall listening comprehensionperformance is concerned.