The effects of discourse signaling cues and assessment task types on Korean EFL university learners' listening comprehension of high- and low-level information in an academic lecture

In contrast to the extensive research on reading, few studies have been conducted to investigate the role of discourse signaling cues in second language (L2) listening. Even the few existing studies (Chaudron & Richards, 1986; Dunkel & Davis, 1994; Flowerdew & Tauroza, 1995; Jung, 1999) provide inconsistent support for the beneficial effects of discourse signaling cues on L2 listening comprehension. Most of these studies also fail to show how discourse signaling cues affect listeners' comprehension of different levels of information in the text. Moreover, although there has been a growing awareness that assessment task types are an influential factor in measuring reading comprehension, very little research has been undertaken to examine the role of assessment task types in L2 listening.; The current study examines the effects of discourse signaling cues and assessment task types on L2 learners' listening comprehension of high- and low-level information in an academic lecture. The study involved 80 Korean learners of English as a foreign language. Of the 80 learners, half of them listened to the lecture with discourse signaling cues (i.e., signaled lecture group), and the other half listened to the lecture without such cues (i.e., non-signaled lecture group). Half of the learners in each group performed summary tasks; the other half performed recall tasks.; The current findings show that discourse signaling cues play an important role in L2 listening comprehension. The signaled lecture group performed significantly better than the non-signaled lecture group in recall of both high- and low-level information. In contrast to the signaled lecture group, the non-signaled lecture group tended to misinterpret main ideas and to become confused about the relationships of topic points. Furthermore, the non-signaled lecture group tended to confuse supporting ideas. The current findings also demonstrate the critical role that assessment task types play in L2 listening comprehension. Learners who performed summary tasks recalled significantly more high-level information than those who performed recall tasks. Conversely, learners who performed recall tasks recalled significantly more low-level information than those who performed summary tasks.