| The purpose of this study was to empirically compare two different methods of teaching listening comprehension to first-year students of Spanish. One method used songs as a listening text while the other method used narratives and dialogues.;The sample included 45 first-year high school Spanish students divided into two groups. One group (experimental) heard the listening text in the form of a song. The other group's (control) listening text was in the form of a short narrative or dialogue. The treatment consisted of five weeks of listening comprehension instruction in Spanish.;Both groups took weekly tests as well as a comprehensive exam at the end of the instructional period. In addition, two randomly selected first-year Spanish classes which had not received the treatment took the comprehensive exam. Comparisons were made via a series of one-way analysis of analysis of covariance (ANCOVA).;Finally, students from both the experimental and control groups completed a questionnaire which assessed their subjective reactions to the materials and procedures employed in the study. Responses on the questionnaire were converted to numerical values through the use of a Likert scale and analyzed via a series of one-tailed t tests.;Results of the study were mixed. Generally, students from the experimental group performed better on the unit tests given at the conclusion of each week's lesson. There was no significant difference in the performance of control and experimental group students on the comprehensive test given at the end of the instructional period. Significant differences were found, however, between the performance of the two treatment groups and the two nontreatment groups. The treatment group scored significantly higher on the comprehensive test than did the nontreatment group. Finally, students from the control group generally had a more positive reaction to the materials and procedures used in the listening comprehension instruction. However, both groups found the instruction to be beneficial to their comprehension of spoken Spanish. |
