The Time Effect on Listeners’ Comprehension

The result that the participants acquired benefits from discourse features was also obtained in a previous study (Corley, MacGregore & Donaldson, 2007). Nevertheless, some studies found that discourse features in unscripted text were too difficult for the listeners to comprehend (Guarieno & Morley, 2001; Richard, 2006). Vandergrift (2007) indicated that learners might get too used to simplified scripted text in class, and may then have trouble decoding discourse features in unscripted text while listening. However, if there is enough time for learners to involve themselves in unscripted input, they might have more opportunities to acquire decoding skills in the listening process.

In Wagner and Toth’s study (2014), although the participants did not have a better performance in the unscripted tests, it was assumed that, given time, the learners might receive benefit from unscripted test. Before the 10-week experiment, the participants in this study had been taught using scripted text from textbooks in their listening training, so discourse features were a new experience that they had not previously encountered in class. The SU group showed improvement in the unscripted tests starting from post-test 1 in the fourth week of the experiment, while the UU

group scored increasingly higher starting from post-test 2, in the seventh week. With just a few weeks of training, the participants were capable of adjusting their decoding skills in their listening comprehension. The following comments are two quotes from interviews with some participants who had listened to the unscripted text for 10 weeks.

A1: “…Speakers would say the word ‘like.’ And to be honest, I didn’t know that the word ‘like’ meant nothing when the speakers said it until the last few weeks…but it

helped a lot after I realized that the word ‘like’ doesn’t mean ‘enjoy’ or something.”

B1: “After taking several tests, I began to understand that the speakers

sometimes used the word ‘say’ as a functional word in order to pause or to try to

present some examples.”

Following 10 weeks of unscripted input, the participants became able to ‘notice’

discourse features. Although they had misinterpreted fillers at the beginning, they soon corrected their mistakes, and consequently benefited from these hesitation phenomena.

5.3 Comparison of the two types of listening text 5.3.1 Learners’ positive perception of unscripted text

Aside from the advantages that ‘hesitation phenomena’ in the unscripted texts brought to learners, the learners’ positive attitude towards unscripted text also fostered

improvement in listening comprehension. Comparing the scripted text to the unscripted text, the speakers’ voices in the unscripted text were more ‘intriguing’, and the interaction between the speakers was more ‘natural’ to the learners. 37% of the participants stated that the way in which the speakers talked in the unscripted text raised their interest in the teaching, and only 16% of the participants held the same view towards the scripted text. More than half of the participants strongly agreed that the interaction between speakers made the unscripted text vivid and close to real life.

Rather than being bored by the simplified text, the EFL learners attempted to conquer the challenges presented in the unscripted listening text.

The participants derived great pleasure from the discourse features contained in the unscripted listening input. The distinguished essence of the unscripted text successfully maintained the students’ passion for listening. They enjoyed the dialogue and were motivated to pay attention to details. Even those students who were at a lower proficiency level were patient enough to listen to details without complaining about the length of the listening text. Their motivation to listen did not decrease owing to difficulties in comprehending the unscripted text, though they did not benefit as much from unscripted listening input. In addition, these students seemed to gain impetus to carefully listen to details when decoding the oral discourse features present in natural dialogue. This phenomenon differed from that observed in the study of

Kmiecik and Barkhuizen (2006), in which it was demonstrated that listeners were frightened by the difficulties that oral discourse features presented.

5.3.2 Learners’ negative perception of scripted text

The participants’ perception of the scripted text was quite negative in the experiment. Some studies indicated that learners had a more positive attitude towards scripted text because the more ‘writerly’ and well-structured listening text contained fewer discourse features, which possibly hinder learners’ comprehension (Kmiecik &

Barkhuizen, 2006; Guarieno & Morley, 2001). However, the participants in this study held a different view. In the interviews, the participants were able to describe how the scripted texts were created. They stated that the speakers just ‘read out the script line

by line’, and the well-organized script seemed to make this listening text ‘dull’ and

‘flat.’ Without the assistance of discourse features, the learners thought that the

interaction between speakers was unnatural, and the way they talked was not attractive. The following are quotes from interviews with participants in the SS group, which show their dislike of the scripted text.

A:”…Actually, I fell asleep in this week’s test. I don’t know why; I just couldn’t

concentrate on the tests. The speaker’s voice was so flat…; though their speaking

speed was slow, it was hard for me to catch the key words.”

B: “I could follow each line and almost comprehend the whole content, but I

think that you have got to try very hard to push yourself to stay focused. The topic of

each week was quite interesting, but the way they spoke was not different from what

we heard from the textbooks. Anyway, the tests were boring.”

C:”The speakers spoke quite fluently. I thought their speaking speed was

acceptable, but there were no chances for us to rest. To be honest, I was interested in

what they were going to say at the beginning of the dialogues; however, I somehow

lost focus in the middle and took a guess in the test.”

The participants readily lost interest in the listening tasks because the scripted text contained fewer features that could raise the listeners’ attention. The speakers did not stress important words or accidentally repeat any crucial information while recording. The fluent speech offered no opportunities for listeners to process the content, which corresponded with the results of Vandergrift’s study (2007). Scripted text seemed to harm listeners’ motivation to listen in class.

To sum up, according to the results of this study, most participants preferred the unscripted text to the scripted text, and were interested in the discourse features contained in the unscripted text. Some of the participants took advantage of these discourse features to assist their listening comprehension. The scripted text, on the other hand, made the learners’ listening process more complicated, and consequently hindered the effectiveness of the teaching.

5.4 Unscripted listening tests

5.4.1 The value of the unscripted tests

The value of the unscripted listening tests was brought to the fore in this study.

Unscripted tests not only reduce learners’ test-related anxiety, but also strengthen learners’ learning. Most of the time, under the stress of the test conditions, EFL learners feel anxious, especially when they are taking “listening” tests. One of the problems that learners face in the listening process is that they are unable to pick out the correct chunk in speech. Nevertheless, unscripted listening tests inadvertently mitigate the stress of the listeners, as discourse features provide them with more time to parse the incoming speech. With such easing of anxiety, the learners definitely improved in their listening comprehension, and were consequently capable of

chunking the correct constituents of sentences.

“Testing” plays a crucial role in learning activities. It is necessary for learners to

make a deliberate effort to retrieve what they have learned in the previous class. Such retrieval establishes an authentic learning event for learners. Learners might have a better chance of consolidating all the information they acquired during learning and strengthen the memory of it through immediate practice of the decoding and retrieving processes.

5.4.2 The backwash of the unscripted tests

Unscripted tests might bring gainful backwash to both teachers and learners in EFL classes. Unscripted testing is supportive of good teaching and is able to truly assess learners’ listening proficiency. As the objective of an English course is to assist learners in communicating with native speakers outside the classroom, listening tests should involve learners in as authentic a context as possible. Unscripted tests present a more genuine condition for learners as opposed to traditional scripted tests. Through this type of assessment, learners can measure their own listening ability with a higher degree of accuracy and modify their learning strategies during listening input. Also, in order to acquire a good listening proficiency, English teachers should conduct unscripted tests during class; they should also adjust their teaching plan depending on learners’ performance. Unscripted tests are beneficial to both teaching and learning.

5.5 Comparison of the SU and UU groups

The group who were subjected to scripted listening input (the SU group) began to make progress from post-test 1. The group who underwent unscripted listening input (the UU group) began to score more highly from post-test 2. The causes of the earlier improvement in the SU group, and whether robust or gradual progress is more beneficial to students’ learning, are discussed in the following section.

Once the participants were able to understand the content of the scripted text,

they may not have difficulty in understanding the unscripted text, which was relatively simple for the learners to comprehend. The sharp increase in the scores of the SU group therefore seemed reasonable. However, the SU group’s earlier increase in performance did not necessarily mean that scripted input was more effective than unscripted input in terms of learners’ listening comprehension. Actually, the fact that the UU group gave a fairly moderate performance suggested a potential function of unscripted listening input in the classroom setting. The participants in the SU group had no opportunities to perceive discourse features under scripted text input, which might have a harmful effect on their listening progress in the long run. On the contrary, although it took the participants in the UU group more time to see progress on the tests, the listeners may have been able to equip themselves with a true ability to understand natural conversation in reality during the teaching process. The results corresponded with those of the study of McCrudden (2011), suggesting that specific relevant instructions promote transfer appropriate processing and influence learners’

memory of text.

5.6 Pedagogical implication

It is important that instructors integrate more natural discourse features in their listening tasks in class. Instead of giving high-level students too many simplified texts that they might not encounter in real-life conversations, students may have a better

opportunity to raise their awareness of these unique conversational features if they are taught using unscripted listening text, and may also be better prepared for real-life conversations. However, it is necessary for instructors to carefully lay out a thorough long-term plan. As we observed from the gradual progress of the UU group, it might take longer for improvement to emerge; therefore, not only instructors, but also students need to be patient enough to wait to observe the effects of teaching using unscripted listening material on their listening comprehension.

Implementation of 8-minute listening practice sessions creates a win-win situation for both English teachers and EFL learners at the Taiwan junior high school level. In a typical English class in Taiwan, teachers primarily focus on teaching of vocabulary and grammar. Although some teachers have attempted to conduct more listening and speaking lessons, most students still spend relatively more time practicing reading and memorizing word lists, seldom participating in listening activities. By broadcasting English text recordings at the very beginning of each English class, English teachers can gradually assist their students to make a habit of English listening. In order to be able to acquire information from listening, students must keep quiet and settle down as soon as the class starts. Teachers not only require good classroom management, but also excellent time management.

Incidental vocabulary learning was another advantage to the students after taking

the unscripted tests. Speakers’ stressing of theme words and natural repetition of those words focused the learners’ attention. When the speaker explained the meaning of new words in the recordings, students followed the interpretation well, as if they were the other speaker in the conversation. Rather than viewing vocabulary items as a long and boring list of words to be defined and memorized, vocabulary is impressed upon learners more in contextualized, meaningful language. In addition, because of the time limit, students had to retrieve the meanings of words immediately while listening.

Such stressful listening training indirectly enhances the process of decoding and retrieving, and learners are able to memorize new words effectively with ease. Also, the automatic retrieval improves the strength to retain words in the learner’s memory.

Unscripted listening guides learners in a more effective way to internalize the accurate buildings blocks of language and unintentionally helps them to improve their speaking ability. The exaggerated stresses, natural interaction, pauses and repetitions in the unscripted recordings brought a joy of learning to the participants. After listening to unscripted text, they would intentionally imitate discourse features, and could even articulate new words clearly. The ripple effect of imitating the way in which the speakers spoke during unscripted text increased the students’ willingness to speak without anxiety. Because production and reception skills are two sides of the same coin, good speaking skills cannot improve without good listening input.

In summary, the pedagogical significance of our results calls for the implementation of use of unscripted listening text in the classroom setting. Coping with frustration at their inability to understand the whole conversation at the beginning may be a stage that all students go through if unscripted listening material is used in classroom teaching, but after conquering these initial challenges, the special features of unscripted listening text may be very helpful in increasing the interest of learners in class and maintaining their motivation to listen.

CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSION 6.1 Summary

In a language classroom setting, over-reliance on scripted text has led to the problem that learners cannot give a satisfactory performance under unscripted learning conditions, and scripted assessment does not truly reflect learners’ listening proficiency. The alternative, i.e., use of unscripted text, was introduced in this study, with the aim of shedding new light on learners’ listening training and comprehension in the classroom setting.

Although empirical studies have been undertaken to establish the theoretical effectiveness of using unscripted natural text to improve students’ listening comprehension (Read, 2002; Gilmore, 2004 & 2011; Wagner & Toth, 2014), the comparability of the listening texts, the number of measurements and the connection between learning and measurement still needed to be further examined. In this study, both scripted and unscripted listening materials were carefully designed, and comparability was assured. The participants were categorized into four groups to allow the connections between learning and measurement to be considered from different angles. Finally, the participants took regular post-tests during the 10 weeks of the experiment in order to mitigate the effects of fluctuation in performance, which

would not be evident via assessment with a single test.

The results showed that the participants did benefit from the unscripted text and were capable of utilizing the discourse features contained therein to assist their listening comprehension. The characteristics of the unscripted text not only improved listeners’ comprehension, but also increased their interest and their ability to concentrate on the listening task. The high motivation during listening training also contributed to effective learning during the 10-week experiment.

As the purpose of language learning is to communicate with native speakers fluently, the similarity between unscripted text and natural speech is of great significance. The results of the study supported the value of unscripted text, and indicated some advantages of using this method of learning in the classroom setting.

The implementation of using unscripted texts in class contributes to effective learning in listening, and is unavoidable for language instructors.

6.2 Limitations of the present study and suggestions for future research

There were a number of limitations of this study that must be acknowledged.

First of all, the participants in this study were junior high school students who may not have sufficient self-discipline to give a steady performance in each assessment. In order to optimize the learning conditions, the length of time of the experiment was increased, as was the number of assessments; however, it was still

difficult to assess whether listeners had the best quality of learning during their listening training. Maintaining effective learning conditions for each participant should be a focus of further study.

In addition, even though the results supported the use of unscripted text, the effective integration of teaching using unscripted text in listening classes might be an obstacle that needs to be overcome. It takes time and effort on the part of both textbook writers and teachers to create unscripted texts, which is one reason why unscripted texts do not exist in current textbooks (Jung & Choi, 2008; Chan, 2013;

Revesa & Brunfaut, 2013). More research is needed to investigate how textbooks writers and teachers can increase the exposure of learners to unplanned spoken language.

Finally, the quality of the recordings each week was not stable. There was no professional studio classroom in which the speakers could record dialogue, and so some of the recordings were not sufficiently clear. The participants sometimes expressed that they could not understand the content of dialogue, not because of their listening ability, but owing to the lack of clarity of the recording through noise. This variable was not able to be controlled during the listening process in this study.

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