DOI: 10.5176/2251-1865_CBP15.20
Authors: Jeahong Kim, Jinwon Kang, Kichun Nam and Heuiseok Lim
Abstract:
Listening comprehension is viewed theoretically as an active process in which individuals focus on selected aspects of aural input, construct meaning of passages, and relate what they hear to existing knowledge (O’Malley 1989). Even though this theoretical view has been researched, listening is probably the least clarified field out of other language skills. It is discussed that finding an effective way to support mental process is a key element of L2 listening comprehension (Vandergrift, L. 2004). In the present study, participants were divided into two groups; one group is audibly exposed to the sentence with 1.5-second-long pauses between phrases, and another one is exposed to the normal sentence. The pause was inserted to help listeners’ mental processing which is holding their auditory input in working memory. Both groups were asked to answer 10 questions after listening a 7-minute-long story every 15 days. The accuracy rate of those recall test and pre & post test were measured. The rates of correct answers in both groups were significantly different; the pause inserted sentence group outperformed the normal sentence group. This result indicates that in L2 listeners, inserting a pause between phrases helps L2 listeners to understand a context due to their limited knowledge of L2 language. Performance of pre & post test also indicated that the statistical learning effect improved L2 learners’ language ability.
Keywords: L2 listening comprehension, short-term memory, aural input
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