In this quasi-experimental study, the effects of lexical coverage through pseudo word manipulation in dialogue comprehension are investigated. Forty-four first-year students in a Japanese university listened to five dialogues at different lexical coverage levels: 98%, 95%, 90%, 85%, and 83%. The results of the comprehension tests confirm the…

The current study explores the impact of varying multiple-choice question preview and presentation formats in a test of second language listening proficiency targeting different levels of text comprehension. In a between-participant design, participants completed a 30-item test of listening comprehension featuring implicit and explicit information…

Existing research has established captions as effective second-language (L2) or foreign language (FL) listening comprehension aids. However, due to the transient nature of captions, not all learners are capable of attending to captions in all cases. Previous work posited that to leverage the impact of technologies in learning and instruction, a…

This article outlines the development of a 16-item instrument for measuring language learner's foreign language self-efficacy (SE) concerning their speaking and listening skills through repeated administrations to groups of Japanese tertiary students. Responses were analysed through the Rasch model, which allows researchers to investigate…

Focusing on the teaching of listening strategies to second language (L2) learners, this study sought to revisit Renandya and Farrell's (2011) claims that explicit listening strategy instruction for lower-proficiency learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) is a fruitless endeavor. As such, we implemented a quasi-experimental study to…

This study examined the effects of watching gestures and lip movement on second language (English) listening comprehension. The participants were 30 high and 22 low proficient learners of English. There were six listening tasks combining two variables: modality and difficulty. The modality consisted of three types of assessments: Body (the upper…

This article reports a quasi-experimental study which compared the effectiveness for multiword item learning of three listening-based activities: dictation, dictogloss, and answering text comprehension questions. In a dictation, students write down segments of text immediately after listening to them, whereas in dictogloss students try to…

In many English language teaching contexts, listening activities resemble listening comprehension tests. Scholars have argued that this product-oriented approach is not particularly effective in helping learners improve their listening skills and have advocated for the inclusion of instruction that targets specific features of spoken language. The…

Building up on Munro and Derwing, the current study set out to re-examine and generalize the Functional Load (FL) principle (Brown, 1988) as a tool to identify a set of relatively crucial segmental features for successful understanding in L2 communication. In Experiment 1, 40 Japanese learners of English in English-as-Foreign-Language settings…

Prior research showed that interleaved practice (studying multiple skills at once) is more effective than blocked practice (studying only one skill at a time). This study aims to replicate the benefits of interleaved practice on the proceduralization of second language (L2) syntax and further examines the role of working memory (WM) in different…

This study examines common claims associated with shadowing. Studies in Japan conclude that shadowing is effective for improving learners' listening skills. Two common claims are that shadowing is effective for lower-proficiency learners and that it enhances learners' phoneme perception, thus improving listening comprehension skills. The former…

This study examined the influence of formulaic language on second language (L2) listeners' lower-level processing, in terms of their ability to accurately identify the words in texts. On the one hand, there were reasons for expecting the presence of the formulas to advantage the learners, because the learners would process these formulaic words…

The present study examined the interaction effects between teachers' choice of language in lexical explanation and second language (L2) learners' proficiency level on the learning of phrasal verbs and listening comprehension in a meaning-focused listening activity. Undergraduate L2 learners with two different levels of proficiency (intermediate…

This study examined the idiosyncratic development of second language (L2) learners in a listening strategies course. The progress of four Taiwanese EFL learners was examined longitudinally through a variety of quantitative and qualitative techniques as the learners participated in a course combining direct instruction of strategies with their…

This study investigated the effect of teacher codeswitching on second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition during listening comprehension activities in a lexical Focus-on-Form context. To date there has been research on teacher beliefs about first language (L1) use, its functions and its distribution in the interaction, but little on its effect on…