In online lectures, unlike in face-to-face lectures, teachers lack access to (nonverbal) cues to check if their students are still "with them" and comprehend the lecture. The increasing availability of low-cost eye-trackers provides a promising solution. These devices measure unobtrusively where students look and can visualize these data…

This research studied the impact of language barriers and cultural experiences on students' perceptions at the University of North Texas. The population of this study were students who had taken a class with a non-native speaking instructor and those who hadn't. Following a mixed-method research approach, online surveys were distributed to the…

Listening to academic lectures in a second language (L2) can be a daunting task, as the listener faces various challenges related to processing the speech stream, prioritizing the importance of information, and deciding when, where and how to take notes. A host of factors can contribute to student comfort in and ability to take "good"…

OpenCourseWare (OCW) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have gained increasing popularity and importance because they greatly expand students' access to university lectures. Although the main component of OCW and MOOC platforms is lectures, their differences may potentially affect the difficulty of academic listening comprehension. This study…

The current study aimed to explore undergraduate students use and perceptions of listening comprehension strategies (LCS) in online EMI lectures, and the extent to which LCS use depends on the students' general language proficiency and language exposure. A total of 76 English majors completed a language proficiency test, an LCS inventory and a…

This study examined how three auditory lectures delivered at different speeds -- normal (1.0x), fast (1.5x) and very fast (3.0x) speeds -- affected the graduate students' attention, cognitive load, and learning that were assessed by pre- and post-comprehension tests, cognitive-load questionnaire, and Electroencephalography (EEG) device. The…

The present paper reports on a small investigation that took place in the author's teaching environment to highlight her students' academic lecture comprehension needs related to the new subject matter of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). The aim of this research endeavour was to ponder over students' perspective of the difficulties emerging…

Authentic materials such as TED Talks have become an everyday presence in the ELT classroom, often for practice listening and taking notes. However, teachers can struggle to teach the sub-skills that are involved in notetaking, and instead often simply tell students to 'take notes'. This approach lacks the scaffolding required for the complex…

The primary purpose of this investigation was to determine if there were differences in note-taking and test-taking in students with and without ADHD, and if there were, to examine the cognitive variables that might explain them. Participants included 22 postsecondary students with self-reported ADHD and 50 postsecondary student controls. Students…

The note- and test-taking skills of typically functioning undergraduates are significantly and positively related to handwriting speed, listening comprehension, background knowledge and sustained attention. This study attempted to replicate these findings with two groups of high school students--those with and without the diagnosis of a learning…

Note taking is regarded as an academic skill necessary to pursue ones academic studies. Note taking while listening to lectures is a challenging activity for non-native speakers studying in a foreign language. It is advised that non-native students should be trained in listening and Note taking which will help them to improve their listening…

We provided texts generated by speech-to text-recognition (STR) technology for non-native English speaking students during lectures in English in order to test whether STR-texts were useful for enhancing students' comprehension of lectures. To this end, we carried out an experiment in which 60 participants were randomly assigned to a control group…

Concerns about the need for assessing multidialectal listening skills for global contexts are becoming increasingly prevalent. However, the inclusion of multiple accents on listening assessments may threaten test fairness because it is not practical to include every accent that may be encountered in the language use domain on these tests. Given…

This article reports on a study which aimed to determine the effect of strength of accent on listening comprehension of interactive lectures. Test takers (N = 21,726) listened to an interactive lecture given by one of nine speakers and responded to six comprehension items. The test taker responses were analyzed with the Rasch computer program…

Note taking (NT) in lectures is as active a skill as listening, which stimulates it, and as challenging as writing, which is the end product. Literature on lecture NT misses an integration of the processes involved in listening with those in NT. In this article, a taxonomy is proposed of lecture NT skills and subskills based on a similar list…