Exploring Second-Language Learner Comprehension of University Lectures

Abstract

In international education, the ability to comprehend English-medium lectures has become an important benchmark for many students from non-English speaking cultures, yet the issue of second-language lecture comprehension has received only occasional attention by scholars. This research aims to address this gap by exploring the linguistic factors that affect lecture comprehension of Japanese users of English in an English-medium lecture course at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU) in Japan. It identifies the key linguistic factors that are likely to pose a challenge for non-native users of English in this context and investigates the effects of these factors on the comprehension of the participants as they attend lectures in the course. It concludes with recommendations for improving lecture comprehension and options for future research in this area.