The Effectiveness of leaching Listening at Junior High School

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the success of a course of listening instruction administered at junior high school level. A specific feature of this listening course was the mixture of graded tasks and the varied learning resources that the students used while they were being presented with natural spoken English. Four independent groups of students, two third year classes (76 students in all) and two second year classes (81 students in all), took part, in classes for approximately six months. To measure the efficiency of the course, a listening comprehension test and a cloze test were given to the third year students, and a cloze test to the second year students before and after the instruction. The average improvement obtained by the third year students was 55 points in the comprehension test and 53 points in the cloze test, and by the second year students, 48 points in the cloze test. The effect of learning was retained even after 60 days after the instruction. The students also showed improvement in a test of listening to new material by 20 points in a comprehension test and 8 points in a cloze, test Learners' self-evaluation questionnaires also revealed the efficiency of the instruction and the students expressed positive impressions of the instruction in the classes.