Teaching listening strategies with authentic videos: An intervention study with EFL secondary school students in Catalonia

Abstract

Listening is probably the most difficult skill to work in the ESL curriculum, making it seem an unappealing and even passive activity. This classroom-based research paper studies the impact of the teaching of listening strategies with authentic videos on students’ listening comprehension skills and their perceptions of the intervention. The training sessions were carried out in eight weeks with a group of secondary school students. The strategies group received training on the development of listening strategies using authentic videos whereas the role-play group was asked comprehension questions after the viewing of the video followed by oral activities. The study shows that systematic instruction in the use of strategies did not result in the improvement of listening comprehension. However, students who had been trained in listening strategies demonstrated a statistically significant increase over their counterparts in a role-play group, -not only in most of the concepts referring to their perceptions of the listening activities but also in their level of metacognition awareness related to the listening skill learning.