This dissertation explores the effect of visuals on test-takers’ L2 listeningprocesses. It uses a mixed methods design, following a concurrent transformative model (Creswell & Poth, 2018). There are three components to the study. The first is a comparison of group performance, aiming to shed light on how test-takers’ test performance may be affected by the inclusion of visuals. A total of 190 undergraduate students in China took part in this component. After being randomly and evenly placed in two groups according to their estimated proficiency level, their listening ability was assessed by a pre-test. They then took one of the two versions of a post-test, one where the participants could both see and hear the speakers, and the other one where they could only hear the speakers. A comparison of the two groups’ post-test scores using ANCOVA showed that the audio-visual participants scored significantly higher than the audio-only participants on the post-test. This indicates that the inclusion of visuals significantly enhanced the participants’ test performance. The second component of the study is a retrospective cued recall that investigatestest-takers’ specific listening processes. Ten participants in each group were randomly selected to join this part to the study. Their post-test test-taking processes were recorded and served as the stimuli for them to recall their viewing patterns, note-taking practice, identification of authentic features, and question-answering approaches. The comparisons between the two groups showed individual and group similarities, along with differences in every aspect of the listening processes. The last component is an analysis of the notes taken by the test-takers. Thequalitative participants’ notes taken during the post-test were rated regarding the correct levels of information noted, overall organization, and irrelevant and incorrect information noted. Using Spearman’s correlations, the note quality was correlated with the post-test scores in each condition. No significant correlations were found. This indicates that there was no substantive relationship between the participants’ note quality and test scores. Based on the results of the study, I advocate for the practice of including visualsin L2 listening tests, and an expansion of the construct definition of academic lecture listening to include the assessment of test-takers’ ability to understand visual cues. I also propose a five-dimension authenticity scale to measure the authenticity level of L2 listening input used on L2 listening tests. The study also has several other practical implications that are useful for L2 listening research, test development, and teaching and learning. Key limitations are acknowledged and discussed, and future research directions are suggested. / Teaching & Learning

In second language (L2) listening assessment, various factors have the potential to impact the validity of listening test items (Brindley & Slatyer, 2002; Buck & Tatsuoka, 1998; Freedle & Kostin, 1999; Nissan, DeVincenzi, & Tang, 1996; Read, 2002; Shohamy & Inbar, 1991). One relatively unexplored area to date is who controls the aural input. In traditional standardized listening tests, an administrator controlled recording is played once or twice. In real world or classroom listening, however, listeners can sometimes request repetition or clarification. Allowing listeners to control the aural input thus has the potential to add test authenticity but requires careful design of the input and expected response as well as an appropriate computer interface. However, if candidates feel less anxious, allowing control of listening input may enhance examinees' experience and still reflect their listening proficiency. Comparing traditional and self paced (i.e., examinees having the opportunity to start, stop, and move the audio position) delivery of multiple choice comprehension items, my research inquiry is whether self paced listening can be a sufficiently reliable and valid measure of examinees' listening ability. Data were gathered from 100 prospective and current university ESL students. They were administered computer based multiple choice listening tests: 10 identical once played items, followed by 33 items in three different conditions: 1) administrator paced input with no audio player visible, 2) self paced with a short time limit, and 3) self paced with a longer time limit. Many facet Rasch (1960/1980) modeling was used to compare the difficulty and discrimination of the items across conditions. Results indicated items on average were similar difficulty overall but discriminated best in self paced conditions. Furthermore, the vast majority of examinees reported they preferred self paced listening. The quantitative results were complemented by follow up stimulated recall interviews with eight participants who took 22 additional test items using screen capture software to explore whether and when they paused and/or repeated the input. Frequency of and reasons for self pacing did not follow any particular pattern by proficiency level. Examinees tended to play more than once but not two full times through, even without limited time. Implications for listening instruction and classroom assessment, as well as standardized testing, are discussed.

For this dissertation, I had the opportunity to investigate a well-established university-based intensive English program in the northeastern United States as it transitioned from an integrated-skills to a paired-skills approach. My goal as a researcher was to investigate in what ways listening, the second language (L2) skill researchers view as the least understood and the least practiced (Field, 2019; Graham, 2017; Graham, Santos, & Francis-Brophy, 2013; Siegel, 2018; Vandergrift & Goh, 2012), was receiving attention, programmatically as well as pedagogically, in the new paired-skills approach, and how that attention manifested in the classroom. Toward this goal, through interviews with program leaders and experienced instructors, I explored what they considered as key pedagogical challenges and opportunities in L2 listening in the earlier integrated skills program and in the new paired skills program. Through classroom observation, I documented how instructors approached L2 listening pedagogy in the new paired-skills program.  Analysis of instructor interviews showed that instructors described using a wide variety of content-based approaches when teaching L2 listening in the integrated skills approach.  In the new paired-skills approach, they described encountering many challenges with L2 listening pedagogy they had yet to resolve. Analysis of classroom observations in the paired skills program revealed that instructors mostly structured lessons with before-listening activities, with a preference for activating background knowledge via vocabulary preview and discussion based on textbook themes. A synthesis of case study findings across program leaders and instructors revealed that teachers structured different kinds of listening experiences for students but did not engage in explicit instruction in L2 listening focused on specific features of bi- and multi-directional spoken language nor did they offer much during listening instruction. Overall, the findings suggest the need to develop more curricular and professional development materials to assist instructors in further developing L2 listening pedagogy, curriculum and assessment in their classroom instruction.

This dissertation study explored the feasibility of using authenticated spoken texts to test L2 Chinese listening comprehension. The spoken texts used in the study were created using an “authenticating” technique, in which scripted spoken Chinese texts were infused with characteristics of real-world, unscripted spoken Chinese. In the first part of the study, 101 “naïve” L1 Chinese speakers reported their attitudes toward various characteristics of the scripted spoken texts and the authenticated spoken texts in a survey questionnaire. Comparisons of the L1 Chinese participants’ attitudes showed that they believed that the authenticated spoken texts were more authentic-sounding than the scripted texts in every measure. This indicates that the authenticity of scripted spoken texts normally used in L2 listening tests can be enhanced by using the text authentication technique. In the second part of the study, L2 listeners’ test performance and listening and test-taking processes during the post-test were examined. For the quantitative data, 184 intermediate and advanced adult L2 Chinese learners completed two listening tests (one pre-test assessing their listening proficiency and one post-test) and questionnaires tapping into their use of listening strategies and test-taking strategies. For the qualitative data, stimulated verbal recalls and verbal reports were employed to elicit another 16 L2 listeners’ verbalizations of their listening and test-taking processes. The comparison of the test scores showed that the listening test using authenticated spoken text as listening input was significantly more difficult than the same test using scripted spoken texts. The comparisons of the questionnaire results showed that the test-takers did not differ in their use of listening strategies and test-taking strategies. Aligned with the quantitative results, the verbal recalls showed that the two groups, despite hearing spoken texts with different degrees of scriptedness, did not adjust their use of listening strategies and test-taking strategies. However, the authenticated spoken texts elicited a greater reliance on lower-level processes compared to the scripted spoken texts. The last part of the study involving the same 16 L2 qualitative participants investigated text-related sources of bottom-up listening difficulties of the two experimental groups through a series of diagnostic listening procedures using L2 oral and written (typing) repetition tasks. It was found that, first, compared to the scripted group, the authenticated group had more phonological decoding difficulties due to connected speech; second, even though the authenticated group had more word segmentation difficulties, this type of listening difficulty seemed to be less severe for both groups compared to the difficulty of phonological decoding; and third, other features commonly found in unscripted spoken Chinese such as filled pauses and false starts did not seem to greatly impede participants’ bottom-up listening processes. The results from the three parts of the study and my experience creating authenticated spoken texts suggest that L2 Chinese test developers should include at least some authenticated spoken texts in their listening tests, because (a) they are more “authentic-sounding”; (b) high-proficiency L2 listeners with extensive Chinese second language learning experiences find them harder to comprehend than scripted texts; and (c) they elicit cognitive processes that better represent the processes in real-world listening. Additional practical and theoretical implications pertinent to test development and L2 Chinese listening instruction are also provided. / Applied Linguistics

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本論文為一教學實驗之研究，探討如何運用以電腦科技為媒介設計創新的學習環境，激勵台灣技專院校英語低成就學生之學習動機，增進其英語聽力能力。本研究以英語歌曲作為提升學習興趣的動源，電腦輔助學習任務為提供好玩有趣學習過程的憑藉；如此，學生可由愉悅聽歌、趣味活動中實作學習並達成學習任務目標。本論文並探索英語歌曲聽力電腦輔助學習任務對學生聽力字彙與知覺能力之影響，並了解學生對教學設計之歌曲聽力學習任務之評估。由學生在全民英檢聽力、英語母音知覺測驗、及歌曲單字聽力各方面的成績進步，顯示本實驗教學能有效改善低成就學生英語字彙與聽力學。根據相關與變異數分析結果，對學習任務評估越滿意的學生英語歌曲單字聽力成績進步越大。因此，本研究所設計之英語歌曲聽力學習任務能激發學生運用電腦與相關軟體學習編輯聲音影片，來了解英語 聲音與意義的連結、訓練養成辨識斷句的知覺聽力。此教學設計融入聽力教學、任務型學習、電腦輔助學習；且以設計研究方法觀點記錄理論基礎探討、教學資源運用、英語聽力課程中歌曲時間排練及歌曲切割之投影片簡報、歌曲對嘴表演影片製作學習任務之設計執行，提供其他英語教師作為電腦輔助聽力學習活動設計之參考。 / This study is an instructional experiment on how an innovative learning environment is constructed to motivate and improve English learning of the low-achievers at Taiwanese polytechnic colleges. Thus, this research employs English popular songs as a motivator and computer-assisted task design as a mediator for the students to do listening and play with the song materials. This instructional design provides these students with concrete task experiential learning and the pursuit for goal-oriented success, along with joyful song listening and playful task activities. This research also investigates the effects of these song listening tasks on the improvement of listening vocabulary and perceptual skills of the participants as well as their appraisals toward the designed tasks: time-rehearsing, segmenting, and lip-syncing. The effects of these song listening tasks are consolidated from the participants’ improved listening test scores from the elementary GEPT Listening Test, the Perception of Spoken English Test, and the Target Lexical Listening Test, their enhanced learning motivation and involved task performance, and their affirmed appraisals about their task fondness and the task usefulness. Furthermore, this study documents the design, implementation, and evaluation of such a song listening task-based syllabus in a digital language lab, which demonstrates an integration of second language (L2) listening instruction, task-based learning and teaching (TBLT), and computer assisted language learning (CALL). The design-based research (DBR) perspectives are also adopted to explain the role of the computer-mediated context to the innovative task construction; in addition, the task features which facilitate listening skills development and stimulate learning experience are identified by the appraisal components of song fondness and easiness, task playfulness and easiness, and task usefulness. Thus, the designed listening tasks can be shared and applied to other similar learning contexts.

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This study uses a self-presentational framework to investigate second language listening anxiety (L2 listening anxiety) among university students learning English in Japan and demonstrate that L2 listening involves social concerns that are specific to L2 settings. Successful performance in aural interaction presupposes mutual understanding, and L2 listeners have good reason to become anxious when it is doubtful whether they properly comprehend what others say. The Shortened Scale of Foreign Language Listening Anxiety, the Revised Interaction Anxiousness Scale, the Penn State Worry Questionnaire as well as a dictation test were administered to 1,177 students in 15 universities for the quantitative part of this study. Introspection verbal report data were collected from 17 students in two universities to investigate the thought processes of L2 listeners for the qualitative part. The profile analysis indicated the following: L2 listening anxiety was (a) specific to L2 situations and (b) linked to L2 proficiency because high and low L2 listening proficiency groups were different in the overall levels of L2 listening anxiety, but not different in general anxiety measures. The exploratory factor analysis and Rasch principle component analyses demonstrated that L2 listening anxiety was a broad construct composed of two related but distinct dimensions, Self-Focused Apprehension and Task-Focused Apprehension. The former is a concern over social evaluative threat, and the latter is worry over effective processing of aural input. The univariate analyses of variance confirmed that L2 listening anxiety was partly socially constructed because social anxiety was linked to both dimensions of L2 listening anxiety. The verbal data suggested that L2 listening anxiety was receiver-specific in that it involved concerns over comprehending and responding appropriately to aural messages. They also indicated that the levels of L2 listening anxiety were (a) susceptible to individual differences, and (b) influenced by different social situations. This study contributes to conceptual developments in the area of L2 learner psychology because understanding others is of profound importance in successful communication, and anxiety over non-understanding or misunderstanding can have significant personal and interpersonal consequences. / CITE/Language Arts

L2 listening research has moved toward a focus on understanding the process of listening. However, there are still few detailed studies of L2 listening that reveal learners’ comprehension processes when listening to scripted and unscripted listening texts. Studies in which such processing has been discussed have lacked detailed diagnoses of how bottom-up and top-down processing interactively affect listeners’ comprehension. This study was designed to show how listeners’ process and comprehend texts, with a focus on how their bottom-up and top-down processing either assist or impede their comprehension. In this study, a group of 30 L1 Japanese university English language learners’ listening abilities were diagnosed. The 30 participants were at three listening proficiency levels—high, mid, and low—based on TOEIC listening proficiency scores. The diagnostic procedure involved participants listening to two scripted and two unscripted listening texts and then reporting what they comprehended through three tasks—L1 oral recalls, L2 repetitions, and verbal reports. Other data was also collected in the study to relate the comprehension of listening texts to other important listening-related variables including listening proficiency, lexical knowledge, listening anxiety, study abroad experience, short-term phonological memory, and working memory. The main finding of the study was that miscomprehension of listening texts was invariably multi-causal, with a combination of both bottom-up and top-down factors leading to comprehension difficulty. Although not a new finding, the study offered more detail than current research about how bottom-up and top-down processing occur interactively. Regarding the overall difficulty of the listening texts, unscripted texts were more difficult to comprehend than scripted texts, and high-proficiency participants had fewer listening difficulties overall than mid- and low-proficiency participants. Quantitative and qualitative results revealed common processing difficulties among all participants due to L1-related phonological decoding issues (e.g., /l/ vs. /r/), connected speech, unknown lexis, and a lack of familiarity with unscripted speech hesitation phenomena (e.g., um, like). Qualitative transcript examples showed how top-down knowledge influenced misinterpretations of words and phrases interactively with bottom-up information, making inaccurate understandings of listening difficult to overcome. In addition to revealing participants’ difficulties and the severity of their comprehension difficulties, the diagnostic procedure showed common strengths—key words and phrases understood well by participants. High-frequency vocabulary and shorter utterances were both shown to be comprehended well. Finally, quantitative results in the study revealed relationships of participants’ listening comprehension with other important listening related variables. Listening proficiency and listening anxiety had strong relationships with listening comprehension of the listening texts. Working memory and short-term phonological memory had no relationship with listening text comprehension. Finally, study abroad experience showed a relationship with comprehension, but with many caveats, and listening vocabulary knowledge was not related with comprehension, but again, with numerous caveats to consider. Based on the results, theoretical and pedagogical implications were posed. Theoretical implications from the study relate to the understanding of four concerns in L2 listening research. Mainly, data in the study will aid researchers’ understanding of how L2 English listeners process speech interactively (i.e., with bottom-up and top-down information) for comprehension, how L2 English listeners experience connected speech, how L2 listeners deal with unknown lexis, and how L2 listeners experience difficulties with features of unscripted speech. Pedagogical implications of the study include the need for increased teacher and learner awareness of the complexity of L2 listening, the need to have learners to track their own listening development, and the need for teachers to expose learners to unscripted listening texts and make them familiar with features of unscripted speech. Finally, suggestions for further research are posed, including conducting diagnostics assessments of L2 listening with listeners of different L1s and with more varied proficiency levels, using different diagnostic procedures to examine L2 listening comprehension, and using more instruments to understand listening-related variables’ relationships with L2 listening comprehension. / Teaching & Learning

The Pre-listening Stage in L2 Listening Instruction to A2 - B1 Adult Learners By Hana Ždímalová This dissertation deals with listening instruction to adult EFL learners in the Czech Republic and the phenomenon of pre-listening, which is currently under-researched. It examines adult EFL students' perspectives and perceptions of listening instruction and of the inclusion of different pre-listening techniques, particularly at CEFR A2-B1 proficiency levels. The theoretical part of the study focuses on current developments in listening research and the historical context of the development of listening instruction in classical FLT methodology. The pre-listening stage has been integral to L2 listening instruction since the beginning of Communicative Language Teaching. However, some controversial issues have recently been raised. For example, teachers are sometimes suspected of spending too much time on the pre- listening stage (Field 2002; 2008) and the overall usefulness of previewed comprehension questions in testing listening has been challenged (Sherman 1997). Moreover, adult students' listening needs and their perceptions of listening instruction have not yet been thoroughly researched (Graham 2006; Graham and Macaro 2008). This study argues that we should ask the students about their perceptions...