L2 proficiency gains during study abroad vary widely across individuals and programs, and much of the research in the study abroad literature attempts to identify the causes of this variance. Social network data has proven useful in explaining some of the variance in oral proficiency gains (Baker-Smemoe, Dewey, Bown, & Martinsen, 2014; Isabelli-García, 2006), and the current study builds on those findings by applying the same methodology to listening and reading proficiency in addition to speaking. Proficiency gains in listening, reading, and speaking were measured for 17 students from a US university studying abroad in Nanjing, China for one semester. Social network measures focused on interaction with native speakers (NS) were taken at the beginning, middle, and end of the study abroad program using the Study Abroad Social Interaction Questionnaire. Linear regression analyses showed that social network measures accounted for nearly 46% of the variance in listening gains, nearly 82% of the variance in reading gains, and nearly 46% of the variance in oral proficiency gains. These findings make a strong case for applying social network methods to understand listening and reading proficiency gains in study abroad.

This study explores the impact of cultural competence on success in completing key missionary tasks. Qualitative survey results are supported by data from an intercultural effectiveness assessment and a Mandarin Chinese listening proficiency test to describe themes related to missionary communicative success and to explore correlations between intercultural effectiveness and listening proficiency. Missionary communicative tasks are clarified into themes:"obtaining referrals,"obtaining teaching opportunities," and"helping people make and keep commitments." Factors perceived as associating with communicative success include"feeling and communicating love" and receiving"spiritual guidance." The effect of training on intercultural competence is also described. The intercultural effectiveness subcategory of positive regard is shown to have significant correlation with listening proficiency and with missionaries' perceptions of their own awareness of Chinese culture. Suggestions are made for further research and program development.

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This thesis presents a study of the relationship between test-takers’ first language, listening proficiency and their performance on paired speaking tests. Forty participants from two different L1 backgrounds (20 Urdu and 20 Thai) participated in the study. They took two paired speaking tests: one with a shared L1 partner, and one with a non-shared L1 partner, as well as a listening test and a monologic speaking test to measure their listening ability and individual speaking ability. After each paired speaking test, the participants were also interviewed about their test-taking experience. All speaking tests and interviews were video recorded and transcribed. Raters awarded test-takers analytical speaking test scores (grammar and vocabulary, discourse management, pronunciation and interactive communication) and provided comments to justify their scores. Raters also participated in a stimulated recall session. The mixed-methods approach was utilised in analysing and triangulating different data sources. The data analysed in this study included listening and speaking test scores, raters’ perceptions of the test-takers’ speaking performance gathered from stimulated recalls and test-takers’ stimulated recall interviews, as well as the interactional discourse data in the paired speaking formats. The combination of quantitative analysis, Conversation Analysis (CA) and thematic analysis informed the relationship between test-takers’ listening proficiency, their L1 and their paired speaking performance.

In this study I addressed three problems related to how sandhi-variation, the adjustments made by speakers to the speech stream, filters comprehension for second language listener processing. The first was the need to better understand proficiency problems encountered by L2 listeners as they decode the speech stream with the phonological features of sandhi-variation, elision and assimilation, by investigating the item difficulty hierarchy of the phenomena. The second was the scarcity of research on aural processing abilities of second language learners in relation to their understanding sandhi-variation in aural texts. The third concerns the lack of research investigating links between learners’ backgrounds and their ability to handle listening texts, especially variations in the speech stream in target aural texts. The purpose of this study was threefold. My first purpose was to investigate the item difficulty hierarchy of sandhi-variation types that learners have in relation to L2 listening proficiency. My second purpose was to evaluate links between aural input containing elision and assimilation and second language aural processing, to provide insight into how learners deal with sandhi-variation as they process such input. My third purpose was to investigate through the use of interviews the aural input that participants have encountered prior to the interventions of this study, to help explain which types of aural input can facilitate intake. Twenty-five first- and second-year Japanese university students participated in the current study. The participants completed a series of instruments, which included (a) a Test of English as a Foreign Language Paper-Based Test (TOEFL PBT), (b) a Listening Vocabulary Levels Test (LVLT), (c) a Modern Language Aptitude Test–Elementary (MLAT-E), (d) a Pre-Listening in English questionnaire, (e) an Elicited Imitation Test (EIT), and (f) a Background and Length of Residency interview. The EIT was used as a sandhi-variation listening test with two component parts (i.e., elision and assimilation) and two sub-component parts (e.g., two different utterance rates), using elicited imitation. Finally, the participants were interviewed about their language backgrounds to gauge their understanding and feelings about English. An empirical item hierarchy for elision and assimilation was investigated, along with the determinants of the hierarchy. Overall, the tendency was for items with elision and assimilation to be more difficult. Results also indicated that the two input rate variables combined with elision and assimilation affected the non-native participants’ listening comprehension. Moreover, the strength of the relationship between two measures of the participants’ language ability, proficiency and aptitude, and their comprehension of items with and without the phonological features of elision and assimilation, were investigated. The results confirmed a positive relationship between language aptitude as measured by the MLAT-E and the comprehension of the phonological features of elision and assimilation. Finally, the results indicated that there were no significant, positive correlations between English language proficiency scores and both the Pre-Listening Questionnaire, which measured the participants’ feelings about second language listening, and the Background and Length of Residency Interview. More research needs to be conducted to determine how learners’ backgrounds are related to listening comprehension in order to better prescribe aural input in second language listening classrooms. / Teaching & Learning