Effect of Explicit Teaching of Suprasegmentals on Iranian EFL Listening Comprehension Performance

Effect of Explicit Teaching of Suprasegmentals on Iranian EFL Listening Comprehension Performance

ABSTRACT “Teachers tend to overlook the process of helping students learn to listen” [1]. Furthermore, a debate has always been existed about the raising the learners’ awareness of segmental aspects of language, on one hand, and prosodic aspects on the other hand. This challenge in the field of EFL listening comprehension provided the impetus for the present study. The subjects were selected from among 72 Iranian English learners from four language institutes in Hamedan, Iran. The participants were randomly divided into two different groups, namely one control and one experimental group, each containing 20 subjects. Based on the research goal, this study examined if improving students’ command of supra-segmental features would yield better results on learners’ listening comprehension compared with the current listening comprehension techniques employed by the instructors for the same purpose. As their treatment, the prosody group received treatment aimed at raising their attention to supra-segmental features of speech (linking, intonation, stress, rhythm, assimilation, elision, pitch) while the control group practiced the current listening techniques. After running a t-test for comparing the participants’ performance in pre-test stage with that of the post-test stage, the results of the study offered empirical evidence for the facilitating effects in the listening comprehension in the experimental group. The current study proposes some pedagogical implications for the instruction, testing and material development of EFL listening comprehension.

ABSTRACT “Teachers tend to overlook the process of helping students learn to listen” [1]. Furthermore, a debate has always been existed about the raising the learners’ awareness of segmental aspects of language, on one hand, and prosodic aspects on the other hand. This challenge in the field of EFL listening comprehension provided the impetus for the present study. The subjects were selected from among 72 Iranian English learners from four language institutes in Hamedan, Iran. The participants were randomly divided into two different groups, namely one control and one experimental group, each containing 20 subjects. Based on the research goal, this study examined if improving students’ command of supra-segmental features would yield better results on learners’ listening comprehension compared with the current listening comprehension techniques employed by the instructors for the same purpose. As their treatment, the prosody group received treatment aimed at raising their attention to supra-segmental features of speech (linking, intonation, stress, rhythm, assimilation, elision, pitch) while the control group practiced the current listening techniques. After running a t-test for comparing the participants’ performance in pre-test stage with that of the post-test stage, the results of the study offered empirical evidence for the facilitating effects in the listening comprehension in the experimental group. The current study proposes some pedagogical implications for the instruction, testing and material development of EFL listening comprehension.