The Effect of Pictorial and Non-Pictorial Listening Tasks on Improving Iranian EFL Listeners’ Comprehension

Nilofar Safavi

Abstract


The main goal of the present study was to investigate the possible advantages of using pictorial listening tasks to improve Iranian EFL listeners’ listening comprehension over non-pictorial listening tasks, and to probe the relationship between the use of pictorial listening tasks and improvement of the Iranian EFL learners’ listening comprehension at two levels of proficiency, namely, elementary and upper-intermediate. The study consisted of two groups at each level of proficiency, including one experimental and one control group. A pretest was administered in order to provide the researcher with necessary information about the learners’ previously known listening ability. Then, the experimental group had the chance to see some related pictures while listening to the same audio file that the subjects in the control group were exposed to. None of the control group members received any pictorial assistance, though. Finally, the results were statistically analyzed. The analysis revealed that pictorial assistance did help those who were in the experimental group as the members in the experimental group over those who were in the control group. The findings of the current study could be useful to EFL teachers, test designers and coursebook writers.


Keywords


Comprehension, Listening, Listening comprehension, Pictorial assistance, Picture

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