Listening Style Preference and L2 Listening Proficiency

10.29691/JAE.200810.0001

鄧慧君(Huei-Chun Teng)

應用英語期刊

1期（2008 / 10 / 01）

1 - 14

英文

The purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between listening style preference and EFL listening proficiency for Taiwanese college students. Respondents in the study included six freshman classes of about 300 students at a university in Taiwan. One instrument adopted in the study is a listening test which will designate respondents' EFL listening proficiency. The other is a questionnaire of the Listening Styles Profile (Watson et al., 1995) which identified four distinct listening styles, i.e., people-oriented, action-oriented, content-oriented, and time-oriented. The respondents first took the EFL listening test, and then completed the listening styles profile. Finally, an interview was held with ten of the respondents to probe their perceptions of listening styles. Significant links between each listening style and EFL listening proficiency and listener gender variables was explored using correlational tests and analysis of variance. Results of the study show that Taiwanese college students adopted the people-oriented listening styles most often, and that there is positive relationship between respondents' people-oriented listening styles and their scores of EFL listening test. Based on the results, the most important implication for EFL listening instruction is to teach EFL listeners to employ people-oriented listening styles more frequently to improve their listening comprehension.