Length in listening texts as a single determiner of difficulty for comprehension

Text length is considered as one of the factors that cause listening task difficulty along with others such as speech rate, clarity of voice, accents, text genre and topic. Despite all these factors, teachers sometimes consider text length as the single reason for a listening activity’s difficulty. Not many studies have focused on the length as a single determiner or whether there are other factors that are associated with text length or not. In order to contribute to the field, the present study has aimed to investigate whether text length is a single determiner for difficulty and if not what other difficulties students have when they listen to long texts. Both quantitative and qualitative data have been collected. Reflection reports on the difficulties of the task constitute qualitative data whereas scores on comprehension questions comprise quantitative data. Two long listening tasks were implemented with an experimental group by dividing the length into manageable phases; meanwhile, with control group, they were done all at once. Scores of the two groups in comprehension questions have been compared by using T-test analysis. The findings have indicated that text length cannot be a determining factor alone. In the experiment, the scores of experimental and control groups do not have a statistically significant difference. According to student reflection reports, students have difficulties in listening long texts due to a lack of listening strategies, speech rate and pronunciation. Thus, text length might be better considered along with these factors.

Anlama zorluğunun tek belirleyicisi olarak dinleme metinlerindeki uzunluk

Metin uzunluğunun dinleme aktivitelerindeki zorluğa sebep olan faktörlerden biri olduğu birçok araştırmacı tarafından düşünülmektedir (Chen, 2005; Mohamadi, 2013; Mendelsohn, 1994; Robinson, 2001). Fakat öğretmenler bazen metin uzunluğunu bir aktiviteyi zorlaştıran tek faktör olarak görmektedirler. Metin uzunluğunun, dinleme aktivitesindeki zorluğun tek belirleyicisi olup olmadığı veya eğer varsa diğer faktörlerin ne olduğu konusunda fazla çalışma bulunmamaktadır. Alana katkıda bulunmak için, bu çalışma hem nitel hem nicel veriler kullanarak, metin uzunluğunun zorluğun tek belirleyicisi olup olmadığını incelemiştir. Dinleme aktivitesinin zorluğu hakkında öğrencilerden alınan dönütler nitel veriyi oluştururken okuduğunu anlama sorularına verdikleri cevaplar karşılığı aldıkları puanlar nicel veriyi oluşturmaktadır. Deney grubuyla iki uzun dinleme aktivitesi daha üstesinden gelinebilecek sürelere bölünüp uygulanmış, kontrol grubuyla ise aynı dinleme aktiviteleri bölünmeden yapılmıştır. İki grubun okuduğunu anlama sorularına verdiği cevaplar için verilen puanlar T-test analizi ile karşılaştırılmıştır. Bulgular, metin uzunluğunun dinleme aktivitesinin zorluğunu belirleyen tek faktör olmadığını ortaya çıkarmıştır. İki grubun yapılan uygulamadan aldıkları puanlar istatistiksel öneme sahip bir fark göstermemiştir. Öğrenci dönütlerine göre, öğrenciler uzun dinleme metinlerinde dinleme stratejileri hakkında bilgi eksikliği, konuşma hızı ve telaffuz nedeniyle zorluk çekmişlerdir. Bu nedenle, metin uzunluğu, bu faktörlerle birlikte düşünülmelidir.

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