Academic demands related to listening skills

Abstract

A literature review was conducted in order to identify various parameters underlying listening comprehension. The results of this review were used as a basis for a survey of faculty in six graduate fields as well as undergraduate English faculty. The purpose of the survey was to a) obtain faculty perceptions of the importance to academic success of various listening skills and activities, b) assess the degree to which both native and non-native speakers experience difficulties with these skills or activities, and c) determine faculty views of alternative means of evaluating these skills. Faculty perceived some listening skills as more important than others for academic success. These included nine skills in particular that were related primarily to various aspects of lecture content (e.g. identifying major ideas and relationships among them). As might be expected, faculty perceived that non- native students experience more difficulty than native students with all listening activities, and that non-native students have disproportionately greater difficulty with some activities, such as following lectures given at different speeds and comprehending or deducing the meaning of important vocabulary. With respect to measuring listening comprehension, some general approaches and specific item types were judged to be more appropriate than others. These included tasks that entail answering questions involving the recall of details as well as those involving inference or deductions. The results of the survey are used to suggest further research on the construct validity of the Listening Comprehension section of the TOEFL.