Effects of three listening modes on listening comprehension of ESL undergraduates

Listening is one of the four skills of English language which has been given less priority in most language classrooms. The educational approaches and techniques used for learning listening are often boring and ineffective. This study aimed to investigate the use of three listening modes (i.e. audio-only, audio-video, or audio-video-caption) to improve ESL undergraduates’ listening comprehension, and to analyze which listening mode affects their listening comprehension the most. The study also sought to find out the participants’ perception of these three listening modes delivered by Schoology, an online learning platform. This study employs mixed-method research design because quantitative and qualitative methods were used for data collection and analysis. Participants were an intact class of 84 undergraduates. In the quantitative data collection, a quasi-experimental research design was adopted to gauge how the three listening modes affect the participants’ listening comprehension. The participants sat for a pre-treatment test before the commencement of the experiment. Then a fish bowl technique was used to assign the participants into three equal experimental groups. The study employed a counter-balanced design to cross out individual differences and to control the practice effects by using different orders of the treatments for each group. The three groups were exposed to the three listening modes throughout the 12 weeks in three phases (each group received a different listening mode per phase of four weeks). Post-tests were used to measure participants’ listening comprehension after each phase of the treatment and to investigate the effect of the three modes of listening. Questionnaires were used to investigate participants’ perception on using the three modes of listening through Schoology. Finally, the participants were interviewed to find out the challenges they encountered during the experiment and their opinions on using Schoology for the listening exercises.Results from the quantitative data showed that the three listening modes (audio-only, audio-video, and audio-video-caption) had a significant effect on the ESL undergraduates’ listening comprehension as the posttest means were significantly higher than the pre-test means. Although the effects of the three modes were not significantly different from each other, the audio-only listening mode was more effective compared to the other two modes. The questionnaires showed participants’ positive perceptions toward the three modes of listening and the use of Schoology as an online platform for listening. The results revealed that delivering the three listening modes through Schoology did cause a significant increase in undergraduates’ listening achievement that might have led to their improved listening comprehension. The triangulation of the quantitative and qualitative analyses further supported the finding that listening comprehension can be developed through different modes of listening on Schoology. If learners can acquire the listening skill, they can then apply it not only in their ESL learning, but also in every subject they take and every lecture or discussion they take part in.