The Effect of Intensive and Extensive Listening on Iraqi Students’ listening comprehension and Working memory
Ali Abdulameer and Hossein Bozorgian
University of Mazandaran, Iran
Published: February 22, 2023
Abstract
Listening comprehension is one of the significant skills in the field of language learning. In this regard, intensive and extensive listening has been highlighted to assist learners in improving their listening. In intensive and extensive listening, learners are assessed during the course. This study investigated the impact of intensive and extensive listening comprehension on Iraqi EFL students. The participants were 84, all of them males and aged between 16 and 17. The participants were randomly assigned to the intensive group (n=28), extensive group (n=28), and control group (n=28) students too. Due to random selection, the intensive group received audio-only listening materials for 10 sessions, the extensive group received different samples of listening materials for 10 sessions too, and the control group did not receive. All the participants were asked to complete the Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and also take the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and Digit Span Test (DST) before and after the intervention. The findings revealed that the mean of the intensive group was higher than the mean of the extensive and control groups. Considering the results of data, the finding suggested the working memory is compared in three groups of extensive, intensive, and regular. Overall, results indicated that the effect of intensive group was higher than the mean of the extensive and control groups. Finally, the correlation between working memory and the two variables (intensive and extensive listening) separately shows intensive and extensive listening and working memory had a weak correlation.
Keywords: Listening comprehension, working memory, intensive and extensive
DOI: 10.23918/vesal2023v03