The relationship between listening comprehension problems and strategy usage among advance EFL learners

Abstract

The current study aimed to investigate listening comprehension problems and strategies used among Iranian advance EFL learners. Furthermore, this study tried to find the relationship between the participants’ listening problems and strategy usage. Listening problems included input, context, listener, process, affect, and task problems while the listening strategies consisted of cognitive, meta-cognitive, and socio-affective strategies. A questionnaire was administered to collect data from 60 randomly selected Iranian advance EFL learners in a private language institute in Ahvaz, Iran. The outcomes demonstrated that the learners suffered from input and affect listening comprehension problems. Meta-cognitive strategy was the chief listening strategy used by the learners. The relationship between listening problems and strategy usage among the learners was statistically significant and negative. Results suggest that it is important for second language teachers to be aware of the different listening comprehension problems so as to enable listeners to use the appropriate strategies.

Keywords

• listening comprehension problems
• listening strategies
• cognitive strategies
• meta-cognitive strategies
• socio-affective strategies