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Effects of mobile-assisted pre-listening activities and listening strategy training

on EFL students’ listening comprehension skill and strategy use 47

Secondary English Education, 10(4)

Effects of mobile-assisted pre-listening activities and

listening strategy training on EFL students’listening

comprehension skill and strategy use1)

Gyoomi Kim (Semyung University)

Kim, Gyoomi. (2017). Effects of mobile-assisted pre-listening activities and listening strategy training on EFL students' listening comprehension skill and strategy use. Secondary English Education, 10(4), 47-70.

With a tremendous advancement of mobile technologies and widespread access to the wireless internet connection, more sophisticated applications which allow learners to use interactive and portable activities are now available to teach and learn English listening in a higher education setting. The current study utilizes one commercial vocabulary tutoring application, Class Card, as a help of listening instruction and investigates the effects of mobile-assisted pre-listening activities and listening strategy (LS) training on Korean EFL students' listening comprehension (LC) skill and LS use. To do so, the study follows a repeated-measures ANOVA design and utilizes three LC tests and a listening strategy inventory questionnaire. Sixty-nine university students participated in this study and were divided into three groups: one group with no treatment, another group with MALL activities only, and the other group with MALL activities and LS training. The results found that compared to the no treatment group, two groups with MALL activities had statistically significant improvement on their LC tests over time. In addition, the students experiencing MALL activities more frequently used compensation and metacognitive strategies than those without MALL activities. From the findings of the study, pedagogical implications to adopt MALL activities in higher education are suggested, especially focusing on English listening instruction.

Ⅰ. INTRODUCTION

Listening is a basic skill that plays a significant role in successful

1) This work is supported by the Research fund of Semyung University (2016).

48 Gyoomi Kim

communication and language education. However, language learners, especially

in an EFL setting, feel more difficult understanding spoken language than

written one since EFL learners have relatively less exposure to spoken

language and less familiar in dealing with listening tasks (Chang & Read,

2008). For this reason, language educators and researchers have long

explored effective ways for teaching and learning listening skill and asked

learners to repeatedly have a large amount of listening practice and listening

to much oral input. From this point of view, listening has become one of the

commonly discussed language skills in a technology-enhanced language

learning (TELL) environment because TELL can provide a large amount of

listening input and learners are able to use it for repeated listening practice.

In recent years, with well-developed portable devices and wireless internet

connection, more sophisticated applications which allow the use of authentic

and interactive language learning contents are now possible to be used for

language learning, and as a result, EFL learners can be more easily and

frequently provided with target language input and practice with more

comprehensible input. Many researchers have focused on the capacities of

mobile devices as pedagogical tools for English listening and conducted

various empirical studies that investigated the effectiveness of

mobile-assisted language learning (MALL), either for listening or other

language skills (Burston, 2013; Jung, 2012; Kukulska-Hulme & Shield, 2008;

Kwon, 2013). However, there have not been enough studies done to

investigate pedagogical effects of MALL, especially focusing on EFL learners'

listening comprehension (LC) skill and listening strategy (LS) use.

In addition, some researchers suggested that one of the most effective

ways of developing listening skill was using listening strategies (LSs) (Kim,

2009; O'Malley, Chamot, & Kupper, 1989; Rost, 2002; Vandergrift, 2003,

2007) and actually proved that there was a positive correlation between LS

use and LC ability (Bidabadi & Yamat, 2011; Chen, 2002; Huy, 2015). In the

same context, Chen (2015) pointed out the importance of LS instruction and

stated that training appropriate LSs could be helpful for learners to complete

specific listening tasks.

From this point of view, the current study was designed to investigate the

effects of MALL activities as pre-listening tasks on Korean EFL students'



LC skill in higher education setting. For this purpose, this study utilized one

of the commercial mobile-assisted tutoring applications, Class Card, and

provided pre-listening supports for activating learners' schemata to address

their insufficient vocabulary and content knowledge. In addition, this study

also implemented LS training in a MALL-adopted listening classroom and

tried to examine the effects of it.

Ⅱ. LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Listening Skill and Strategy Use in EFL Listening Instruction

Listening is one of the critical language skills for EFL learners to have in

real-life situations and language learning contexts. It usually requires to

identify and understand what others are saying and needs an ability to

process oral language input while the language is spoken. Language learners

automatically process it in their mother tongue, but tend to be less skillful in

second language (L2)/foreign language (FL) listening process. The difficulty

that EFL learners are encountered, therefore, is from the complexity of

listening process to interpret incoming information (Buck, 2001). For this

reason, L2/FL learners try to explore the effective ways to improve their

listening skill, and one of the good ways to help the learners be effective in

their listening and studying listening skill is using various LSs (Bidabadi &

Yamat, 2011; Kim, 2009; O'Malley, Chamot, & Kupper, 1989; Rost, 2002;

Vandergrift, 2003, 2007).

LS is similar to other language learning strategy but specifically defined as

learners' behaviors and thoughts that listeners engage in during listening

(Weinstein & Mayer, 1986, cited in Huy, 2015). According to Rost (2002),

LSs are techniques and activities that contribute directly to the

comprehension and recall of listening input. Vandergrift (2003), on the other

hand, defined LS as steps used by learners not only to acquire, store,

retrieve, and use information of spoken language input but also to achieve

the purpose of LC. Based on the definitions of LS above, there are many

types of LS classification presented in previous studies (Huy, 2015; Teng,

50 Gyoomi Kim

1997; Vandergrift, 2003). Studies related to LS use have revealed that the

L2/FL learners use certain LSs, such as listening for main ideas, selective

listening for specific details, predicting for making inferences, and

constructing meanings during the speech events (Ehsanjou & Khodareza,

2014).

In addition to different types of LS use, effective listeners also use their

prior knowledge not only to decode individual words but also to build up a

conceptual framework for understanding of main ideas or details. Background

knowledge of language and content, for instance, vocabulary, grammatical, and

topic knowledge, is important aspect of successful listening, and good

listeners use their background knowledge to make sense of what they are

listening (Farrokhi & Modarres, 2012; Jafari & Hashim, 2012). From several

previous studies, there was a positive relationship found between learners'

background knowledge and their LC ability (Chang & Read, 2008; Hasan,

2000), and instruction in activating learners' background knowledge was

proved necessary or at least helpful to better understand listening texts.

Regarding L2/FL listening instruction, Rost (2002) suggested that listening

tasks follow a three staged procedure that includes pre-listening,

while-listening, and post-listening. Of these three listening stages,

pre-listening is the procedure that the learners are tuned in understanding

what to expect through the tasks that target general and specific

understanding. Therefore, pre-listening is a kind of introductory work that

makes content explicit, clarifies and establishes the purposes of listening, and

has beneficial effects to enhance LC. The learners can be provided with

pre-listening tasks to listen selectively and effectively, to avoid distractions,

and to retain information successfully (Rost, 2002). Therefore, pre-listening

can paly a key role of motivating learners, providing background knowledge,

and activating lexical and content schemata, and eventually influence in

facilitating L2/FL listening (Ehsanjou & Khodareza, 2014; Lee & Lee, 2012;

Pan, 2012; Park, 2008; Rameshianfar, Shahnazari, & Tavakoli, 2015).

2. Mobile-Assisted Language Learning for Listening Instruction

In EFL contexts, language learners have limited opportunities to use target



language beyond the boundaries of the classroom, and for this reason,

research on TELL has attracted growing interests in EFL teaching and

learning. Listening is one of the critical language skills that TELL has paid

attention to, and a range of technology-enhanced activities has been broadly

introduced for L2/FL listening teaching and learning, such as voice

recognition systems, smart-applications, YouTube, TED talk, pod-casting,

etc. (Abdous, Betty, & Yen, 2012; Kwon, 2013; Thornton & Houser, 2005).

More recently, with rapid advancement and development of mobile

technologies, MALL has grown its popularities in language education field,

and language educators and researchers have begun to heed MALL to have

the learners more exposure to real-life situations of target language use (O,

2015).

The main characteristics of MALL can be summarized as portability,

accessibility, immediacy, interactivity, permanency, and situating of

instructional activities (Ogata & Yano, 2005). In the view of advanced mobile

technology, the modern language classroom utilizes these newest smart

technologies for many reasons, such as perceived usefulness, ease of use,

content reliability, interactivity, enjoyment to learn, and learner's attitude to

use mobile devices (Kim & Lee, 2016). However, in the regard to L2/FL

listening, MALL can be used as alternatives or supplementaries for traditional

classroom-based instruction because it provides learners with a wide range

of digital resources and these actual and meaningful learning resources are

available to use anywhere and anytime (Demouy & Kukulska-Humle, 2010).

As stated earlier, listening is a language skill that needs a large amount of

practice and challenges EFL learners to improve. A number of research

studies on listening skill indicated that learners' difficulties in English LC are

related to limited vocabulary knowledge, fast speed of spoken language, lack

of content knowledge, etc. (Ehsanjou & Khodareza, 2014; O, 2015; Stockwell,

2007). Among these factors influencing LC problems, background knowledge,

however, can be delivered by online resources in MALL contexts, and with

wireless internet connection, the learners can access to these resources

wherever or whenever they need. Moreover, the difficulties caused by

speech speed can be covered by repeated practice through MALL activities

beyond the classroom. Therefore, although there exist several limitations,

52 Gyoomi Kim

such as a small screen, keypad, and costs, MALL can be considered as

alternative or at least supplementary tools for classroom-based listening

instruction, and various attempts to adopt MALL activities and applications

have been done in formal or informal learning contexts (Kukulska-Hulme &

Shield, 2008; Stockwell, 2007; Thorton & Houser, 2005).

Ⅲ. METHODOLOGY

1. Research Questions

The current study aimed to examine the effects of mobile-assisted

pre-listening activities and LS training. To do so, one commercial

smartphone-based application, Class Card, was utilized to provide online

pre-listening tasks, either to support EFL learners' vocabulary knowledge or

to build up their content knowledge regarding listening texts. Then, offline

classroom activities were implemented for doing during- and post-listening

tasks. The current study followed a repeated measurement design, and three

sets of the LC tests were compared to show the difference of using MALL

activities in the EFL listening classroom over time. Moreover, the study also

compared the difference in the use of LSs depending on the existence of LS

training in MALL classrooms. Three research questions to be answered are

as follows:

1. Does the use of MALL activities as pre-listening tasks lead to the

difference in EFL students' LC skill?

2. Does the use of MALL activities lead to the continuous improvement on

EFL students' LC skill over time?

3. Does the explicit LS training in MALL classrooms lead to the difference

in EFL students' LS use?

2. Participants

This study was conducted in three English listening classes at one

university located in Chungbuk area, Korea. Seventy-two students originally



participated in the study, but three students who did not complete the whole

research procedure were excluded, so the total of 69 students, 38 males and

31 females, finally participated in this study. The class was an elective

TOEIC listening course that was open for the second-, third-, and

forth-years of students. The participants had previous experiences of

studying TOEIC, and their scores of the standardized TOEIC test were

ranged from 500 to 650.

All participants were divided into three groups. One was a comparison

group (COMP), not having any treatment but learning through traditional

classroom-based instruction, distributing paper-based vocabulary lists as

pre-listening activities, and regular TOEIC LC practice. Another was an

experimental group 1 (EXP-1), which experienced online MALL activities

and regular offline TOEIC LC instruction, and the other was an experimental

group 2 (EXP-2) that experienced online MALL activities and received

offline LC instruction focused on the explicit LS training. The homogeneity of

the three groups were checked by the pre-test results, and there was no

significant difference among three groups (F=1.021, p>.05).

3. Instruments

The instruments used in this study included LC tests, a listening strategy

inventory (LSI) questionnaire, and a MALL activities operating by Class

Card. They are specified as follows.

1) Listening Comprehension (LC) Tests

To investigate the effects of MALL activities on EFL students' LC skill,

three sets of LC tests were used in this study and repeatedly measured the

learners' improvement through pre-, mid-, and post-test procedures. Since

the experiment was conducted in the TOEIC listening course, three sets of

TOEIC mock tests consisting of 100 question items from four parts of

TOEIC LC were adopted and implemented in the beginning, middle, and end

of the experiment. The question items were counted with one point for each,

so a total score of each test were 100. The values of Cronbach's alpha for

54 Gyoomi Kim

each test were 0.89 (pre-test), 0.79 (mid-test), and 0.91 (post-test)

respectively, which was judged as an acceptable level of reliability.

2) Listening Strategy Inventory (LSI) Questionnaire

The LSI questionnaire was used for examining the participants' use of LSs.

In this study, Oxford(1990)'s learning strategy inventory, which could be

applied not only in language learning but also in learning language skills such

as listening, reading, writing, and speaking, was utilized. According to her,

learners might use different kinds of direct and/or indirect strategies in the

process of learning, and each specific strategy was categorized into six

strategy groups: memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective,

and social strategies. The original form of Oxford's survey was adopted and

modified for the purpose of the present study; in other words, the

statements of the survey were edited in order to assess the EFL learners'

LS use and translated into Korean before distributed (Huy, 2015; Kim, 2009;

Oxford, 1990).

The LSI questionnaire of this study consisted of twenty-four question

items. Each question item belonged into one of six strategy groups; three

questions in memory group, eight questions in cognitive group, two questions

in compensation group, four questions in metacognitive group, four questions

in affective group, and two questions in social groups. The question items

were basically made with 5-point Likert-scale answers from 1 (strongly

disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The Cronbach alpha of the questionnaire was

.789, which was statistically reliable for the research. The detailed

information about the LSI classification and the statements of the LSI survey

are shown in Appendix.

3) MALL Application: Class Card2)

The MALL application used for the current study was Class Card. This

particular application is a system accessible from a web browser, either on a

2) The application was used for the current study with a manufacturer's permission (February, 2017).



desktop computer (PC) or a mobile phone. The activities are created on PCs,

and the students access the activities on mobile phones. Both the PC and

mobile platforms offer the same contents; therefore, the contents are

identical, but a simplified interface is designed for the mobile platform to

reduce the problems of small screens and keypads (Thornton & Houser,

2005). The system is designed to allow upgrading the contents without

redeveloping contents, and extra vocabulary items can be added quickly and

easily.

The researcher, as an instructor, created MALL activities for the current

study. The vocabulary items were selected from a commercial TOEIC

preparation book, which was a textbook of TOEIC listening course (YBM

Publisher, 2016). Among the learning tasks offered by Class Card system,

this study used two types of vocabulary tasks: one was flash card tasks to

look up the meanings of words and choose an appropriate word for a

sentence, and the other was text completion tasks to type an appropriate

word for a sentence. In addition, several game-based learning tasks, such as

mix-and-match, a word battleman ship, and a speed quiz, were also used

either for individual or whole-class activities. In addition, the system kept

tracking on learners' progress, a scale indicating the percentage of the total

words they had completed as well as their overall competency score.

Therefore, the researcher and the learners themselves could view their

progress whenever they would like to. Figure 1 displays example screen

shots of Class Card application and the MALL activities used for the study.

4. Data Collection Procedure

The study was conducted over the course of the 15-week semester, with

the students from three homogeneous groups. In the first week, an

orientation of the course was held, and the pre-LC test was implemented in

the offline classes. The students of two EXP groups had an extra orientation

session; that is, the Class Card application was introduced to the students,

and they were helped to log in and use it to make sure that they understand

what was required of them. Then, the first online MALL activities were

assigned to the students of two EXP groups.

56 Gyoomi Kim

Figure 1. Screen Shots of Class Card Application

The offline class was given once a week, an one-and-half hour class.

From the second week onwards, regular TOEIC LC instruction was

implemented, which focused on learning question types of TOEIC and finding

answers of questions from each part of TOEIC. The students of the COMP

group, on the one hand, were given to handouts every week, which contained

a list of vocabulary items, as the pre-listening activities. On the other hand,

the students of two EXP groups completed online MALL activities before

coming the classes and received the regular offline LC instruction. The

students of the EXP-1 group had regular TOEIC practice, just same as the

COMP group; however, the students of the EXP-2 group were given to the

instruction focusing on the explicit LS training such as paying attention to

specific words and phrases, predicting, guessing from contexts, note-taking,

dictation, selective listening, self-planning, monitoring, and evaluating

listening process, and discussing answers within a small group (Chen, 2015;

Huy, 2015; Kim, 2009).

After six weeks of class hours, the students took the mid-LC test, and

after six more weeks of class hours, the post-LC test was conducted in the

15th week. In addition, the LSI survey was administrated, and the students

were asked to complete the LSI questionnaire after the post-LC test was



LC Tests Group N M SD

Pre- COMP 20 56.65 15.86

EXP-1 23 52.87 11.95

EXP-2 26 56.15 12.36

Total 69 55.78 13.34

Mid- COMP 20 64.62 22.19

EXP-1 23 65.80 19.97

EXP-2 26 70.88 20.28

taken.

5. Data Analysis Procedure

The data collected through the LC tests and the LSI survey were

quantitatively analyzed using SPSS 23.0. The scores from three sets of LC

tests formatted a single line of data for each participant of three groups

(COMP, EXP-1, EXP-2), and the results were analyzed by running a

one-way ANOVA and a two-factorial repeated-measures ANOVA. In

addition, the responses on the LSI survey were grouped into six LS

categories, and the mean scores of each category were compared by three

groups through the one-way ANOVA.

Ⅳ. RESULTS

1. Difference of Listening Comprehension Skill Between Groups

The first research question addressed the difference between EFL

students' scores of overall LC skill. To answer this question, the one-way

ANOVA was carried out on LC test scores, and a post-hoc Tukey-HSD test

was carried to figure out where meaningful differences existed. The minimum

alpha for confirmation of research questions was .05. Table 1 summarizes

the results of descriptive statistics with respect to students' LC test scores,

and the results of the ANOVA are reported in Table 2.

Table 1. Results of Descriptive Statistics on LC Tests

58 Gyoomi Kim

Total 69 67.29 20.64

Post- COMP 20 66.19 18.72

EXP-1 23 73.56 18.39

EXP-2 26 79.62 18.00

Total 69 73.60 18.88

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

Pre-T Between Groups 363.196 2 181.598 1.021 .365

Within Groups 11740.543 66 177.887

Total 12103.739 68

Mid-T Between Groups 732.651 2 366.326 .917 .405

Within Groups 2656.508 66 399.341

Total 27089.159 68

Post-T Between Groups 2512.079 2 1256.039 3.799 .027*

Within Groups 21819.660 66 330.601

Total 24331.793 68

Table 2. The Results of the ANOVA on LC Scores

* Post-hoc Tukey-HSD tests: COMP < EXP-1, EXP-2

As shown in Table 2, the pre-LC test scores of three group had no

significant difference (F=1.021, p>.05), which meant that the initial level of

LC ability was homeogenous between the three groups. In addition, the mean

difference of the mid-LC test was also not statistically significant (F=.917,

p>.05). The post-LC test scores only showed that there was a significant

difference between the three groups (F=3.799, p<.05). In addition, the

post-hoc comparisons using the Tukey-HSD test indicated that the score of

the COMP group (M=66.19) was significantly lower than the scores of the

EXP-1 group (M=73.56) and the EXP-2 groups (M=79.62). Therefore, the

students who used MALL activities as pre-listening tasks significantly

outperformed those who had traditional regular LC instruction, and this was

empirically confirmed the findings of other previous studies that mentioned

positive effectiveness of using MALL (Abdous, Betty, & Yen, 2012; Lee &

Lee, 2012; O, 2015; Pan, 2012; Stockwell, 2007).

2. Improvement of Listening Comprehension Skill Within Groups



Effect Value FHypothesis

dfError df Sig.

LC-test Pilai's Trace .483 30.330b 2.000 65.000 .000

Wilks' Lambda .517 30.330b 2.000 65.000 .000

Hotelling's Trace .933 30.330b 2.000 65.000 .000

Roy's Largest Root .933 30.330b 2.000 65.000 .000

LC-test*Group Pilai's Trace .156 2.784 4.000 132.000 .029

Wilks' Lambda .945 2.863b 4.000 130.000 .026

Hotelling's Trace .184 2.938 4.000 128.000 .023

Roy's Largest Root .182 6.004b 2.000 66.000 .004

The second research question tried to investigate if there was any

continuous improvement on EFL students' LC skill over time. In order to

answer this research question, three sets of LC tests were given to the

participants of three groups. Based on the descriptive data displayed in Table

1, the students of each group showed some distinctive changes from each

time period to the next on the repeated measures. To assess whether or not

the mean difference of repeated measures were significant, a multivariate

analysis was conducted to detect repeated-measures effect. In this data set,

therefore, a within-subject factor represented the scores on three LC tests,

and the group variable was a between-subject factor. Table 3 shows the

results of the multivariate test.

Table 3. The Results of the Multivariate Testsa

a: Design: Intercept + Group

Within-Subjects Design: LC-test

b: Exact statistic

The significant p-value showed an effect of time on the LC tests, which

was a within-subjects effect reflected by the repeated measures. As

demonstrated in Table 3, all multivariate tests showed a significant

interaction between LC-test and group, meaning that the LC test scores

collected from each group of students had continuous improvement on their

LC skill development over time. Next, a test for the assumption of sphericity

was run as displayed in Table 4.

60 Gyoomi Kim

Within

Subjects

Effect

Mauchly's

W

Approx.

Chi-Squaredf Sig.

Epsilon

Greenhouse-

Geisser

Huynh-

FeldtLower-bound

LC-test .860 9.817 2 .007 .877 .926 .500

Source

Type III

Sum of

Squares

dfMean

SquaresF Sig.

LC-test Sphericity Assumed 10472.650 2 5236.325 40.339 .000

Greenhouse-Geisser 10472.650 1.754 5970.317 40.339 .000

Huynh-Feldt 10472.650 1.853 5652.362 40.339 .000

Lower-bound 10472.650 1.000 10472.650 40.339 .000

LC-test*Group Sphericity Assumed 2030.380 4 507.595 3.910 .005

Greenhouse-Geisser 2030.380 3.508 578.746 3.910 .007

Huynh-Feldt 2030.380 3.706 574.924 3.910 .006

Lower-bound 2030.380 2.000 1015.190 3.910 .025

Error(LC-test) Sphericity Assumed 17134.828 132 129.809

Greenhouse-Geisser 17134.828 115.772 148.005

Huynh-Feldt 17134.828 122.284 140.123

Lower-bound 17134.828 66.000 259.619

Table 4. Mauchly's Test of Sphericitya


Within-Subjects Design: LC-test

As shown in Table 4, the assumption of sphericity was not met because

p-value of the test was significant. Therefore, the multivariate tests

examined above needed to calculate an appropriate adjustment to the degrees

of freedom of the F-test. Table 5 shows the results of a revised analysis,

and it confirmed the results of multivariate tests.

Table 5. The Tests of Within-Subjects Effects


As shown in Table 5, the difference of LC test scores were statistically

significant at .01 level, which meant that there was a significant effect of

time on LC tests (F=40.339, p<.01). In addition, the effect of group variable

reached conventional levels of statistical significant. Therefore, not only the

use of pre-listening activities through MALL application but also the explicit

training for LSs led to critical effects on the EFL learners' LC skill

improvement over time. This result was similar to previous research that



StrategiesCOMP EXP-1 EXP-2

F Sig Difference*M SD M SD M SD

Memory 3.69 0.51 3.48 0.75 3.65 0.79 1.45 .34

Cognitive 3.22 0.68 3.35 0.29 3.45 0.43 1.82 .15

Compensation 3.45 0.89 3.86 0.77 4.33 0.57 4.45 .00COMP

< EXP-2

Metacognitive 3.23 0.58 3.35 0.48 4.35 0.42 4.56 .00COMP, EXP-1

< EXP-2

Affective 3.08 0.38 3.18 0.59 3.26 0.38 0.89 .45

Social 3.12 0.70 3.24 0.78 3.24 0.51 0.43 .73

Total 3.18 0.38 3.43 0.36 3.79 0.38 3.24 .03COMP

< EXP-2

insisted the use of MALL applications as the supplementary of L2 listening

activities helped learners activate their background knowledge and eventually

led to listening skill development (Kwon, 2013; Lee & Lee, 2012).

3. Difference of Listening Strategy Use between Groups

The third research question addressed the difference of the students' LS

use depending on the existence of the explicit LS training. To determine any

variation in LS use among three groups, the one-way ANOVA was conducted

using group factor (as independent variable) and six categories of LSs (as

dependent variables). The post-hoc Tukey-HSD test was used to find where

any significant differences lay in LS use. Table 6 demonstrates a summary

of the ANOVA results for the use of six categories of LSs by three groups.

Table 6. Summary of Variation in Use of LS categories by Three Groups

* The mean difference is significant at .05 level.

The results of descriptive data indicated that the participants of this study

showed a medium usage of LSs, and the mean scores of responses were

ranged from 3.08 to 4.35. This was consistent with several previous studies,

which inserted that EFL learners showed an average level of LS use (Cross,

2009; Hong-Nam & Leavell, 2006; Huy, 2015). In addition, the results

revealed a statistically significant differences in the overall use of LS

(F=3.24, p<.05). Especially, the results of the post-hoc test indicated that

62 Gyoomi Kim

there was a statistically significant difference existed in the LS use of the

COMP group compared to the one of the EXP-2 group.

Regarding six categories of LSs, the ANOVA results revealed a statistically

significant difference for the use of compensation and metacognitive

strategies. Compensation strategies were used more by the EXP-2 group

than the COMP group (F=4.45, p<.01), and metacognitive strategies were

used more by the EXP-2 group than the COMP and the EXP-1 groups

(F=4.56, p<.01).

The most preferred LS categories for the students of the EXP-2 were

compensation and metacognitive strategies (M=4.33 and M=4.35,

respectively). The most frequently used strategies for the COMP group were

memory strategies (M=3.69), and the students of the EXP-1 group used

compensation strategies most frequently. From these findings, providing

MALL activities as pre-listening tasks encouraged the students to use

compensation strategies, meaning that they tried to guess intelligently and

systematically by using clues without listening to every word and eventually

helped them overcome limitations of English listening (Chen, 2015; Huy,

2015). In addition, the students who received explicit LS training used

metacognitive strategies frequently. Thus, LS training made the students be

in control of listening process, and as a result, they became familiar with LS

itself and tried to plan, monitor, and evaluate their own listening process

(Hong-Nam & Leavell, 2006; Kim, 2009).

On the other hand, the participants of all three groups less used affective

and social strategy categories. The least preferred categories for the COMP

and the EXP-1 groups were affective strategies (M=3.08 and M=3.18,

respectively), and for the EXP-2 group were social strategies (M=3.24).

This was consistent with the research findings conducted by Chen (2002)

and Huy (2015). According to them, social strategies were used the least

frequently by Asian students since they were afraid of making mistakes or

being laughed by others. Likewise, affective strategies could help listeners

handle their feelings, emotions, or attitudes in learning LC skill by lowering

their anxiety, encouraging themselves, and sharing feelings with their friends.

However, the participants of this study showed low usage of these two

strategy categories, which meant that EFL students, regardless of the



existence of MALL activities and LS training, still felt anxious in English

listening, and their fear of making mistakes kept them from exchanging

information or feelings with others and making positive comments on their LC

skill (Chen, 2015).

VI. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION

The idea of the current study was to adopt MALL activities as

pre-listening tasks and tried to figure out the effects on EFL students' LC

skill improvement. For this purpose, a particular MALL application, Class

Card, was used and designed to give the students a series of vocabulary

activities related to targeted listening tasks in advance. In addition, the study

also compared the students' use of LSs depending on the existence of the LS

training in the MALL classroom. The major findings of the study are stated

as follows.

First, the students who experienced MALL activities performed better on

their final LC tests than those who received traditional LC instruction, and

therefore, the use of MALL activities made a statistically significant

difference on the students' LC skill improvement. Second, based on the

analysis of repeated-measures, the students of this study had continuous

improvement on their LC skill development over time, and both the use of

MALL activities and LS training had an interaction on LC skill development.

Lastly, the use of LSs indicated that the explicit LS training in the MALL

classroom showed a high preference for compensation and metacognitive

strategies. These two strategies helped the learners not only use more

sophisticated strategies to overcome their lack of LC skill but also plan,

monitor, and evaluate their own listening process.

From the findings of the present study, some pedagogical implication can

be drawn to be used by EFL teachers of a higher education setting. In this

study, MALL was used for providing learners a systematic opportunity not

only to activate their vocabulary and content knowledge to make them

prepared for the main listening tasks but also to foster learner autonomy by

exposing the learners to relevant practices and performing self-manageable

64 Gyoomi Kim

tasks in advance (Stockwell, 2007). The results of this study empirically

proved that the pre-listening activities through the particular MALL

application had positive effects on the improvement of learners' LC skill over

time, and therefore, the teachers who consider using MALL in their actual

listening classrooms can adopt various MALL activities as pre-listening

supports and have the flexibility of choosing other enhanced types of MALL

resources in terms of teaching environment, personal teaching styles, and

teaching resources.

Furthermore, the current study also demonstrated the effectiveness of the

LS training in the MALL classroom, and the students who had MALL

activities as well as LS training showed a high preference for metaconigive

strategies. From this, it can be stated that the teacher in the MALL

classroom can facilitate learning by addressing students' prior knowledge of

language and content, and furthermore, introducing LSs and developing

declarative knowledge of how and what strategies are appropriate for certain

listening tasks and help students be effective in learning process. Therefore,

this explicit attention to building students' strategic awareness is important

not only to enhance their LC skill but also to make learners independent in

the process of MALL (Cross, 2009). The teacher's role in the MALL

classroom would be to understand the students and their LC ability in order

to distribute a fair amount of MALL practice and to scaffold the learning

process through purposeful strategy choices (Chen, 2015; Hong-Nam &

Leavell, 2006).

Based on the report made by Gallup Korea (2016), 88.7% of the population

owned the smartphones in Korea, and 96.6 % of adolescents aged from 10 to

24 carried them most of the time. Thus, the findings of the current study,

although it was conducted in the university level of language education, can

be applied in other teaching contexts like secondary or higher education. It is

necessary that the teachers in higher level of education begin to pay

attention to mobile technologies and utilize different types of MALL activities

and applications in actual classrooms. In the view of advanced technology,

the modern language classroom is recommended to blend online and offline

learning activities and flexibly adapt them in accordance to the needs of

educational settings and targeted groups (Kim & Na, 2014). With a wide



spread of mobile technologies and wireless internet access, the newest

mobile-assisted technologies can play a significant role in the higher

educational setting, and more teachers and learners are increasingly utilizing

various MALL resources in the future (Kim & Lee, 2016). For this reason,

more diverse studies needs to be done in terms of the effects of various

MALL applications designed for different LC proficiency levels, different

types of LC practice as well as LS training, and other language skills like

reading and speaking.

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68 Gyoomi Kim

Strategy Group Strategy Set Specific Strategies Statements

Memory

Strategies

Creating mental

linkageGrouping

I think of relationship between what

I already know and new things I

heard.

Associating /

Elaborating

I remember new words/phrases what

has been heard by remembering their

location.

Applying images

and soundsSemantic Mapping

When I hearing a new word, I

connect the sound and image/picture

to remember betterCognitive

StrategiesPracticing

Recognizing and using

formulas and patterns

While listening, I pay attention to

English patterns to understand better.

RepeatingI repeat several times if I don't

understand.Receiving /

sending message

Getting the idea

quickly

First, I focus to listen for main

ideas, then for detailed ideas.Analyzing and

reasoningAnalyzing contrastively

I pay attention to starting parts to

guess its meaning.

Transferring

When I listen to new words/phases, I

look for similar ones in Korean to

remember better.

Translating

While listening, I try to translate

words into Korean to understand

betterCreating

structure for Note-taking

While listening, I write down notes

and messages before giving answers

Teng, H. C. (1997). An investigation of EFL listening strategies by Taiwan

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Thornton, P., & Houser, C. (2005). Using mobile phones in English education

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Vandergrift, L. (2003). Orchestrating strategy use: Toward a model of skilled

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Vandergrift, L. (2007). Recent developments in second and foreign language

listening comprehension research. Language Teaching, 40(3), 191-210.

YBM Publisher. (2016). TOEIC Preparation Book. Seoul: YBM.

Appendix

LSI Classification (adapted by Oxford, 1990, pp.18-22)



input / output

SummarizingI try to make summaries what I

heard to understand the whole story.Compensation

Strategies

Guessing

intelligentlyUsing other clue

While listening, I use situational

contexts to understand text better.

Using linguisticsTo understand unfamiliar words I

hear, I make guesses.Metacognitive

Strategies

Centering your

learningPaying attention

While listening, I consciously pay

attention to information I need.Arranging and

planning your

learning

Setting goals and

objectives

While listening, I have clear goals

(ex. main idea, details, intention,

etc.)

Evaluating your

learningSelf-monitoring

While listening, I notice the mistakes

I made from listening texts and use

that information to do better.

Self-evaluatingI think I can finish listening tasks

well.

Affective

Strategies

Lowering your

anxiety

Using progressive

relaxation, deep

breathing

I encourage myself to concentrate on

listening even I can's hear anything.

Encouraging

yourselfListening to you body

I notice if I am tense or nervous

while listeningTaking your

emotional

temperature

Discussing your

feelings with others

I share my feeling with my friends

when I have problems in listening.

Making positive

statements

I try to keep calm and not be

nervous while listening.Social

StrategiesAsking questions

Asking for clarification

or verification

After listening, I ask a teacher for

clarification what I can't understand.

Cooperating with

othersCooperating with peer

When listening, I exchange the

information with friends to help me

understand texts better.

Examples in: English

Applicable Languages: English

Applicable Levels: University, higher education

Key words: 모바일기반 언어교육, 청해 기술, 듣기 전략 사용, 듣기 전 활동, 반복

측정 / Mobile-assisted language learning (MALL), listening comprehension

skill, listening strategy use, pre-listening activity, repeated-measures

70 Gyoomi Kim

Kim, Gyoomi

College of Liberal Arts

Semyung University

65. Semyung-ro.

Jecheon-si, Chungbuk-do, 27136

+82-43-649-1596

E-mail: [email protected]

Received in October 15, 2017

Reviewed in November 13, 2017

Revised version received in November 22, 2017

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