Current System of Listening
Comprehension Laboratory Attendance
In the current IDI, or Institute
of Languages of the Santiago
de Cali University system
“independent”
EFL students, that is those
learners who are not registered
in a university career program,
are “exempted”
from listening laboratory
attendance. In my opinion,
this is a serious error that
negatively impacts on the
English language skills of
registered university students
and independent English as
a Foreign Language students
alike. Listening comprehension
is a language skill which
cannot be explicitly taught
as elaborated on in “What
Makes Listening Difficult?”.
(Lynch, 2005) This also ultimately
results in several ongoing
problems.
• Students are given
the message that laboratory
attendance is unimportant
• Students do not actively
pursue any form of development
of their listening comprehension
skills
• Students undergo
increasing difficulty with
listening comprehension in
class, on quizzes and exams
• Student do not feel
a need to practice listening
skills using the cassettes
or CDs when outside the class
environment
• Students often arrive
at intermediate and upper
levels with woefully inadequate
listening comprehension skills
• The quality of English
language learning is moderately
to severely impacted by students’
decided lack of listening
comprehension skills
• Since speaking skills
and listening comprehension
skills are inter-related,
albeit disproportionately,
speaking skills development
can likewise be negatively
impacted, under-developed
or otherwise diminished in
capacity
Due to these aspects, among
others, I disagree with the
policy of automatically “exempting”
independent IDI students from
listening laboratory attendance.
It may be better perhaps to
implement the following strategies
into current IDI policy.
Possible Solutions for Independent
Students
In consideration of the fact
that often independent students
may be time-pressured due
to employment, family responsibilities,
health and other commitments
solutions could be to:
• Encourage listening
laboratory attendance upon
early arrival , or if possible,
on another day
• Schedule special
listening comprehension practice
sessions in the laboratory
or library at the request
of the students
• Allow listening laboratory
attendance sessions to be
conducted during class hours
– i.e., for a Monday,
Wednesday, Friday class a
portion of Friday’s
class could be held in the
listening laboratory
For a Tuesday / Thursday
class a portion of Thursday’s
class would be held in the
listening laboratory
• Allow for listening
comprehension practice sessions
using lab materials in class
by special arrangement thus
aiding in lowering of the
students’ Affective
Filter (Krashen and Terrell,
1993)
Listening Comprehension Study
Results
Studies conducted over a
period of five semesters,
two and a half years, from
the three partial exams given
during each semester clearly
demonstrate that students
who regularly attend the minimum
required number of listening
laboratory hours (four per
partial exam period and a
total of 10 for the semester)
achieve consistently higher
listening comprehension scores
than students with little
or no listening laboratory
attendance.
Those students who attend
a disproportionately higher
number of listening laboratory
sessions consistently have
the highest scores on the
listening comprehension portion
of the partial exams. During
the last, and previous semesters,
students have attended as
many as 35 listening laboratory
sessions on their own time
during the course of the semester.
Independently conducted studies
during the 2003B, 2004A, 2004B,
2005A and 2005B semesters
have unequivocally borne out
these results. (Lynch, 2004)
The graphed results of mean
and mode listening comprehension
exam section results clearly
indicate three distinctive
trends:
• Series 1 Blue –
higher general scores for
students with higher than
average listening comprehension
laboratory attendance
• Series 2 Purple –
a broader range of exam scores
than the blue series but with
few failing students and no
students with excessively
low scores
• Series 3 Orange –
a full range of listening
comprehension exam section
scores with scores from all
correct down to zero, or none
correct. In addition, about
half of the students have
failing scores.
This being the case, it appears
to be obvious that mandating
listening laboratory attendance
across the full spectrum of
IDI students would result
in benefits for both the quality
of learning and the English
language skills of the students.
Especially in the listening
comprehension skills of a
large percentage of LEP, or
Limited English Proficiency,
students who are now enrolled
in English classes. By effectively
addressing the listening comprehension
skills of EFL students, any
language institute can inherently
improve the basic English
language skills of its students.
