Teachers' practices and perceptions regarding listening strategies, and perceptions of difficulties likely to arise in English listening comprehension lessons

Abstract

Students at English-medium universities (EMUs) in Turkey need to develop strategic listening abilities to prepare for English-medium content instruction. Listening strategies need to be taught because they help learners deal with incoming speech, particularly when comprehension is not complete. This study aimed to explore the extent to which teacher participants (a) incorporate listening strategies into teaching listening (b) perceive listening strategies as useful, and (c) encounter difficulties with listening lessons in English preparatory programs of Turkish EMUs. To this end, a questionnaire was devised. One hundred and twenty five participants from nine universities participated in the study. Data collected through the questionnaire were analyzed using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS, Version 10.0). Frequencies, percentages, and one-way Chi-square values were calculated to analyze the questionnaire items. Open-ended responses were analyzed by clustering the data. Results reveal that while at least two thirds of listening strategies commonly mentioned in the literature are taught commonly, there is a lack of emphasis on social and cognitive listening strategies. The results also reveal that teachers face problems because of (a) the difficulty of listening materials for students, (b) dependence on ready-made materials, and (c) a need for a richer repertoire of listening activities.