Word recognition strategies in the listening skill

Abstract

For several foreign English learners, listening skill represents one of the most challenging language skills to master. One of the barriers that learners face when listening is the recognition of words in the connected speech, which obstructs the listening comprehension. The following work aimed to investigate the influence of word recognition strategies on the listening skill in students of the fourth level (B1+) of the English course at CTT de Los Andes Language Center. The study had a qualitative and quantitative approach and a quasi-experimental modality. The subjects of the study were thirty-eight students, to whom a survey and a listening pre-test and post-test adapted from PET test of Cambridge were applied. The subjects were divided into a control and treatment group with nineteen students each. To know learners’ listening proficiency, the control and treatment group took the listening pre-test. Then, the treatment group had an intervention of five sessions, where students learned and used three word recognition strategies to develop the listening skill. In the end, the two groups took the listening posttest to compare if there was an improvement or not between them. The results obtained from the listening tests were analyzed using the Wilcoxon statistics test. Additionally, a survey addressed to students was applied, which contributed to the establishment of conclusions. The results concluded that strategies such as recognizing word stress, elaboration, and selective attention influenced the development of the listening skill.