Repeating the Listening Text: Effects on Listener Performance, Metacognitive Strategy Use, and Anxiety

In second language listening assessment and pedagogy, practitioners hold different views on whether to repeat a listening text in contexts where inferences about listening ability are to be drawn from task performance. To address this issue, we investigated the effects of repeating the listening text (double play) on listener performance, listening strategies, test-taking strategies, test-taking anxiety, and listening anxiety. Three hundred six Austrian secondary school students responded to four listening tasks drawn from the Austrian Matura exam and completed questionnaires measuring strategic behavior and anxiety in a counter-balanced research design. Data were analyzed using many-facet Rasch measurement (MFRM), factor analysis, and inferential statistics. Findings confirmed that double play led to higher levels of listener performance across two task types (multiple-choice items and note completion), however, scores were higher in the single play condition compared to the first play of double play. Students also reported lower levels of anxiety, and the use of more listening strategies and fewer test-taking strategies in double play compared to single play with small effect sizes. We discuss the importance of balancing an empirically derived understanding of the effects of repeating the listening text with considerations of the purpose of an assessment, and the characteristics of the target language use domain.