The impact of listening strategy instruction on academic lecture comprehension: A case of Iranian EFL learners

Non-native speakers have long been known to have trouble understanding academic lectures. Listening to lectures is difficult, especially for students who have just entered university. The present study was carried out to determine the effect of listening strategy instruction on a group of Iranian EFL learners' listening comprehension of academic lectures. Two groups of male and female English majors (N = 58) participated in the study. In one group (the treatment group) the participants received 14 hours of listening strategy instruction consisting of the presentation, practice, and review of listening strategies. In the other group (the control group), the students did not receive any explicit strategy instruction. The analysis of the data revealed that the students in the treatment group significantly outperformed those in the control group in listening comprehension tests. The results of the present study shed more light on the influence of listening strategy instruction on listening comprehension. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.