The Effect of Topic Familiarity on Improving Iranian EFL Learners’ Listening Comprehension (A study in Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran)

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of topic familiarity on improving Iranian EFL learners’ listening comprehension. To accomplish the purpose of the study the researchers used prediction task for both the control and the experiment group. To assure the criterion of homogeneity, Oxford Placement test was conducted at the beginning of the study. Thirty students whose scores were between -1 and +1 SD from population mean were selected out of 120 learners. Based on the scores from the Placement test two groups were randomly selected as the control group and experimental group of the study. Interchange/Passages Objective Placement Test was administered as the pretest of listening comprehension. After that, experimental group received special treatment by task-based instruction including familiar topics while control group received task-based instruction with unfamiliar topics. Treatment lasted 12 sessions or about two months. Parallel Interchange/Passages Objective Placement Test was administered as the posttest of listening comprehension. The results of the pretest and posttest in data analysis through statistical procedure such as Independent pair T-test confirmed the superiority of the experimental group to the control group, and task based instruction with familiar topics helped to improve listening comprehension better than task based instruction with unfamiliar topics, resulting in the rejection of the null hypothesis.

کلیدواژه ها:

Listening comprehension ، task-based instruction ، prediction task ، topic familiarity