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Article published In:
AILA Review
Vol. 36:1 (2023) ► pp.91–111

Developing L2 listening comprehension through extensive and intensive listening

ORCID logo | Toyo University
 | Japan Women’s College of Physical Education
In the fall semester of 2020, 269 Japanese university students were compared in a quasi-experimental study to determine whether extensive and intensive listening interventions yielded significant gains in L2 listening comprehension. At the beginning of the study, 269 students took a 100-item L2 listening exam, and were randomly placed into an extensive (n = 135) or intensive listening group (n = 134). After each group completed five assignments based on extensive or intensive listening principles, students took another 100-item L2 listening exam. Paired-sample t-tests of raw scores and Rasch person ability estimates indicated that the extensive listening group significantly improved in raw scores, t(134) = −7.44, p = .00, but not in Rasch person ability estimates t(134) = −1.86, p = .07, while the intensive listening group significantly improved in both raw scores, t(133) = −9.48, p = .00, and Rasch person ability estimates, t(133) = −3.58, p = .00.
Keywords: extensive listening, intensive listening, L2 listening, audiobook, TOEIC, t-test
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Literature review
    • L2 listening pedagogy in Japan
    • A framework for EL and IL
    • Top-down and bottom-up listening instruction
    • EL and IL research
    • Research questions
  • Method
    • Participants
    • Procedure
  • Instruments and study materials
    • Tests
    • Audiobooks
  • Data analysis
  • Results
    • L2 listening comprehension scores
    • Levene’s test of equality of variances
    • Paired-sample t-tests
  • Discussion
  • Limitations
    • Balancing interventions
    • Cross-over design
    • Longer timeline
  • Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 24 July 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aila.22015.kar
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