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Article In:
Seeking Changes in a Challenging Time: New perspectives for proficiency-oriented Chinese teaching and beyond
Edited by Yu Liu, Qiaona Yu and Yu Wu
[Chinese as a Second Language (漢語教學研究—美國中文教師學會學報) 59:2] 2024
► pp. 147–174

What makes a good L2 listener?

Factors contributing to varied performance in proficiency-based CSL listening comprehension

 | University of Rhode Island
 | Brown University
Listening poses significant challenges for L2 learners and is difficult to improve (Graham, 2011). Research shows that L2 Chinese learners’ listening performance lags behind speaking and reading even after four years of college study (Winke et al., 2020). However, the factors influencing listening comprehension remain underexplored (Cai, 2015; Wang & Treffers-Daller, 2017). This study investigates the impact of oral proficiency, vocabulary size, metacognitive awareness, and test anxiety on listening comprehension among 89 CSL learners. Results from multiple regression analyses indicate that oral proficiency and vocabulary size are significant predictors of listening performance. For less proficient listeners, oral proficiency was crucial, while vocabulary size was most significant for advanced listeners. The importance of step-by-step vocabulary development and proficiency-guided language output opportunities is discussed.
Keywords: listening proficiency, oral proficiency, vocabulary size, metacognitive awareness, test anxiety
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Factors that affect listening comprehension
    • 2.2Role of vocabulary in L2 listening comprehension
    • 2.3Metacognitive awareness and test anxiety
    • 2.4Oral proficiency and current state of CSL listening instruction
    • 2.5Research questions
  • 3.Methods
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Instruments
      • 3.2.1Oral proficiency test
      • 3.2.2Chinese Vocabulary Knowledge Test (CVKT)
      • 3.2.3Metacognitive awareness listening questionnaire
      • 3.2.4Test Anxiety Questionnaire (TAQ)
      • 3.2.5Listening comprehension test
    • 3.3Ethical considerations and procedure
    • 3.4Data analysis
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Descriptive statistics
    • 4.2Listening comprehension variance explained by the four factors
    • 4.3The higher and lower listening proficiency groups
      • 4.3.1The lower listening proficiency group
      • 4.3.2The higher listening proficiency group
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Summary of results
    • 5.2The role of vocabulary knowledge in listening comprehension
    • 5.3The role of oral proficiency in listening comprehension
    • 5.4The role of metacognitive awareness in listening comprehension
    • 5.5The role of test anxiety in listening comprehension
    • 5.6Pedagogical implications
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Author queries
  • References
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