1
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Journal Article Critique Assignment: Listening Strategies
Olivia Manda Bickoff
Liberty University
EDLC 623: Literacy and Language Instruction
Dr. Vanessa Chapman
April 7, 2023
2
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Topic
In Yi-Hsiang and Yen-Ling’s article “The investigation of listening strategies teachers
instruct and the listening strategies students use” (2021), they studied the relationship between
the strategies that are taught and the strategies that are used by students. They also investigated
the listening strategies that were put into use by English language learners (ELLs) that had just
started college in Taiwan. Yi-Hsiang and Yen-Ling explain that in Taiwan specifically, teachers
do not spend a lot of time working to student’s learning ability, but on their English reading and
writing (2021, p. 557). The research was aimed to find the listening strategies that were covered
by the teacher and then look at the strategies the students implemented, hoping to find the most
effective learning strategy for learning a second language. Listening strategies can be classified
as skills, approaches, and measured actions that help improve learning and recall important
content.
Main Ideas
The article outlines the research on teaching and learning strategies when it comes to
listening and listening comprehension. Before starting their research, Yi-Hsiang and Yen-Ling,
reviewed many articles and studies that followed similar research ideas. They used Bao’s study
on listening strategies to assist them in forming their questionnaire and ground their research.
Yi-Hsiang and Yen-Ling created a questionnaire with three parts, including demographics of
participants, listening strategies that students used and listening strategies that teachers taught.
Listening strategies that students use was broken into three sections, and each had five questions.
The listening strategies taught by teachers was also broke into three sections, with the first two
sections having five questions and the third having only one question. The sections for each part
were meta-cognitive strategy, cognitive strategy, and social/affective strategy. (2021, p. 559).
3
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Through their research they expected to find the best and most used strategy for listening and
share that with other ELLs.
The study showed that “students used the three listening strategies to stay at a medium
level (mean 3.68), and there is no huge gap between them” (Yi-Hsiang & Yen-Ling, 2021, p.
563). Even without a huge gap between the strategies, the students still used cognitive strategies
the most and meta-cognitive the least. The use of cognitive and social/affective strategies
students not only use the materials given to them by teachers, but they also search out other
avenues to enhance their listening abilities. ELL students also take mistakes they make during
the listening process and try to figure out why it was wrong and what the correct answer is.
On the teacher instructed strategies the research showed that they did not match with the
strategies that students were using most often. “The frequency that teachers instruct the listening
strategy from high to low was social/affective strategy (mean 3.93), meta-cognitive strategy
(mean 3.90), and cognitive strategy (mean 3.86)” (Yi-Hsiang & Yen-Ling, 2021, p. 563).
Although the strategies frequencies are different, the research supports that teachers attempt to
assist students by using things they are interested in to improve their English listening.
Conclusion
Yi-Hsiang & Yen-Ling were able to show through their research that although the
frequency of strategies used by students and taught by teachers differed, the strategies could be
adjusted to best suit the students (2021, p. 563). Since students are less likely to practice or
review material after class, it opens up an opportunity for teachers to encourage this practice to
enhance their skills. Teachers would be best to combine what students use with what they are
taught, assigning tasks with English movies or shows, even music. Through their research, Yi-
4
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Hsiang & Yen-Ling, have been able to find the differences in what strategies students learn best
with and what teachers are using to instruct students. These findings can help teachers pinpoint
how to best help the students while taking into consideration what strategies they are going to be
using the most.
Reflection
Reading Yi-Hsiang & Yen-Ling’s article was very enlightening. Seeing how the students
use the strategies in comparison to how teachers teach them was a concept I had not thought
about before reading this. Although I don’t have students that are early in their ELL journey, I do
have some that use English as a second language at home. The data supported what the authors
were looking for and gave them a way to incorporate the results to help other
ELLs in their listening abilities.
The study could be improved by increasing the number of participants and the area in
which they come from. I would suggest partnering with another university or a local high school
to include another freshman class or a senior class at the high school. This information could
help increase the validity of the study, but also show if there is a difference in area or a small age
gap. Although it is important to have very direct and clear questions within your research, I
believe that some of the questions could have been worded more directly. An example is
question number 5 under the Meta-cognitive Strategy section, which states, “I do a lot of reading
and listening practice after class in order to improve my listening ability” (Yi-Hsiang & Yen-
Ling, 2021, p. 564). For me this question could mean I practice what we did in class, or I sit and
listen to English music or movies and practice my listening skills. The intent is for it to relate to
the practicing of things from class.
5
JOURNAL ARTICLE
For me the most valuable part of the article was how the data showed that how ELLs use
strategies for listening are different than the strategies that teachers concentrate on. I think that
with this information, teachers will be able to adjust how they teach, but also start emphasizing
aspects that the students are missing out on.
Topic
Wu and Peng’s article “Correlative study on English listening beliefs and strategies of
Chinese high school students – A case in Fujian Province” (2022) looks at the correlation
between the language beliefs and strategies in listening comprehension of tenth graders. In recent
research regarding second language and foreign language learning the results have pushed more
research toward the relationship between the beliefs and strategies, because it could have a
negative effect on the way they choose to learn. The current research on this relationship is
limited, pushing Wu and Peng to conduct their study. The objective of their study is to find if the
relationship between beliefs and strategies influences their learning and what strategies are
students more likely to use, helping teachers adjust their instruction.
Main Idea
The beginning of the article outlines what is already known or has been studied on the
topic of beliefs and listening strategies. The study by Wu and Peng concentrated on 100 tenth
graders, coming from two different classes that are taught by the same teacher. The questionnaire
consisted of three sections, with the first being basic personal information. The second section
there were twenty items and one open-ended question investigating students’ beliefs about EFL
across the three main strategies. The third section looks at the students’ use of learning strategies
6
JOURNAL ARTICLE
they use for listening comprehension (2018, p. 661). The study also included a semi-structured
interview for a few participants.
The study found that the participants had a variety of beliefs on EFL listening, some were
positive, but there were also negative and false beliefs uncovered. Wu and Peng found that the
most commonly used strategy was cognitive with meta-cognitive being the least used strategy.
The study also found, “a correlation analysis shows that there exists a significant and positive
correlation between English listening beliefs and strategies, which mutually influence each other
to varying degrees. Students’ general understanding of listening is significantly linked to all three
types of learning strategies, with the strongest connection found between listening beliefs and
metacognitive strategies.” (Wu & Peng, 2018, p. 667).
Having access to the information and make the correlations between strategies and
beliefs, Wu and Peng were able to share teaching implications that could be used based off the
information. Teachers must identify and evaluate the student’s listening beliefs if they are
negative or incorrect and facilitate the growth to correct and foster positive beliefs. The study
also found that the students’ self-assessment can have a significant impact on their studying of
listening and strategy use. It was also found that each of the three types of beliefs have the most
significant and positive correlation with metacognitive strategies, so the teacher needs to work to
implement those strategies.
Conclusion
The study by Wu and Peng showed there is a significant relationship between the beliefs
and strategies of Chinese tenth graders that are working on their listening skills in English. They
found that a student’s beliefs toward English listening can influence the strategies they use the
7
JOURNAL ARTICLE
most in their study of listening and comprehension. Most often the study found that the negative
or incorrect beliefs can lead students to not use the most effective strategies because they do not
believe they will work (Wu & Peng, 2018, pg. 667). Incorporating the information found in this
article can make a large improvement on how a second or foreign language is taught. Teachers
can now begin to work in cultural and beliefs information into their curriculum to help improve
the listening and comprehension of these students.
Reflection
Based off the data presented in the article by Wu and Peng, I do believe it supported the
conclusions they had in the article. One assertion made by the authors was that a student’s belief
about the importance of understanding the culture of English-speaking was important for
listening comprehension. Their data showed that although most of the participants had a positive
belief, the ones that had negative or incorrect beliefs were hindered in their listening ability.
I found the results thought-provoking because as English speakers, we do not think about
the influence that a culture can have on learning a second language. I have minimal knowledge
of any foreign language but looking back to my Spanish classes in high school, the teacher did
have us participate in Spanish celebrations and learn the cultural as we learned the language. I
found it interesting that the results of this study also directly correlated the other article that I
read. Students that are learning a second language tend to use cognitive strategies the most in
their listening studies.
I would expand the questions regarding beliefs to improve the study, because it would be
useful to have information that points to why the students hold certain beliefs. Having additional
insight would help teachers recognize the negative and incorrect beliefs easier and assist in
8
JOURNAL ARTICLE
formulating a plan to work towards more positive beliefs. I would also expand the study to
include other high school students, either in the same school or a different school but same grade.
Having a larger and more diverse group of participates will help to see if the findings in this
specific area carryover to other groups of language learners.
The most important thing I learned in this article was the correlation between the culture
of a country and a student’s ability to learn listening comprehension in that language. Before
reading the data in this study would not have correlated how a student felt about the culture and
whether they would have a harder time to successfully study a foreign language. I also would
not have as a teacher considered needing to evaluate a students’ listening beliefs as they learned a
second language.
9
JOURNAL ARTICLE
References
Lin, Y. C., & Huang, Y. (2021). The investigation of the listening strategies teachers instruct and
the listening strategies students use. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 12(4),
557-565. https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1204.05
Wu, Y., & Peng, M. (2022). A correlative study on english listening beliefs and strategies of
chinese high school students - A case in fujian province. Journal of Language Teaching
and Research, 13(3), 659-669. https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1303.22
