Chapter 1
PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING
Background of the Study
Listening is a skill that is highly important in our society; it is present in the
communication process in which you’re going to take delivery of the message. It is the
process of receiving, constructing meaning from and responding to spoken or nonverbal
messages (International Listening Association, 1995, pp. 4-5). The Greek philosopher
Epictetus may have been the first person to notice that humans were created with two
ears, but only one tongue, so that humans may listen twice as much as they speak (King,
2008, p. 2718). In practice however, listening have not yet mastered and had been sadly
neglected. Thus, after six to ten years of studying and talking formal English, the students
develop a certain degree of proficiency in reading and writing, but not in listening. Their
listening comprehension lags behind. They lack the ability to comprehend the spoken
language (Alcantara, 2004).
In Turkish university preparatory schools, metacognitive strategy training is not an
internal part of many listening course books or curricula and listening teachers do not
seem to pay attention to these strategies while designing their lessons. Listening does
not receive its due importance and students do not seem to be sufficiently trained about
the listening strategies (Seferoglu and Uzakgoren, 2004). Goh (2008) emphasizes that
more research is needed to investigate the role of metacognitive instruction in listening
performance in different contexts.
On a national scale, most of the students especially those in secondary, graduated
without proper training in effective listening. Mallari (2003) states that, students in Bambas
Gabaldon High School in Tarlac, doesn’t have good practice in listening skills, this tends
to student’s weakness in communication skills. After four years of secondary education,
students results in test for listening is always poor.
Locally, , the researchers observed that there is a lack of trainings and activities
on listening in secondary schools. Thus, the researchers were inspired to conduct the
study on listening strategies and its influence to academic performance.
A person may have perfect hearing, but because their listening skills are
inadequate, what they understand is not necessarily what is being said. There is a need
to use listening strategies that could help us to become effective listener and to increase
our academic performance. However, these strategies didn’t utilize well. As indicated by
Cohen (2000), many researchers in the field of second language (L2) listening agree on
the idea that listeners often do not handle listening skill tasks in an effective way utilizing
these strategies.
Statement of the Problem
This study is seeking to uncover the impact of listening strategies to academic
performance among College of Teacher Education of the University of Mindanao.
Specifically, it sought to answer the following questions:
1. What is the level of listening strategies in terms of:
1.1 Cognitive strategy
1.2 Metacognitive strategy
1.3 Social/affective strategy
2. What is the level of academic performance among the College of Teacher
Education of the University of Mindanao in terms of grade:
3. Is there a significant relationship between listening strategies and academic
performance?
Hypothesis of the Study
The study tested the null hypothesis that there is no significant relationship
between listening strategies and academic performance among the College of Teacher
Education of the University of Mindanao.
Review of Related Literature
Listening
Listening is one of the important skills in communication, and it has also been
defined as an active process during which listeners construct meaning from oral input
(Bentley & Bacon, 1996). According to Feyten (1991), in daily communication, people
allot 45% of time in listening, 30% on speaking, 16% on reading, and only 9% on writing.
Percentages may differ somewhat according to the populations studied, or according to
how the study was conducted, but results consistently indicate that listening takes up
between forty to over sixty percent of our daily time spent in communication.
Over five or more decades, researchers have explored why it is that good talkers
and listeners are more likely to become good readers and writers, noting that it is listening
– the “least explicit of the four language skills”– that is perhaps the most essential for
academic learning (Chand, 2007). And yet it is the least taught (Tindall & Nisbet, 2008).
In support, Buttery (1990) states that listening is one of the most important aspects of
children’s learning that impacts academic success.
Listening strategies investigation
According to Freeman (2004) and Lin (2006), listening comprehension strategies
are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension and recall of
listening input. In Lu’s (2008) study, the result illustrated that 93.8% of the students
considered the listening skill was more important than the other three skills. However,
lack of trainings in utilizing well these strategies and listening comprehension ability is far
behind. Actually, these strategies are determined in part by specific task requirements,
by problem content, by situational constraints, and by prior knowledge and experience
which the listener possesses and brings to bear in each task. (Sakai 2009).
Since 1980, there have been a number of studies investigating listening
comprehension strategies used to work out effective ways of facilitating listening tasks
and help the learners overcome the difficulties they encounter. The result of a study
conducted by Graham, Santos and Vanderplank (2008) and Holden (2004) suggests that
learners understand what they hear well if they are aware of the effective ways of using
strategies to deal with various tasks. Metacognitive strategies can lead to listening
attainment when they work with cognitive strategies (Vandergrift, 1999).
As indicated by Song (2008), listeners often do not handle listening tasks in
an effective way utilizing these strategies successfully. They are not aware of listening
strategies. Chamot (2005) pointed out that less successful language learners do not have
the knowledge needed to select appropriate strategies. Goh (2000) emphasized the
importance of these strategies by arguing that learners’ awareness is related to effective
learning in all learning contexts. This assures that more studies are needed to increase
learners' awareness of strategies used in listening Song (2008), Chamot (2005), and Goh
(2000).
Listening strategies
Vandergrift (1999) showed “Strategy development is important for listening training
because strategies are conscious means by which learners can guide and evaluate their
own comprehension and responses.” O’Malley and Chamot (1990) claimed three main
types of strategies: metacognitive, cognitive and social/affective strategies.
Cognitive strategy
Is a strategy which involve “actual mental steps” (Vandergrift, 2003, p.427) used
to “process, store, and recall” information (Goh, 1998, p.125-126).
Metacognitive strategy
Vandergrift (1997) indicates that metacognitive strategies such as analysing the
requirements of a listening task, activating the appropriate listening processes required,
making appropriate predictions, monitoring their comprehension and evaluating the
success of their approach cause the difference between a skilled and a less skilled
listener.For example, for metacognitive planning strategies, learners would clarify the
objectives of an anticipated listening task, and attend to specific aspects of language input
or situational details that assisted in understanding the task (Vandergrift, 1999). The use
of metacognitive strategies activates one's thinking and leads to improved performance
in learning in general (Anderson, 2002).
Social/Affective strategy
Social/ affective strategies, Vandergrift (2003) defined the strategies as the
techniques listeners used to collaborate with others, to verify understanding or to lower
anxiety. Habte-Gabr (2006) stated that socio-affective strategies were those which were
non-academic in nature and involve stimulating learning through establishing a level of
empathy between the instructor and student. They included considering factors such as
emotions and attitudes (Oxford, 1990). It was essential for listeners to know how to reduce
the anxiety, feel confident in doing listening tasks, and promote personal motivation in
improving listening competence (Vandergrift, 1997). According to O’Malley
& Chamot (2001), among the four strategies; metacognitive strategies, social strategies,
cognitive strategies, and affective strategies in listening comprehension, both social and
affective strategies influenced the learning situation immediately.
Academic Performance
Academic performance, also referred to as academic achievement, has been
defined as “the specified level of attainment of proficiency in academic work designated
by test scores” (Shamashuddin, Reddy, & Rao, 2008, p. 75).
Cognitive Ability
A cognitive ability can be described as a mental capacity, competency or skill
needed to carry out, or perform, a cognitive task(s) (Colman, 2009; Galotti, 2008). For
example, working memory is a cognitive ability or capacity to actively retain information
temporarily, while at the same time manipulating that information or accessing other
information (Dehn, 2008; Izawa & Ohta, 2005). Cognitive ability is considered a powerful
predictor of academic performance (Gustafsson & Undheim, 1996; Neisser et al., 1996)
as there is a vast amount of empirical evidence for a strong relationship between the two
(Chamorro-Premuzic, 2007; Rohde & Thompson, 2007; Walberg, 1984). As measures of
cognitive ability have a rich history of accounting for meaningful levels of variance in
academic performance (Yen, Konold & McDermott, 2004) they have, as such, become
known as relatively reliable predictors of academic performance.
In general, as ability increases so too does performance, however in reality a
higher level of cognitive ability does not automatically equate to higher academic
performance. This is because cognitive ability alone cannot account for all of the variation
in academic performance and much of the variance in academic performance is yet to be
explained (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2009; Mouw & Khanna, 1993; Rohde & Thompson,
2007).
Motivation
While there are a number of factors that affect performance in school, one of the
most influential is motivation. Motivation, also referred to as academic engagement, refers
to “cognitive, emotional, and behavioral indicators of student investment in and
attachment to education” (Tucker, Zayco, & Herman, 2002, p. 477). It is obvious that
students who are not motivated to succeed will not work hard. In fact, several researchers
have suggested that only motivation directly effects academic achievement; all other
factors affect achievement only through their effect on motivation (Tucker et al., 2002).
However, it is not as easy to understand what motivates students. Numerous studies have
been conducted on this topic, which has led to the development of several theories of
motivation.
One widely accepted theory is Goal Theory. It postulates that there are two main
types of motivation for achieving in school. Students with an ability or performance goal
orientation are concerned with proving their competence by getting good grades or
performing well compared to other students (Anderman & Midgley, 1997; Maehr &
Midgley, 1991). On the other hand, students with a task goal orientation are motivated by
a desire to increase their knowledge on a subject or by enjoyment from learning the
material. Studies have shown that students with a task goal orientation are more likely to
engage in challenging tasks, seek help as needed, and adopt useful cognitive strategies,
and, possibly most importantly, tend to be happier both with school and with themselves
as learners (Ames, 1992; Anderman & Midgley, 1997).
Furthermore, their study concluded that when learning styles were considered in
the teaching-learning process, “student achievement was enhanced”(Garton et
al,2001,p.21) The most significant outcome of teir research found the best predictor of
academic performance during the first year of college was high schoolbwas high school
core GPA and ACT score(Garton et al,p.25).
Theoretical Review
The theory adapted for this study was derived from the theory of Bruner (1986)
which is Constructive learning theory it is defined that learning is an active process in
which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge.
Furthermore, Cohen & Oxford (1990) designed the Young Learners’ Language Strategy
Use Survey (YLLS). The result indicates the significance of the three strategies for the
subjects to interact and transact the meaning of the message to the class and also to the
facilitators. This shows the relevance between the four strategies and constructive
approach that stresses on social interaction and construction of an understanding (Brooks
& Brooks, 1993; Weisglass, 1990; Kline, 1996; Zhang, 2007).
In support, the Schema theory of Frederic Bartlett (1932) states it is a part of topdown processing. Furthermore, Bartlett (1977 cited in Landry, 2002) considered schemas
to be structures of knowledge stored in the long-term memory (Psybox Ltd, 2002).
Moreover, Rumelhart (1977 cited in Landry, 2002) has illustrated schemata as "building
blocks of cognition" that are used in the process of understanding sensory data, in
repossessing information from memory, in organizing aims and sub-goals, in allocating
resources, and in leading the flow of the processing system. Therefore, schema theory is
significant in many areas for instance communication and learning.
Conceptual Framework
This section proposes a conceptual framework within which the concept, academic
performance is treated in this work. It is arrived at basing on Constructive learning theory
by Bruner (1986). The selection of the model is based on the belief that, the quality of
input invariably affects quality of output in this case academic performance (Acato 2006).
Figure 1 shows the variables of the study. The independent variable is listening
strategies with cognitive, metacognitive and social/affective strategies as its indicators.
On the other hand, the dependent variable is the academic performance with GPA
indicator.
Independent variable
Dependent variable
LISTENING STRATEGIES
-
Cognitive strategy
-
Metacognitive strategy
-
Social/affective strategy
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
- Grade Point Average(GPA)
Figure 1. Conceptual Framework Showing
the Variables of the Study
Significance of the study
Results of this study are deemed beneficial to the following:
Learners- The result of this study will help them improve their academic
performance through utilizing well the listening strategies and enhance their listening
skills.
Educators- The result of this study will be the important references to evaluate
their teaching and learning listening experiences in the classroom as well as the
application in daily communication.
School Administrators- The result of the study will provide them inputs in
planning programs that will aid the students to become effective listener as well as
increase academic performance in the classroom.
Definition of terms
Listening- Listening is one of the important skills in communication, and it has
also been defined as an active process during which listeners construct meaning from
oral input (Bentley & Bacon, 1996).
Listening strategy- Vandergrift (1999) showed “Strategy development is
important for listening training because strategies are conscious means by which
learners can guide and evaluate their own comprehension and responses.” Strategies
were the thoughts and behaviors that learners used to help them comprehend, learn, or
retain information (O’Mally & Chamot, 1990).
Academic performance- Chan, Schmitt, Sacco, & DeShon, (1998); Nonis &
Wright, (2003) states that performance is a multiplicative function of both ability and
motivation.