TEXT CHARACTERISTICS OF TASK INPUT AND DIFFICULTY IN SECOND LANGUAGE LISTENING COMPREHENSION

TLDR

This study investigated how task factors such as speed, linguistic complexity, explicitness, and required text characteristics affect advanced ESL learners’ actual and perceived listening performance, and explored learners’ perceptions of textual difficulty causes. Eighty‑six participants completed 18 listening tasks with post‑task perception questionnaires, while nine additional students provided stimulated recall; texts were analyzed automatically and task difficulty was modeled using Rasch and regression analyses. Six predictors of difficulty were identified—lexical range, density, diversity, and causal content—and stimulated recall comments aligned better with these predictors than questionnaire responses.

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of a group of task factors on advanced English as a second language learners’ actual and perceived listening performance. We examined whether the speed, linguistic complexity, and explicitness of the listening text along with characteristics of the text necessary for task completion influenced comprehension. We also explored learners’ perceptions of what textual factors cause difficulty. The 68 participants performed 18 versions of a listening task, and each task was followed by a perception questionnaire. Nine additional students engaged in stimulated recall. The listening texts were analyzed in terms of a variety of measures, utilizing automatized analytical tools. We used Rasch and regression analyses to estimate task difficulty and its relationship to the text characteristics. Six measures emerged as significant predictors of task difficulty, including indicators of (a) lexical range, density, and diversity and (b) causal content. The stimulated recall comments were more reflective of these findings than the questionnaire responses.