Listener Strategies in Collaborative Discourse of Addis Ababa University Fourth Year Students
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Date
1993-06
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Abstract
This study was an attempt to investigate the interactional
listening strategies fourth year !AU students use. It was
particularly made to find out how they indicate understanding
and problems of understanding. Six students who represented
three educational achievement groups (two top-ranking, two
middle - ranking and two bottom-ranking - as determined by
CGPA) were selected from the Department of Foreign Languages
and Literature. Two instructors, both native English speakers,
who were advisers to t~e students were identified to help
with the research. Suitable tasks and an authentic discussion
topic were selected. The subjects were recorded, using
audio add video recordings, while carrying out the two tasks
and a discussion related to their senior essays with their
advisers. A system of analysis which identified fifteen
observable strategies that indicate understanding, problems
of understanding and desire to shift topic or role was
developed. The strategies used by the students were then
coded, categorized and analysed.
The results of the study showed that students used
'listening response or backchan~lling' most frequently to
indicate attention, approval and understariaing. 'Prompt'
and 'reformulations/summarizing' were used less frequently
to indicate understanding. The most frequent strategies
used to indicate or solve problems of understanding were,
in descending order of frequency: 'specific request for
confirmation' followed by 'potential request for confirmation'
and 'minimal query'. Students used, only in the discussion
activity, 'shifting role' and 'topic switChing' to indicate
desire to change topic or take new role as speaker.
Results of the task performance indicated that the most
successful students were, generally speaking, those who used
a greater variety and higher frequencies of strategies.
Students who used strategies most successfully to accomplish
the tasks were not eXClusively top-ranking (according to
academic performance) and similarly those who used strategies
least successfully were not exclusively bottom-ranking.
Based on the findings of the study it is recommended
that students should be helped in developing a range of
strategies they can use to participate more actively and
flexibly, according to purpose, in collaborative discourse.
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Addis Ababa University Fourth Year Students