A Perceptive Determination of Self-Perceived Listening Comprehension Strategies Employed by Saudi English-major University Undergraduates

Abstract:

This cross-sectional survey aims at investigating Saudi English-major university undergraduates about their self-perceived listening comprehension strategies they employ to comprehend listening texts. To generate data for this empirical study, a 5-point strongly agree to strongly disagree Likert-scale questionnaire has been adapted and standardized steps were followed to ensure the reliability and validity of the instrument. Arabic version of the questionnaire was administered to randomly selected male and female Saudi English-major university undergraduates studying at foreign languages department during their regular teaching session to generate data. Descriptive analyses were run to calculate percentages, means and standard deviation. The results inform that the participants of this study prefer to use cognitive strategies the most followed by metacognitive strategies. Socio-affective strategies were reported to be used the least by this group. This trend offers valuable insights into the fact that Saudi English as a foreign language (EFL) learners resort to bottom-up strategies more frequently as compared to the top-down ones. It is recommended that Saudi EFL learners should be made aware of the significance of these strategies to enhance their listening comprehension. English language teachers should provide their students with appropriate skills of how to listen, retrospect on listening process and concentrate on practicing metacognitive and socio-affective strategies during their listening tasks. It is also recommended that teachers should provide their students with this confidence and courage to talk about their listening problems as well as the strategies they have used to tackle those problems.