The Effect of Goal Setting on Listening Comprehension

Abstract

This study aims to identify the effect of setting a purpose for listening as an advance organizer on listening comprehension. The participants of the research, which was conducted by quasi-experimental design including a control group, consisted of 66 students at the age of 5, all of whom attending pre-school institutions. The data pertaining to the research was collected by the use of informational and narrative texts which were developed in line with the expert opinions as well as open-ended questions prepared in relation to these texts. The activities developed in line with the texts were carried out with different groups. On one hand, first experimental and control groups were given informational texts, while, on the other, second experimental and control groups were given narrative texts. Since the participants were comprised of children aged 5, the pretest and posttest measurements were performed twice by means of different texts and questions with a view to providing evidence. After reading the texts used for the pretest phase, face-to-face interviews were carried out with the participants and the prepared questions were asked. As a result of the pretest measurement, it was determined that the groups showed same level of listening comprehension. Subsequently, the experimental procedures were carried out. The listening comprehension tests, which were conducted twice a week throughout ten class hours for five weeks, were administered to the experimental group who was given a specific purpose at the beginning of the introduction as well as body of the text. The same experiment, however, was performed without the element of purpose-setting for the control group. Following the experiments, posttests were carried out with similar texts and equivalent questions designed in line with these texts used during the pretest phase. The equivalency of the texts and questions were identified with the assistance of expert opinions. The answers of the participants were examined by two analyzers. Conformity coefficient between the analyzers was obtained as 1,0. The answers obtained as a result of the analysis were transferred to statistical software. In the analysis carried out via the statistical software, Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test were utilized as non-parametric techniques. The findings obtained revealed that the existence of a purpose for listening has a positive effect on comprehending informational and narrative texts through listening. This effect showed a level of significance in terms of statistics.