Abstract:

This study reports the results of an empirical investigation carried out by the authors on 200 Egyptian University students enrolled in the Department of English, Faculty of Education, Minufia University, Egypt.

In reviewing the literature on the issue under discussion, the present study focused on three major issues: (1) Listening comprehension; its importance and role in L2 acquisition; (2) L2 listening comprehension as discussed in cognitive psychology, and the issue of learning transfer; its nature, value, its mechanism, and its major categories.

The subjects were divided into two groups according to their academic status:
(1) Beginners (N=100) and
(2) Advanced learners (N=100).

The present study attempts to answer three interrelated questions:
(1) to what extent does the advanced students’ performance in listening tasks differ from that of the beginning students before and after training?
(2) how can two types of training (intensive listening vs. improving listeners’ linguistic skills) affect L2 learners’ listening comprehension skill ?
(3) what does students’ performance, before and after the training sessions, tell us about their abilities to transfer?

The instruments used in the present study are:
(1) pre-test;
(2) classroom instruction sessions;
(3) post-test, and
(4) interviews.

The data analysis has a quantitative and a qualitative interpretative part. The quantitative part consisted of a descriptive statistical comparison of the number of correct responses in the pre- and post-tests. The T-test applied determines the significance of differences among them. The qualitative part was an analysis of each students’ performance in the pre- and post-tests. The analysis was inductive, based on the individual’s explanations, and aimed at accounting for the differences between the tasks. Results were obtained and discussed, and pedagogical applications are suggested.

Keywords:

Distinctive nature, Comprehension skill.