Narrow Listening: An alternative way to develop and enhance listening comprehension in students of French as a foreign language

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30 Scopus citations

Abstract

Evidence shows that aural comprehensible input plays a critical role in the early stages of language acquisition. While uncontrolled casual conversations may be too difficult for beginning and intermediate foreign language students to comprehend, Narrow Listening, the repeated listening of several brief tape-recorded interviews of proficient speakers discussing a topic both familiar and interesting to the acquirers, offers them a valuable and rewarding alternative. In the present study, a survey of beginning and intermediate college French as a foreign language students' reactions to Narrow Listening and their assessment of its impact on their language development was conducted. Results indicate that students found Narrow Listening to be interesting, very helpful in improving listening comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary, and in increasing their confidence with French.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)351-361
Number of pages11
JournalSystem
Volume27
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 1999
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • French
  • Listening comprehension
  • Narrow Listening

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Education
  • Linguistics and Language

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