Strategies to Support the Enhancement of Listening Comprehension (A Case of Ishik University English Preparatory School

Abstract

Teaching listening while dealing with a foreign language has largely been neglected, as, on the one hand, it has been expected that L1 listening strategies would be automatically transferred on L2 and, on the other hand, as listening skills are sophisticated, hence, difficult to investigate and teach. However, as the skill which is prerequisite for two-sided oral communication and as a valuable source of comprehensible input, listening deserves much more attention than has got until today, either in teaching practice or in research. This study attempts to show the influence of developing learners’ listening strategies on the improvement of their comprehension skills. In an experimental study with 40 students at Ishik University (Iraq) it was found that the use of strategies in the listening process considerably enhanced the achievement of learners.