Rodgers, M.P.H. (2016).

Extensive listening and viewing: The benefits of audiobooks and

television. The European Journal of Applied Linguistics and TEFL, 5(2), 43-57.

T H E E U R O P E A N J O U R N A L OF A P P L I E D L I N G U I S T I C S A N D T E F L

EXTENSIVE LISTENING AND VIEWING: THE BENEFITS OF

3 AUDIOBOOKS AND TELEVISION

Michael P. H. Rodgers, Carleton University, Canada

1. INTRODUCTION

It has been well established that sufficient and suitable language input is a vital component
of language learning. This input, in both its written and spoken form, should be authentic
(Nunan, 2002) and comprehensible (Krashen, 1985; Neuman & Koskinen, 1992). How-
ever, in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) setting it may be a challenge to provide
second language (L2) learners with sufficient input meeting these conditions. To provide
L2 learners with written input, graded readers have become a popular source of authentic
reading materials. As part of extensive reading programmes, learners are encouraged to
choose books at a comprehensible level and read as many as possible. Audiobooks and
episodes of television may be a potential source of L2 aural input through their utilisation
in extensive listening and extensive viewing programmes. Of course, the resources that can
be utilised in these programmes are not limited to audiobooks and television programmes,
but they are the focus of this article. Beyond these two sources of input, extensive listening
programmes could also make use of aural media such as podcasts, radio plays, talk radio or
news items, while an extensive viewing programme could employ videos such as TED
Talks, YouTube videos or movies.

2. LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Before looking into the specifics of extensive listening or viewing programmes, it is first
necessary to establish what is involved in the listening comprehension process. In order for
a language learner to understand an audiobook or a television programme, they must utilise
the processes associated with general listening comprehension. These are inferential proc-
esses in which the listener constructs meaning from the knowledge sources available to
them (Lynch, 2006). These knowledge sources can be either linguistic (lexical, syntactic,
phonological, semantic and discourse knowledge) or non-linguistic (topical, contextual and
world knowledge) (Buck, 2001). Learners utilise these different types of knowledge
through top-down and bottom-up processing to create a mental representation of the input
(Park, 2004; Rubin, 1994; Vandergrift, 2004). Building meaning though bottom-up proc-
essing involves decoding aural input into meaningful units and combining these units at the
phonemic level through to the discourse feature level. In top-down processing, the learner
makes use of their background knowledge allowing them to make inferences based on
what they hear (Long, 1990; Vandergrift, 2004). These two processes are invoked simulta-
neously to construct meaning, although their relative contribution to comprehension is not
constant and can change within different parts of a listening event (Brindley, 1998). Com-
43
prehension occurs when sufficient information has been processed through top-down and
bottom-up processing (Buck, 2001).
A number of factors can affect the ability of language learners to successfully use bot-
tom-up processing. These include familiarity with the accent of the speaker, the clarity of
the pronunciation, the presence of hesitations, the extent to which reduced forms are used,
the occurrence of the prosodic elements of speech, the speech rate of the speaker and the
length of the listening event (Buck, 2001; Hasan, 2000; Rubin, 1994). A learner’s ability to
recognise words and recall their meanings is also key part of bottom-up processing. As
such, a learner’s vocabulary knowledge is another factor that has been shown to affect
bottom-up processing, and therefore listening comprehension (Buck 2001). Previous re-
search has indicated a relationship between comprehension, a learner’s vocabulary size,
and the percentage of words that are known in an aural text. Positive correlations between
measures of vocabulary size and results from standardised tests of listening proficiency
have been found in studies by Milton, Wade and Hopkins (2010) (r = .71) and Stæhr
(2009) (r = .70). Research by van Zeeland and Schmitt (2013b) and Stæhr (2009) indicated
that learners with knowledge of 98% of the vocabulary in a listening text have better com-
prehension than those with less lexical coverage (95% or less). Furthermore, inadequate
vocabulary knowledge is thought to be one of the largest factors leading to poor compre-
hension of spoken English (Goh, 2013).
Through top-down processes, language learners utilise what they already know to con-
textualise and understand what they hear. There are various sources of background knowl-
edge that can affect listening comprehension (Lynch, 2006), but three are particular rele-
vant for extensive listening and viewing. The first type of knowledge is the topic of the
book or television programme. This may come from having listened to previous
audiobooks on the same subject in the same genre, or by the same author. For television,
this source of knowledge may be increased through having viewed previous episodes of
the same programme. Another knowledge source is based on knowledge of the genre. In
both listening and viewing, a learner that understands the conventions of the genre is more
likely to anticipate content and plot progression. Narratives of related genres tend to have
typical approaches to agency, narration, sequence ordering and event structuring, and fa-
miliarity with these may provide the listener or viewer with more opportunities for com-
prehension (Grabe, 2002). Knowledge of the culture that surrounds the listening or view-
ing text is another contributor to comprehension. Cultural knowledge, also can be im-
proved though exposure to the representations of the culture in question (Schmidt-
Rinehart, 1994). Considering the knowledge sources related to top-down processing is
particularly important as less competent second language listeners have been shown to rely
more on this type of processing over bottom-up processing (Vandergrift, 2007).
When considering the use of video such as episodes of television for language learn-
ing, it is necessary to take into account how the presence of imagery affects the compre-
hension process. Visual imagery associated with a listening text has been identified as a
major factor affecting listening comprehension (Rubin, 1994). The combination of aural
and visual input gives viewers the opportunity to comprehend information through differ-
ent channels and make connections between them (Guichon & McLornan, 2008). The
theoretical foundation of this interaction is Paivio’s (1990) Dual Coding Theory, in which
44
learning is improved when language learners can access visual and aural information, or-
ganise the information in their working memory, build connections between the visual and
aural information and integrate the connections into their prior knowledge (Jones & Plass,
2002; Mayer & Moreno, 1998). Previous research has indicated how language learners
make use of the images available in videos for comprehension. Gruba (2004, 2006) inves-
tigated the way that learners of Japanese interacted with segments of television. Findings
indicated that learners used all aspects of a video (aural and visual) for comprehension.
Visual elements were shown to provide primary support early on in the viewing process
that shifts to secondary support as a better understanding of the video develops. Overall,
the presence of imagery has been demonstrated to positively influence listening compre-
hension.

3. CONDITIONS FOR EXTENSIVE USE OF AUDIOBOOKS AND TELEVISION

As part of his description of what a well-designed language programme should contain,

Nation (2007) outlines five conditions that must be met in order for input to be considered
suitable for inclusion in a language course. By examining these conditions and their rela-
tionship to the qualities of audiobooks and television, as well as past research on language
learning through aural means, it is possible to gauge their suitability to serve as L2 aural
input in extensive programmes.
The first of Nation’s conditions is that input needs to be processed in large quantities.
It can be said with some certainty that television and audiobooks are consumed in suffi-
cient quantities in people’s first language to satisfy this condition. While reading physical
books is a more popular activity than listening to audiobooks, the increase in mobile de-
vices capable of storing multiple audiobooks and the ease of access to audiobooks through
websites such as Amazon or Audible has meant that sales and consumption of audiobooks
has increased greatly in recent years (Furness, 2015). If a learner were a consumer of
audiobooks in their L1, then it is not unreasonable to imagine them transferring this inter-
est to their L2 learning. Even if the learner did not listen to audiobooks in their first lan-
guage, they could possibly see them as a good source for L2 aural input. Watching televi-
sion is the preferred leisure activity across many countries with the amount of daily televi-
sion watched per person ranging from the world leader, the USA, at 8.23 hours per day to
Norway at 2.39 hours a day. Other notable countries include Japan at 3.63 hours a day and
United Kingdom at 3.38 hours a day (OECD, 2009). If language learners were to spend
even a portion of their L1 viewing time on L2 television, they would be processing a large
of amount of input. In these ways, audiobooks and television meet the requirement that a
suitable form of input be available and consumed in large quantities.
The second condition for suitable input is that it should be familiar to the language
learners (Nation, 2007). Learners should be familiar with the content of the input texts they
are processing so that they can achieve a reasonable level of comprehension. There is a
wide selection of graded readers in audiobook form and these titles are often based on fa-
mous movies or novels. For example, learners can choose to listen to an abridged version
of The Wizard of Oz in the Oxford Bookworms graded reader series or another title that
they may have seen the movie version of in their L1. If this is the case, the learners are
45
familiar with its content, providing them with the background knowledge necessary to shift
attention away from top-down processing towards bottom-up processing and increase their
attention focused on the details in the story. Television programmes are available in many
genres and cover a wide variety of subjects. Language learners intending to learn from
television could choose a programme that they were interested in and had some familiarity
with. Learners can also build up familiarity with a programme by viewing multiple and
successive episodes. In doing so, the learners learn about the characters and storylines
which may improve comprehension in future episodes. Familiarity with these aspects of a
programme can provide schema on which learners can establish a framework for compre-
hension and base predictions and inferences on (Vandergrift, 2007).
The third condition is that learners should be able to gain knowledge of vocabulary in
the input (Nation, 2007) and in order for this to occur, the form of input must be rich in
context cues and there must be ways of building background knowledge. While the simpli-
fication process to produce graded readers (through abridgment and lexical and syntactical
modification) may decrease the richness of the text, the graded readers that the audiobooks
are based on have been shown, when used under extensive reading conditions, to provide
adequate support for incidental vocabulary learning (Brown, Waring, & Donkaewbua,
2008; Horst, 2005). Similarly, in listening conditions, studies have indicated that incidental
learning of vocabulary will also take place through general aural texts (van Zeeland &
Schmitt, 2013a) and when using graded reader audiobooks (in both listening-only and lis-
ten-while-reading conditions) (Brown, Waring, & Donkaewbua, 2008). In a television
series, the imagery and dialogue provide a source of context cues that learners may be able
to use to help them to make vocabulary gains. Early on in the viewing process learners
may not have a lot of background knowledge about a television series, but by viewing con-
tiguous episodes of a single programme, learners have the potential to increase contextual
knowledge through the recurring characters and the serial nature of the episodes. Of
course, this is predicated on learners having properly understood the previous episodes and
the roles of the characters in the series. If they have not correctly understood these facets of
the programme, then full comprehension could be impaired. If learners can make use of
context cues and background knowledge when viewing episodes of television, they may be
able to gain knowledge of previously unknown vocabulary items as they have in past
video-based research (Vanderplank, 1990; Hui, 2007; Sydorenko, 2010; Winke, Gass, &
Sydorenko, 2010).
The fourth condition is that only a small percentage of the vocabulary in the input texts
is unknown to learners (Nation, 2007). It stands to reason that if a large proportion of the
vocabulary were to be unknown to learners, they would be impeded from comprehension
or vocabulary learning. In reading and listening research, there have been studies on the
percentage of known vocabulary necessary for comprehension and vocabulary learning to
take place. These estimates of lexical coverage range from 90% to 99% for comprehension
(Bonk, 2000; Hu & Nation, 2000; Laufer & Ravenhorst-Kalovski, 2010; Nation, 2006;
Schmitt, Jiang, & Grabe, 2011; Stæhr, 2009; van Zeeland & Schmitt, 2013b) and 95% to
98% for vocabulary acquisition (Liu & Nation, 1985; Nation, 2001; Webb & Rodgers,
2009a, 2009b). Graded readers are designed so that learners can read at a level suited to
their vocabulary knowledge. This allows learners across a wide range of language profi-
46
ciencies or vocabulary sizes to choose books where the number of unknown words will not
be a detriment to comprehension. The authentic nature of television programmes means
that choosing episodes at an appropriate level may not be possible. However, analyses of
the vocabulary in television programmes by Webb and Rodgers (2009b) indicated that
language learners with knowledge of the 3,000 most frequent words of English should
have sufficient knowledge of the vocabulary in the programmes, and subsequently ade-
quate comprehension.
The fifth condition that must be met in order for input to be considered suitable for in-
clusion in language programmes is that learners should be interested in the input and want
to understand it (Nation, 2007). Language learners have been shown to be interested in
learning through listening to audiobooks (Renandya & Farrell, 2010) and through viewing
videos (Chung, 1999; Gruba, 2006; Wang, 2012). However, to ensure that learners are
interested in audiobooks and television as aural input, they need to be provided with suffi-
cient choice of materials that they can select a book or programme that they are truly at-
tracted to. Ideally, learners would have access to audiobooks and complete seasons of tele-
vision across a wide range of genres and subject areas to allow for differing tastes and in-
terests. This attraction, in turn, drives the desire to understand the input making both these
forms of input comprehension-focused activities. It is in this way that language learners’
attitudes towards learning from audiobooks and television indicate that these input sources
may fulfil this fifth condition.
The preceding look at the suitability of graded reader audiobooks and episodes of tele-
vision for use in an extensive learning programme has suggested that the graded nature of
the audiobooks may be suited to providing the learner with aural content. The authentic
nature of television makes its use a little more complicated. There is, however, one feature
of television that may improve the likelihood of it being a suitable source of L2 aural in-
put: captions. The presence of captions when watching television allows learners to make
use of the written form of the language to better utilise episodes for language learning
(Bird & Williams, 2002). EFL learners have been shown to have stronger reading skills
than listening skills (Hirai, 1999), which may allow them to process more of the input than
if it were received through aural means only. This may have ramifications for all five con-
ditions for the suitability of television. The presence of captions may make language learn-
ers more eager to view large amounts of television, make episodes of television more com-
prehensible, increase vocabulary learning, affect the relationship between lexical coverage
and comprehension and vocabulary learning and improve learners’ attitudes towards learn-
ing from television (Vanderplank, 1990). At present, little quantitative research has been
done on the effects of captions on these aspects of language learning (see subsequent de-
scription of Rodgers and Webb (in press) for more details).

4. BENEFITS OF EXTENSIVE LISTENING AND VIEWING

The potential benefits of learners being exposed to large amounts of written input through
extensive reading have been well-documented. These include: improved reading skills,
increased reading fluency, acquisition of new vocabulary, deepened knowledge of previ-
ously known vocabulary, improved attitude towards reading and increased motivation to-
47
wards language learning (Day & Robb, 2015). The potential benefits of extensive listening
and viewing programmes by and large map on to these benefits but for the aural form of
the language along with additional benefits specific to the mode of input.
The contributor to language proficiency that can benefit most saliently from extensive
listening and viewing is listening fluency. This is the ability of a listener to understand,
with reasonable accuracy and minimal effort, input delivered at a normal speed (Chang &
Millett, 2014). To develop listening fluency, learners must become able to cope with
speech rates beyond those which they are likely to encounter in the classroom and become
familiar with a rate of delivery closer to natural speech. Lower proficiency learners often
attribute their lack of comprehension not to the content or the language features, but to the
speed of the passage (Renandya, 2012). Improved listening fluency is dependent on more
proficient bottom-up processing. As learners encounter more authentic, more everyday-like
speech (especially when viewing television) they have more opportunities to encounter
spoken phenomena such as assimilation, contractions and resyllabification. Familiarity
with these allows learners to parse known vocabulary from the speech stream leading to
better comprehension and identify unknown or partially known words leading to acquisi-
tion of meaning for these lexical items. Increased ability to identify vocabulary in context
as opposed to just in isolation or in limited contexts (a sometimes product of intensive
vocabulary instruction) is a prerequisite for proficient listening fluency (Lin & Siyanova-
Chanturia, 2015; Renandya, 2012).
The nature of the texts utilised in extensive listening and viewing programmes also
contributes to increased fluency. Graded reader audiobooks provide an effective gateway
to more authentic texts such as episodes of television. The range of levels found in these
audiobooks ensures a reduced cognitive load when listening due to increased lexical cov-
erage for the learners. This facilitates a level of comprehension necessary in the early
stages of extensive learning (Ridgway, 2000). When the learner’s level is appropriate for
extensive viewing, the authentic nature of episodes of television provides exposure to aural
input that has a less scripted quality and is ungraded. Determining if a learner’s level is
“appropriate” for authentic television is a difficult task. From the learner’s perspective, if
they view a programme and they feel that they understand enough, and enjoy the viewing
process, then their level may be appropriate. From the teacher’s perspective, the use of
diagnostic tests such as the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) (Schmitt, Schmitt, & Clapham,
2001) to determine a learner’s vocabulary knowledge in relation to the vocabulary profile
of authentic television may the best option for determining appropriacy (see subsequent
discussion of the principle of Level for more details). The unscripted and ungraded quali-
ties may not seem like particularly beneficial traits but they provide exposure to language
that learners might encounter in real life. The language in television introduces learners to
the prosodic elements of natural speech and to discourse features present in conversations
including hesitations, repetitions and false starts. It also allows language learners to utilise
body language and lip movements which are important to the comprehension process
(Field, 2000; Ridgway, 2000). With these ungraded texts, learners may be encountering
language that is a challenge for them to understand, but this provides practice in coping
with situations where they do not recognise everything that is spoken and must infer mean-
ing from partial knowledge (Field, 2000). Teachers can also ease this burden and help
48
learners to listen independently by ensuring that they have knowledge of listening strate-
gies prior to extensive listening. These strategies can be encouraged through providing
guidance in choosing listening texts and providing support materials such as self-directed
listening guides that can help to activate goal-setting, pre-listening, reflection and evalua-
tion strategies (Vandergrift & Goh, 2012). Use of these strategies can help learners to de-
velop the metacognitive knowledge necessary for self-regulated listening (Vandergrift,
2004). All of this can contribute to a level of listening fluency that can enable learners to
more effectively and efficiently comprehend spoken language.

5. DESIGNING EXTENSIVE LISTENING AND VIEWING PROGRAMMES

The details of designing an extensive listening or viewing programme are very much con-
textually specific. What is needed to set up a programme differs so much from location to
location that it is very difficult to make recommendations that are of use to everyone. With
that in mind, it is better to think in terms of satisfying four guiding principles when looking
to design a programme and address the specifics for the situation as they arise. The key-
words that represent these principles are: Quantity, Level, Attitude and Support.
One of the challenges of setting up a programme is to provide the large quantities of
input that are necessary for an extensive programme. Satisfying the Quantity principle
means not only providing a breadth of resources for viewing and listening, but also a depth
of resources. For extensive listening, learners should not only have access to a large num-
ber of graded reader audiobook titles from which to choose from (breadth of resources),
but also to a wide range of genres and authors (depth of resources). If learners particularly
enjoy an audiobook, they should have the opportunity to choose one similar to it. If a lis-
tening programme is being created parallel to a well-designed pre-existing extensive read-
ing programme this may just be a matter of purchasing the CDs that accompany most
graded readers. For extensive viewing, learners should be encouraged to choose and watch
episodes of television that appeal to them. The learners also need to know it is acceptable
to watch a programme and to choose a different one if they do not like it. They should be
encouraged to watch the same episode multiple times if they enjoyed it, especially early on
in a season or series, to solidify knowledge of the story and the relationships between the
characters. Ideally, learners would have access to complete seasons of television across a
wide range of genres to allow for differing tastes and interests. A wealth of viewing re-
sources can be provided through seasons of television programmes available on DVDs and
through increasingly popular streaming services such as Netflix. Allowing learners to nar-
row their listening or viewing can lead to increased opportunities for learning vocabulary
and can increase comprehension by reducing the role of top-down processing through in-
creased background knowledge from the similarity of the titles (Rodgers & Webb, 2011).
To satisfy the second principle of Level, learners must have access to materials that are
appropriate to their language proficiency. This is a relatively easy proposition for graded
reader audiobooks as they are produced at a range of levels based on vocabulary knowl-
edge and reading ability. Publishers such as Oxford even produce bespoke level tests to
guide learners to the appropriate level. However, for listening, learners should be encour-
aged to choose titles a level or two below those they might choose to read (Brown, 2007),
49
which is a relatively uncomplicated procedure if learners listen to graded reader
audiobooks from the same series that they read from (e.g. series such as Pearson English
Readers and Oxford Bookworms also provide corresponding audiobooks for the majority
of their graded readers). Learners who overestimate their level may face frustration and
possible abandonment of the programme (Chang, 2010). Listening at a lower level will
help them to become accustomed to listening to long stretches of aural input. For an exten-
sive viewing programme, this is not as simple a proposition due to the reliance on authen-
tic materials that are not intended for language learning. Educators should be aware of the
proficiency level that learners should be at before beginning viewing television. This can
be done by measuring the learner’s vocabulary size and comparing it to studies that have
analysed the lexical coverage of television programmes (see Rodgers & Webb, 2011;
Webb & Rodgers, 2009b). This can be done by comparing results from an instrument such
as the VLT to the vocabulary profile of episodes of television as measured by analysing
scripts though software such as Lextutor (http://www.lextutor.ca). Teachers will want to
ensure that learners have sufficient lexical coverage to provide suitable conditions for
comprehension. Webb and Rodgers (2009a) suggest that 95% coverage might be sufficient
for comprehension of authentic television.
The principle of Attitude applies to both the learner and the teacher. Learners need to
know going into an extensive programme that the experience will likely be different from
language learning as they are used to it. There will be a lot more ambiguity involved in
listening to audiobook versions of graded readers or viewing television programmes. In
intensive listening instruction comprehension is usually checked and confirmed, and un-
known vocabulary may be presented prior to listening or looked up following the short
passage. This is not the case in extensive programmes and learners should understand that
rather than perfect comprehension, sufficient comprehension to enjoy the input is the goal
(Webb, 2015). Teachers must adopt a more relaxed attitude to the control of the learning
process than they are likely used to. Rather than teacher-fronted instruction where learners’
progress and problems can be monitored, learning through extensive programmes is more
in the hands of the learners (Webb, 2015). Of course, the teacher is not completely out of
the picture in an extensive programme, but rather they must adopt more of a supporting
role.
Satisfying the Support principle occurs not only before an extensive listening or view-
ing programme, but also during the course of the programme. Prior to the programme,
short background summaries can be developed to guide learners to books and programmes
in which they might be interested. Summaries in simplified English or, if the resources are
intended for a homogeneous population, in the L1, would increase the chance of a learner
finding a programme he or she likes more quickly. These summaries could include intro-
ductions to main characters and frequently occurring vocabulary that may be unknown to
the learner (Rodgers & Webb, 2011). During the programme, teachers need to provide
opportunities for learners to reflect on what they have been listening to or viewing. This
could consist of assessed activities where learners complete reports on the input they have
been exposed to. The teacher could also make group conversations a regular part of the
curriculum where learners discuss their audiobooks or television series with other learners
involved in the programme. Teachers should also set up opportunities to discuss the learn-
50
ers’ progress in the programme. This can be used to guide learners towards effective prac-
tices and habits for extensive learning and avoid learners failing to keep up with regular
listening or viewing.
While this section has provided guidance for creating an extensive listening and view-
ing programme, at no point should it be assumed that these programmes should replace
intensive listening instruction. Even if a learner is exposed to large amounts of aural input
through extensive programmes, there is still a need for explicit instruction in top-down and
bottom-up processing (Stephens, 2015). There is also a need for the learners to be exposed
to speaking activities where their processing of aural input leads to spoken output rather
than just being passive listeners.

6. RESEARCH INTO EXTENSIVE LEARNING

The implementation of extensive listening and viewing programmes lags behind the im-
plementation of extensive reading programmes. One of the reasons for this is that an exten-
sive reading programme is by and large easier to set up and run. It integrates nicely with a
pre-existing library, materials are cheaper and more abundant, and there is more research
to support its use. If extensive listening and viewing programmes are to proliferate, then
more research on their benefits needs to be undertaken with special attention paid to ensur-
ing that the studies replicate the conditions learners will face in these programmes and that
the potential benefits of these programmes are properly measured. Two studies (Chang &
Millett, 2014; Rodgers & Webb, in press) illustrate the nature of the research that needs to
be undertaken in the area of learning through extensive programmes.

6.1 COMPREHENSION OF GRADED READERS

The recent study by Chang and Millet (2014) investigated EFL learners’ vocabulary learn-
ing in three conditions: reading-only, reading-while-listening and listening-only. The study
centred around ten graded readers that 113 learners consumed over a thirteen week period
in the different learning conditions. Accompanying each of the books was a large number
of comprehension questions that the learners completed. In the listening conditions, each
of the books provided an average of 59 minutes of aural input. From the pre-test to the
post-test, the reading-while-listening and the listening-only group made significant gains in
comprehension scores, while the reading-only group did not. It should be noted that there
are a number of methodological issues associated with this study, including the compara-
bility of the differing treatment groups’ instruction (see Cross and Vandergrift (2014) for a
discussion of this study and researching L2 listening), but it illustrates the scope needed for
investigations of gains from extensive listening. What is notable about this study, from a
listening research perspective, is the large amount of aural input the learners encountered
(over 9.5 hours of graded listening), the large number of comprehension questions created
to complement the audiobooks (over 2,000 detail-focused items), and the relatively long
passages used for the measures of comprehension (an average of 11 minutes 22 seconds
per text). This study illustrates the time and preparation that is necessary to carry out qual-
ity investigation of extensive listening.
51
6.2 COMPREHENSION OF SUCCESSIVE EPISODES OF TELEVISON

Previous research has indicated that language learners have been able to comprehend video
(Etemadi, 2012; Guichon & McLornan, 2008; Markham & Peter, 2003; Taylor, 2005;
Winke, Gass, & Sydorenko, 2010). However, at present, few studies have investigated
learners’ comprehension of multiple episodes of authentic television. One study illustrates
the types of materials and measures needed for investigating the potential benefits of ex-
tensive viewing. Rodgers and Webb (in press) investigated differences in learners’ com-
prehension of successive episodes of an American television programme viewed with and
without captions. Participants viewed ten episodes of a drama completing comprehension
tests with over 80 items each for each episode. The total viewing time was over seven
hours. One group of participants (51 EFL learners) viewed each episode with captions
accompanying the spoken text, while a second group (321) viewed the episodes without
captions. Both groups made significant gains from the first episode viewed to the final
episode viewed, but there was varying levels of comprehension in the intervening epi-
sodes. The presence of captions made a significant difference in comprehension for epi-
sodes early in the viewing process and for episodes that may have been more difficult than
the others. The no captions group had a range of comprehension scores between 53% and
71% for the ten episodes. The captions group had a range of scores between 60% and 73%.
Results from this study indicate that authentic television programmes may be suitable for
extensive viewing when learners have viewed multiple episodes of a programme and that
captions can ease comprehension issues early in the viewing programme and for problem-
atic episodes. This research also illustrates the type of programmes that need to be used in
extensive viewing studies and what is likely the minimum amount of viewing needed to
approximate that which would go on in an extensive viewing programme.

6.3 FUTURE RESEARCH

There is a considerable amount of research that still needs to be undertaken to support what
appears to be sound theoretical grounding for promoting extensive listening and viewing
(Cross & Vandergrift, 2014). Essentially, every aspect of these programmes needs investi-
gating under conditions that approximate what learners would experience in an authentic
extensive learning situation. There are two research foci that are of particular importance
and interest. The first concerns a comparison between reading-while-listening and listen-
ing-only conditions in extensive listening. Studies such as those by Webb and Chang
(2012) and Brown, Waring and Donkaewbua (2008) have utilised these conditions and
have seen improved comprehension and vocabulary learning when using reading-while-
listening. This has led to recommendations to use this presentation method to focus and
support learners, especially those lower in proficiency. There has been criticism of this
technique in that it is believed to create a state of divided attention, and that in this divide,
the learner will favour the written form of input and the capacity to review the text (Field,
2000). Research needs to not only measure whether the two conditions are comparable in
terms of the amount of learning and comprehension that takes place as well as whether the
types of learning and comprehension are the same in reading-while-listening or listening-
52
only conditions. This means that tests that actually measure what goes on in the listening
process need to be devised and utilised. For example, do learners that read-while-listen
make comparable gains in ability to recognise the spoken form of the vocabulary compared
to those that listen-only? If improving knowledge of the aural form is a goal of extensive
listening, then this is obviously an important consideration. The same research questions
could also be extended to extensive viewing and the presence of captions when viewing.
For extensive viewing, there is an assumption that the images present in video lead to
increased comprehension and vocabulary learning. However, the degree to which this is
accurate has not been established. For vocabulary learning, the assumption is that unknown
vocabulary will be supported by the presence of imagery representing the vocabulary. To
investigate this, in-depth investigation of the occurrence of potentially learnt vocabulary
and when presentation of supporting imagery appears in authentic television needs to be
undertaken. Follow up to this research should entail more qualitative type methods such as
stimulated recall procedures that can indicate the learners’ use of imagery in video to help
them to understand the text and learn unknown vocabulary.

7. CONCLUSION

For many learners in EFL contexts, there is a very real need for exposure to large amounts
of aural input. The potential benefits to the learner from involvement in an extensive learn-
ing programme are many and include those that may not be a function of intensive listen-
ing instruction. Extensive listening and viewing programmes are methods for providing
this aural input. Graded reader audiobooks and episodes of authentic television appear to
be particularly well-suited to delivering the input for these programmes provided that a
principled approach to setting them up is taken. However, much of the motivation and
support for providing learners with these types of programmes is based on research and
experience from extensive reading. In order for extensive listening and viewing to become
more widely recognised as a valuable part of a language learning programme and more
widely utilised, there needs to be considerably more research conducted in such a way that
the true benefits of these programmes is evaluated.

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Michael P. H. Rodgers is an Assistant Professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Can-

ada. His research interests include vocabulary acquisition, language learning through viewing
videos, and extensive viewing and listening. He has published in journals such as Applied
Linguistics, Language Learning and TESOL Quarterly.

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