Two studies were conducted to measure the comprehensibility of synthetic speech with current text-tospeech technology. Baseline measurements for each subject were obtained using recorded natural speech. The first study was conducted in a quiet lab with no distractions. Half the subjects were allowed to take notes while listening, the other half were not. Findings showed that there was no signif...

Healthy aging is accompanied by listening difficulties, including decreased speech comprehension, that stem from an ill-understood combination of sensory and cognitive changes. Here, we use electroencephalography to demonstrate that auditory neural oscillations of older adults entrain less firmly and less flexibly to speech-paced (∼3 Hz) rhythms than younger adults' during attentive listening. ...

This research study investigated the development of listening proficiency level by the aid of different media- tional artifacts in Systemic Theoretical Instruction (STI). The study considered whether exposing learners to different types and various numbers of mediating artefacts would increase their awareness towards listen- ing concepts after two months, and consequently promote their listenin...

The present study investigated the extent to which accent sensitivity provides the foundation for lexical knowledge and listening comprehension for Japanese university students learning English as a foreign language (EFL). On an English accent correctness (i.e., YES/NO response) decision task, 63 participants showed considerably high accuracy and speed in identifying correctly-accented nouns (8...

BACKGROUND The literature suggests that a complex relationship exists between the three main skills involved in reading comprehension (decoding, listening comprehension and vocabulary) and that this relationship depends on at least three other factors orthographic transparency, children's grade level and socioeconomic status (SES). This study investigated the relative contribution of the predic...

This paper presents arguments for an emphasis on listening comprehension in language learning/teaching. An explanation of how listeners can use strategies to enhance the learning process is presented, with a review of the existing research base on how second language listening is taught. The major part of the paper presents and discusses pedagogical recommendations, as well as examples of perfo...

Listening and reading comprehension are complex processes that are difficult to assess. Many standardized comprehension tests place high demands on memory, assess only sentence length material, and may not reflect how students comprehend classroom material. The present study employed a sentence verification task ( S m ) to test 60 grade 7 and 8 students' comprehension of expository passages. Pa...

This study was an attempt to explore the role of emotional intelligence on the whole andits components particularly problem solving in EFL learners’ listening comprehensionperformance in the IELTS tests. For this purpose, a total of 39 advanced learners homogenizedaccording to Oxford Placement Test took part in this study. Participants completed the IELTSlistening tests ...

This study investigates the effects of employing extended online thematic listening tasks on the development of listening comprehension in an English course focusing on reading and writing skill development. To accomplish this aim, extended online thematic listening tasks were designed and implemented in English as a Foreign-Language (EFL) college level General English course. Preand post-tests...