Slowed-down speech - the root of listening comprehension failure?

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Re: Slowed-down speech - the root of listening comprehension failure?

Postby reineke » Tue Sep 27, 2016 10:08 pm

HELP OPTIONS AND MULTIMEDIA LISTENING: STUDENTS’ USE OF SUBTITLES AND THE TRANSCRIPT
A multimedia listening activity containing a video of an academic lecture was designed to offer help in the form of target language subtitles (captions) and lecture transcripts in cases of comprehension breakdowns. Eighteen intermediate ESL students enrolled in an academic listening class at a research university participated in the study. Two tests and questionnaires in addition to screen recordings were used to analyze students' performance on the activity and their use of help.

The results indicate that participants interacted with the subtitles more frequently and for longer periods of time than with the transcript.

http://llt.msu.edu/vol11num1/grgurovic/

Using Podcasts to Improve Second Language Comprehension in Iranian Language Classrooms

Abstract
The present study aims at investigating the influence of podcasts (POD) on language comprehension of Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners. An Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was administered to 60 male and female university students. The participants were considered as pre-intermediate learners and were divided into two groups (one experimental group and one control group). During the fifteen sessions of the treatment, thirty podcasts were presented to the two groups. The experimental group received just the audio file of the POD, and the control group received a different treatment which was the transcript file of the same audio podcast file of the experimental group. The results of the t-tests revealed that there was no significant difference in language comprehension scores across the posttest between two groups. Based on the interview results after the post-test, all of the participants (100%) agreed that both audio and the transcripts (written texts) were useful for them and claimed that it is a good method of improving language comprehension.

http://www.macrothink.org/journal/index.php/jse/article/viewFile/9176/7534

Captions and reduced forms instruction: The impact on
EFL students’ listening comprehension

Literature review
The studies reviewed here show mixed results regarding the use of textual aids. While a number of studies elucidated the positive impact of applying textual aids, e.g., subtitles and transcripts, other studies did not find equally compelling evidence. Similarly, while some studies encouraged multi-modal presentation of listening lessons or tasks, some cautioned against it for concerns of possible cognitive overload.

http://staff.csie.ncu.edu.tw/yangjc/paper/2014_ReCALL_Yang.pdf
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Re: Slowed-down speech - the root of listening comprehension failure?

Postby s_allard » Wed Sep 28, 2016 2:47 am

In a previous post I referred to the death-by-citation school of post writing. Here we have an egregious example. I've long given up trying to read all this stuff so I'll wait until somebody can pick up the thread and we can continue the discussion.
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Re: Slowed-down speech - the root of listening comprehension failure?

Postby Cainntear » Wed Sep 28, 2016 10:14 am

s_allard wrote:In a previous post I referred to the death-by-citation school of post writing. Here we have an egregious example. I've long given up trying to read all this stuff so I'll wait until somebody can pick up the thread and we can continue the discussion.

Feel free to skip any posts you don't want to read, but please stop going on about how you didn't read them.

I'm personally finding Reineke's posts invaluable, and I'm going to print off copies of all the papers he's mentioned here as it's an area I find fascinating, and directly relevant to what I'm currently looking at in my masters. (I was considering looking at the use of synthesised speech with learners for my dissertation, but as Apple broke the voice synthesis interface in their last update of iOS 9, and my iPad isn't compatible with iOS 10, I'm now looking at other options that don't involve forking out inordinate amounts of money for a bit of consumer electronics....)

It will inform me going forward as to how to modify my own speech to ensure at my students get the maximum benefit from their time with me -- I would not want to just continue doing what I'm doing if the research says it's not helping.

Now I'll admit that I don't always read through Reineke's posts. Quite often I actually skip them altogether, depending on how deep I want to go into a particular topic. But that's OK - we all choose what to read, and none of us would be able to choose to read posts that were never put up.
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Re: Slowed-down speech - the root of listening comprehension failure?

Postby klvik » Wed Sep 28, 2016 3:58 pm

Cainntear wrote:
s_allard wrote:In a previous post I referred to the death-by-citation school of post writing. Here we have an egregious example. I've long given up trying to read all this stuff so I'll wait until somebody can pick up the thread and we can continue the discussion.

Feel free to skip any posts you don't want to read, but please stop going on about how you didn't read them.

I'm personally finding Reineke's posts invaluable, and I'm going to print off copies of all the papers he's mentioned here as it's an area I find fascinating, and directly relevant to what I'm currently looking at in my masters. (I was considering looking at the use of synthesised speech with learners for my dissertation, but as Apple broke the voice synthesis interface in their last update of iOS 9, and my iPad isn't compatible with iOS 10, I'm now looking at other options that don't involve forking out inordinate amounts of money for a bit of consumer electronics....)

It will inform me going forward as to how to modify my own speech to ensure at my students get the maximum benefit from their time with me -- I would not want to just continue doing what I'm doing if the research says it's not helping.

Now I'll admit that I don't always read through Reineke's posts. Quite often I actually skip them altogether, depending on how deep I want to go into a particular topic. But that's OK - we all choose what to read, and none of us would be able to choose to read posts that were never put up.


If I were you, I would be very cautious about using these articles to inform the direction of your Master's thesis or your teaching unless you have spent time critically reading them. Look at the data and the data analysis. Do the data actually support the authors' conclusions? Did they use appropriate statistical testing? Which statements are supported by the data and which are not? Are the authors over generalizing the significance of their results? Is it published in a reputable, peer-reviewed journal? Are there confounding factors biasing their results? It can be useful to read the methods and figures first- before looking at the introduction. Read the results section and the discussion after you have formed your own conclusion. Just as in politics, data are often given a spin in articles such that the authors overstate or distort their significance.
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Re: Slowed-down speech - the root of listening comprehension failure?

Postby Cainntear » Wed Sep 28, 2016 4:43 pm

klvik wrote:If I were you, I would be very cautious about using these articles to inform the direction of your Master's thesis or your teaching unless you have spent time critically reading them. Look at the data and the data analysis. Do the data actually support the authors' conclusions? Did they use appropriate statistical testing? Which statements are supported by the data and which are not? Are the authors over generalizing the significance of their results? Is it published in a reputable, peer-reviewed journal? Are there confounding factors biasing their results? It can be useful to read the methods and figures first- before looking at the introduction. Read the results section and the discussion after you have formed your own conclusion. Just as in politics, data are often given a spin in articles such that the authors overstate or distort their significance.

I'm not an idiot -- I understand this. But even if in the end I find these particular papers to be unusable for my ends, there's still the whole web-of-citations thing I can follow to get to the more respected citations, starting from these studies. Plus, it's only the third week of the programme, so I have a relatively long time until I start on my thesis.
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Re: Slowed-down speech - the root of listening comprehension failure?

Postby klvik » Wed Sep 28, 2016 6:52 pm

Cainntear wrote:
klvik wrote:If I were you, I would be very cautious about using these articles to inform the direction of your Master's thesis or your teaching unless you have spent time critically reading them. Look at the data and the data analysis. Do the data actually support the authors' conclusions? Did they use appropriate statistical testing? Which statements are supported by the data and which are not? Are the authors over generalizing the significance of their results? Is it published in a reputable, peer-reviewed journal? Are there confounding factors biasing their results? It can be useful to read the methods and figures first- before looking at the introduction. Read the results section and the discussion after you have formed your own conclusion. Just as in politics, data are often given a spin in articles such that the authors overstate or distort their significance.

I'm not an idiot -- I understand this. But even if in the end I find these particular papers to be unusable for my ends, there's still the whole web-of-citations thing I can follow to get to the more respected citations, starting from these studies. Plus, it's only the third week of the programme, so I have a relatively long time until I start on my thesis.


Of course you are not an idiot. Please don't take offense where none was intended. Critical reading of scientific literature is a learned skilled, not a function of one's intelligence. In my experience, most students in the first year of graduate school (Master's or PhD) have not yet mastered this skill. If you have already mastered it, you should be a very successful graduate student.
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Re: Slowed-down speech - the root of listening comprehension failure?

Postby reineke » Thu Sep 29, 2016 12:05 am

s_allard wrote:I couldn't wade through all these citations so I'll assume that they are interesting and somehow relevant. I'll assume that the main idea of using slowed-down speech as a learning tool is to give quote="s_allard"]I couldn't wade through all these citations so I'll assume that they are interesting and somehow relevant. I'll assume that the main idea of using slowed-down speech as a learning tool is to give the learner a chance to acquire the target patterns and then bring these up to the desired speed. So, let's say your goal is 150 words per minute (wpm) of fluent and correct speech. So, maybe you'll practice some stuff at 50 wpm until you are comfortable and then crank it up to 100, then 125 until you hit 150. Seems pretty logical to me. I don't know if there's anything left to add.
I would suggest that the transcript is in fact a way of "slowing" down recorded speech because we can read the transcript at any speed.

What happens is that the transcript eliminates the intelligibility problem. We don't have to strain our ears to figure out what is being said. Plus we have, not a phonetic transcription, but a standard alphabet transcription which is great for learning how to read and of course for studying grammar and vocabulary.

When we study or read a transcript without listening to the recording, or maybe just listening in our head, we are basically slowing down. And when we repeat passages many times, that's also a form of slowing down. You can't do this in a real-life conversation.


50 wpm is the equivalent of slow VOA English slowed down extra 50%.

If something is too dense or challenging and perceived as fast, choosing something less challenging is the most obvious way of slowing down. Transcripts and subs can help in a variety of ways but they are not a substitute for using one's own ears.

My critical reading of this discussion is that getting hung up on the outcome of one study is akin to not seeing the forest for the trees. The studies were conducted by researchers, teachers and doctoral candidates. For the most part they're fairly easy to read. The studies can serve as food for thought or a springboard to find other interesting research. Message boards work well for sharing resources.
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Re: Slowed-down speech - the root of listening comprehension failure?

Postby rdearman » Thu Sep 29, 2016 8:34 pm

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Re: Slowed-down speech - the root of listening comprehension failure?

Postby s_allard » Fri Sep 30, 2016 1:37 pm

Citations and links in posts certainly have their place in forums. When used judiciously of course. The problem is that often these citations are nothing more than red herrings and tangential distractions that lead to wild goose chases that more often than not end up killing the thread. This is exactly what death-by-citations means. Now, where were we?
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Re: Slowed-down speech - the root of listening comprehension failure?

Postby Cainntear » Fri Sep 30, 2016 7:18 pm

s_allard wrote:Citations and links in posts certainly have their place in forums. When used judiciously of course. The problem is that often these citations are nothing more than red herrings and tangential distractions that lead to wild goose chases that more often than not end up killing the thread. This is exactly what death-by-citations means. Now, where were we?

Except that none of Reineke's citations are tangential -- they all relate directly to matters previously discussed within the thread.

I am also very careful about accusing others of taking threads off-topic, because I know I do it all the time and it would be hypocritical of me to attack others for it. You might want to consider how that might apply to you, too.
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