The Use of Instructional Activities to Enhance Listening Skills Among Form Four Students

Abstract

Among the four language skills ESL learners need to be competent in, listening is regarded as the one skill the ESL learners have a tough time acquiring. The learners may feel it is too difficult to master. At the same time, the teachers may face challenges in finding the right materials suitable for the whole class, which comprises learners of different competency levels. This study aims to investigate whether there are any improvements in students’ listening skills when Instructional Language Activities are incorporated as the main activities in their listening lessons. Another aim of this research is to examine whether there are any differences between the control and experimental group in terms of their pre-test and post-test. 34 Form Four students participated in this research. One group, the experimental group (18), had undergone the intervention of using Instructional Language as the activities. Another group, the control group (16), experienced the conventional method of listening lessons. Both groups underwent five sessions, respectively. The instruments included a pre-test and a post-test. From the data gathered, it is found that the students who went through the Instructional Listening Activities demonstrated a higher listening mark achievement than those who did not go through the Instructional Listening Activities. The result also indicated improvements in the experimental group after using Instructional Language Activities. The result shows that instructional listening activities can help upper secondary school students improve their performance in listening tasks or assessments. Furthermore, this listening activity has allowed students to stay focused and alert on the instructional cues that lead them to the answers for the tasks.