Teaching and assessing independent listening in an online course for translation majors

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Teaching and assessing independent listening in an online course for translation majors

Olga G. Kvasova

Phd of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor, Associate Professor at the Department of Methodology of Teaching Ukrainian and Foreign Languages and Literatures, Institute of Philology Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine

Nataliia K. Liamzina

Phd of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor

Associate Professor of the Department of Foreign Languages Mykola Lysenko Lviv National Music Academy, Lviv, Ukraine

Roksoliana I. Radchuk

Phd of Pedagogical Sciences, Assistant Professor, Lecturer

Masaryk University Language Centre, Brno, Czech Republic

Yulia I. Trykashna

Phd of Pedagogical Sciences, Assistant Professor

Assistant Professor at the Department of Theory and Practice of Translation from English Institute of Philology in Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine

Abstract

The article presents methods of teaching and assessment of philology students' independent listening in online instruction which has gained increased significance in the pandemic and post-pandemic times. Independent listening is understood as listening to aural/video texts outside the classroom aligned with the curriculum. Basic principles applied in teaching independent listening include giving learners enough freedom for self-regulation, i.e., choosing a text and time for listening, self-evaluating results, and developing strategies for further learning with a teacher's support for scaffolding learning. The current r esearch is based on the findings of the preliminary study which provided information about the 2 nd year students' interests in topics and types of listening texts, the length of aural and video texts and frequency of independent listening sessions per week as well as the learning platforms they are familiar with. Built on these data, methods of teaching and assessment of independent listening were developed, with their effectiveness examined in this study. The intervention, conducted by the researchers, integrated traditional stages of teaching listening with a listening log used as a tool for guiding students' reflection and self-evaluation. Logs/journals/portfolios belong to alternative assessments, which are still innovative and under-researched in language pedagogy, although reflecting the much-welcomed shift from assessment of learning towards assessment for learning. The data obtained through listening logs were corroborated with the results of pre-and post-tests and the employment of another qualitative research tool - reflective Can-do statements. The findings prove that a listening log is efficiently integrated into the processes of teaching as well as self- and teacher assessment.

Keywords: teaching independent listening; listening log; self- and teacher-assessment.

INTRODUCTION

Statement of the problem. Emergency distance education (EDE), triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, has received the attention of theoreticians and practitioners from across the world, with an array of studies investigating the new challenges and opportunities and seeking ways to maximize online instruction. Foreign language (FL) education is not an exception. Both teachers and students experienced challenges related to the use of distance learning tools, primarily lack of digital literacy, reorganization of FL course design, and adaption of a conventional instructional model to synchronous and asynchronous modes in terms of promoting interaction in and out-of-class conditions.

If online teaching in many respects follows the tenets of time-proven Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) and enjoys the recent developments of computer-assisted language learning (GALL) and blended courses, assessment of online learning appeared incomparably more problematic than that in the offline mode. Theoretical and empirical research studies of language teachers' assessment literacy provide evidence that this literacy needs ongoing updating and enhancement through teacher training in both normal educational conditions and EDE. Thus, language pedagogy in times of crisis faces multiple challenges which need reflecting on, exchanging good practices, and rethinking approaches to teaching/learning to promote further advancement in the field.

Analysis of recent research and publications. In 2020, the changes introduced in education overnight were dramatic and overwhelming, and they needed prompt and efficient reactions on the part of educators. As Todd noted, “The suddenness of the shift to online teaching because of the pandemic meant that many teachers were simply trying to survive. Mostly, they simply converted what had been planned for the classroom into an online format” [1, p.15]. As a result, teachers oscillated between their institutional duties and instructional strategies while learning to teach and assess in the online mode on the job.

However, based on the research by M. M. Muhammad Abdel Latif [2] and K. Zamborova et.al [3], teachers across the world should be credited with the willingness to do their best to teach effectively during the pandemic and finding solutions to many of the problems encountered. Such solutions, e.g., include organizational innovations such as breaking lessons into smaller units, interactional innovations such as asking students to respond in writing rather than spoken language and monitoring innovations such as using numerous exercises to check understanding [1]. Ukrainian researchers T. Kavytska, V. Drobotun and O. Drahinda explored the educational capacity of online tools that were used to teach academic writing in emergency online learning [4]. The authors succeeded in using the tools and online platforms that match such criteria, as the accessibility of the tool/platform, high task generation capacity, feedback generation capacity as well as the capacity to disable academic dishonesty.

Conceding that the lack of social contact, spontaneous in-class discussions, collaboration, and lively participation, particularly with peers, makes online instruction less popular both with students and teachers, we support the idea voiced by T. Tseligka: “Technology, as a modern Asclepeion, might be conducive to this process by offering innovative solutions, resource variety, individualized material, and multiple modalities, stimulating motivation and autonomous learning” [5]. Following this line of thoug ht, we will focus on the issues related to the development of learner autonomy and the use of web platforms and tools (J. Cross [6], E. Lee et al. [7], Y. J. Lan [8], L.D. Huy [9], T. Gonulal [10], M. Melani [11]) as well as integration of online in-class sessions and out-of-class independent work with the view of making both as advantageous and practical as possible (F- Y. Yang [12]).

Research goal. The article that we offer here is dedicated to the presentation of methods of teaching and assessing independent listening comprehension, the preliminary study of which was already presented on the pages of this distinguished journal [13]. The analysis of the survey held in that study allowed to develop contextualized methods and conduct an intervention whose procedure is scrutinized in the current article. The main goal of the study is viewed in the development of assessment tools and their integration into online instruction.

THE THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1. Independent listening: autonomous/self-regulated, extensive, or both?

teaching assessing listening online course

Teaching of listening comprehension in an online mode of instruction enjoys multiple affordances including accessibility to various audio and video materials. Amongst sources for independent out-of-class listening skills, researchers mention podcasts [6], podcasts and vodcasts [10], materials accessed through WhatsApp [14], etc. Being representatives of the digital generation/digital natives, contemporary students can quite efficiently navigate the internet in search of the materials that they require and wish to listen to. As the data of our preliminary study of independent listening show, 70 percent of student respondents noted that they would willingly dedicate two-three sessions a week to independent listening [13]. By independent listening in this article we understand, primarily, listening conducted by students out of class although aligned to the curriculum and a particular instructional event or lesson.

The students' readiness to engage in independent listening may lead instructors to encourage students' listening autonomy, especially in terms of teachers' usual commitment to spare contact online time in favour of developing other skills, speaking mostly. By listening autonomy we mean out-of-class listening which is regulated mostly by learners' own plans, motives, and self-evaluation although concede that learning autonomy may exist in a variety of forms and levels (P. Benson [15]). The concept of autonomy is worth considering in more detail since at the time of advances in pedagogy, such as blended learning and CALL as well as life-long learning, it has gained special significance.

The concept of learning autonomy was broadly defined by H. Holec in the seminal study of 1981 as "the ability to take charge of one's learning, to hold the responsibility for all the decisions concerning all aspects of this learning, i.e.: determining the objectives; defining the contents and progressions; selecting methods and techniques to be used; monitoring the procedure of acquisition properly speaking (rhythm, time, place, etc.), evaluating what has been acquired.” [16, p. 3]. Based on the recent developments in the study of learning autonomy, F-Y. Yang states that the concept of autonomy overlaps and interacts with selfdirected learning and self-regulation, and that it is self-regulation that is the major factor to induce learners' motivation [12]. J. Kormos and K. Czizer specify self-regulation as an aspect of autonomy wherein the former entails control over the cognitive, emotional, motivational, and behavioral aspects of learning. Autonomous learners, in these authors' view, are also capable of taking responsibility for the content and management of their learning (e.g., course materials) and the social contextual environment in which learning takes place [17].

P. Benson [15] distinguishes several levels of autonomy. His earlier claims that autonomy can be achieved in situations when learners study entirely on their own and determine the direction of their learning totally by themselves have given way to a more specific explanation of the concept. The researcher states that learner autonomy, or selfdirected learning, advances through a carefully designed supportive environment [12], [18], further proceeds within the pedagogical partnership between teachers and learners [19], with learners provided by teachers with choices, rationale, and opportunities for personalization within independent learning [7]. Teacher support is not viewed as a threat to learner autonomy/self-regulation but as a well-balanced scaffolding that is in place when needed, for instance, when selecting listening materials appropriate for the proficiency level. When an array of them is available online, students may easily find themselves at a loss. The findings of our preliminary study support this claim since 34% of the respondents said they would accept teacher support in several respects.

When we wish to develop an effective autonomous listener, we will inevitably consider the notion of extensive listening (EL) which is said to be a means to boost learner autonomy in the listening skills domain [9]. The major purpose of EL lies in “exposing learners to a vast amount of comprehensible spoken texts over an extended time that in the long run contributes to the development of their comprehension and listening skills” [20, p. 243]. EL is implemented through a wide use of authentic online materials (podcasts, movies, TV and radio programs, videos, and other Internet resources) which is conducted mostly in out -of-the- classroom conditions. Normally for EL, learners themselves choose which materials to listen to and when to do this. The major distinctive feature of EL is said to be listening for enjoyment - “listening for pleasure and without obligating the listener to keep demonstrating a satisfactory level of understanding” [21, p. 54].

The benefits of EL broadly discussed in the literature are as follows: high motivation of listening to texts which typically are of an adequate level of difficulty (or just easy) for them to understand and enjoy; increase in listening fluency due to the frequent and repeated practice and improvement of word recognition; general increase in language proficiency, and vocabulary in particular; building confidence in listening comprehension; the authenticity of listening input as well as the availability of graded texts; the use of multimodal input (e.g., reading subtitles while listening, listening and viewing, and listening while viewing and reading subtitles) [20]. The disadvantages of EL have also been registered by researchers but they certainly cannot outweigh the numerous beneficial aspects.

The process of EL engages learners in such five types of listening activities, as listening only, shadowing/overlapping while listening (active listening), reading while listening, listening and viewing, and combined listening, viewing and reading activities. It is through the learner's exposure to abundant input and sustained practice that EL can lead to listening fluency [22]. The latter, defined as “the ability to process aural input effortlessly and automatically, restructure what is already known, and reach a satisfactory degree of performance” [22, p.423] seems to be the overall goal of teaching listening comprehension.

Assessment of EL, which belongs to alternative methods of assessment due to the EL nature, basically mirrors all tenets of this type of listening, namely planning, reflecting, monitoring learning progress, as well as maintaining learners' responsibility. The most common tool for assessing EL is listening journals/diaries/logs which will be further considered by us in more detail.

Concluding this section, we conceptualize independent listening, defined above as a guided out-of-class activity, as a type of EL: it offers the learners a certain degree of choice of when and how to listen to what they prefer thus ensuring their motivation and pleasure; it is regular thus enabling continuous practice necessary to increase listening proficiency; it is both self-regulated, reflected on and self-assessed thus exercising learner autonomy; finally, it is teacher-monitored thus enabling EL integration in contact online instruction and catering for the efficiency and effectiveness of learning.

2. Teaching independent listening

In traditional face-to-face instruction, teaching listening comprehension proceeds along three stages: pre-listening, while-listening, and post-listening. The stages are well described in the literature (e.g., T. Lynch [23]) and, while sharing the major points, they may vary from context to context depending upon the purpose of teaching and learners' language proficiency. In blended courses, these activities are offered to learners too, with the difference that pre- and while-listening activities are conducted by students out of class, based on internet or multimedia resources. The third, post-listening stage which is made of a comprehension check, may also be carried out independently in case the key is provided. When a comprehension check envisages discussion, it is usually carried out in class, with other learners and teachers observing the performance and making judgments of the effectiveness of listening comprehension in connection to an oral representation of its results.

When it comes to EL, the above stages can be followed in case the learners have a task to listen to some particular texts which have been previously selected and organized within lesson plans. These may be graded listening texts prepared by teams of professionals and provided on various teaching platforms (e.g., learningenglish.org). Such listening materials are very useful and popular among teachers and learners who, in case of repeated practice, quickly come to grips with the way the activities are arranged and cope with the tasks efficiently. However, in this case, EL, being independent in form, is not truly autonomous. On the one hand, learners do not choose the texts themselves and might not be motivated to listen to them and therefore enjoy listening, as the canons of EL prescribe. Secondly, scaffolding, in this case, appears to be too rigid as any step of learners is predetermined by exercises/tasks, including the indication of the number of replays of the audio text. Thirdly, excessive scaffolding may negatively affect learners' awareness of the difficulties that they come across, hinder their motivation to overcome these difficulties, and develop strategies to tackle such challenges in the future. Obviously, the case of EL described here reduces learner selfregulation which is a most valued aspect of learning autonomy. In this, we cannot but advocate the idea voiced by Y. J. Lan [8] that “autonomous learners learn more efficiently and effectively because they tend to regularly reflect on their own learning process and therefore (they) take control of their own learning. While managing their own learning, students do not suffer from the lack of learning motivation. They are usually proactive and are willing to take risks during the learning process” [8, p.1].

Following the quoted above line of thought, we will further consider another instructional situation that frequently occurs in our teaching practice, especially in today's EDE. To perform some curriculum-related tasks, it seems desirable that students listen to audio/video materials of their own choice that would contribute to online in-class work adding new information and personalized perspectives on it in the format of a presentation. These presentations may be considered culminating events in learning a particular topic. The idea to engage students in the selection, listening to and processing of the texts with the view of further presenting them seems constructive to us; it was employed by us in the development of EL teaching. Yet, text selection is notoriously demanding, and asking students to engage in the time-consuming selection of texts on a regular basis may cause complications and loss of motivation to do EL. Obviously, in the face of unlimited digital resources, unguided self-study may in fact prevent learners from taking more responsibility for their learning. Besides, the texts selected by students may not always appear reasonable in terms of linguistic and conceptual difficulty and content. Given this premise and based on the data of our preliminary study, it seems reasonable that students be given a choice out of several texts recommended by their teacher.

Given all the above, teaching independent listening is viewed as implementing the following tenets:

- taking place out of the classroom but aligned to and extending the curriculum-related materials;

- giving learners enough freedom for self-regulation, i.e., choosing texts (aural/video) and time for listening although aligned to teacher recommendations (selection of texts, deadlines);

- being controlled by learners in terms of reflecting on the listening process, selfevaluating results, and developing strategies for further learning but enjoying teacher support in terms of efficient organization of the learning.

The ways of organizing independent /extensive listening have been offered by the scholars exploring autonomous and extensive listening. Y-J. Lee and K-W. Cha [24] suggest that students' listening proficiency should develop in parallel with the metacognitive knowledge of their listening process, and to ensure this integrative development, it is critical to provide learners with proper listening guidelines, appropriate resources, and strategies based on students' interest and abilities. The learning tool that can uniquely integrate all aspects listed above is known as a listening log/journal/diary. It is undoubtedly autonomous in nature since using it, learners “can manage the listening process and their listening performance by planning a suitable schedule and pathway for their listening, and choosing suitable listening strategies, being confident when listening, and being able to evaluate the listening progress by themselves” [9, p.15].

B. Gilliland [25] defines a listening log (LL) as an “ongoing assignment through which students document their participation in out-of-class activities” [25, p.13]. An LL entry in Gilliland's study included such elements as a brief summary of the event, personal response to the content, reflection on the listening experience, including a plan for improving comprehension in the future, and new idioms, expressions, or vocabulary learned through the experience. The researcher concludes that LL has a great impact on learners' EL process and therefore its outcomes in listening proficiency.

This conclusion supports the data of an earlier study by J. Kemp [26] who reveals that using a LL helped EFL students develop independent learning skills and become autonomous learners. The researcher provides illustrations of LL effects on the development of schemata, metalinguistic and metacognitive awareness, learner control, motivation and involvement, enhancement of learning language through listening as well as evidence of progress and the cumulative effect of the EL activities. Importantly also, she claims that the LL “ is a means of formative assessment, providing an opportunity for individual guidance and feedback, as well as ideas for class input and discussion” [49, p. 10-11].

C. W-Y. Chen's study [27] focuses on students' material selection and listening problems and also considered the usefulness of the LL as it was perceived by learners. She states that keeping a diary affects students' future study planning, gaining of new knowledge, improvement in listening skills, and an increase in confidence. Such findings echo a claim about the impact of ongoing goal-setting and self-monitoring on building a sense of selfefficacy as well as the increase in learners' belief in their ability to reach a particular goal. C.W-Y. Chen has contributed to the contextual view of LL and further explored the feasibility of incorporating LL into listening courses noting that “there is still room for improvement in the quality of their entries to make the listening diary a truly reflective tool” [27, p. 94].

3. Assessing independent listening

As is clear from the above, LL has successfully combined the functions of an assignment organizing teaching resources and reflective notes with those of a tool of alternative assessment. Its structure and use are well described in the recent works by C.W-Y. Chen [27], I. Fauzi and P. Angkasawati [14], F-Y.Yang [12] and Y-J. Lee and K-W. Cha [24].

In the above quoted study of C.W-Y. Chen [27], the participants were asked to keep a LL to record their private listening experiences, with details including the names of the materials they listened to, any difficulties they experienced while listening, possible reasons for such difficulties, actions they undertook to deal with the problems, and any other thoughts. F-Y.Yang's [12] LL was used for similar purposes although it seemed somewhat more comprehensive. It consisted of 17 questions including writing a 50-word reflection on, or summary of the talk. Additionally, the participants in this study were asked to post pieces of reflection on TED talks they had watched and reply to at least one post per week using a specially created Facebook group page. They were also encouraged to share their language learning strategies or ask questions on the Facebook page.

In another study, I. Fauzi and P. Angkasawati [14] concentrated primarily on the comprehension of the listening content, namely on identifying the main ideas and identifying moods of messages, and also reported on significant gains in EL implemented with the help of WhatsApp. In the study of Y-J. Lee and K-W. Cha [24], the purpose of using LL lay in examining the dependence of metacognitive awareness of L2 listening on the level of listening proficiency. The LL included four elements: a summary, a response to the content, a reflection on students' own listening ability, and the listening strategies used by them during listening. As a tool of assessment, LL was complemented with an English listening test and Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire.

As is frequent in research into teaching methods, assessment tools are also employed as methods of investigation. In line with this, LL belongs to introspective methods of data collection, with the learners “observing and reporting on their own thoughts, feelings, motives, reasoning process, and mental states” [28, p. 285]. Offering many insights into the learner's inner world, as Z. Dornyei [29] maintains, journals, diaries or logs can serve as a powerful research tool to provide a candid account of the participants' feelings an d thoughts. Joining Z. Dornyei's [29] opinion on this, we find it essential for our research to complement the use of journals as a qualitative research method with quantitative ones, which will be described further in the methodology section.

METHODS

1. Research rationale and questions

The current research focuses on the methods of teaching and assessing independent listening aimed at students of Linguistics in their second year of studies. The research is in fact the main study based on the preliminary one and its findings. Those provided the information about the learners' interests in EL, preferred topics and types of texts, length of aural and video texts, and frequency of independent listening sessions per week as well as the learning platforms they are familiar with.

The range of topics that are of interest to students of this age is typical (student life, pastimes, music, getting mature, and future career prospects). The appeal of the topic seems of primary importance for teenage listeners, so 64% of the respondents in the survey were ready to listen to overly difficult texts in case they were interesting to them. As was already mentioned above, when selecting texts for independent listening, 33 % would choose texts from the several suggested by the teacher and about 3% would choose the texts that their classmates advised them. When it comes to the listening materials, the data showed that the majority (89%) would opt for episodes of TV series/films, 79% would prefer interviews and songs, 65% of respondents would choose educational videos, 61% would prefer watching TV programmes, 44% - news, 42% - lectures on professional topics and 23% to announcements.

In terms of frequency of listening sessions, it was revealed that 47% would do independent listening at least 3 times a week; 46% would listen independently once or twice a week and 7% would practice independent listening only once in two weeks. 33 % of respondents would choose short (up to 3 minutes) texts; 57% would prefer to listen to texts up to 10 minutes long and 10% would choose 40-minute-long texts. Finally, interesting results were received as far as assessment is concerned: 61% of the respondents would rather have an oral comprehension check via online in-class discussion/presentations; 30% opted for a comprehension check via written test (via Google Classroom or other platforms) and 8% preferred comprehension check via writing a summary (via Google Classroom or other platforms) [9, p. 81].

The obtained data were taken into account by us in selecting textual materials from a variety of online sources in the ratio revealed in the responses. In designing the independent listening learning process, we also relied on the preferred frequency of listening sessions and the assessment/ comprehension check. The findings of the preliminary study as well as theoretical background - the synthesis of theory and practice of independent (extensive) listening - allowed us to design the methods integrating teaching, learning, and assessment based on LL.

The research questions for the current research are:

Can LL be effectively integrated into teaching independent listening?

Can LL promote a reliable assessment of independent listening?

2. Data collection instruments

The methods of research employed in this study serve, to a great extent, as the methods of assessment of students' independent listening comprehension. A. N. Galloway and H. Rose [30] noted regarding their study, that the LL served a dual purpose - of a pedagogical (autonomous learning) tool and a research instrument. We would add a quote from Z. Dornyei [29, p.157] who argued that by providing an “insider account”, LL involves “participants to become co-researchers”.

So, the data collection instruments employed in this research were: qualitative, such as (a) LL and (b) self-assessment Can-do statements, and quantitative, namely pre-and posttests. The data were collected before and after the intervention which was conducted with the aim to examine the processes and outcomes of developing listening skills within four weeks; according to the curriculum, this period tends to cover studying a particular topic.

LL that we developed consists in:

a) a template to provide information about the listening text (title, source, type, length);

b) 10 questions six of which are selected responses, to answer which the learners tick one of the offered options. By doing so they provide information about the process of listening, for instance, the skill(s) they focus on, the number of replays, the use of resources, and specific difficulties. Eliciting this information is important in terms of finding out the details of the processes that result in effective or ineffective listening. Four other questions of the 10, are open-ended questions including a 20-30-word summary of the text, a list of issues raised in the text, reasoning if and why the text is interesting and useful, and a list of questions that could be asked by other listeners on the text content. These questions are aimed to elicit, on the one hand, comprehension of the text, and, on the other, to address some aspects of critical thinking such as the ability to analyse the content, awareness of difficulties based on the evaluation of one's experience, reasoning one's point of view. The answers to these open- ended questions shed light on the aspects of aural text processing, employment of higher- order thinking skills;

c) six statements that should be responded to based on a 5-point Likert scale. The statements serve as scaffolding for the learners to exercise reflection on the process and selfassessment of listening outcomes (see LL in Appendix A).

Can-do statements were intended to elicit students' perception of their listening proficiency. The same set of statements was offered before and after the intervention.

Pre- and post-tests were aimed at measuring listeners' skills in understanding main ideas/gist, details, and full understanding. To check and compare the level of these skills development in periods prior to and after the intervention, we used the test task of such types, as T/F, short-answer, and multiple-choice questions.

After the intervention, a questionnaire was administered. It consisted of nine 5-option Likert-type questions and intended to elicit the participants' opinion of the process and outcomes of independent listening.

Participants

The participants in the study were 18 second-year students majoring in English and trained to be translators/interpreters. All of them were Ukrainian-Russian bilinguals with similar cultural backgrounds. Their proficiency in English was B.1.2 on the CEFR. All students were of the same age (18 years old), four males and 14 females.

Every week students have four-five classes of English. During the pandemic, the classes were conducted online. Independent listening was organized in an asynchronous way, i.e., the students received their task per each week of study and completed it independently keeping their LL.

3. Intervention: preparation and procedure

The instructional design that was to be verified by the intervention consisted of three 4week cycles: selecting texts to offer the students each of four weeks of studying the topic. The texts to comprise the four sets were to meet the following criteria: appropriateness, which means that the texts are suitable for the class level and a group; interest (texts are relevant to students' interests, needs, and motives); length (the texts selected are from two to six minutes long); language proficiency level (learners should “be able to understand 90% or more of the content, more than 95% of the vocabulary and grammar, and should “glean enjoyment from doing the listening” [35]; the novelty of information in the texts; the social and cultural value of the texts; the correlation of audio/video information (images help to understand the words and facilitate the whole process of comprehension but not slower or hinder it); generative potential of the texts (lending to discussions and/or presentations) [56]. The results of the text selection procedure, as well as the methods of teaching and assessing independent listening, will be reported in the section `Findings'. The procedure of the intervention included the following:

a) familiarizing the students with the LL as a tool for organizing autonomous learning and providing sufficient teacher scaffolding. Students were explained such notions as listening skills (listening for gist, details, and full understanding), the possible unfamiliar vocabulary used in the template, and the technicalities of keeping the log. They practiced completing the log under the teacher's guidance, asked for clarification where necessary, and took notes;

b) pre-testing of listening for gist, details, and full understanding, completing Can-do statements;

c) independent listening of one text a week chosen by students from a set offered by the teacher and completing the log;

d) post-testing of listening for gist, details, and full understanding, completing Can-do statements;

e) culminating event which included whole group participation in online discussions/presentations conducted by learners to present the outcomes of their independent listening.

FINDINGS

In this section, we will present the findings along with the items of the intervention procedure described above. In Table 1, we show the characteristics of the sets of aural/video texts that we selected and offered to students to implement independent listening.

Table 1

Composition of listening sets and their characteristics

Set number	Number of the selected texts	Average duration of texts	Sources	Text types/genres
	Aural	Video
1	1	4	5,5minutes	YouTube, TED Talks, BBC news	Travel blog, news, TV show
2	1	4	10 minutes	YouTube, https://elllo.org/archive/	Travel blog, educational video, news, travel guide

As is seen in the table, both sets had identical components although set 2 contained longer texts. The sources varied as well as the selected text types. The topics corresponded with those mentioned by the respondents in the preliminary study [13].

Pre- and post-testing were targeted at testing skills of listening for gist, details, and full understanding. In Table 2 we present the comparison of results on pre- and post-tests conducted on the first and the last weeks of the intervention.

Table 2

The comparison of results on pre-and post-tests

Week number	Listening for gist	Listening for details	Listening for full understanding
	Pre (%)	Post (%)	Pre (%)	Post (%)	Pre(%)	Post(%)
1 and 3	67	90	67	89	62	85

The percentages represent the correct answers in the T/F, short-answer, and multiplechoice test tasks. The data clearly demonstrate the critical growth of correct answers in the post-testing. This supports our suggestion about the effectiveness of the methods of teaching independent listening.

In table 3 we present the data of T-test and Std deviation.

Table 3

Indices of learning efficacy

Learning efficacy (mean)

Pre- test Post-test

0.51	0.72
0.56	0.75
0.52	0.72
0.53	0.71
0.55	0.86
0.54	0.79
0.52	0.78
0.59	0.86 Mean Std deviation = 14.48

The results of formal tests, as we proposed, were complemented by the information obtained through students' completing Can-do statements. The descriptive statistics of simple frequencies of answers in Can-do statements is presented in Table 4. We compared the percentages obtained before and after the 3d week of the intervention.

Table 4

Comparison of Can-do statements (Week Three)

Statement number	Agree (%)	Unsure (%)	Disagree (%)
1. I have coped with the listening task - I did my best	63	82	37	18	0	0
2. I am happy I have listened to this text - I enjoyed it	45	66	55	25	0	0
3. I know how to choose a good text in the future	42	75	58	25	0	0
4. I am happy with the results of listening - I understood everything I needed to understand	41	95	59	5	0	0
5. I know how to tackle difficulties in future	63	75	37	25	0	0
6. I have improved my listening skills	65	100	35	0	0	0
7. I know my strengths and weaknesses	65	83	35	17	0	0
8. I know how to further improve my listening skills - I have developed some strategy(ies)	60	75	40	25	0	0

The percentages for statements 1, 5-8 evidence that the students were conscious of improvements in their listening skills. The percentage of those who were aware of coping with listening tasks has increased from 63 in the pre-test to 82 in the post-test, i.e., by 1,3 times. Statement 6 “I have improved my listening skills” received the utmost percentage of support (100) in the post-test period which shows 1,5 times growth. Not so sure were the respondents about determining how to tackle the difficulties in the future (1,2), awareness of their strengths and weaknesses (1,3), and some efficient strategies developed (1,2).

The support of statements 2-4 has grown much more significantly in the post-test survey: Statement 2 “I am happy I have listened to this text - I enjoyed it” by 1,5 times; Statement 3 “I know how to choose a good text in the future” - by 1,8 times; Statement 4 “I am happy with the results of listening - I understood everything I needed to understand” - by 2,3 times. The low percentages indicating “unsure” in the post-test period and absence of answers in the graph Disagree testify to the overall positive evaluation of students' progress in independent listening.

The data of self-evaluation (Table 3) corroborate the results of improved skills of listening comprehension obtained through testing (Table 2), which testifies to the reliability of the devised instrument integrating self- and formal assessment. The findings presented here support the resolution of both research questions in this study.

Some additional information about the effective integration of LL in the process of teaching independent listening was elicited through the final questionnaire completed by the respondents after the intervention. The descriptive statistics is presented in Table 5.

Table 5

Responses to the final questionnaire

Statement number	Agree (%)	Unsure (%)	Disagree (%)
1. Independent listening was a useful and effective practice	83	12	5
2. My listening skills have improved after practicing independent listening at home	62	38	0
3. It is necessary to do all three stages of tasks for independent listening: pre-listening, while-listening, and post-listening activities	59	28	13
4. Texts for independent listening should be related to the topic studied in the classroom	16	0	83

The simple frequencies of answers to Question 4 suggest that students would not want to listen to the texts related to the topic studied in the classroom since 83% of them expressed disagreement. This fact provides interesting food for thought and may offer new perspectives to the research of independent listening. However, irrespective of the mentioned percentage of disagreement, 72% of the respondents were absolutely satisfied with the content of the texts considering the texts interesting, 23 % were quite satisfied and only 5% rated the content with a minimal number of points.

Through the final questionnaire, we also obtained information about the time the students spent doing independent listening tasks. We found out that on average students spent 20-30 minutes on listening, but the time increased when they were to write up a summary of the video, etc. The data show that 66% of the respondents would like to continue independent listening in the future if they were provided with some useful tips (links to interesting resources, texts with tasks, etc.). Almost one-third, however, would like to continue in case the independent listening is done totally independently. Only 5% of the respondents did not see a point in continuing independent listening as they were happy with listening activities in the classroom. The students, who would like to continue independent listening, said they would do this once or twice a week (61 %), and 33% only once in two weeks. The most enthusiastic, who would do independent listening three times a week or more, are the least numerous - 5% of the respondents, which is quite natural for any community, academic groups included.

CONCLUSIONS AND PROSPECTS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

The data obtained through intervention and qualitative and quantitative analysis of the responses allowed us to arrive at the following conclusions.

Independent listening was positively accepted by the students and contributed to enhancing their listening skills. The comparison of results on pre-and post-tests conducted in the first and the last weeks of the intervention show that the participants increased their ability to listen for the gist (by 13%), listen for details (by 22%), and listen for full understanding (by 23%). The analysis of the data obtained via the use of Can-do statements demonstrates that the students coped significantly better with the tasks in the post-intervention period. The majority of them became more aware of how to choose a good text for listening in the future, tackle difficulties that arise in the process of listening and further improve their listening skills. The intervention presented in the article helped us to define the listening log as an effective tool for the organization of independent listening and a reliable instrument for assessing its outcomes.

Although not without limitations, which relate most ly to the scope of the conducted research (number of participants and time span of the intervention), the study seems to have contributed to the resolution of multiple issues of teaching and assessing online. The prospects of further research are viewed in replicating the intervention in a much broader scope, modifying the listening log and Can-do statements, and comparing/contrasting their initial and modified versions in use.

Appendix A

Listening log

Text title

Text source (link) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we4KiShNjlA

More info about text	Audio	Video	Length	Talk monologue	Talk dialogue	Interview	Lecture	Discuss ion	Your answer
tick (?) as needed

1 Write a 20-30-word summary: who, did what, when, where, why?
2 What issues are raised in the text?
1 2
3 Did you listen for ... ?	main ideas	for details	full understanding	your answer
tick (?) as needed
4 How many times did you listen to the whole text.?	you actually did	you'd recommend
tick (?) as needed
5 How many times did you listen to Once difficult fragments .?	Twice	three or more times

tick (?) as needed
6 Which did you use while listening?	subtitles	Google translate	online dictionary	Wikipedia	other resources
tick (?) as needed
7 Which difficulties did you have?	vocabulary	names	figures	high fluency	accent	noise	vague message
tick (?) as needed
8 Is the text interesting to listen to? Why? Why not?
9 Is the text useful for future communication needs? Why? Why not?
10 Write 3-5 questions you would ask other listeners of the text to check listening comprehension

Reflective notes (self-assessment)

Tick (?) as needed

	Fully agree	Agree	Not sure	Disagree	Totally disagree
I have coped with the listening task - I did my best
I am happy I have listened to this text - I enjoyed it
I know how to choose a good text in the future
I am happy with the results of listening - I understood everything I needed to understand
I know how to tackle difficulties in future
I have improved my listening skills
I have registered my strengths and weaknesses
I know how to further improve my listening skills - I have developed some strategy(ies)
I am confident I can cope with more difficult tasks

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