Investigation of the effect of teaching listening strategies in 6th grade English course on students' listening and speaking skills

It is important to be aware of language learning strategies that accelerate the development of foreign language skills and to apply them where necessary. Being aware of listening strategies especially for the development of listening skills and using these strategies at appropriate times help students to complete their listening tasks successfully. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of teaching the use of listening strategies to 6th grade students in English lessons on the students' listening strategies, cognitive awareness, listening comprehension and motivation levels, and English speaking skills. For this purpose, data collection tools were developed, teaching was conducted for the use of listening strategies, and measurement tools developed to examine the effectiveness of this teaching were used. For this reason, nested mixed design was used in the study. A quasi-experimental design was used to be able to teach the use of listening strategies. The experimental group in the research group of the study consists of 18 students and the control group consists of 14 students. The study was carried out for six weeks in a secondary school located in the center of Afyonkarahisar in the second semester of the 2021-2022 academic year. In the research, the quantitative data were achieved through listening strategies cognitive awareness scale, motivation scale for English listening, listening test and the rubric measures speaking skills, developed by the researcher; qualitative data were obtained through semi-structured student interviews, student diaries, researcher notes, and confidence/motivation bubbles. As a result of the research, teaching the use of listening strategies in the 6th grade English lesson increased the development of students' both listening and speaking skills. Students' cognitive awareness levels for listening to English increased. The students stated that their motivation level towards listening increased and that they were satisfied with the listening activities. In order to develop listening skills in English, students should be encouraged to use listening strategies and when necessary, strategies should be reminded and their use should be demonstrated.