The effect of strategy-based listening activities on the listening skills and strategy usage level of seventh grade students

This study is a quasi-experimental research which aims to investigate the effect of strategy usage in listening education on the strategy usage levels and listening skills of seventh grade students. To this end, three classes among seventh grade students of a secondary school in Battalgazi district of Malatya province were identified in accordance with unbalanced groups pretest-posttest experimental design with control group, and these groups were labeled as experimental group, control group 1 and control group 2. The data of the research were obtained by the Listening Strategies Usage Frequency Scale developed by the researcher, and by three different types of listening comprehension success tests. These data collection tools were applied to all three groups as pretest and posttest. Between the pretest and the posttest, the strategy-based listening education program, which was once again developed by the researcher, was applied on the experimental group by the instructor of the course for six weeks. In the meantime, while the same special texts were instructed with conventional methods to control group 1, no special practice was introduced for control group 2. The data collected during the research were analyzed by quantitative data analysis, i.e. one-way ANOVA and ANCOVA. As a result of the findings obtained, it was concluded that in general a course taught by strategy-based activities improves strategy utilization levels, as well as critical, distinctive and comprehensive listening skills of seventh grade students. Keywords: discriminative listening, critical listening, comprehensive listening, listening strategies, quasi-experimental study.