Abstract:
The primary objective of this investigation was to recognize the
peculiar listening comprehension (LC) issues encountered by the Tamil
medium first year undergraduates in the Faculty of Arts during transactional
listening and suggest feasible and effective recommendations for the
stakeholders based on classroom investigation. In order to accomplish this
objective, 27 Tamil medium ESL (English as a Second Language) first year
listeners were randomly selected as sample population in the Faculty of Arts
and a classroom investigation employing an intervention programme for one
complete semester was conducted; the intervention programme was based
on the information which has been elicited via questionnaire and informal
discussion before the commencement of the programme. The intervention
programme incorporated some specially selected LC texts/activities,
participant observation and informal discussions. Having employed
qualitative methodology with the questionnaire, participant observation and
retrospective report/verbalization, this study, at the end, found out that the
ESL listeners’ comprehension level progressed dramatically when training
was provided with specially selected texts with appropriate background
knowledge and activities to match our listeners’ requirements to encounter
their LC impediments which were traced at the beginning of the study.
