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They Made it! Enhancing University-Level L2 Learners’Listening Comprehension of Authentic Multimedia Materialswith Advance Organizers
Chen-Hong Li
Published online: 4 September 2012
� De La Salle University 2012
Abstract Authentic language learning materials become
prevalent in foreign and second language (L2) classrooms.
Since these materials are not altered to suit the proficiency
level or needs of L2 learners, they are likely to cause difficulties
in comprehension. The purpose of this research was to examine
the effect of advance organizers in conjunction with the cog-
nitive theory of multimedia learning as a presentation principle
on L2 learners’ comprehension of English-language DVD
soundtrack material. A total of 136 intermediate university-
level L2 students participated as intact groups in the study. They
were placed in a control condition or one of the two experi-
mental conditions prior to viewing a DVD, including (1) a
5-min film preview with captions followed by brainstorming
and (2) a set of 20 cards (10 printed with episodic photos and 10
with a caption in the form of a line from the film) for each small
group to match them and then to rearrange the 10 well-matched
pairs of cards in chronological order of the film plot based on
their initial guesses. Two dependent measures, a written sum-
mary and a multiple-choice listening test, were used. The
results show that the advance organizer groups performed at a
substantially higher level than the control group on both
dependent measures; however, the two experimental groups
differed only on the written protocol, not on the multiple-choice
listening test. Limitations of the study and suggestions for
further research are also discussed in this article.
Keywords Advance organizer � L2 listening
comprehension � Cognitive theory of multimedia learning �Authentic multimedia materials
Introduction
As technology continues to evolve, the DVD option has
now been widely used in the L2 classrooms since numer-
ous researchers (Cakir 2006; Feak and Salehzadeh 2001;
Ginther 2002; Sueyoshi and Hardison 2005; Wagner 2010)
have argued that multimedia technology not just offers a
more authentic input for L2 listeners, but the non-verbal
component in the video technology can also help viewers
pay full attention to the authentic language input and
comprehend the spoken text better than an audio-only
narration. DVD technology also offers multilingual
soundtracks and multilingual captions, and the value of the
reading input provided by captions has been established in
previous research (Chang et al. 2011; Hayati and Mohmedi
2011; Huang and Eskey 2000; Latifi et al. 2011; Markham
2003; Markham et al. 2001; Winke et al. 2010) to enhance
L2 learners’ comprehension. However, the positive value
of this ‘‘pedagogical tool’’ should be taken into consider-
ation in light of how the human mind works because only
when multimedia messages are presented based on how
humans process information are they likely to result in
meaningful learning.
A cognitive theory of multimedia learning, proposed by
Mayer (2001) as portrayed in Fig. 1, assumes that the
human information processing system includes dual chan-
nels for visual/pictorial and auditory/verbal processing, and
that each channel has limited capacity for processing
information. When pictures and words are both presented
visually as animation and on-screen text to learners, the
visual channel can become overloaded in a way that pic-
tures and on-screen text compete for limited cognitive
resources in the visual channel because both enter the
information processing through the eyes, and the compe-
tition reduces the amount of processing that people can
C.-H. Li (&)
National Penghu University of Science and Technology,
No.300 Liu-He Rd., Makung, Penghu 88046, Taiwan
e-mail: [email protected]
123
Asia-Pacific Edu Res (2013) 22(2):193–200
DOI 10.1007/s40299-012-0012-6
attend to the visual images. This finding is referred to as a
‘‘redundancy effect,’’ that is, the addition of on-screen text
to a narrated animation detracts from multimedia learning
and results in poorer learning and understanding. Mayer
thus contends that to present verbal material in the most
efficient way is through the verbal channel as spoken text
only rather than as on-screen text ‘‘because in this way it
does not compete with pictures for cognitive resources in
the visual channel’’ (p. 153).
L2 learners, in the absence of on-screen text (or cap-
tions), would likely demonstrate real comprehension of
DVD material through listening rather than through read-
ing the text. Diao et al. (2007) confirmed that language
learners listening with caption availability can be depen-
dent too much on such reading input by receiving infor-
mation passively, which results in surface learning and
lowers the learners’ listening comprehension performance.
Also, with the use of captioned video in the classroom,
students will simply ignore the sound track and their con-
centration is primarily on reading captions; thus, they make
no significant progress in developing target-language lis-
tening comprehension (Borras and Lafayette 1994; Caimi
2006; Latifi et al. 2011). Moreover, Robin (2007) stated
‘‘the research consensus suggests that L2 captions aid in
immediate comprehension (hardly an earth-shattering
finding), but we know little about the longitudinal effects
on learning in terms of listening comprehension improve-
ment’’ (p. 111).
For intermediate university-level L2 students who are
learning most of their L2 in a more reading-dependent
classroom setting and typically have better L2 literacy
skills, it is, however, a challenging task to comprehend
authentic English-language DVD material without cap-
tions. In this regard, research evidence abundantly supports
the usefulness of providing background knowledge or
information in the form of an advance organizer in facili-
tating L2 listening comprehension process. Ausubel (1960)
defined the advance organizers as ‘‘introductory materials
at a higher level of abstraction, generality and inclusive-
ness than the learning material itself’’ (p. 268). Vandergrift
(2007) demonstrated that the use of advance organizers can
help build up or activate listeners’ prior knowledge and
develop a conceptual framework for inferencing (top-down
processing). A systematic review of the L2 research on the
effect of advance organizers on listening comprehension
shows that they can take a variety of forms, including a
summary of major scenes with/without accompanying
pictures, an introduction to the main characters in a story,
key vocabulary presentation, brainstorming and class dis-
cussion, picture illustrations, cultural background cues, and
question preview (Chung 1999, 2002; Elkhafaifi 2005;
Herron et al. 1995, 1998; Wilberschied and Berman 2004).
A recent study by Li (2009), using a sequential mixed-
methods study to examine the effect of three advance
organizers on a listening comprehension task performed by
college students, confirms the role of advance organizers in
facilitating successful L2 listening comprehension. The
results showed that students performed best when they
had a question preview as an advance organizer prior to
viewing the target video, moderately well when they had a
summary of major scenes with accompanying pictures, and
poorest when they had cultural background cues. Findings
from the focus group discussion showed that the cultural
background information was inevitably related only indi-
rectly to the video’s content, and students had trouble
making an association between the video content and this
type of advance organizer treatment. Li concluded that the
content of the advance organizer has to be closely related
to the aural material, and an advance organizer that
contains too much indirect relevance to listening stimuli
distracts students’ attention and is likely to offset the
facilitative effect of advance organizers on comprehension.
To sum up, swept up by the superior performance of L2
learners in the literature who had been exposed to target-lan-
guage captions for comprehension, Li (in press) speculated
that language teachers would use captioned video without
thinking about their students’ limited capacity in processing
L2 information coming from sound, video, and captions or
about their development of L2 listening comprehension skill.
Also, as established in previous research, the facilitative role
of the right advance organizer approach in activating prior
knowledge prior to any listening task is unquestionable. With
the increased availability of multimedia and digital technol-
ogies, more and more media-based language teaching pro-
grams are now available in the L2 curricula. A more effective
approach to the development of other advance organizers is
Fig. 1 Cognitive theory of
multimedia learning showing
narrated animation with
redundant text—words and
pictures both enter the visual
channel
194 C.-H. Li
123
absolutely necessary to make the media-based listening
materials comprehensible to L2 learners who typically have
better L2 literacy skills. In addition, Chung and Huang (2009)
indicated that the long-term goal of L2 learners is to develop
their communicative competence in actual use of the target
language so as to respond appropriately to genuine commu-
nicative needs in realistic L2 situations. To this end, the
development of L2 listening competence plays a crucial role
and can never be undervalued. Last, but not least, although
listening comprehension lies at the heart of L2 listening,
Vandergrift (2007) pointed out that L2 listening remains ‘‘the
least researched of all four skills’’ (p. 191). Hence, the con-
cerns above call for the need of ongoing research into L2
listening comprehension. Results emerging from the current
study are important in a way that a better understanding of the
listening process will not just help inform pedagogical deci-
sions in this area, but will also help L2 teachers teach listening
in a more effective way than ever before in multimedia
classroom settings. The three following research questions
were specifically addressed in this study:
1. How well (as measured by a written summary and a
multiple-choice listening test) do L2 intermediate
students comprehend no-captioning target-language
DVD soundtrack material with the use of advance
organizers?
2. Which type of advance organizer is considered more
useful for the L2 intermediate students’ DVD video
comprehension?
3. What are the students’ attitudes toward the inclusion of
advance organizers in their comprehension of the
target-language DVD soundtrack material?
Method
Participants
The sophomores in a national university of education were
sampled in the current study. They were enrolled in 12
independent sections of a required English course, Practice
of English Listening and Speaking. A separate listening
comprehension section (50 questions with a score ranging
from 31 to 68) taken from the paper-based Test of English
as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is used as a placement test
by this institute. This institute is one of the few universities
in Taiwan that uses a standardized placement test to assist
in the placement process before the sophomores can for-
mally register for the required course. The results of the
placement test are useful for research and teaching pur-
poses since the length of English study may not correlate
with students’ level of proficiency. Thus, the researcher
considered the sophomores at this institute suitable for the
current study.
Students whose listening scores on the placement test
are one standard deviation above the mean are placed in
Level A, and students whose scores are one standard
deviation below the mean are placed in Level C. The rest of
the test takers are placed in Level B. Based on the results of
the placement test, there were more Level B classes (seven
classes with a mean TOEFL listening score of 49.8) than
Level A classes (two classes with a mean score of 56.2) and
Level C classes (three classes with a mean score of 36.4).
The researcher randomly selected three intact classes from
Level B with a total of 136 students to participate in the
current study. This sampling procedure insured that the
three classes were representative of the class structure at
this university (because there were more Level B classes
than other classes) and that the students in the three
selected classes were initially equal in terms of their aca-
demic listening ability.
In the demographic background section of the research
materials, no student self-reported being a native English
speaker or studying in an English-speaking country. All of
the students were native Chinese speakers and reported
having studied English for approximately 10 years on
average.
Instruments
Advance Organizers
The basic concept underlying the development of the
advance organizers in the study was a combination of
pictorial images and verbal text so as to arrive at the dual
coding of information in the learners’ cognitive structure.
One of the two advance organizer conditions was a 5-min
film preview with English captions (a 2-min film presen-
tation of the beginning part, another 2-min presentation of
the middle part, and a 1-min presentation near the end).
After the 5-min film previewing, the participants were
divided into small groups. Each group discussed what
might be included in the video through brainstorming and
reported the predictions to the class (this advance organizer
condition was referred to as ‘‘previewing and brainstorm-
ing’’ for short hereafter). The other advance organizer
condition included 10 episodic photos (printed on cards)
important to the main idea of the DVD episode and another
10 cards, each showing an English caption in the form of a
line from the film. With a set of 20 cards (10 photos and
10 captions) for each group, the students in subgroups
matched each photo with its corresponding caption and
then rearranged the 10 pairs of cards in chronological order
of the film plot based on their initial guesses or previously
Enhancing University-Level L2 Learners’ Listening Comprehension 195
123
acquired knowledge (this advance organizer condition was
referred to as ‘‘matching and rearranging’’). The third
condition was a control group without advance organizer
treatment, which was used for a comparative purpose with
the other two advance organizer conditions.
DVD Episode
An authentic DVD episode of Everybody Loves Raymond,
one of the most popular situation comedies in the U.S., was
used in the study. Each episode in the series lasts about
20 min and depicts a funny anecdote in a typical American
middle-class family. While adhering to authenticity, the
researcher also took into account the participants’ partic-
ular difficulties. The researcher purposely selected one
DVD episode in which the cultural practices were not quite
different from the perspectives of the participants’ own
culture in the hope of avoiding an increase in the difficulty
level of the DVD content.
Listening Comprehension Tests
Two dependent measures were used to assess the students’
DVD video comprehension. The first dependent measure
consisted of asking students to write a summary of the DVD
content in their first language (L1) that reflected as much of
the episode as they could remember. Research in L2 listening
comprehension indicates that the language of assessment is a
significant variable in tests of listening comprehension, and
that participants who were permitted to use their L1 for their
responses scored significantly higher than those who took the
same test in the L2 (Field 2000; Lee and Van Patten 2003).
The other dependent measure was a 10-item multiple-choice
listening comprehension test. The 10 items on the compre-
hension test were not developed to give an advantage to the
advance organizer treatment groups since information pro-
vided in either advance organizer condition was not included
in the multiple-choice listening test. The use of multiple
measures to assess the students’ DVD video comprehension
would yield a more reliable basis for evaluation of their lis-
tening comprehension since the multiple-choice questions
might have given students a chance of random guessing,
which would somehow affect the test results. The DVD
episode and the multiple-choice listening test were pilot
tested and improved in a previous study, and the validation
process is described in Li (in press).
Post-Test Questionnaire
A post-test questionnaire consisting of six Likert-type
items was used to address the issue about the participants’
attitudes toward the role of advance organizers in their
listening comprehension process and to assist in the
interpretation of the statistical findings so as to arrive at a
more comprehensive analysis.
Experimental Procedures
Students in this study were given an incentive to participate
in the study, which included a stationery coupon as well as
an account number with which they could have access to an
on-line English proficiency practice test for 30 days once
they were logged in. The data collection process took place
during the regularly scheduled class periods with the
assistance of the class instructors in a multimedia language
lab. The participants were informed in advance of the
purpose of and the compensation for the study. They signed
a consent form knowing that their participation in this
study was voluntary, and they were assured that their
performance on the listening tests did not affect their
course grades. The three intact classes were randomly
assigned to view the DVD episode in three treatment
conditions.
In the first advance organizer condition, the students
were given a film preview with target-language captions.
Then, they were put into small groups to talk about what
the film might be about through brainstorming and to report
their predictions to the whole class. The class instructor did
not tell them whether their predictions were correct, leav-
ing them to check their own initial guesses when they
viewed the full film later. Then, the instructor played the
DVD episode for them from the very beginning to the end
without captions. After viewing the DVD episode, they
were given 10 min to complete the written recall protocol.
The instructor collected the summaries generated by the
students before distributing to them the second listening
measure to avoid the potential interference of the multiple-
choice listening comprehension test in the written sum-
maries. The statements, questions, and four alternatives on
the multiple-choice listening test might have unintention-
ally provided relevant clues for the students to produce
longer, more detailed written summaries. After they had
completed the two dependent listening measures, they were
asked to complete the post-test questionnaire.
The class in the other advance organizer treatment
condition went through the same process as that in the
above treatment condition, except that each small group in
this class was given a set of 20 cards, 10 printed with
episodic photos and 10 with corresponding captions. The
small groups worked to match each photo with its corre-
sponding caption based on their initial guesses and prior
knowledge. Then, they proceeded to rearrange the 10 pairs
of cards in chronological order of the film plot. The class
instructor circulated among the groups in the classroom as
a monitor without providing any assistance in this pre-
viewing activity. After each group had completed the task,
196 C.-H. Li
123
the class instructor, using a PowerPoint slide presentation,
showed them the ten pairs of cards that had been well
matched in a chronologically correct order according to the
film plot, and read to them each English caption (and
explained difficult words if necessary), while they were
listening and looking at the corresponding episodic photo.
For the class in the control condition, the instructor played
the target DVD episode for the students from beginning to
end without the aid of any advance organizer. Then, they
completed both the written summary and the 10-item mul-
tiple-choice listening comprehension test. There was no need
for them to fill in the post-test questionnaire.
Scoring and Data Analysis
The researcher and two outside judges counted the number
of idea units in the written summaries generated by the
students. An idea unit, defined by Steffensen et al. (1979),
is any thought or idea that is closely connected with the
content. Overall, the researcher and the two judges
achieved an interrater reliability level of .86 for scoring
idea units. Regarding the scoring for the multiple-choice
listening test, each question that was correctly answered
was given a score of one point with a full score of ten for
the listening comprehension test.
Since the researcher investigated two experimental con-
ditions and one control condition and used two dependent
measures (the written protocol and the multiple-choice lis-
tening test) to assess the students’ DVD video comprehension,
a single-factor multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA)
was conducted to determine how the combination of the two
dependent measures distinguished the three groups in one
analysis. Post hoc procedures were conducted to determine
which group(s) differed when the main effect was found sig-
nificant. For the analysis of the post-test questionnaire,
descriptive statistics were calculated.
Results
Listening Comprehension Tests
A MANOVA test was used to determine the effect of advance
organizers on the two dependent listening measures at once.
Table 1 summarizes the means of the written protocol and the
multiple-choice listening comprehension test divided by the
advance organizer condition. Regarding the written summa-
ries generated by the students, the group of matching and
rearranging (M = 17.20, SD = 1.31) scored the highest,
followed by the group of previewing and brainstorming
(M = 15.07, SD = 2.08); the control group (M = 9.71,
SD = 2.53) scored the lowest. For the multiple-choice lis-
tening comprehension test, a similar pattern was observed.
The group of matching and rearranging (M = 8.15,
SD = 1.17) performed at a higher level than the group of
previewing and brainstorming (M = 7.93, SD = 1.05) and
the control group (M = 5.02, SD = 1.36).
Examination of the MANOVA test revealed a signifi-
cant effect, Wilk’s Lambda (4, 264) = .199, p \ .001.
Follow-up univariate ANOVAs indicated that both the
written summary scores (F (2, 133) = 168.14, p \ .001)
and the multiple-choice listening test scores (F (2,
133) = 97.93, p \ .001) were significantly influenced by
the advance organizer treatment condition, as summarized
in Table 2. Concerning the first research question, post hoc
analyses showed that the students in the control group
performed at a substantially lower level than their peers in
either advance organizer treatment condition on both
dependent measures, as displayed in Table 3. Obviously,
the availability of advance organizers did contribute to the
participants’ increased DVD video comprehension as
reflected in the multiple listening measures.
With regard to the second research question, an inter-
esting finding arises in the two experimental conditions
concerning the inconsistent listening performance mea-
sured by the multiple listening measures. The students in
the group of matching and rearranging recalled more idea
units on the written summary than their peers in the group
of previewing and brainstorming, and this difference was
statistically significant, as presented in Table 3. However,
no significant differences were observed in the multiple-
choice listening comprehension test between the two
Table 1 Means and standard deviations for the written summary and
multiple-choice listening comprehension test
Advance organizer treatment N M SD
Written summary
Previewing and brainstorming 42 15.07 2.08
Matching and rearranging 46 17.20 1.31
Control group 48 9.71 2.53
Multiple-choice listening test
Previewing and brainstorming 42 7.93 1.05
Matching and rearranging 46 8.15 1.17
Control group 48 5.02 1.36
Table 2 Summary of tests of the between-subject effects for the
written summary and multiple-choice listening test
Source Dependent variable SS df MS F
Advance
organizer
Written summary 1400.62 2 700.31 168.14***
Multiple-choice test 285.23 2 142.62 97.93***
Error Written summary 553.94 133 4.17
Multiple-choice test 193.70 133 1.46
*** p \ .001
Enhancing University-Level L2 Learners’ Listening Comprehension 197
123
experimental treatment groups. Thus, it seems safe to say
that the advance organizer condition of matching and
rearranging is more useful in helping students generate
more idea units related to the DVD video content than the
other advance organizer condition.
Attitudes Toward the Use of Advance Organizers
by Experimental Groups
The post-test questionnaire included six items on a 5-point
Likert Scale (1—strongly disagree, 2—disagree, 3—no
opinion, 4—agree, 5—strongly agree) measuring the atti-
tudes toward the use of advance organizers by the two
experimental groups. Means above the center point of three
are considered positive attitudes, while means below three
indicate negative attitudes. The six items of the question-
naire are listed as follows:
1. It makes a listening task difficult to comprehend a
DVD episode without relevant prior/background
knowledge.
2. I liked organizer-aided listening tasks.
3. The use of advance organizers helped me build up and/
or activate my background knowledge with which I
could predict what was included in the video.
4. The use of advance organizers before I viewed the full film
without captions made me feel confident and comfortable.
5. The length of the advance organizer treatment condi-
tion that I was exposed to was appropriate for me to
visualize an overall context for the upcoming DVD
material.
6. The advance organizer treatment condition that I was
exposed to was considered useful for and effective in
my DVD video comprehension.
The internal consistency reliability coefficient of this
6-item questionnaire was Cronbach a = .796, indicating
that the six items were reliably measuring the same con-
struct. Overall, the facilitative role played by the advance
organizers in the listening comprehension process was
confirmed by the participants’ positive ratings. The means
for five of the six items (items 1, 3, 4, 5, 6) were similar
with a range from 3.40 to 3.86 on the 5-point Likert-type
scale, as displayed in Table 4. The mean for item two
(I liked organizer-aided listening tasks) was the highest at
4.05; further analysis of the ratings revealed that a total of
84 participants in the experimental conditions strongly
agreed or agreed with the inclusion of advance organizers
in their DVD video comprehension. A close examination of
item six (The advance organizer treatment condition that I
was exposed to was considered useful for and effective in
my DVD video comprehension) on the post-test question-
naire indicated that the mean for the advance organizer
condition of matching and rearranging (M = 3.70) was
higher than that for the other advance organizer condition
(M = 3.40). The results suggest that the students who were
exposed to the advance organizer of matching and rear-
ranging had a more positive attitude toward the inclusion of
this advance organizer in their listening process. Also, 67 %
(31/46) of the participants in this condition strongly agreed
or agreed that the use of this advance organizer was useful for
and effective in their DVD video comprehension, while only
50 % (21/42) of the students in the other advance organizer
condition strongly agreed or agreed with such a statement.
Discussion
In light of the information emerging from this research, it
seems safe to confirm the advantages of using advance
organizers for improving the students’ DVD video com-
prehension. The significant results indicate that both
advance organizer treatment groups performed at a con-
siderably higher level than the control group on the mul-
tiple listening measures. These findings show that the
introduction of a comprehension activity prior to a listening
task would help L2 listeners activate or build up their
background knowledge, and the knowledge would thus be
Table 3 Comparison results on the multiple-choice listening test and
written summary by advance organizer treatment conditions
Advance organizer
condition
Multiple-choice
listening test
Written
summary
Previewing & brainstorming 7.93a 15.07a
Matching & rearranging 8.15a 17.20b
Control condition 5.02b 9.71c
Note. Means in the same row that do not share subscripts differ at
p \ .001 in the Tukey honestly significant difference (HSD)
comparison
Table 4 Results of the post-test questionnaire about attitudes toward
the use of advance organizers by experimental groups (n = 88)
Item # of ‘‘strongly
agree’’ ratings
Agree No
opinion
Disagree Strongly
disagree
Mean
1 2 74 10 2 0 3.86
2 9 75 3 1 0 4.05
3 3 52 27 5 1 3.58
4 4 64 13 6 1 3.73
5 0 59 21 6 2 3.56
6-1a 1 20 17 3 1 3.40
6-2b 3 28 13 2 0 3.70
a Ratings based on the condition of previewing and brainstorming
(n = 42)b Ratings based on the condition of matching and rearranging
(n = 46)
198 C.-H. Li
123
integrated into their working memory in the process of the
aural input to result in meaningful learning and increased
comprehension. This outcome generally supports and
establishes the value of previous research (Chung 1999,
2002; Elkhafaifi 2005; Herron et al. 1995; Herron et al.
1998; Li 2009, in press; Wilberschied and Berman 2004)
on the use of advance organizers as an instructional tech-
nique in that advance organizers improve the measure of
listening comprehension of target-language material by
activating background knowledge and providing clues to
upcoming aural input.
Even though the interpretation of a listening text depends
on the background knowledge that is stored and activated in
the listener’s mind, the processes through which the listener
tackles the aural input play a larger role in how it is compre-
hended. Item five (The length of the advance organizer
treatment condition that I was exposed to was appropriate
for me to visualize an overall context for the upcoming DVD
material) on the post-test questionnaire showed that both of
the experimental groups thought the length of the advance
organizer they each had been exposed to was appropriate for
them to visualize an overall context for the DVD material.
Despite the positive attitude toward this statement, the stu-
dents in the group of matching and rearranging were provided
with an opportunity to verify their initial guesses prior to
viewing the full film by listening to their class instructor
presenting the 10 pairs of cards that had been well matched in a
chronologically correct order based on the film plot. The
correct information that they had got prior to viewing the
target DVD episode could have made them more sensitive to
remembering other parts of the plot to link them together
meaningfully. With reference to item six (The advance
organizer treatment condition that I was exposed to was
considered useful for and effective in my DVD video com-
prehension) on the post-test questionnaire, the results showed
that the students in this advance organizer condition had a
higher rating on the effectiveness and usefulness of this
advance organizer treatment than their peers in the advance
organizer condition of previewing and brainstorming. This
finding could also assist in explaining why a significantly
higher score on the written summary than on the multiple-
choice listening test was observed in this advance organizer
treatment condition.
While there was a significant difference in the number
of idea units on the written summaries generated by the
students in the two advance organizer conditions, their
performance on the multiple-choice listening test did not
yield a significant difference. There is a possibility that the
multiple-choice format might have provided the students in
the condition of previewing and brainstorming with an
opportunity for random guessing when they were unsure
which option among the four alternative responses was the
best answer to a listening comprehension question.
Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research
There are a number of limitations to this study. First, since
the process of implementing the teaching experiment could
be disruptive to the cooperating instructors’ intended
course plans, the present study, in order to minimize dis-
ruption, used only one DVD episode in a brief experi-
mental situation. Additionally, the language usage and the
content in each DVD episode selected from an authentic
TV series vary in difficulty level to some degree, and the
data collected from only one DVD video viewing might
have decreased the generalizability of findings to other
episodes in the same series or to other types of authentic
multimedia-based teaching materials. Another limitation
involves the research design. This study employed two
forms of data collection, including the teaching experiment
and the post-test questionnaire. There is no way of pro-
viding a more detailed explanation in the ways advance
organizers helped them improve their DVD video com-
prehension or knowing what problems they found in so
doing. The inclusion of an in-depth interview with a few
participants or a focus group discussion to achieve trian-
gulation at the level of data collection would have provided
a fuller understanding of the effect of advance organizers
on DVD video comprehension and would have also
strengthened the dependability and validity of the results.
This study has specifically addressed some questions, but
it has raised some other questions that are worthy of further
research. Firstly, the use of two dependent listening mea-
sures in this study should have yielded a more reliable basis
for evaluation of the students’ DVD video comprehension.
However, the multiple-choice format inherently could have
provided the students with an opportunity for random
guessing. Future studies, in addition to the use of a written
protocol, could include limited-production items that require
participants to write short answers to test items so as to reflect
their listening ability in a more realistic manner. Secondly,
one could also explore whether university-level students
learning other second or foreign languages such as Japanese,
French, Spanish, and German would derive similar benefits
from the availability of advance organizers in enhancing
their comprehension performance on authentic DVD learn-
ing materials. Thirdly, the current study used one DVD
episode in a short experimental situation. Future research
could examine whether the results hold true with data col-
lected in a long-lasting instructional setting or from longer
non-captioned movies. Finally, providing background
knowledge in the advance organizer condition of matching
and rearranging was more useful for the intermediate L2
learners in the study to generate longer and more detailed
written summaries. Future research could investigate what
might be an optimal number of episodic photos to use and
how much information needs to be included in this
Enhancing University-Level L2 Learners’ Listening Comprehension 199
123
organizer-aided activity for advanced L2 learners to see
whether there is a correlation between L2 learners’ profi-
ciency level and how much ‘‘known’’ information they need
prior to a DVD viewing task.
Conclusion
The study concludes that students’ listening comprehension
of a foreign language DVD video is facilitated by the use of
effective advance organizers. With more and more multi-
media-based instructional programs entering the L2 curric-
ula and the importance of listening competence in second
language acquisition and communication, the findings will
provide insight into teaching listening to L2 learners who are
learning most of their L2 in a more reading-dependent
classroom setting and typically have better L2 literacy skills.
Acknowledgments Grants from the National Science Council
(NSC) of Taiwan under the number of NSC 100-2410-H-346-005
funded the collection of data for this research project. The author
would like to thank the editor(s) and the anonymous reviewers for
their insightful comments and suggestions that helped improve the
quality of this research paper.
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