Help Options In English Listening Websites: How Functional Are They?

Abstract

The descriptive study aimed to identify the availability of various types of textual help options (transcripts, subtitles/captions, glossaries, online dictionaries, grammar points, cultural notes, and feedback) made accessible in 11 English listening websites to assist language learners when comprehension problems occur as well as to make input more comprehensible. It also described how 78 learners of the intermediate level of English used the help options during independent study sessions. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from judgmental evaluation checklist, learning journals and group interviews transcriptions. The data analysis showed that the evaluated English listening websites provided limited types of help options. The most frequently found help options was the transcript. This feature was considered to be the most useful and frequently used help options the subjects used to assist comprehension. It was usually read by the learners after listening to aural texts, when they found difficulties in comprehending the texts, or when they wanted to check for specific information in the texts. Other types of help options frequently made available were glossaries and feedback. Yet due to limited listening strategy training, the learners’ use of textual help options, especially the transcript, was often inefficient in the context of listening practice.