Abstract:

Backround noise is defined as all kinds of sound that prevent to hear the desired sounds. Most of the studies related to the relationship between background noise and listening reveals that background noise affects listening skills. However, almost all of those studies were carried out at laboratory settings. In fact, background noise is a factor occurring naturally in classroom environments and affects students perpetually. Due to the fact that this study consists of an experimental process to reveal the effects of the natural background noise on classroom environments, it is thought to contribute to the literature. The aim of this study is to reveal how the background noise affects 5th grade students’ listening comprehension and recall. Within this purpose, a sample group consisting of 146 5th grade students was made to listen to two texts; one of them in a noisy classroom environment (79 db A) and the other one in a quiet and sound insulated classroom environment (36 db A). Separate listening comprehension and recall tests were carried out for each of those texts. The findings revealed that background noise highly affects 5th grade students’ levels of listening comprehension (Cohen’s d= .91) and recall (Cohen’s d > .83) and decreases students’ listening performance. Besides, it was revealed that students both have a better level of listening comprehension and a higher level of recall in quiet settings.

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