Abstract:

Despite the fact that listening is the first acquired language skill, it is called as “ignored” language skill both in western and national sources. Analyzing the Turkish Education literature, listening skill has been observed to be the least searched skill among basic language skills. The comparison method which is among quantitative research methods was benefited from in the study that aimed to reveal the effects of the questions given before and after listening the texts on 5 th grade students’ listening comprehension. The comparison cases were determined as the listening activity carried out through the questions given before listening the text (1) and the questions given after listening the text (2). The participants of the study were 5th grade students (n=68) studying at a secondary school in Umraniye, Istanbul. Through the findings, it was revealed that when the questions were given before listening the texts, the percentage of giving answers to knowledge-based questions has increased but the percentage of giving answers to questions related to critical thinking has decreased. However, when the questions were given after listening the texts, the percentage of giving answers to questions related to critical thinking has increased but the percentage of giving answers to knowledge-based questions has decreased. Besides, the impact of questions given before the text was revealed to be lower in narrative texts and higher in informative texts when compared to the questions given after listening the texts. Through the findings, it was revealed that giving the questions after and before the listening activity affects students’ listening comprehension level with the variables of text and question types.

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