A Think-Aloud Study: Listening Comprehension Strategies Used by Primary School Students

Abstract

The purpose of this research is describing and comparing the listening-comprehension strategies used by the students who are identified as successful and less successful about listening. In the research, the case study pattern was used among the qualitative research approaches. In the study, different situations of each student within the same group were examined. The study was carried out in 2017 with four students who attend the fourth grade of the primary school at the middle socioeconomic level in Efeler district of Aydın city. The data related to the cognitive processes used by the students who are selected using sampling of maximum diversity from purposeful sampling methods, during listening were obtained through the method of think aloud, which is one of the utmost effective ways of describing the cognitive activities in the listening comprehension process and of the comprehension strategies used in this process. When the data obtained from the think-aloud method was interpreted, it has been observed that the listening-comprehension strategies used by students differed. It has been determined that students who are identified as successful listener use more strategies on their listening comprehension process. Consequently, it is possible to state that the students are unaware of using the listening comprehension strategies since they are very little. It was also concluded that students who were identified as both successful and unsuccessful listeners have reached less the level of evaluation in terms of strategies.