Developing listening comprehension skills of beginner level EFL studensts: An action research with 7th grade Turkish students

In foreign language teaching, there are a lot of components that need to be handled. According to the objectives of the curriculum or the need of the learners, the priorities are determined. In the beginning stages of learning a foreign language, speaking is generally regarded as a skill which many learners have difficulty from the outset. On the other hand, listening to an English-speaking person and understanding is a more crucial skill that needs to be developed since the problems in that area will hinder the learning process. In this action research, the problem of seventh grade Turkish EFL students in listening to each other during play-acting is handled by adding a pre-listening activity before act-outs. The effect of this treatment is tested by comparing the scores from the act-outs with pre-listening stage and without pre-listening stage. The findings show that the students’ listening comprehension is positively affected from the treatment.