The Impact of Discourse Signaling Devices on the Listening Comprehension of L2 Learners

Abstract

The purpose of this study was two-fold: first, it aimed at examining the impact of expository text topics on the listening comprehension of L2 learners; second, it aimed to investigate the impact of macro, micro, and macro-micro discourse markers on the listening comprehension of expository texts by L2 learners. The participants (N =105) were male and female adult L2 learners at upperintermediate level selected from a number of English language institutes in Iran. The materials consisted of three expository texts and three versions (i.e., micro, macro, and macro-micro) for each text, which were developed by the researchers based on Chaudron and Richard’s (1986) model of discourse markers. A listening proficiency test and three sets of listening comprehension tests were the instruments of this study. The analysis of the data revealed that there was no significant difference in the participants’ performance on the three expository texts. The results also showed that macromicro versions received the highest mean, while macro versions received the lowest mean. The findings of this study suggested that the combination versions of micro and macro discourse markers contributed more to the comprehension of L2 listeners than only micro and macro versions did

Keywords

• discourse markers, expository texts, listening comprehension, macromarkers, micromarkers