An Exploratory Study of the Effective Mediating Artefacts in Listening through Systemic Theoretical Instruction (STI) among English as Foreign Language Learners

This research study investigated the development of listening proficiency level by the aid of different media- tional artifacts in Systemic Theoretical Instruction (STI). The study considered whether exposing learners to different types and various numbers of mediating artefacts would increase their awareness towards listen- ing concepts after two months, and consequently promote their listening performance. To this end, 90 un- dergraduate English as Foreign Language (EFL) Learners, in the field of English Literature and Tra nslation, were recruited in this study. The participants were divided into three experimental groups. The learners in group (I, STI-EM) were exposed to teacher’s oral explanation of the listening concepts along with material- ized tools , which consisted of presenting the listening concepts in charts and images, while group (II, STI- EV) learners were exposed to teacher’s oral explanation of the target concepts and learners’ individual form of verbalization. Learners in group (III, STI-EMV) exposed to all forms of mediation such as teacher’s oral explanation, materialized tools and learners’ verbalization practice. Data were gathered through two listen- ing comprehension tests (pre & post) from learners. Semi-structured interview was then conducted to gain learners’ opinions about this way of instruction. The study lasted 13 weeks, including both listening assess- ments and the enrichment program (EP). The result of the study indicated that learners’ listening improve- ment was detected more in the group who exposed to all forms of mediating artifacts (Group III). While the other two groups (I & II) had approximately the same listening performance. In addition, almost all the learners in three instructional groups were satisfied with STI.