The Effect of Task-Based Activities on Iranian Beginner EFL Learners’ Listening Comprehension

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of applying task-based activities on students’ listening comprehension improvement. It also aimed at providing evidence to show how shifting from a traditional language teaching approach into the TBLT approach can positively affect the process of learning listening skill. To do this, 80 participants were selected from three English language institutes in Shiraz. Participants of the study were chosen by assigning a placement test and they were divided into two groups. In the experimental group, the participants were taught listening skills based on the tenets of task-based teaching while the participants in the control group were taught listening skills traditionally. This process continued for 20 sessions. A pre-test and post-test were administered. One-way ANOVA, correlation and t-test analyses were used to determine whether differences between the sample means were statistically significant or not. It was found that the students of the experimental group, who experienced task-based principles of teaching listening, performed remarkably better than those of the control group on the final listening post-test. And it was concluded that there was a statistically significant difference between the effects of tasked-based activities and traditional activities on Iranian beginner EFL learner’s listening comprehension.