Examining the Effects of Long-Term Study Abroad on the Listenership of Japanese EFL University Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to measure the effect of study abroad on one aspect of learners' pragmatic competence, listenership. A total of 8 Japanese university students participated in this study (4 females and 4 males). Each student was given pragmatic tests at three points in time: within four to seven days of going abroad (pre-test), within seven days of returning to Japan (post-test 1), and approximately eight weeks later (i.e., post-test 2, the delayed post-test). Each of these tests involved participating in an intercultural conversation with a native speaker of English (NES) and being interviewed. To determine the efficacy of preparatory instruction, half of the students set to study abroad (N = 4) were given explicit instruction on listenership. This consisted of two (2-hours each) instructional sessions whereby the teacher drew students' attention to various features of listenership, engaged them in discussions on the implications of cross-cultural communication styles and, subsequently, taught them of some common patterns of listenership in English. The results of this study point to the benefits of long-term study abroad (SA), particularly on the learners who received instruction prior to studying abroad.

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