Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Factors that hamper listening'

This study analyzes different demographic groups and the ability to understand a physician and how this contributes to feeling carefully listened to. There are four hypotheses being tested, each predicting a different group within each variable will feel the most carefully listened to. The Statistical Package for Social Services (SPSS) was used to analyze data from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). The portion of the survey that focused on adults was utilized in this study. Data was analyzed using t-tests and ANOVA tests. The results of the study determined that the elderly, males, and participants that could understand their physician felt the most carefully listened to for each variable. As for race, Whites, African American, and participants that identified as more than one race felt more carefully listened to when compared to Asians and participants that identified as a race not specified. These finding only supported one hypothesis, participants that understood their physician would feel that most carefully listened to. Theses result are a valuable tool that can be used to being quality improvement efforts focused on patient centered communication.

CITE/Language Arts
Ed.D.
The holistic listening comprehension of 112 Kyoto University students, operationalized as TOEFL iBT listening (long listening), was investigated with a battery of 12 tests, including a phoneme and word recognition test, a test of short 10-second listening, a test of long 3- to 5-minute listening, a reading comprehension of listening scripts test, listening and reading cloze tests, a gap-filling test designed to assess syntactic awareness, a grammatical error detection test, and the Vocabulary Size Test. Rasch analyses were employed to yield person ability measures; these measures were used for correlation studies, a series of linear regression analyses, principal components analysis, and structural equation modeling. Long listening correlated most strongly with the reading comprehension test (.756) and the listening cloze test (.705), and these two variables explained as much variance in long listening as all the variables combined in a linear regression (68%). Of the two prominent components yielded by a principal components analysis, capturing sounds and processing for meaning, long listening loaded significantly only on processing for meaning (.727) and showed no notable loading on capturing sounds. When long listening comprehension was viewed as a two-stage activity consisting of capturing input and processing that input for meaning, the participants were found to rely mainly on processing for meaning. As a result, long/holistic listening had more in common with reading comprehension than with short listening, for which the first stage of input capture was more important. As a part of this study, long listening was expressed as a product of aural word recognition and processing for meaning as in the Simple View of Reading, where reading comprehension is regarded as a product of decoding and linguistic comprehension. While the Simple View of Reading typically accounts for 48% of the variance in reading comprehension, its listening counterpart in this study explained up to 58% of the variance; as much as an improved version of the Simple View of Reading named the Component Model of Reading. The identification of the structural equation models required an additional component for a total of three latent variables; availability of written text, aural activities, and processing for meaning. The three-latent-variable model for long listening incorporated all the variables as indicators except for the grammatical error detection due to its insignificant contribution to holistic understanding. Generally speaking, structural equation approach produced models which were in good qualitative agreements with correlation studies, principal components analysis, and multiple regression; thus, providing an integrative view and a unified treatment of the participants' proficiency with a focus on long listening. Overall, the results highlighted the importance of processing for meaning, a skill largely shared with reading comprehension, for the long listening comprehension of Kyoto University students. This finding indicates a transfer of meaning formation skill from L1 and L2 reading to L2 listening.
Temple University--Theses

The aim of this research is to explore the factors that affect listeners when they are introduced to the generic features of texts. In this intervention study, learners in a Mexican university are introduced to the linguistic features, generic structure and context of spoken narrative texts about a film, in the first and foreign language (L1) and (L2), in order to better understand the development of L2 listening skills. On the basis of participants’ stimulated recalls (SR) and semi-structured interviews, I analysed the listeners’ thought processes and listening strategies, after they are introduced to the generic features of narratives. While initially set up as experimental study with an experimental (EG) and a control group (CG), the qualitative data reveals that different listeners’ in both groups used different listening cognitive, metacognitive, affective and sociocultural strategies, during the intervention. The participants in this study are 34 undergraduates studying for an English language teaching degree. Seventeen students are enrolled in the fourth semester and take part in the CG and another seventeen in the EG. The CG attended a regular class, whereas the EG received instruction from a genre-based approach for listening purposes in a scaffolded way, going from guided deconstruction to independent reconstruction of spoken narratives. Participants analyse the texts’ social and textual elements including the context, language used, variations and organisation. The findings show that listening at a discourse level is multidimensional. Participants in the EG elaborate and incorporate different types of prior knowledge. While listening, they attempt to identify and contextualize social situations as well as structural elements based on knowledge gained through a genre-based approach. Findings unveil aspects affecting the outcomes of a genre based approach in listening and can help researchers appreciate the practicality of these findings for the understanding of listening from a genre-based perspective.

Adverse listening conditions can be a hindrance to communication, but humans are remarkably adept at overcoming them. Research has begun to uncover the cognitive and behavioural mechanisms behind this perceptual plasticity, but we still do not fully understand the reasons for variability in individual responses. The research reported in this thesis addressed several factors which would further this understanding. Study 1 examined the role of cognitive ability in recognition of, and perceptual adaptation to, accented speech. A measure of executive function predicted greater and more rapid perceptual adaptation. Vocabulary knowledge predicted overall recognition of the accented speech, and mediated the relationship between working memory and recognition accuracy. Study 2 compared recognition of, and perceptual adaptation to, accented speech with and without audiovisual cues. The presence of audiovisual cues improved recognition of the accented speech in noise, but not perceptual adaptation. Study 3 investigated when perceivers make use of visual speech cues during recognition of, and perceptual adaptation to, audiovisual noise-vocoded speech. Listeners’ eye gaze was analysed over time and related to their performance. The percentage and length of fixations on the speaker’s mouth increased during recognition of individual sentences, while the length of fixations on the mouth decreased as perceivers adapted to the noise-vocoded speech over the course of the experiment. Longer fixations on the speaker’s mouth were related to better speech recognition. Results demonstrate that perceptual plasticity of unfamiliar speech is driven by cognitive processes, but can also be modified by the modality of speech (audiovisual or audio-only). Behavioural responses, such as eye gaze, are also related to our ability to respond to adverse conditions. Speech recognition and perceptual adaptation were differentially related to the factors in each study and therefore likely reflect different processes; these measures should therefore both be considered in studies investigating listeners’ response to adverse conditions. Overall, the research adds to our understanding of the mechanisms and behaviours involved in perceptual plasticity in adverse listening conditions.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of two methods of music instruction on two factors in the musical listening experience, identified as music description and music identification, and musical preference of fourth- and fifth-grade students. The listening experiences consisted of one which utilized descriptive writing in the music lesson and one which utilized participatory listening activities such as maps for guided listening, worksheets, and call charts. Also examined were the interactions of gender, grade level, and degree of writing presence in the regular classroom. Seven-hundred and eleven students from thirty-six intact classes in six elementary schools of three school districts were chosen for the study. The intact classes were randomly assigned to one of the two methods of instruction for a seven week experiment. The study utilized a pretest/posttest two group experimental design to answer 10 research questions. Repeated measures MANOVAS, t-test of independent samples, and two-variable correlation tests were conducted to measure mean differences, interactions, and possible relationships in the data. Results of the study indicated significant differences between method of instruction and the variables of music description and music identification. Method of instruction did not influence musical preference. Also significantly different were students' scores for music description, music identification, and musical preference between the participating 23 classroom teachers. Method of instruction, grade level, degree of writing presence, and gender did not significantly interact collectively with music description, identification, or musical preference although some areas interacted with these variables individually. Significant interactions were found between music teacher and method with regard to students' scores on tests of music description, music identification, and musical preference. Two correlational tests resulted in values that indicated no relationship between the variables of musical preference and description and musical preference and identification. However, the non-relationship of music description and musical preference was non-significant while music identification and musical preference were significantly non-related.

Software development is an area in which companies not only need to keep up with the latest technology, but they additionally need to continuously increase their productivity to stay competitive in the industry. One company currently facing these challenges is Storytel - one of the strongest players on the Swedish audiobook market - with about a fourth of all employees involved with software development, and a rapidly growing workforce. With the purpose of understanding how the Storytel Tech Department is performing, this thesis maps Storytel’s productivity defined through the Four Key Metrics - Deployment Frequency, Delivery Lead Time, Mean Time To Restore and Change Fail Rate. A classification is made into which performance category (Low, Medium, High, Elite) the Storytel Tech Department belongs to through a deep-dive into the raw system data existing at Storytel, mainly focusing on the case management system Jira. A survey of the Tech Department was conducted, to give insights into the connection between human and technical factors influencing productivity (categorized into Culture, Environment, and Process) and estimated productivity. Along with these data collections, interviews with Storytel employees were performed to gather further knowledge about the Tech Department, and to understand potential bottlenecks and obstacles. All Four Key Metrics could be determined based on raw system data, except the metric Mean Time To Restore which was complemented by survey estimates. The generalized findings of the Four Key Metrics conclude that Storytel can be minimally classified as a ‘medium’ performer. The factors, validated through factor analysis, found to have an impact on the Four Key Metrics were Generative Culture, Efficiency (Automation and Shared Responsibility) and Number of Projects. Lastly, the major bottlenecks found were related to Architecture, Automation, Time Fragmentation and Communication. The thesis contributes with interesting findings from an expanding, middle-sized, healthy company in the audiobook streaming industry - but the results can be beneficial for other software development companies to learn from as well. Performing a similar study with a greater sample size, and additionally enabling comparisons between teams, is suggested for future research.

The paper discusses the process of teaching listening and speaking to Iraqi students in English classes. The relevance is determined by the expanding international contacts of the Republic of Iraq, on the one hand, and the insufficient development of effective teaching methods for listening and speaking, on the other hand. Based on the analysis of extensive theoretical material from works both Russian and foreign researchers considering various types of listening (intensive and extensive) cognitive and metacognitive processes, stages of information reception and processing and the interrelation of listening and speaking, it is concluded that they need to be integrated. In the practical part of the research, questionnaire data are presented to identify the problems and needs of Iraqi students; authentic tasks for developing listening and speaking skills, taking into account national characteristics, are offered. The approach contributes to the successful cooperation of actors in the educational process (a lecturer and students). In conclusion, factors influencing the teaching process of listening and speaking are generalized and some recommendations are given.
В работе рассматривается процесс обучения аудированию и говорению иракских студентов на занятиях по английскому языку. Актуальность определяется расширяющимися международными контактами Республики Ирак, с одной стороны, и недостаточной разработкой эффективных методик обучения аудированию и говорению, с другой стороны. На основе анализа обширного теоретического материала как российских, так и зарубежных исследователей, рассматривающих различные виды аудирования (интенсивное и экстенсивное) когнитивные и метакогнитивные процессы, этапы принятия и обработки информации и взаимосвязь аудирования с говорением, делается вывод о необходимости их интеграции. В практической части исследования приводятся данные анкетирования, позводяющего определить проблемы и потребности иракских студентов, предлагаются аутентичные задания на развитие навыков аудирования и говорения с учетом национальных особенностей. Данный подход способствует успешному взаимодействию акторов процесса обучения (преподаваетеля и студентов). В заключение обощаются факторы, влиющие на процесс обучения аудированию и говорению, даются некоторые рекомендации.

This research is a result of prolonged work with children and youth on the streets of Durban Central Business District (CBD). This research process started in 2008 during my third year social work practice and in 2009 as part fulfilment of my social work bachelor’s degree. My contemporaries and I conducted a study on survival strategies of children and youth living on the streets of Durban CBD. It was during this period that we began to encounter organizational dynamics that we thought needed further study. The study sought to understand those inter and intra-organizational factors that have impact on their work with children and youth. This qualitative study used data source triangulation, incorporating in-depth interviews, journal notes and analysis of texts. The study was informed by critical theory. Of central importance in this study was critical discourse analysis as a research design and method of data analysis. This study found that some of the organizations, established to assist children and youth living on the streets, actually do present obstacles to their integral development. Children and youth migrate to towns and cities in search of a better life. When on the streets, children are caught up in organizational dynamics that have profound impact on their lives. It is this interface between the organizations themselves and the children that this research critically interrogated. Organizational dynamics, as reflected in this dissertation, present a threat to children’s and youth’s sense of future and the programmes and models being used need to be re-thought. Based on the main findings of the study, policy and practice recommendations are made in respect of promoting the welfare of children and youth living on the streets.
Thesis (M.A.)-Universiity of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

碩士
國立臺灣師範大學
英語學系
95
The present study aims to explore Taiwanese EFL college students’ listening comprehension anxiety. Both the effects and factors affecting listening comprehension anxiety were investigated. Specifically, two potential factors, personality and linguistic intelligence were examined to see if they highly correlated with listening comprehension anxiety. A total of 1,400 college freshmen comprised the final subject pool. They were asked to complete a questionnaire targeting on assessing their levels of listening comprehension anxiety, personality (extroversion), and linguistic intelligence right after a school-based listening comprehension placement test. They were further divided into different groups according to their responses to the questionnaire on anxiety, personality, and linguistic intelligence. Furthermore, twenty participants were selected from the anxiety group for a semi-structured interview to gain further information about the participants’ listening comprehension anxiety. The major findings of the present study are as follows: First, the participants’ listening comprehension anxiety was found to be harmful to their listening comprehension performance. The less anxious listeners were found to outperform the more anxious listeners on their listening comprehension performance. However, it was found that some of the anxious listeners still perform quite well. Second, it was found that both the participants’ personality and linguistic intelligence played important roles in influencing their listening comprehension anxiety given that those who were more extroverted or those who had a higher level of linguistic intelligence were less anxious about English listening and vice versa. Moreover, the participants’ linguistic intelligence was found to be a more dominant factor in affecting listening comprehension anxiety than personality. Third, in addition to the participants’ personality and linguistic intelligence, the participants also pointed out several other factors affecting their listening comprehension anxiety and suggested some solutions to it. It was found that testing was the factor most frequently mentioned as a crucial factor and practicing more as the fundamental way of overcoming their anxiety. Finally, the participants’ listening comprehension anxiety was also found to be the most dominant factor affecting their listening comprehension performance compared with their personality and linguistic intelligence.

博士
國立臺灣師範大學
音樂學系
98
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of musical elements and listeners’ factors on listening emotions. Subjects were all undergraduate students. Two studies of “explanatory” mixed methods research designs were adopted; among them, questionnaire survey of quantitative approach had greater priority and weight than interview survey of qualitative approach. In questionnaire survey, the independent variables were musical elements of tonality, tempo and dynamics, as well as listeners’ factors of gender and musical training. The dependent variables were listening emotions, including positive-negative emotion, arousal emotion and Hevner’s adjective circle emotion. Familiarity with music excerpts was regarded as the controlling variable in order to exclude its effect. The first study of questionnaire survey manipulated two compositions to 16 versions, each composition including 8 combinations: tonality (major and minor) × tempo (fast and slow) × dynamic (loud and soft). In the second study, 16 real music excerpts were chosen to represent the characteristics of combinations of tonality, tempo and dynamics in order to increase the external validity of study results. Moreover, in interview survey, researcher inquired about the related questions of listening emotions to collect more explanatory data. According to research purpose and method, this study came up with the following four conclusions. The first conclusion was about the listeners’ positive-negative emotion. Musical elements of tonality and tempo caused significant influences on listeners’ positive-negative emotion. Music in major key aroused more positive emotion than that in minor key, and fast tempo produced more positive emotion than slow tempo. Concerning other main effects and interaction effects, this research found that dynamics, gender, gender × tonality, music training, music training × tonality, music training × tempo, music training × dynamics, music training × tempo × dynamics, and music training × tonality × dynamics had significant influences on listeners’ positive-negative emotion, but they only revealed in compositions of the first study. Besides, tonality × dynamics, tonality × tempo, and tempo × dynamics had significant influences on listeners’ positive-negative emotion, but they only revealed in real excerpts of the second study. There seemed to show no consistent results in this aspect. The second conclusion had to do with the listeners’ arousal emotion. Musical elements of tempo and dynamics caused significant influences on listeners’ arousal emotion. Fast music produced higher arousal emotion than slow music, and loud dynamics produced higher arousal emotion than soft dynamics. But musical elements of tonality had no significant difference on listeners’ arousal emotion. The tonality of major and minor key did not cause significantly different arousal emotion among listeners. Regarding to other main effects and interaction effects, this research found that gender × tonality, gender × tempo, gender × dynamics, music training, music training × tonality, and music training × tempo had significant influences on listeners’ arousal emotion, but they only revealed in compositions of the first study. Besides, tempo × dynamics and gender had significant influences on listeners’ arousal emotion, but they only revealed in real excerpts of the second study. There seemed to show no consistent results in this aspect. The third conclusion was related to Hevner’s adjective circle emotion. Eight findings were presented as follows : (1) Major, fast, and loud music mostly produced emotions of F-happy, G-agitated, and H-vigorous; (2) Major, slow, and soft music mostly produced emotion of D-calm; (3) Minor, fast, and soft music mostly produced emotions of E-humorous and G-agitated; (4) Minor, slow, and loud music mostly produced emotions of B-sad and G-agitated; (5) Minor, slow, and soft music mostly produced emotion of B-sad; (6) Minor, fast, and loud music mostly produced emotion of G-agitated; (7) Major, slow, and loud music mostly produced emotions of D-calm and A-serious; (8) Major, fast, and soft music mostly produced emotions of F-happy and E-humorous. The fourth conclusion was about other possible factors influencing listening emotions. The researcher proposed two aspects of factors. One was about the test process of musical elements and listening factors influencing listening emotions, by which the researcher meant that the interviewees revealed the influencing factors included: test content, test environment, familiarity with and liking to music excerpts, and order of music excerpts in listening. The other was about individual listening experience, and the interviewees thought the influencing factors included: other musical elements, the changing process of musical elements, individuals’ mood on the spot, familiarity with music excerpts, musical training, interpreting style of performers, listening environment.

碩士
國立臺灣師範大學
英語學系
94
The present study investigated four factors (such as visual aids, text types, topic familiarity, and the number of years of learning) influencing EFL beginners’ listening comprehension. Ninety six-graders of Wanfang Elementary School participated in this study. They were further divided into three groups according to their years of learning English. After completing two listening comprehension tests (a textual format and a pictorial format), the subjects were asked to fill in the questionnaire. Six subjects of each group (i.e., eighteen subjects in total) were interviewed. The major findings of the present study are as follows: 1. The subjects significantly performed better on the test in pictorial format than the textual format. Besides, they reported that pictures were helpful; therefore, they held a positive attitude toward listening tests with pictorial cues. 2. The subjects significantly performed worse on conversations than vocabulary and sentence patterns. The questionnaire and the interview also showed similar results. 3. The results of the questionnaire showed that the materials that had been taught earlier, such as “Fruit” and “Family Members,” were found more familiar to the subjects than those had been taught later, like the two topics Activity” and “Food.” 4. Three groups of subjects did not perform significantly differently. Therefore, the number of years of learning was not a crucial factor in determining the success of the subjects’ listening performance.

碩士
國立高雄師範大學
英語學系
88
This study probed the effects of para-linguistic factors on EFL listening performance. The researcher tended to find out (1) whether native or nonnative speech caused different listening performance, (2) whether foreign accents interfered with students’ listening comprehension, (3) whether sex differences of students caused different listening performance, and (4) whether text types had effects on students’ listening comprehension performance. The subjects were 340 first-year senior high school students from four schools. All the subjects were asked to listen to three tapes produced by Chinese, British, and American speakers of English respectively. The listening comprehension tests were designed on the basis of junior high school English textbooks, and one senior high school English textbook. The major findings of this study were summarized as follows. First, the students performed significantly better on the listening test recorded by Chinese speakers of English than that produced by native speakers of English. Second, the students performed significantly better on the listening test recorded by American speakers than that produced by British speakers. Third, the female students performed significantly better than the male students on three listening comprehension tests. Fourth, among three text types, dialogues were the easiest for students, followed by passages, and statements were the most difficult part.

This dissertation comprised three studies investigating early language and reading development of children with hearing loss who used listening and spoken language. The first study examined conversation techniques used by parents during dinnertimes at home with their preschool children with hearing loss (N = 37). Twenty-minute dinnertime segments were extracted from daylong, naturalistic Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) recordings. Transcripts were coded for parents’ use of open- and closed-ended language elicitation, reformulation, imitation, directives, and explicit instruction in vocabulary and grammar. Participants’ receptive vocabulary and knowledge of basic concepts were also measured. Parents’ use of conversation techniques varied widely, with closed-ended elicitations and directives used most frequently during dinner. Open-ended language elicitation related significantly to children’s receptive vocabulary, and explicit vocabulary instruction was correlated with basic-concepts skills. Thematic analysis found common themes of concrete conversation topics and sibling speakers. In addition, parents who used many techniques often introduced abstract conversation topics; electronic media was present in all conversations with few techniques. The second study investigated the longitudinal complexity and quantity of the language input and output of 14 preschool children with hearing loss. Participants’ receptive vocabulary and understanding of basic concepts were measured and daylong recordings were collected at two time points one year apart. Twenty-minute dinnertime segments were extracted from each recording, and adults’ and children’s utterances were coded for syntactic and clausal complexity and lexical diversity. The quantity and complexity of parental language input remained consistent over one year. The initial clausal complexity of the children’s utterances related to their general receptive vocabulary, while the initial syntactic complexity of the children’s utterances related to their understanding of basic concepts one year later. The third study explored the reading skills achieved by 64 children with hearing loss in prekindergarten through third grade. Participants’ mean scores on eight reading subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson IV Tests of Achievement were all within one standard deviation of the tests’ normative means. Relative strengths were found in basic reading skills, including phonological awareness and spelling. Relative weaknesses were found in oral reading and word- and sentence-reading fluency. When 53 participants’ skills were measured one year later, they had made significant gains in letter-word identification, sentence-reading fluency, and word-reading fluency, suggesting that they had made more than one year’s progress in one year’s time while enrolled in a specialized program.