Boosting L2 Listening Comprehension Through Web-Based Listening Activities on Reduced Forms

Abstract

In the field of second language (L2) perception, there is a common adherence to quantitative methods to examine reduced forms (RFs). This chapter extends the field by reporting on an investigation that analyzed L2 listeners' perceptions of RFs in English from a qualitative perspective. RFs instruction through web-based activities was delivered to a total of 80 learners of English of varying proficiency for five weeks. Twenty participants reflected on their performance on RFs listening tasks and provided justifications for their perceptions of the target RFs. Qualitative analysis revealed that the RFs that influenced L2 learners' perceptions of RFs were linking, pause phenomena, and assimilation. The results of using such qualitative methodology highlights the important role that RFs plays in perception judgements in syllable-timed languages such as Turkish, a factor which has not always been given much prominence in previous L2 fluency quantitative research.