EFL Learners’ Creativity and Their Listening Comprehension Strategies

Abstract

Listening is one of the fundamental language skills which plays a crucial role in facilitating language learning. However, very little research has been conducted on the relationship between EFL learners’ listening strategy use and their individual differences. Listening strategies are the techniques that we use consciously or unconsciously to understand and interpret the text we are listening and they are directly contributed to the comprehension and recall of listening input. Despite the relatively small number of investigation in the realm of listening strategies, there is a lack of research study investigating them in relation to specific traits or skills. This study aimed at investigating the relationship between creativity and the use of listening comprehension strategies by EFL learners. To this end 45 students at the advanced level were chosen out of 88. The adapted version of Listening Strategy Questionnaire was administered to the subjects to identify their listening strategies. Then, Torrance Test of Creative Thinking was administered to measure their creative abilities. The descriptive analysis indicated that these EFL learners employed meta-cognitive listening strategies more than cognitive strategies and they used cognitive strategies more than socio-affective strategies. The Pearson Correlation analysis showed that there was a statistically high, significant and positive association between Iranian EFL learners’ creative abilities and their listening strategies at <0.01 level. The correlation between creativity and meta-cognitive strategies was higher than those of other strategies, followed by the correlation between creativity and cognitive strategies and then the correlation between creativity socio-affective strategies. In the end, pedagogical implications and areas for further research were provided.