They Made it! Enhancing University-Level L2 Learners' Listening Comprehension of Authentic Multimedia Materials with Advance Organizers

Authentic language learning materials become prevalent in foreign and second language (L2) classrooms. Since these materials are not altered to suit the proficiency level or needs of L2 learners, they are likely to cause difficulties in comprehension. The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of advance organizers in conjunction with the cognitive theory of multimedia learning as a presentation principle on L2 learners' comprehension of English-language DVD soundtrack material. A total of 136 intermediate university-level L2 students participated as intact groups in the study. They were placed in a control condition or one of the two experimental conditions prior to viewing a DVD, including (1) a 5-min film preview with captions followed by brainstorming and (2) a set of 20 cards (10 printed with episodic photos and 10 with a caption in the form of a line from the film) for each small group to match them and then to rearrange the 10 well-matched pairs of cards in chronological order of the film plot based on their initial guesses. Two dependent measures, a written summary and a multiple-choice listening test, were used. The results show that the advance organizer groups performed at a substantially higher level than the control group on both dependent measures; however, the two experimental groups differed only on the written protocol, not on the multiple-choice listening test. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research are also discussed in this article.