Enhancing L2 students' listening transcription ability through a focus on morphological awareness

Morphological awareness (MA), defined as the ability to understand the morphemic structure of the words, has been reported to affect various aspects of second language performance including reading comprehension ability, spelling performance, etc. But the concept has been far less treated with reference to l2 listening. Against this background, this study investigated the link between MA and listening transcription ability of Iranian pre-university students. To this aim, 40 pre-university students participated in the study and were assigned to control and experimental groups. Prior to giving any instruction regarding the morphological character of English words, the two groups were given three short listening passages to transcribe as pre-tests. The results of the independent-samples t test run for the purpose of comparing the means of the two groups in the pre-test revealed no significant difference between the two groups in their listening transcription ability. The experimental group, then, received five 1-h sessions briefing them on the morphological realization of English words. The two groups were then given three short listening passages to transcribe as their as post-tests. The results of the independent-samples t tests attested to the significant difference between the two groups; thus, supporting the relationship between MA and listening transcription ability.