Listening Strategy Use and Effectiveness Under Test Conditions: Evidence from Omani Foundation Program Students

Abstract Book of the 11th International Conference on Advanced Research in Teaching and Education

Year: 2026

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Listening Strategy Use and Effectiveness Under Test Conditions: Evidence from Omani Foundation Program Students

Sara Al Balushi

ABSTRACT:

Listening comprehension is widely recognised as one of the most challenging skills for EFL learners, particularly in listening tests where learners are required to process spoken input under time constraints. This qualitative, exploratory study investigates the listening strategies used by Level 2 students at the Preparatory Studies Centre (PSC), University of Technology and Applied Sciences–Muscat (UTAS–Muscat), Oman, and explores the extent to which these strategies support listening comprehension under test conditions.
Data were collected through a pre-test focus group interview, a listening test, post-test individual semi-structured interviews, and stimulated recall sessions with six Omani undergraduate students. The data were analysed using thematic analysis to identify patterns in students’ reported strategy use and their perceived effectiveness during listening tests.
The findings revealed that students employed a range of cognitive and metacognitive strategies, including pre-reading questions, directed attention to keywords, translation, guessing and inferencing. Students frequently combined multiple strategies while responding to different task types. However, the effectiveness of these strategies varied across participants and listening tasks. While some strategies supported successful comprehension and accurate responses, others were less effective when used inaccurately, applied inflexibly, or combined with ineffective approaches. In several cases, misinterpretation, over-reliance on translation, and limited monitoring reduced the potential benefits of otherwise appropriate strategies.
The study highlights the importance of explicit listening-strategy instruction and provides practical implications for supporting EFL learners in assessment contexts. It also contributes to the limited body of qualitative research exploring listening-strategy use and effectiveness under test conditions among Omani EFL learners.

Keywords: Listening comprehension; Listening strategies; Strategy effectiveness; Cognitive strategies; Metacognitive strategies; Listening tests; Omani EFL learners; Qualitative research.