EFL TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS AND REPORTED TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING LISTENING INFERENCING SKILLS

This research aims were to examine teachers’ perceptions of listening inferencing skills (LIS) and their significance for listening comprehension. In addition, the pedagogical techniques that teachers report to have employed in teaching LIS were also investigated. In order to achieve these goals, a questionnaire consisting of 48 five-point Likert scale items and one open-ended question was utilized as the research instrument. Seventy-two EFL teachers working at different universities, colleges and private language centres in a province in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam gave their responses to the questionnaires. The results revealed that a significant number of teachers appeared to hold a limited understanding of what LIS actually refer to. However, when they were introduced to what LIS involve, they noticeably reached the agreement that these skills are beneficial for listening comprehension in particular and language learning in general. Besides, a large number of the participants also reported that they applied LIS in their own English language learning and teaching. In terms of pedagogical techniques used to teach LIS, the teachers mainly concentrated on pre-listening tactics with the hope of equipping their students well for the listening process regarding linguistic and background knowledge while techniques for the while-, post- and extension stages in listening instruction seemed to be overlooked.  Article visualizations: