A Study on the Effects of Binaural Listening Materials on Second Language Listening Comprehension

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the listening material, which was field recorded and made for mono and binaural listening materials based on Ambisonics technology, on the listening comprehension achievement of second language (L2) learners. The same test questions were completed for the experimental group and the control group who used binaural and mono listening material respectively, and the test questions were divided into two groups: unrelated or related to the talker's position. The results showed that there was significant difference between the two groups who used different listening materials, but no significant difference was revealed between the two groups for the questions that was clearly unrelated to the talker's position. For the questions related to the talker's position, the listening comprehension achievement of L2 learners who used the binaural listening material was significantly higher than those who used the mono listening material. It has been proved that the binaural listening materials are easier to understand in listening materials related to talker's position.