Developing L2 listening comprehension through extensive and intensive listening

In the fall semester of 2020, 269 Japanese university students were compared in a quasi-experimental study to determine whether extensive and intensive listening interventions yielded significant gains in L2 listening comprehension. At the beginning of the study, 269 students took a 100-item L2 listening exam, and were randomly placed into an extensive (n = 135) or intensive listening group (n = 134). After each group completed five assignments based on extensive or intensive listening principles, students took another 100-item L2 listening exam. Paired-sample t-tests of raw scores and Rasch person ability estimates indicated that the extensive listening group significantly improved in raw scores, t(134) = −7.44, p = .00, but not in Rasch person ability estimates t(134) = −1.86, p = .07, while the intensive listening group significantly improved in both raw scores, t(133) = −9.48, p = .00, and Rasch person ability estimates, t(133) = −3.58, p = .00.