The Discourse of Pop Songs

hension. This adds more evidence to previous studies addressing this question. It is also important to notice that there was no significant difference between the groups hearing the syntactically simplified version and the groups hearing the complex version with repetition. This finding has important implications for teaching methodology and materials design. Listening texts are often syntactically simplified to aid comprehension. Although this may aid comprehension, this modification may not be necessary if other modifications, such as repetition, are employed. This is especially interesting in light of the fact that repetition is not frequently used in texts to facilitate comprehension; in fact, it seems to be intentionally avoided in order to give materials an authentic quality. It is still too early to make definitive statements, and further research is needed; however, it is clear that designers of listening materials and instructors of listening comprehension need to reevaluate their assumptions in light of the findings of this study and other empirical evidence.