Authentic Listening in Spanish: How Learners Adjust Their Strategies to the Difficulty of the Input

* Susan M. Bacon, University of Cincinnati Input is considered critical in second-language to be more difficult; and second, that those who (L2) comprehension and acquisition.' Since adjusted their strategies between passages would Ks-ashen (1981; 1978) popularized the notion of exhibit a higher level of comprehension and the quality and variety learning. The findings have implications forboth of input have been widely studied. Besides sendthe use of authentic listening materials in instrucing a message, input provides linguistic evidence tion, and also listening-strategy research. that the leamer uses to new language (Sharwood Smith). More recently, L2 methodReview of Literature ologists are taking another hook at the message in input, that is, the need to expose learners to Input. The act of listening involves an interacnatural and authentic language (Bacon, 1989; tion of input, task, and individual variables. 1987; Breen; Dunkel; Lund; Morrison; Rings; Ks-ashen (1989) argues that listeners and readers Rogers Weissenreider).2 This kind of acquire language from comprehensible input, input provides the learner with both linguistic which renders formal instruction unnecessary, and cultural information that may not be availeven counterproductive.3 He cites several studies able in pedagogical texts. to support his hypothesis that learners who are Coincidental to the focus on authentic lanallowed time for free reading, for example, acguage, one finds concern with investigating quirevocabuharymore efficiently andwithdeeper learner strategies in comprehending and cornmeaning than from formal instruction. Some municating in the L2 (Alexander Bacon evidence exists, as well, to suggest that children Chamot Chamot, O'Mahley, Kuppes Ehrman both underscore the importance of content-area Fujita; O'Malhcy Oxford Oxford, Crookall, Cohen, Lavine, Oxford, Lavine and second, how do listening-passage conversations, Des-wing foundthatNSs increased difficulty, strategy variation and individual difthe amountof background detail they provided to fes-ences interrelate to ps-edict levels of compreNNSs when there were communication difficulhension and learning? In order to answer these ties. Furthermore, in a review of teacher input questions, the study examined the strategies stustudies, Chaudron found ample evidence that dents reported in relation to their level of comprespeakers deliberately slow their rate of speech hension and learning of new information while when they know their audience is NNS. The listening to two radio broadcasts in Spanish. It absolute rate of speech directed toward beginwas hypothesized, first, that all listeners would ners was showed to 100 wpm. Whether or not employ a significantly greater proportion of butthese kinds of modifications have bearing on tom-upto top-down strategies onapassagejudged comprehension and heaming is less clear: On the