The Impact of Input Modality and Sensory Mode on Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners’ Listening Comprehension

This study investigated the influence of different input modalities on the Iranian EFL learners' listening comprehension. After administering a paper-based TOEFL among an initial sample of 120 BA learners, majoring in English language translation, 86 students were selected to participate in this study and were randomly divided into three experimental groups, namely, the audio group (A), the video group (V), and the audio/video/caption (AVC) group. Group A received audio treatment, group two received video intervention, and group three was taught listening through AVC treatment. Also, a TOEFL listening test was used as pretest and posttest. Afterwards, oral interviews were administered to extract the attitudes of 30 % of the learners toward the influence of the received treatment on their listening performance. Two-way ANCOVA revealed that input modality had a significant effect on listening comprehension. Results showed that the audio group had the best performance and the AVC group had the least significant performance. Qualitative findings also confirmed that learners gave their positive support and attitude to audio input modality as the best. These findings have some pedagogical implications the most important of which is the match between input modality and the learners' perceptual modality to help them improve their L2 listening comprehension.