Auditory skills and listening comprehension in English second language learners in Grade 1

In 2007, 65.3% of South African learners were enrolled in schools where the language of learning and teaching (LoLT) was English (Department of Basic Education 2010:16), yet only 9.6% of the population were English first language (EFL) speakers (Statistics South Africa 2011). This indicates that more than 50% of learners in South Africa could be English second language (ESL) learners. Globally, it is acknowledged that language proficiency and competence play a key role in academic achievement (Hoff 2006:55–88; Owens 2012:16–17) and require the understanding and use of classroom discourse that includes the educator’s verbal instructions and lessons, as well as written text (Van Rooyen & Jordaan 2009:271–287). Learners are therefore required to develop adequate language skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing in their LoLT in order to attain the cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) necessary for academic learning. In many low-to-middle income countries such as South Africa, ESL learners have not developed sufficient CALP in their second language (L2) for successful academic learning upon school entry (Taylor & Von Fintel 2016:75–89). Much research exists on the difficulties ESL learners experience when speaking, reading and writing in their L2. However, it is of great concern that the auditory skills and listening abilities of ESL learners has only recently been investigated, even though listening is globally recognised as a key component of language acquisition Background: Studies indicate that difficulties English second language (ESL) learners experience in the classroom may not be attributed to only listening comprehension of the language of learning and teaching (LoLT). ESL learners’ performance-related difficulties may increase when linguistic complexity is added to auditory comprehension tasks. Limited research is available on the auditory skills of ESL learners and listening comprehension in ESL learners younger than 12 years.


Introduction
The aim of this chapter is to introduce the research topic of the study and its relevance. Literature regarding the auditory skills and listening comprehension of English second language (ESL) learners will be critically discussed in order to justify the problem statement and rationale for the study. The problem statement is that there is a paucity in research regarding the layered components of auditory skills and listening comprehension in ESL learners under the age of 10. Terms used in the dissertation will be clarified in this chapter.

Introduction
An English second language (ESL) learner refers to an individual learning the English language subsequent to their first language (Saville-Troike, 2012). While ESL is a world-wide phenomenon among individuals of all ages, there is a particular focus on school-going children. In a recent study 22.2% of American children, aged between five and 17 years, spoke a language other than English (US Census Bureau, 2015). It is estimated that 15.2% of primary school children in the United Kingdom speak a first language other than English  and in Australia 19% of the population are not English first language (EFL) speakers (Clifford, Rhodes & Paxton, 2014).
In a country with 11 official languages such as South Africa the figures are almost reversed. A survey conducted in South Africa indicated that in 2007, 65.3% of South African learners were enrolled in schools where the language of learning and teaching (LoLT) is English (Department of Basic Education, 2010), yet only 9.6% of the population are EFL speakers (Statistics South Africa, 2011). This indicates that more than 50% of learners in South Africa could be ESL learners. In order to succeed in an academic environment, learners need to be able to understand and use classroom discourse which includes the educator's verbal instructions and lessons, as well as written text . Learners are therefore required to develop adequate language skills in speaking, listening, reading, and writing in their LoLT in order to attain cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) necessary for academic learning. In many low-to-middle income countries such as South Africa, ESL learners have not developed sufficient CALP in their second language (L2) for successful academic learning upon school entry .The need for systematic enquiry with regards to the difficulties ESL learners face in the classroom is clearly necessary and relevant.
Globally it is acknowledged that language proficiency and competence play a key role in academic achievement (Hoff, 2006;. Second language acquisition (SLA) is the simultaneous or sequential process of learning an additional language (Saville-Troike, 2012). SLA is a complex process which involves a series of evolving interlanguage systems thought to be initially consistent and rule-governed where learners consciously or unconsciously attempt to construct a language system in order to understand and produce utterances in the L2 (Song, 2012). As a result traditional theories of SLA appear to have originated from general linguistic theory, occasionally supplemented by insights from psychology (Richards, 2015). Although current theories of SLA are more insightful than previously, there are still few increases in evidence in the descriptive or explanatory powers of these theories (Richards, 2015). There are many factors that may influence the SLA in learners including, language transfer, intra-lingual interference, sociolinguistic situation, age and exposure to L2 (Richards, 2015).
The age of first exposure to an L2 often exerts a strong and persistent influence on overall success in a learners' SLA (Flege, Schirru & MacKay, 2003). Neural representations of an L2 may differ from that of an individual's first language [L1] (Nichols & Joanisse, 2016). Due to changes in neural plasticity of individuals as they grow older late L2 learning requires increased neural resources (Abutalebi, 2008). This statement is supported by research conducted by Perani and Abutalebi (2005).
They suggest that individuals with an early L2 age of acquisition (AoA) show similar patterns of brain activity to their L1 compared to late L2 learners. In contrast, Richards (2015) stated that various aspects of children's learning capacities are altered as they grow older. Memory span increases with age allowing children to acquire more abstract concepts which are used to interpret their experiences (Richards, 2015). Although neural plasticity may decrease with age, an increased memory span may aid late L2 in achieving successful SLA. Richards (2015) also explains how language transfer and intra-lingual interference plays a role in SLA. These two factors explore how aspects in an individual's L2 may be influenced by their L1. Borodkin and Faust (2014) propose that perhaps the most notable predictor of L2 proficiency is the strength of the learner's L1 skills, especially phonological skills. It has been shown that L1 phonological skills are related to L2 phonological skills, literacy skills, oral competence, listening comprehension, grammatical knowledge, and overall L2 proficiency (Durgunoglu, Nagy, & Hancin-Bhatt, 1993;Kahn-Horwitz, Shimron, & Sparks, 2005;Leikin, Schwartz, & Share, 2009;Lindsey, Manis, & Bailey, 2003;O'Brien, Segalowitz, Collentine, & Freed, 2006;O'Brien, Segalowitz, Freed, & Collentine, 2007). In addition to AoA of the L2 and other linguistic factors, individual difference in ESL learners must be taken into account when examining SLA.
The sociolinguistic situation of each individual is an important factor to consider (Richards, 2015) due to the current immigration and ESL statistics in South Africa.
Different settings for language use result in different degrees and types of language learning (Richards, 2015). An individual's sociolinguistic situation involves the effects of learner's motivation, their socio-cultural setting, and their socioeconomic status (SES) on SLA (Buckingham, Beaman & Wheldall, 2014;Richards, 2015). Buckingham et al. (2014) stated that learners from a low SES are more likely to experience less stimulating home environments which may have an effect on their cognitive and academic development. Due to inadequate learning experiences at home or poor quality preschool education, a significant number of South African learners have not reached the required level of school readiness to manage with formal learning introduced in Grade 1 (Landsberg, Kruger & Nel, 2011). Such children might enter school with poorly developed language skills in comparison to their middle-class peers and in turn fall behind academically as they progress through school grades (Raizada, Richards, Meltzoff & Kuhl, 2008). The influence of the learner's L1 on their L2 may therefore vary according to their sociolinguistic situation (Richards, 2015).
The complexity of the SLA process is evident and there are many influencing variables that need to be considered. Listening comprehension is a key component of language acquisition that has only recently been investigated . Vandergrift (2004) explains how learners, especially when learning an L2, should learn to listen so they can better listen to learn. When a learner actively listens the rules of that language are internalized and the emergence of other language skills is facilitated such as L2 vocabulary and discourse skills (Vandergrift, 2011). Other authors also emphasize listening as a fundamental skill in SLA (Chang, 2009;Yilmaz & Yavuz, 2015). Research has shown that a key difference between more and less successful L2 learners is their ability to use listening skills as a means of language acquisition (Vandergrift, 1999).
Listening is an interactive, cognitive process which involves neurological, linguistic, semantic, and pragmatic processing (Rost, 2011). These processes concurrently involve drawing on resources such as linguistic knowledge, world knowledge, and knowledge about the communicative context (Rost, 2011). In both natural and structured activities auditory skills are essential to integrate, interpret and comprehend auditory or linguistic information which are interrelated and overlapping (Cole & Flexer, 2015). According to Cole and Flexer (2015) auditory skills compromise of attending to and detecting auditory information, localizing and disregarding competing stimuli, discriminating, identifying, categorizing and associating the information with other similar items, as well as involving memory and retrieval. Comprehension of a spoken message during communication interaction occurs when listeners can infer what is said, based on their linguistic background and contextual knowledge (Chang, Wu & Pang, 2013).
In addition to auditory skills, Vandergrift (2004) suggests that successful L2 listening comprehension involves the efficient and balanced operation of top-down and bottom-up processes. Bottom-up processing describes activities based on input from the senses and other low-level aspects of the nervous-system function while topdown processing is high-level activities that originate within the brainusually the cerebral cortex (Coplan, 2010). Bottom-up processing involves decoding auditory input by segmenting the sounds heard into meaningful units (Vandergrift, 2011).
When listeners utilize bottom-up processing they construct meaning by gradually combining increasingly larger units of meaning from the phoneme-level up to discourse-level features (Vandergrift, 2011). Vandergrift (2011) explains how top-down L2 processing makes use of context and prior knowledge in order to build a conceptual framework. To activate a conceptual framework to interpret the auditory input, listeners make use of initial cues in the input or the context of the listening act (Vandergrift, 2011). Bottom-up auditory processing of an incoming signal may be compromised due to increased task demands or poor listening conditions. When this occurs, top-down processing may enable compensation by making allowance for knowledge stored in the long-term memory to be accessed (Pichora-Fuller, 2008;Vandergrift, 2004). Knowledge stored in long-term memory may include topic, genre, culture and other schemas. Joining this bottom-up and top-down input assists the listener to anticipate and resolve the distorted incoming information (Pichora-Fuller, 2008). Figure 1 provides an illustration of the top-down bottom-up processes which support effective listening comprehension.

Figure 2:
Top-down and bottom-up processes using auditory skills to achieve effective listening comprehension -Interpret auditory input -Conceptual frameworks constructed through context and prior knowledge -Conceptual frameworks used when bottom-up processing has been compromised -Decoding auditory input -Knowledge of sounds, words and grammatical relationships are combined to form lexical meaning -Compromised by increasing listening task demands or poor listening conditions

Bottom-up
The process of successful listening comprehension is highly automatized in proficient listeners as little or no conscious attention is required (Brunfaut & Revesz, 2015). L2 listeners commonly lack harmonious top-down and bottom-up processing  and therefore may experience difficulties with their auditory skills and listening comprehension abilities. ESL learners who have limited L2 knowledge experience listening as a more taxing and less automated process (Brunfaut & Revesz, 2015).  suggests that listening difficulties experienced by ESL learners may be cognitive in nature. This results in the inability to recognize the words of L2, concentrate and keep up with the speaker, and to construct and recall meaning . These difficulties experienced by ESL learners further impacts their listening skills negatively   (Brunfaut & Revesz, 2015). A survey conducted by Chang et al. (2013) indicated that 73% of the ESL students (ages 18-19 years, whose first language is Chinese) who answered a questionnaire perceived listening to the English language as challenging. A study conducted by Goh (1999) highlighted vocabulary, speech rate, input text (e.g. lectures, radio broadcasts, face-to-face conversations) and a speaker's accent as being the major sources of listening difficulties experienced by ESL university students in Singapore. Chang et al. (2013) stressed that the auditory input may be the most important factor contributing to ESL participants' listening difficulties. A significant number of participants (28%) indicated that utterances were difficult to understand when they contained unknown words, difficult grammatical structures, unfamiliar topics, abstract concepts, and long sentences. The majority (75%) of participants strongly agreed that unfamiliar vocabulary made their listening difficult. Chang et al. (2013) also discussed concerns related to the input channel (such as listening through headphones rather than listening through a room speaker in a lecture hall) and auditory environment of ESL listening, where 50% of the participants indicated that they preferred a loud and clear input from the speaker through headphones.
A study conducted in Glasgow aimed to determine the effectiveness of listening comprehension of familiar and unfamiliar native accents . Results obtained from the participants (ranging between the ages of 19-35 years) indicated that the familiarity with the speaker's accent benefits the listener under adverse listening conditions such as listening in noise ).  found that ESL learner competencies in English speaking and listening was influenced by the age and qualifications of the teacher as well as their L1. The speaking and listening scores of South African ESL Grade R learners' (whose L1 is isiNdebele) were higher when taught by isiNdebele teachers than taught by siSwati, isiZulu, Xitsonga and Sepedi speaking teachers talking English (Moodley, Kritzinger, & Vinck, 2014). It appears that the IsiNdebele language contains many loanwords from English, resulting in teachers possibly supporting ESL learners better (Moodley et al., 2014).
Research has shown that certain environmental factors such as classroom noise may affect learner's attention and speech perception, thereby negatively influencing their auditory skills and listening comprehension . High levels of reverberation and noise have also been shown to negatively affect speech perception, classroom attention, concentration, and educational achievement (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association [ASHA], 2005).
Studies have shown that ESL learners experience more difficulty perceiving speech in noise and reverberation as opposed to EFL learners . A study conducted by  illustrated the impact of noise on children's ability to discriminate between similar sounding word pairs. The results from the data clearly indicated that ESL learners and EFL learners both performed poorly in noise.
The classroom noise did however have a significantly greater impact on the ESL learners' performance . AoA of L2 also affects individual ability to perceive speech in both noise and quiet conditions (Shi, 2010).
Signal redundancy should also be considered in the presence of a noisy listening environment. Signal redundancy refers to the clues in the identity of linguistic elements in an utterance and is associated with recognition likelihood (Turk, 2010). Turk (2010) stated that redundancy ensures robust and efficient communication in a potentially noisy environment. Aylett and Turk (2004) found that smooth signal redundancy is achieved through an inverse relationship between language redundancy and acoustic redundancy. The greater the language redundancy, the less acoustic redundancy is required. Language redundancy refers to lexical, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic clues to the identity of linguistic elements (Turk, 2010). Acoustic redundancy involves clues to the identity of linguistic elements based on acoustic salience (Turk, 2010). This inverse relationship suggests that speakers should produce high acoustic saliency for unfamiliar sections of an utterance, and less saliency when predictability is high when taking the listener into account (Turk, 2010). However, research indicates that speech is often produced without much attention to listener requirements (Schafer, Speer & Warren, 2004).
Therefore poor signal redundancy may negatively impact auditory skills and listening comprehension in ESL learners, especially when listening in noise.
In addition to understanding listening task factors that negatively affect ESL learners' auditory skills and listening comprehension abilities, the educational approach, personal characteristics and listener-related factors are also important to consider. Moodley et al. (2014) also found that formal English instruction, as opposed to a play-based approach, contributed significantly to the speaking and listening skills of Grade R ESL learners (Moodley et al., 2014). It appears that limited studies have addressed listener-related characteristics such as cognitive factors and affective factors (Brunfaut & Revesz, 2015). One important cognitive factor influencing listening comprehension in ESL learners is working memory. The ability to integrate real time information from various knowledge sources, in order to achieve successful listening comprehension is a highly automatized process in proficient listeners. In ESL learners this is a conscious process where increased control is required with the implication that successful listening comprehension may not be achieved (Brunfaut & Revesz, 2015). Buck (2001) suggested that this may lead to partial comprehension or misconception by ESL learners when listening. Affective problems such as anxiety and lack of control over one's listening may also be experienced by ESL learners . Listening anxiety has been hypothesized to decrease when improved listening competence was achieved (Chang, 2010). Chang's hypothesis (2010) proved to be incorrect as the results indicated that reducing listening anxiety did not simply lead to an improvement in listening competence. The results obtained from the Listening Anxiety Questionnaire suggest that mild to moderate listening anxiety levels may have a facilitating effect on listening comprehension (Chang, 2010). According to Chang (2010), listening anxiety should not be considered a serious contributing factor to difficulties experienced by ESL learners unless their anxiety is debilitating.
In summary, a large number of factors can contribute or detract from SLA. Auditory skill and listening comprehension are key interrelated components of SLA and also an important prerequisite for academic success .
Although the body of knowledge with regards to ESL listener characteristics and listening task difficulties is ever increasing, there still remains a gap in our knowledge about ESL listening comprehension abilities and auditory skills in their LoLT. strategies to reduce noise in the classroom and improve the quality of auditory input signals provided. Listening comprehension difficulties may also be addressed by increased awareness of strategies to enhance listening comprehension. This will aid in creating optimal conditions for proficient listening which may improve ESL learners' auditory skills and listening comprehension, improved SLA and English language proficiency, and may result in enhanced academic progress.
The results obtained from the research study may contribute to the emerging research in understanding the auditory skills and listening comprehension in ESL learners.

Clarification of terms used in the dissertation
Auditory skills: Interrelating and overlapping auditory components that are essential to integrating, interpreting and comprehending auditory or linguistic information produced by others (Cole & Flexer, 2015).

Cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP):
The language proficiency required to be used in formal or academic situations where language occurs without context and is thus more cognitively demanding than basic interpersonal communication skills (Aukerman, 2007;Hoff, 2006).

First Language (L1):
A language acquired during early childhood usually before the age of three years (Saville-Troike, 2012).
Listening comprehension: An active process of constructing meaning in which listeners attend to and process auditory information in order to understand the message and make necessary inferences implied in the input (Buck, 2001).

Language of learning and teaching (LoLT):
The language used and developed academically in order to learn (Jordaan, 2011).

Second Language (L2):
An official or societally dominant language acquired subsequent to the first language, which is deemed necessary to meet basic social, academic, political or economic needs (Saville-Troike, 2012).

Second Language Acquisition:
The simultaneous or sequential process of learning an additional language subsequent to the first language. Simultaneous bilingual learning is when L2 is acquired before three years of age, and sequential L2 learning is acquiring the L2 after age three .

Method
The aim of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive description of the research design employed in the study to determine the listening abilities of English second language learners in Grade 1. The aims and objectives of the study will be discussed and the ethical considerations, study participants, data collection and analysis procedures will be described and justified in this chapter.

Aim
The aim of the study was to determine which areas of auditory skill and listening   and Listening Comprehension Test 2 [LCT-2]  provided numerical values for the participants' scores allowing for their auditory skills and listening comprehension abilities to be quantified.
The study encompassed a cross-sectional design as the data were collected from a population, or a representative subset, at one specific point in time (Maxwell & Satake, 2006).
Simultaneously a comparative and correlational research design was adopted as participants selected for the study were assigned to either the control group (EFL learners) or the research group [ESL learners] (Leedy & Ormrod 2014).
The study therefore used a static two-group comparison design to determine the influence of a specific variable, in this case ESL learning, on auditory skills and listening comprehension (Leedy & Ormrod, 2014 reducing any anxiety potentially experienced by the participants. As an SLT, the researcher was also trained to assess children without them knowing the assessor beforehand.

Dignity and autonomy
Persons that are capable of deliberation about their own choices must be allowed to practice self-determination. Persons who have a reduced ability for deliberation about their choices must be protected against harm from irresponsible choices. It is required that all persons are treated with respect by recognising that the dignity, well-being and safety of all participants are the primary concern of the research study. As the participants of the research study were all under the age of 18, a parent or legal guardian of the learner decided if the child will voluntary participate, predicated on informed choices.
Learners gave assent by colouring in a thumbs-up or thumbs-down image to indicate their intent (Appendix C). The Grade 1 teachers participated in the study by completing the CHAPPS, and therefore they too were required to decide if they would participate in the study voluntarily.

Informed consent
Before data collection procedures commenced, informed consent was obtained from the research participants (See Appendix C). The informed consent from participants was evidence that their participation in the research study was voluntary and predicated on informed choices. The child assent form was also completed before the researcher conducted the LCT-2 and DIN test (See Appendix C). The Grade 1 teachers all completed an informed consent prior to completing the CHAPPS questionnaires (See Appendix C).

Relevance and value
The proposed contribution of the research should be relevant and responsive to the needs of the people of South Africa. It was crucial that the research addressed the possible contribution to the generation of knowledge and how the results can be translated into products, intervention or services that are likely to improve living standards and well-being of South Africans. The information from the data gathered may assist SLTs and audiologists providing adequate training to teachers of ESL learners in order to improve their auditory skills and listening environment in the classroom and employ strategies to enhance listening comprehension. This will aid in creating optimal conditions for proficient listening with the aim of improving ESL learners' listening comprehension, which may result in improved ESL acquisition, language proficiency and academic progress.

Scientific integrity
In addition to fulfilling a need and being of value to the people of South Africa, the data needed to be reliable and valid to ensure accurate results that address the research aim. A sound research design and methodology certify that the principle of scientific integrity has been considered in the development of the study. The present research study upheld scientific integrity by contributing to the recent research developments by describing auditory skills and listening comprehension abilities and difficulties of Grade 1 ESL learners.

Non-discrimination
It was vital that the researcher based decisions with regards to recruitment, selection, exclusion and inclusion of participants on thorough scientific and ethical principles. Persons were not unfairly excluded from the study or unfairly targeted for research on the basis of any of the prohibited grounds for discrimination: race, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability, education, religious belief, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, conscience, belief or language. When selecting participants, the researcher held strictly to the inclusion and exclusion criteria and did not only select forthcoming or friendly children or teachers.

Privacy and confidentiality
This requires an explanation on how the participants' constitutionally protected rights to privacy and confidentiality were managed and protected in the course of the research. Privacy refers to who has access and personal records about the participant and confidentiality ensures the appropriate measures will be implemented to prevent the disclosure of information that might identify the participant during or after the research study. Researchers need to take measures to insure the privacy and confidentiality of all participants remains intact throughout the research period. The identity of the school and all participants of the research study was well protected as names and identifying information was not included in the final research report. All data with names and identifying information had been stored on a password protected laptop.

Honesty with professional colleagues
Researchers are urged to be honest, clear and unbiased when conveying their findings. The research report and article were neither intentionally misleading nor deceiving. The nature of the findings and procedures followed to obtain the data were not misrepresented or fabricated in any way.

Competence and practices of the researcher
The researcher is registered at the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) as an independent SLT practitioner. were paired with the EFL participants according to their age, gender, mother's level of education and family income. All these variables are associated with child language learning .

Sampling size
The parents of 15 Grade 1 learners in both the EFL and ESL groups (30 participants in total), meeting the inclusion criteria were asked to participate in the research study. The participants were critically selected in order to form a homogeneous population according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria stated below. According to Maxwell and Satake (2006), the more alike the population, the smaller the sample size required to adequately represent the characteristic of interest. The sample size was limited as only two schools were used for data collection. Six Grade 1 teachers participated in the study.

Setting
The study was conducted at two private primary schools in the Tshwane district, Gauteng province of South Africa. Written permission was given by both schools for the researcher to complete data collection on their school grounds. Offices, halls and the store rooms were available to use where training teachers in completing the CHAPPS and formal testing was completed. Private primary schools were selected as opposed to government primary schools to limit variables amongst participants. The ESL participants and EFL participants were selected from two separate primary schools. The first school majority of the learners were ESL and many of the learners in the second school were EFL. All participants (Grade 1 learners and teachers) were chosen from the selected schools as opposed to being selected from various schools in the Tshwane district. This aided in limiting and controlling the variables in participant's ESL exposure. Private primary schools were selected as opposed to government primary schools as it is assumed that each child will have been exposed to similar SES backgrounds. This further limited the variables amongst participants.
During the administration of the formalised tests background noise such as children playing, lawnmowers and traffic was present at both primary schools. Exclusion criteria: Children with a history of Otitis Media, developmental disabilities, low birth weight and who were born preterm were not selected as participants for the study.

Participant selection procedures
After permission had been obtained from the principals of the two primary schools and ethical clearance was granted, the researcher was able to identify potential participants whose parents or caregivers provided informed consent. The class registers were used to determine potential participants.
The parents of the potential participants were contacted and interviewed telephonically to obtain background and additional information for the child such as their medical history and English language exposure. The case history questions asked in the telephonic interview were essential in determining if the potential participant met the strict inclusion criteria for the study. To determine outer and middle ear functioning of each participant an otoscopic and tympanometric examination was performed. All participants passed a pure tone hearing screening conducted on site by an audiologist using the HearScreen™ application according to the "child protocol" of 25dB intensity at 1000, 2000 and 4000Hz . The participants were purposively selected according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria and placed into research (ESL) group or the control (EFL) group. The teachers participating were the class teachers of the participants selected for the study.

Participant description
The final sample group of participants presented with the following characteristics:   There were 15 participants in each group. Participants in the research group and control group were similar for age, gender, but differed slightly but not statistically different for their mothers' mean age and mothers' level of education (Table 1). Mothers in the control group were slightly higher educated than the mothers in the research group, but also not statistically significant. With regards to the Grade 1's English exposure, all the participants (n=30) communicated in English with their mothers, watched English speaking programs on TV and were exposed to the use of English in an educational context in both Grade R and Grade RR. Large contrasts between the groups in terms of their shared book reading and TV viewing were noted. The ESL group was greatly exposed to TV, but almost no book reading at home whereas the EFL group was exposed daily to shared book reading and their TV exposure was more controlled at home. The paired t-test confirmed that there were significant differences in between the two groups' weekly exposure to TV (0.164) and shared book reading (0.000). No other significant differences between the variables in the participants' exposure to English were noted.
Six Grade 1 teachers participated in the study. All the teachers spoke English fluently and completed their degrees at tertiary education institutions. The number of years of teaching experience was evenly distributed between the two schools and varied from two years (n=1), five to eight years (n=4), and over 30 years of experience (n=1).

Materials and apparatus
A case history form (Appendix D) was created and utilised during the telephonic interviews with a parent of the potential participants. To determine outer and middle ear functioning of each participant an otoscopic and tympanometric examination was performed. All participants passed a pure tone hearing screening conducted on site by an audiologist using the HearScreen™ smartphone application was utilised for the pure tone hearing screening of each participant .Three formalised outcome measures were used to assess a combination of auditory skills and listening comprehension abilities of the Grade 1 participants in an educational context. Each tool was considered to have a different level of complexity ranging from linguistically independent to highly linguistically dependent, allowing for various layers of auditory skills and listening comprehension to be assessed.

Digits-in-Noise test
The DIN test is a low linguistically demanding test that uses pre-recorded English digit triplets (e.g. 4-9-3 spoken by a female EFL speaker) in steadystate speech noise . The DIN test does not require the listener to comprehend auditory information and therefore it assesses auditory skills only. This is an easy task in which learners' speech recognition abilities in noise can be compared to their abilities in listening in a classroom environment. The first triplet is presented to the learner based on their selected comfortable listening intensity and their response is entered into a smartphone application . The next triplet is then presented at a 2dB lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for a correct response or a 2dB higher SNR for an incorrect response to the previous triplet presented . The DIN uses the speech reception threshold of the learner to calculate their average SNR of the triplets presented and these results can be an indication of the learners' speech perception in noise. This test provides preliminary validated normative data for the South African child population, thus providing objective results Pienaar & Taljaard, 2016).

Children's Auditory Processing Performance Scale
The CHAPPS (Appendix E) is a screening questionnaire that has been used to determine listening difficulties in children at home or in school . The six conditions included in the CHAPPS are listening in a quiet environment, listening in noise, listening in ideal conditions as well as listening with multiple inputs, auditory memory and sequencing, and auditory attention span (Dawes, Bishop, Sirimanna, & Bamiou, 2008;Manoel et al., 2010). Both teachers and parents can complete the 36 item questionnaire using a sevenpoint scale to rate a child's listening behaviour . In the present study the CHAPPS was only completed by the participant's teacher given that the setting of this study was in an educational context. The

Listening Comprehension Test 2
The LCT-2 (Appendix F) assesses an individual learners' listening comprehension abilities used in the everyday classroom environment rather than through simple repetition and discrimination subtests . In a natural classroom environment learners are required to process many incoming speech and non-speech signals, distinguish which signals need immediate attention, organize and understand the input of the signals, and plan appropriate responses, making listening a complex and integrated process. Therefore, the LCT-2 assesses a high level of auditory skills and listening comprehension ability through five highly linguistically dependent subtests. For this study the partipants were tested individually outside of the classroom environment as to limit competing stimuli. In the first and second subtests the learner is required to identify the main idea of the verbally presented information and remember details by answering a question. The third subtest involves reasoning where the learner is required to infer answers from the auditory information provided and the fourth subtest assesses the learner's vocabulary as they are required to define a word in the passage read to them. Subtest five requires the learner to gather the most relevant information from the passage to show understanding of the message. Samples T-test and Chi Square Test were utilised.
The DIN test was scored in terms of a SNR where according to  the preliminary score for children ages five to seven years is between -7.75dB and -6.31dB. For the CHAPPS scores lower than -1.0 (from slightly more difficult to cannot function at all in the listening context) is considered to be below the normal range and are cause for concern .
Standard scores were used when analysing the LCT-2 results. Standard scores describe the distance of the raw scores obtained from the mean in terms of the standard deviation (SD) of the distribution of scores (Bowers et al., 2006: 57 Although the LCT-2 has yet to be used in a research study the reliability of this formal outcome measure has been established through the use of test-retest and internal consistency methods for all the subtests and the total tests at all age levels .
The researcher was successful in matching the two participant groups closely, with no significant differences between them. The only differences were book reading at home and TV viewing, where the ESL group had more exposure to TV and less book reading at home.

Validity
Validity is the extent to which a tool measures what it is intended to measure (Leedy & Ormrod, 2014). The measuring tool must also provide scores where the differences reflect the true differences of the variable that is being measured, and no random or constant mistakes in order to be validated (Bless & Higson-Smith, 2004).
The CHAPPS was selected for the study as it highlights areas of difficulty learners experience when listening in the classroom and should be used to guide intervention in combination with other test findings (Sharma et al., 2009).
The LCT-2 employs content validity as it assesses all the important and accepted listening comprehension skills that are developmentally present at ages within the test domain . Contrasted groups validity and empirical validity were also established for the LCT-2. The correlations of individual subtests with the overall test as well as the subtest intercorrelations suggest that internal consistency of the LCT-2 are satisfactory because the subtests assess separate listening comprehension functions.
Data were collected by the researcher and teachers, using different tests, but assessing related auditory comprehension abilities. If agreement between the CHAPPS and the LCT-2 could be found, it can be interpreted as enhancing the validity of the results.

Research Article
The article was submitted to the South African Journal of Childhood Education for review. The article was prepared according to the journal's specification and therefore the formatting differs from that of the dissertation.

Auditory skills and listening comprehension in English second
language learners in Grade 1

Abstract
Background Studies indicate that difficulties English second language (ESL) learners experience in the classroom may not only be attributed to listening comprehension of the language of learning and teaching (LoLT). Limited research is available on the auditory skills and listening comprehension in ESL learners younger than 12 years.

Aim
To determine which areas of auditory skills and listening comprehension Grade 1 ESL learners experience most difficulty with.

Method
A static two-group comparison design was used. Data were collected at two similar independent urban schools from learners between the ages of 72-90 months. The research group were ESL learners (n=15) exposed to English for 12-18 months. The control group were English first language (EFL) learners (n=15 Listening and understanding is a complex cognitive process and is perceived as a difficult skill to learn and master (Cole & Flexer, 2015: 229-232). In both natural and structured activities auditory skills are essential to integrating, interpreting and comprehending auditory or linguistic information are interrelated and overlap (Cole & Flexer, 2015: 229-232). According to Cole and Flexer (2015: 229-232)  Therefore, the aim of the study was to determine which areas of auditory skill and listening comprehension Grade 1 ESL learners experience most difficulty with.

Study design
The study employed a static two-group comparison design to compare auditory skills and listening comprehension abilities of Grade 1 ESL learners to Grade 1 EFL learners. Additionally, a quantitative, cross-sectional research design was utilised as formalized tests were used once-off to collect data from this small sample.

Setting
The study was conducted at two independent primary schools in an urban setting of the Tshwane district, Gauteng province of South Africa where the LoLT is English.
Independent primary schools were selected as opposed to public primary schools as to limit variables amongst participants, such as family income. The parents of the participants were all able to afford private education for their children, indicating a similarity in socio-economic status between the participants in both schools.

Study population
Two sets of participants were utilised in this study, namely Grade 1 learners and their teachers. A non-random, purposive sampling method was used when selecting participants for the ESL (n=15) and EFL group (n=15) according to the following inclusion criteria: Normal hearing Grade 1 learners between the ages of 72-83 months with no history of otitis media. ESL learners whose first language is Sepedi, Sesotho, or Setswana and who have had 12-18 months of formal exposure to English were selected. The study employed matching samples control procedures where the ESL participants were matched with the EFL participants according to age and gender. Six Grade 1 teachers participated in the study. All the teachers spoke English fluently and completed their degrees at tertiary education institutions. The number of years of teaching experience was evenly distributed between the two schools and varied from two years (n=1), five to eight years (n=4), and over 30 years of experience (n=1). The characteristics of the Grade 1 participants are described in Table 1.  (Frith, 2011). Participants in the research and control groups were similar in age and gender, and differed slightly for their mothers' mean age and mothers' level of education (Table 1). Mothers in the control group were slightly higher educated and older than the mothers in the research group, but no statistically significant difference was found. With regards to the Grade 1's English exposure, all the participants (n=30) communicated in English with their mothers, watched English speaking programs on TV and were exposed to the use of English in an educational context in both Grade R and Grade RR. Large contrasts between the groups in terms of their shared book reading and TV viewing were noted. The ESL group was greatly exposed to TV, but almost no book reading at home whereas the EFL group was exposed daily to shared book reading and their TV exposure was more controlled at home. The paired t-test confirmed that there were significant differences between the two groups' weekly exposure to TV (0.164) and shared book reading (0.000). No other significant differences between the variables in participant's exposure to English were noted.

Material and apparatus
Three formalised outcome measures were used to assess the auditory skills and listening comprehension abilities of the Grade 1 participants in an educational context. Each tool was considered to have a different level of complexity ranging from linguistically independent to highly linguistically dependent, allowing for various layered levels of auditory skills and listening comprehension to be assessed comprehensively. The Digits-in-noise (DIN) test is a low linguistically demanding listening task, as it uses pre-recorded English digit triplets (e.g. 4-9-3 spoken by a female EFL speaker) in steady-state speech noise to assesses an individual's ability to perceive speech in noise : 1693-1706. The first triplet is presented to the learner based on their selected comfortable listening intensity and their response is entered into a smartphone application (Potgieter, Swanepoel, Myburgh, Hopper & Smits 2016: 405-411). The next triplet is then presented at a 2dB lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for a correct response or a 2dB higher SNR for an incorrect response to the previous triplet presented (Potgieter et al. 2016: 405-411).
The DIN test uses the speech reception threshold of the learner to calculate their average SNR of the triplets presented and these results can be an indication of the learners' speech perception in noise. In addition to its low linguistic demand, the DIN test has validated normative data for the South African population (Potgieter et al. 2016: 405-411).
The Children's Auditory Processing Performance Scale [CHAPPS]  was originally developed for children with hearing loss, but can be used for children with normal hearing. It is a 36-item questionnaire using a sevenpoint scale (from cannot function at all in the context observed, to showing less difficulty) both teachers and parents can complete to rate a child's listening behaviour (Wilson et al. 2011: 278-291). It is a screening questionnaire that has been used to determine listening difficulties in children at home or in school under six different listening conditions (Wilson et al. 2011: 278-291). Given that the setting of this study was in an educational context, only teachers were required to complete the CHAPPS questionnaire for each participant. The CHAPPS was selected to provide information on the learners' listening comprehension abilities when listening in noise, in quiet, and ideal conditions as well as listening with multiple inputs, such as watching the speaker's face or being provided with illustrations.
Their auditory skills such as their auditory memory and attention abilities in the classroom were also assessed. The first three listening conditions (noise, quiet, ideal) are linguistically dependent as teachers are required to score the learners listening comprehension abilities in terms of how they answer questions and respond to instructions under each listening condition. Listening with multiple inputs was less linguistically demanding as learner's listening comprehension abilities aided with various visual components as opposed to relying on purely auditory information.
The auditory memory/sequencing and auditory attention span conditions are considered to have a low less linguistic demand as they assessed the learner's ability to simply store and retain auditory information and selectively focus on the important auditory stimulus while disregarding irrelevant auditory stimuli.
The Listening Comprehension Test 2 (LCT-2) assesses learners' listening comprehension abilities used in the everyday classroom environment rather than through simple repetition and discrimination subtests (Bowers et al. 2006: 9). In a natural classroom environment learners are required to process many incoming speech and non-speech signals, distinguish which signals need immediate attention, organize and understand the input of the signals, and plan appropriate responses, making listening a complex and integrated process. Therefore the LCT-2 assesses a high level of listening comprehension ability through five highly linguistically dependent subtests. In the first and second subtests the learner is required to identify the main idea of the verbally presented information and remember details by answering a question. The third subtest involves reasoning where the learner is required to infer answers from the auditory information provided and the fourth subtest assesses the learner's vocabulary as they are required to define a word in the passage read to them. Subtest five requires the learner to gather the most relevant information from the passage to show understanding of the message.

Procedures
Written permission to conduct the study at both primary schools was obtained as well as the informed consent from all six Grade 1 teachers. The class registers were used to determine potential participants. The parents of the potential participants were contacted and interviewed telephonically to obtain background and additional information of the child such as their medical history and English language exposure. Parents of all the participants provided informed consent for their child to partake in the study. To determine outer and middle ear functioning of each participant an otoscopic and tympanometric examination was performed. All participants passed a pure tone hearing screening conducted on site by an audiologist using the HearScreen™ smartphone application according to the "child protocol" of 25dB intensity at 1000, 2000 and 4000Hz (Swanepoel et al. 2014, 841-849   the preliminary score for children ages five to seven years is between -7.75dB and -6.31dB. For the CHAPPS scores lower than -1.0 (from slightly more difficult to cannot function at all in the listening context) is considered to be below the normal range and are cause for concern . Standard scores were used when analysing the LCT-2 results. Standard scores describe the distance of the raw scores obtained from the mean in terms of the standard deviation (SD) of the distribution of scores (Bowers et al. 2006: 57). A mean of 100 and a SD of 15 were established for the purposes of reporting the results of the LCT-2.

Results
Descriptive statistics were used to obtain the mean, SD, median and inter-quartile range for the three formal assessment tests completed by the ESL and EFL groups.
These results as well as the differences between the assessment outcomes for the two groups as determined by the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test are shown in Table 2 below. The results are given in order of listening difficulty, from the DIN test which is less linguistically dependent to higher linguistically dependency as assessed by the CHAPPS and LCT-2.

Pass Fail
Of the EFL group 93% (n=14) passed the DIN test while 73% (n=11) of the ESL group passed the test (Figure 1). No significant difference was found between the two groups as seen in Table 2 (p=0.387). Although only a few, there were participants from both groups who showed auditory skill difficulties despite having normal hearing. Figure 2 depicts the number of participants in the ESL and EFL group who passed or failed the CHAPPS questionnaire as well as its various subsections. showing that these ESL participants experienced few difficulties with this particular lower level auditory skill. Majority of the ESL participants' ability to listen in noise were not as superior as their EFL peers and significant differences were noted (Table   2) between the ESL and EFL participant groups' listening comprehension under this

Research (ESL) Group Pass Research (ESL) Group Fail
Control (EFL) Group Pass Control (EFL) Group Fail condition (p=0.021). The ESL participants obtained higher scores for their listening comprehension abilities in quiet and ideal conditions, however significant differences between their scores and the EFL participants' scores (quiet, p=0.013; ideal, p=0.015) were still found (Table 2). Although a significant difference (p=0.012) was found between the groups' scores, the ESL participants' listening comprehension abilities were better when listening with multiple inputs such as visual aids (Figure 2) compared to their other scores in the CHAPPS. Many of the ESL participants were reported to have difficulty with auditory memory and sequencing tasks in the classroom (Figure 2). A significant difference between the ESL and EFL participants' auditory memory and sequencing scores (p=0.038) was found (Table 2). No significant difference (p=0.053) was found between the ESL and EFL participants where their auditory attention span was scored and majority of the ESL participants performed well in this subtest. Majority of the ESL participants (67%) experienced the most difficulty when listening in noise and with their auditory memory and sequencing (47%). Apart from listening comprehension difficulties identified in the ESL group, they also showed significant differences with certain higher level auditory skills such as auditory memory. Figure 3 shows the standard scores achieved by the ESL and EFL participants overall for the LCT-2 as well as for the five subtests. The ESL participants performed significantly poorer overall and in each subtest of the LCT-2 (Figure 3 and 4) in comparison with the EFL group. Significant differences were also found between the scores of the two participant groups in all of the LCT-2 subtests and overall score ( Table 2). The overall LCT-2 score of 87.13 (Figure 3) obtained by the ESL learners and all the subtests indicate that they scored one SD

Research (ESL) Group Pass Research (ESL) Group Fail
Control (EFL) Group Pass Control (EFL) Group Fail below the mean of the normative sample. This result is depicted in Figure 4 where majority of the ESL participants did not display adequate listening comprehension skills according to the LCT-2. The ESL participants' scores for all subtests of the LCT-2 were one SD below the norm (Figure 3). Significant differences of p=0.001 between participant groups scores for the main idea, details, reasoning and vocabulary were found (Table 2). A significant difference of p=0.003 was found between the groups for understanding messages in the LCT-2. Over 80% of the EFL participants passed each LCT-2 subtest (Figure 4), and their standard scores (Figure 3) indicate that they were within one SD of the peer group for every subtest. The strength of association between the three formal outcome measures selected for this study was determined through the use of Spearman's Rank Correlation (Table   3). A strong correlation (rs = 0.701, p = 0.004) was found between the LCT-2 and CHAPPS questionnaire in the ESL group (Table 3). A correlation (rs = -0.529, p = 0.043) was also established between the LCT-2 and DIN in the EFL group (Table 3).
The strong agreements found between the ESL participants' test results for the CHAPPS and LCT-2, indicate that they experience significant difficulties with higher linguistically dependent auditory skill and listening comprehension tasks.

Discussion
Listening is a complex skill due to the many cognitive and linguistic processes involved which makes it challenging to assess an individual's listening abilities with one formal assessment tool. This study aimed to investigate the layered auditory skills and listening comprehension abilities of Grade 1 ESL learners by means of the DIN test, CHAPPS and LCT-2. Their results were compared with a matched EFL group. In the ESL participant group significant correlations were found between the LCT-2 and CHAPPS, highlighting the validity of these assessment tests in this study.
The strong agreement between the CHAPPS and LCT-2 scores suggest that these ESL learners experienced greater difficulty as the tasks in the formal outcome measures became more linguistically demanding.
Only minor differences were observed between the two participant groups' DIN test results, however, the ESL participants performed poorer than the EFL participants.
The results are in agreement with Kaandorp et al. (2015:157-167) who found that the non-nativeness of DIN test-takers had only minor effects on their ability to recognise digit-triplets in noise. Overall the DIN test was a low linguistically demanding assessment that majority of the ESL participants were able to pass. Despite having normal hearing, not all participants in both groups passed the DIN test. Teachers should be aware of their learners' ability to perceive speech in noise as it is an auditory skill necessary for listening comprehension.
Another auditory skill required for successful listening comprehension was assessed in the auditory attention span subsection of the CHAPPS. Similar to the DIN test results, majority of the ESL participants were able to pass this low linguistically demanding subsection. The evaluation of the ESL participants' auditory attention span provided information on their ability to attend to auditory information in the classroom but not their comprehension of the information provided. As no significant difference were found between the ESL and EFL participants' performance with their DIN test and auditory attention span scores, it is suggested that the basic process of perceiving and attending to auditory information was not a contributing factor to the listening comprehension difficulties of the ESL participants. Many of the ESL participants demonstrated adequate listening comprehension abilities when the auditory information was supplemented with visual aids. When listening with multiple inputs such as the teacher's facial expressions, written text or pictures, the ESL participants were able to successfully understand the auditory information provided. This listening comprehension task was more linguistically demanding than simply perceiving speech or attending to auditory information but not as linguistically demanding as understanding purely auditory information with no visual aid. The results showed that when only auditory information was provided (a highly linguistically demanding task) the ESL participants' listening comprehension of abilities were better when listening in a quiet environment compared to listening in noise. These findings suggest that the higher level auditory skills and listening comprehension abilities of the ESL participants in this study are not sufficiently developed to understand purely auditory information as presented to them in the classroom as they rely on visual cues in attempt to make sense of what they have heard. The results also suggest that reducing classroom noise may assist ESL learners with listening comprehension. The ESL participants' demonstrated the most difficulty with the higher linguistically demanding tasks of the CHAPPS namely when listening in noise and their auditory memory abilities. The trends in results obtained from the CHAPPS indicate that these ESL participants' listening comprehension abilities were sufficient for very low linguistically dependent tasks but they have not yet developed adequate skills for high linguistically dependent tasks that are needed for Grade 1.
Unlike the CHAPPS, all subtests of the LCT-2 are highly linguistically dependent as the information presented was purely auditory and no visual aids were available to assist with the participants' listening comprehension and interpretation. The five subtests of the LCT-2 are where the ESL participants showed the poorest results in the study and the differences in their scores compared to the EFL participants were the most significant. The results of the LCT-2 are in accordance with the conclusion drawn from the CHAPPS scores, demonstrating how the ESL participants do not have adequate listening comprehension skills for high linguistically dependent tasks. The inability of the ESL participants to make inferences of what was said based on their linguistic knowledge and contextual knowledge may offer an explanation for their poor scores in the LCT-2. Vandergrift and Goh (2012: 30) list the core skills for successful listening comprehension as listening for details, listening for global understanding, listening for main ideas, making inferences, predicting and listening selectively. The ESL participants' results of the LCT-2 are of great concern as learners are expected to have adequate listening comprehension skills in LoLT upon entry into Grade 1 in order to develop their CALP. They must be supported to develop adequate listening comprehension abilities in their LoLT in order to close the gap between them and EFL learners as highly linguistically dependent formal instruction is used from Grade 1. As the specific processes of auditory skills and listening comprehension in which these ESL learners experience difficulty have been identified and targeted intervention and curriculum support can be given.

Conclusion
The varying complexities and features of the three outcome measures used in this study provided the opportunity to describe layered processes of the ESL participants' auditory skills and listening comprehension abilities. From the results it was evident that the ESL participants performed poorer in all three tests compared to their EFL peers. A direct relationship was observed with the results obtained by the ESL participants showing that as the tasks from the three outcome measures became more linguistically dependent, the lower their scores were. This relationship suggested that the auditory skills and listening comprehension difficulties experienced were not strongly related to environmental interferences but rather to intrinsic factors such as their English language proficiency.
This study provides concerning information about how these learners' auditory skills and English listening comprehension abilities were not adequately developed upon entry into Grade 1 which may have negative effects on their acquisition of CALP. The recent report on the Annual National Assessment of 2014 (Department of Basic Education, 2014) stated that only 1.5 -17% of learners in Grades 3, 6 and 9 had reached an 'achieved level of performance' in language and mathematics indicating that poor CALP in learners is very common in South Africa. A large number of South African learners make a sudden unsupported transition to English in Grade 1 (Kathard et al. 2011: 59-71). Although the study draws attention to the lack of CALP in a single independent school and cannot be generalized, poorly developed listening comprehension skills for English in Grade 1 learners are widespread. The results isolated the areas of difficulty in auditory skills and listening comprehension these ESL participants experienced. These specific areas of difficulty may be indirectly addressed by speech-language therapists through teachers and parents where education and curriculum support provided by speech-language therapists will aid in developing ESL learners' CALP in English. The focus should then not only be on intervention for listening comprehension difficulties but rather on prevention. Early identification of learners at risk of auditory skills and listening comprehension difficulties should occur prior to their Grade 1 academic year. Since there was limited book reading reported at home in the ESL group, parent guidance on developing their child's CALP in the LoLT by means of shared book reading and the oral tradition of storytelling may be an important component of prevention.
Further studies to determine the listening abilities of Grade 1 ESL learners should be conducted where a large representative population sample is employed in the study design.

Discussion and conclusion
The aim of this chapter is to provide a summary of the results, discuss the contributions and implications of the study and end with a conclusion. A critical evaluation of the strengths and limitations of the study as well as recommendations for the direction of future research are discussed. The chapter concludes with an overall view of the topic that was studied.

Summary of research results and contributions of the study
Listening is a complex skill due to the many cognitive and linguistic processes involved which makes it challenging to assess an individual's auditory skills and listening abilities with one formal assessment tool. This study aimed to investigate the layered auditory skills and listening comprehension abilities of Once the specific layers of difficulty ESL learners experience in auditory skills and listening comprehension have been identified, targeted intervention and curriculum support can be provided. The large differences between the two groups in the study were not surprising. It is perhaps the nature of differences that shows the value of the investigation.

Theoretical implications of the study
From the many works cited in this study it is evident that listening is a complex phenomenon due to all the auditory skills and linguistic and cognitive processes involved. Much research exists on the difficulties ESL learners experience in the classroom speaking, reading and writing in their L2. However, it is of great concern that the auditory skills and listening abilities of ESL learners has only recently been investigated, even though listening is globally recognized as a key component of language acquisition  differing in complexity levels, ranging from linguistically independent to highly linguistically dependent.

Limitations
 The study population was a small sample and this should be taken into consideration when interpreting the results, discussion and conclusion.
 The LCT-2 appeared to be valid assessment tool when used in urban setting schools by the researcher. However, some culturally appropriate adaptations were made to the vocabulary of the LCT-2 passages (American words were replaced with South African-English equivalents e.g. 'field trip' was replaced with 'school outing' and 'parent conferences' was replaced with 'parents evening') to ensure reliable results.

Listening Condition -MULTIPLE INPUTS
When, in addition to listening, there is also some other form of input (visual, tactile etc.), this child has difficulty hearing and understanding. 18) When listening and watching the speaker's face +1 0 -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 19) When listening and reading material that is also being read out loud by another +1 0 -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 20) When listening and watching someone provide an illustration such as a model, drawing, information on the chalkboard etc.
Reprinted by permission.