An investigation into the effects of extensive listening on preintermediate learners’ English vocabulary learning at The Asian International School

Ly N. Nguyen, Nga T. Nguyen. Journal of Science Ho Chi Minh City Open University, 10(3), 3-17 3 
An investigation into the effects of extensive listening on pre-
intermediate learners’ English vocabulary learning at The Asian 
International School 
Ly Ngoc Nguyen1, Nga Thuy Nguyen2* 
1The Asian International School 
2Ho Chi Minh City Open University 
*Corresponding author: nga.nt@ou.edu.vn 
ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT 
DOI:10.46223/HCMCOUJS.
soci.en.10.1.552.2020 
Received: 19/06/2020 
Revised: 24/06/2020 
Accepted: 30/06/2020 
Keywords: 
intensive listening, extensive 
listening, receptive 
vocabulary knowledge, 
productive vocabulary 
knowledge, listening 
vocabulary levels test 
Nowadays, most learners, especially students at The Asian 
International School, have plenty of opportunities for learning 
English vocabulary from the earliest possible age. However, the 
students in general faced lots of difficulties in vocabulary 
learning. Thus, the study was conducted with the purpose to 
investigate to what extent extensive listening affected the 
students’ vocabulary learning and their listening habits. Eighty 
participants were chosen by using convenience sampling and 
divided into two groups: a control group and an experimental 
group. The two groups took a pretest to measure their 
vocabulary knowledge with Listening Vocabulary Levels Test. 
Then, besides studying the school’s formal English curriculum, 
the control group practiced intensive listening while the 
experimental group practiced extensive listening. All the 
participants were required to submit one listening journal each 
week to report what they have done as their listening habits. 
Finally, they took a posttest (Listening Vocabulary Levels Test) 
after 12 weeks practicing. The results showed that extensive 
listening could help to increase the participants’ receptive 
vocabulary knowledge significantly, including word meanings 
and word aural forms. Additionally, the more the participants 
practiced extensive listening, the higher improvement they 
somewhat had on receptive vocabulary knowledge. The 
participants tended to practice listening by using visual 
materials and self-selected materials in their listening habits. To 
sum up, extensive listening affected impressively the 
participants’ vocabulary learning that aspires for the study to 
propose suggestions for future studies so that administrators, 
teachers, and students could receive huge pedagogical 
implications of extensive listening. 
4 Ly N. Nguyen, Nga T. Nguyen. Journal of Science Ho Chi Minh City Open University, 10(3), 3-17 
1. Introduction 
Vocabulary is considered as one of the most important things in foreign language 
learning. Several researchers have proved that learning vocabulary is crucial because nothing 
could be transferred if there is a lack of vocabulary (Larsson, 2014; Nation, 2008; Wilkins, 1972, 
as cited in Thornburry & Harmer, 2002; Viera, 2017). To learn a word, N. Schmitt (2000) 
suggested that learners could obtain both receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge. N. 
Schmitt (2000) stated that receptive vocabulary knowledge is the ability to understand a word in 
listening and reading while productive vocabulary knowledge expects learners to use a word in 
speaking and writing. However, acquiring all aspects of vocabulary leads learners to get troubles 
when they study vocabulary. For example, learners seemed to forget the words they have learned 
if they did not meet the words repeatedly (Nation, 2007). They had to catch up with big problems 
with studying word meanings, pronunciations, and spellings (Higa, 1965, as cited in Nation, 
2001; Renandya & Farell, 2011; Sedau, 2004). The way to measure the word knowledge is also 
another difficulty for them (Rahmawati, 2012; Rohmatillah, 2017). To sum up, learners, in 
general, have difficulty when studying vocabulary. 
In Vietnamese contexts, learners also turn the difficulty up when they learn English 
vocabulary. It was stated by Nguyen and Pham (2016) that 400 students in Hanoi had problems 
in learning English vocabulary. Besides, the limitation of vocabulary size also made students get 
low scores in tests (H. P. H. Le, 2001). At the Asian International School, the research site, 
students also get into difficulties in vocabulary learning although they have several opportunities 
to study and use vocabulary fluently. Being a teacher at the school, the researcher notices that the 
students tried hard to interpret the speakers’ meanings because of unknown vocabulary. They did 
not frequently get high scores in listening or speaking due to lacking vocabulary or forgetting the 
words they’ve learned. However, the above difficulties are observed personally from the 
teacher’s viewpoints; up to this time, there has been no formal research examining how to deal 
with these problems. 
There is convincing evidence of positive effects of a new way to learn vocabulary – 
extensive listening could enhance vocabulary knowledge by inspiring learners to listen to the 
appropriate materials which they are interested in for pleasure and whenever they have free time 
(Ucán, 2010; Waring, 2008). Previous studies investigate the effects of extensive listening on 
vocabulary learning both in receptive and productive knowledge, but the results are infrequently 
as expected in productive vocabulary knowledge. That could be listening is a receptive skill, 
which gives spoken information from a speaker to a listener and does not require listeners to use 
language (Aguilera & Filologia, 2012; Tavil, 2010). Hence, this study intends to focus on the 
advantages of extensive listening to learners’ receptive vocabulary knowledge only. Extensive 
listening is considered as an appropriate method to help learners increase their vocabulary 
knowledge, especially receptive vocabulary knowledge, but there are still limitations on related 
studies. First, previous studies lack a combination of several extensive listening materials in a 
single study. For example, Brown, Waring, and Donkaewbua (2008) and Suggate, Lenhard, 
Neudecker, and Schneider (2013) required participants to select only stories to practice extensive 
listening; Yuksel and Tanriverdi (2009) asked participants to watch a popular American 
television series. Second, most research pays little attention to measure word aural forms in 
receptive vocabulary knowledge (Brown et al., 2008; Suggate et al., 2013). Thus, this study 
attempts to combine several types of extensive listening practice for students to practice to 
enhance their receptive vocabulary knowledge, specifically, both word meanings and aural 
forms. 
Ly N. Nguyen, Nga T. Nguyen. Journal of Science Ho Chi Minh City Open University, 10(3), 3-17 5 
The present study is conducted to examine the effects of extensive listening on 
vocabulary learning, in this case, referring to receptive vocabulary knowledge of pre-
intermediate students at The Asian International School. 
Within the above aim, the study answers the question: To what extent does extensive 
listening affect the pre-intermediate students’ receptive vocabulary knowledge at The Asian 
International School? 
The hypothesis for this question is that students at the pre-intermediate level who 
participate in extensive listening at The Asian International School will have higher achievement 
on receptive vocabulary knowledge test scores than students who participate in intensive 
listening practice. 
2. Literature review 
2.1. Intensive Listening (IL) and Extensive Listening (EL) 
IL and EL are two different ways to practice listening. In IL, listeners mostly focus on 
what they have heard precisely (Field, 2008; Rost, 1991, 2011). Otherwise, listeners could 
comprehend a huge amount of meaningful input while they are listening for pleasure in EL 
(McDonough & Shaw, 1993, as cited in Kim, 2004; Milliner, 2017; Rost, 2011; Ucán, 2010; 
Waring, 2008). Since IL and EL are opposites, discussion on the differences between IL and EL 
is crucial. Firstly, learners who practice EL are not taught target words as IL practice, but they 
can acquire vocabulary incidentally. IL aims to teach learners new grammar and vocabulary 
(Renandya, 2011; Chang, 2012) while EL could help learners obtain vocabulary knowledge by 
meeting the word several times (Renandya, 2011). Secondly, learners listen for details in IL 
(Field, 2008) while they are provided lots of comprehensive inputs to foster their overall global 
comprehension (McDonough & Shaw, 1993, as cited in Kim, 2004) and build their listening 
speed (Waring, 2008). Thirdly, IL may require learners to follow rigid lesson plans with a three-
step sequence (Chang, 2012) while in EL, learners can listen whenever they are ready both inside 
and outside classrooms (Chang, 2012; Matsuo, 2015; Renandya, 2010; Renandya & Farrell, 
2011; Ucán, 2010; Waring, 2008). Another difference between IL and EL is shown in listening 
to materials. IL materials are often more difficult, lower speedy, and shorter than EL materials 
(Ferrato & White, 2004, as cited in Bui & Do, 2016). Hence, listeners are required to react to 
specific questions or tasks in IL (Field, 2008). However, listeners have no requirements as in IL 
(Chang, 2012). Then, the IL activities include pause and paraphrase, listening close, error 
identification, elicited repetition, word spotting, grammar processing, etc. to develop learners’ 
listening strategies (Rost, 2011). EL provides several kinds of activities such as narrow listening, 
storytelling, repeated listening, dictation, etc. to focus on general understanding (Renandya, 
2011, 2012). In brief, EL is a pleasant way to listen while IL has specific requirements. 
2.2. Receptive Vocabulary Knowledge (RVK) 
Receptive Vocabulary Knowledge (RVK) is considered as the learners’ ability to 
understand a word in listening or reading texts. First of all, Harmer (2001) states that RVK is the 
learners’ knowledge to recognize words when they hear or see the words. Similarly, learners can 
understand the words while they are reading or listening (Alkhofi, 2015; Faraj, 2015; Maskor & 
Baharudin, 2016; Zhou, 2010) then also recalling the words (Hajiyeva, 2015) in RVK. Secondly, 
Nation (2001) and Hajiyeva (2015) also define RVK as passive vocabulary since outside stimuli 
could activate RVK. In short, if learners recognize a word when it appears in listening or reading 
texts, they may have receptive knowledge of that word. 
6 Ly N. Nguyen, Nga T. Nguyen. Journal of Science Ho Chi Minh City Open University, 10(3), 3-17 
To measure RVK, it must be a measurement of how listeners understand the words by 
listening or reading them. Thus, it must be using receptive vocabulary measurement. One of the 
most appropriate types of measurement is the multiple-choice proposed by Nizonkiza (2016). 
Moreover, the test-takers in this measurement could be asked to translate the words from foreign 
language to the mother tongue or show word meanings (Šišková, 2016). 
2.3. The Receptive Vocabulary Knowledge test 
This study aims to examine the effects of EL on students’ RVK, thus the measurement of 
vocabulary knowledge must be fulfilled the requirement of measuring RVK containing the 
recognition of word meanings and word aural forms. Fortunately, McLean, Kramer, and Beglar 
(2015) designed a Listening Vocabulary Levels Test (LVLT) to fill the gaps in the literature on 
word knowledge testing. The LVLT focuses on measuring RVK which includes both word 
meanings and word aural forms taken from the first five 1000-word frequency levels in Nation’s 
(2012) British National Corpus/Corpus of Contemporary American English word lists and 
Coxhead’s (2000) Academic Word List proposes (as cited in McLean et al., 2015). The LVLT 
which uses two languages is adapted from the Vocabulary Size Test version Japanese on Paul 
Nation’s publication on Victoria University of Wellington’s website. It is a bilingual format, and 
each distractor could be easier for the test-takers to show word meanings because direct 
translations could not absorb much cognition in the time constraint (McLean et al., 2015). The 
LVLT is guaranteed with strong validity when comparing with the Test of English for 
International Communication scores, carelessness, and guessing. The format of the test is four-
multiple-choice that is appropriate with Nizonkiza’s (2016) receptive vocabulary measurement. 
Those strengths of the test prove that LVLT is an appropriate test to measure RVK including 
word meanings and word aural forms for diagnostic and achievement purposes. 
2.4. The effects of extensive listening on vocabulary learning 
The positive effects of EL on vocabulary learning have been by several researchers 
(Bozan, 2015; Brown et al., 2008; Bui & Do, 2016; Chang, 2012; Mayora, 2017; Meier, 2015; 
Renandya, 2012; Suggate et al., 2013; Ucán, 2010; Widodo & Rozak, 2016; Yuksel & 
Tanriverdi, 2009). First, Brown et al. (2008) found that learners could acquire and retain more 
words in terms of recognition word meanings if they read while listening extensively to stories. 
Second, Yuksel and Tanriverdi (2009) stated that EL influenced Turkish learners’ RVK by 
providing them a popular American Television series. Then, Ucán (2010) explored that EL 
developed and increased vocabulary size for 16 beginner students. Another research investigated 
55 university English students’ RVK and listening development by intensively and extensively 
listening to stories from audiobooks for 26 weeks (Chang, 2012). However, the results of this 
study were not as expected. The study found that learners who participated in IL to stories 
acquired more words than the ones in EL in the Vocabulary Level Tests. This result might be 
explained as because the control group had more chances to study every chapter with every 
detail from audiobooks while the experimental group just studied 15 easy audiobooks then took a 
comprehension check. Even though acquiring vocabulary in IL was more effective than EL, 
learners did enhance RVK in EL. Furthermore, it was found that EL could enhance learners’ 
recognition of word aural forms (Renandya, 2012; Suggate et al., 2013). The measurement of 
word aural forms just stopped at simply choosing the suitable pictures by hearing words. 
Recently, research conducted by Bozan (2015) which combines several kinds of listening 
materials for EL practice showed that EL could enhance learners’ use of grammar and 
vocabulary. However, the study tends to measure word meanings and written forms mostly. It 
lacks the measurement of word aural forms. Also, the participants were not required to report on 
Ly N. Nguyen, Nga T. Nguyen. Journal of Science Ho Chi Minh City Open University, 10(3), 3-17 7 
what they’ve gained in the listening materials. It should have examined the participants’ reports 
on what they practiced to make the results more compelling and reasonable. Meier (2015), 
Widodo and Rozak (2016), and Mayora (2017) also truly suggested the positive effects of EL to 
podcasts and videos on incidental vocabulary acquisition. 
In Vietnam, previous studies paid little attention to the effects of EL on English 
vocabulary learning but focused on students’ English language skills. For instance, Bui, and 
Do’s (2016) study found small and brief evidence that EL positively affects 49 pre-intermediate 
students’ vocabulary size at Hanoi University of Business and Technology. In addition, V. T. Le 
(2018) investigated the effects of applying technology and social media on 204 grade 10 
Vietnamese learners’ vocabulary enhancement with the employment of pre- and post-course tests 
as research instruments. The participants joined in a six-week online course to practice extensive 
listening, speaking, and writing. The results showed that the participants could use more words 
in speaking. In short, EL does affect Vietnamese learners’ vocabulary learning despite a small 
range of studies in this field. 
In short, the results from previous studies prove that EL is highly effective in helping 
learners acquire vocabulary incidentally. Nevertheless, the review of the above studies has also 
indicated some shortcomings. First of all, a few studies measured learners’ word aural forms in 
receptive vocabulary knowledge. This is not convincing enough since learners do not only learn 
word written forms or meanings but also aural forms. Moreover, listening is a receptive skill that 
focuses on recognizing words by hearing. Hence, it is crucial to choose an appropriate test for 
RVK including word aural forms. Second, previous studies mainly take advantage of one single 
material instead of combining several types of listening materials in EL. Therefore, EL might 
conclude a variety of listening materials for learners to choose to make use of EL’s benefits 
effectively. To avoid stepping on the previous studies’ inadequacies and to fill in the gaps, this 
study was conducted by following the rigid methodology below. 
3. Methodology 
3.1. Research site and participants 
The site and the participants of the study were at The Asian International School, in Ho 
Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Students at this school have to spend all daytime for two programs: 
first, the Ministry of Education and Training Program in the mornings, and second, the 
International English Program in the afternoons. All the participants in this study are the pre-
intermediate level of proficiency learners and at the age of 14. Most of the participants learned 
English from very young ages. They also have good opportunities to practice English at anytime 
and anywhere at school. To learn English, in the Ministry of Education and Training Program, 
they study the book “English 8” published by Vietnam Education Publisher. They also study 
five subjects including Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, and Grammar with the 
coursebook “Inside Language, Literacy, and Content” in the International English Program. 
Besides the advantages of mostly studying English in the study program, the participants also 
have good physical conditions from the school. The teachers were in charge of all subjects 
shared the same lesson plans as in the same curriculum for the participants. Also, the 
participants, in general, reported that they did not attend any English language training from 
other teachers or language centers outside classrooms. Hence, it can be inferred that the chosen 
participants had the same knowledge background at the beginning. 
The participants were chosen by using convenience sampling due to the time constraint 
and the policy of the school. “A convenience sample is a group of individuals who 
8 Ly N. Nguyen, Nga T. Nguyen. Journal of Science Ho Chi Minh City Open University, 10(3), 3-17 
(conveniently) are available for study” (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2009, p. 98). Therefore, 80 
participants were selected from four available classes in a population of 325 pre-intermediate 
students. Two classes were collected for a Control Group (CG) and the other two classes for an 
Experimental Group (EG). Forty participants in each group satisfied the requirement of an 
experimental study that has 30 participants minimum in each group (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2009). 
They are Grade 8 students with a pre-intermediate level of proficiency. The participants in 
general learned English from very young ages and they had good chances to interact with 
English. They also have good opportunities to practice English at anytime and anywhere at 
school. 
Table 1 below shows the gender distribution of the two groups. 
Table 1 
Participants’ gender 
Gender 
Male Female Total 
Control group 15 25 40 
Experimenta