On the Effect of Poster-Making Technique and Visual Imagery Training on Iranian Female Upper-Intermediate EFL Learners’ Listening Comprehension Ability

This study aimed at investigating poster-making technique and visual imagery training effects on listening comprehension ability among Iranian EFL learners. Three homogeneous groups of upper-intermediate EFL learners at one of the Language Institutes in Mashhad, Iran were chosen. 68 learners were selected among 220 female upper-intermediate EFL students, 15 to 19 years of age. All the participants had the same amount of exposure to listening materials before the experiment, and all had studied English for six terms (each term consisting 17 sessions of 90 minutes each) at the institute. One of the groups was chosen as the control group, and two of them as the experimental groups. For eight sessions, the students in the control group were given the listening exercises in their textbooks, Touchstone 3 (McCarthy and Sardiford). The experimental groups were divided in two classes (class B and class C), class B in which poster-making was worked and class C in which visual imagery was presented. To collect the data four instruments, the Oxford Placement Test (OPT), Cambridge Preliminary English Test (PET), researcher-made questionnaire, and semi-structural interview were used. The results revealed that the two mentioned ways, poster-making and visual imagery, had no significant effects on listening comprehension ability. The mean scores of the control group were significantly higher than the experimental groups.