Visuals play an important role in seconds language (L2) listening comprehension (Field 2008; Rost 2011). But surprisingly, they're still not widely used in L2 listening assessments. Why? Mostly because there's not enough research showing how visuals are viewed during these tests and their impact on performance.
To address this gap, we used eye-tracking technology to see exactly how L2 learners watch two types of videos – context videos that set the scene and content videos that show key information – during the Video-based L2 Academic Listening Test (VALT). We also looked at how students felt about these videos, how they used them, and whether the visuals made a difference in their test performance.
Citation
Suvorov, R. (2015). Interacting with visuals in L2 listening tests: an eye-tracking study. British Council. https://doi.org/10.57884/QMK3-R925