Alkuvaiheen S2-oppijoiden käsityksiä puheen ymmärtämisen vaikeuksista ja kompensaatiostrategioista

Abstract

This article examines adult L2 Finnish learners’ perceptions of listening difficulties and compensatory strategies in everyday situations. The data consist of questionnaire answers (N = 202) and five semi-structured interviews. The answers were grouped according to the reasons why listening difficulties were experienced. The number of times each reason was mentioned was calculated in order to find out to what extent the reasons were shared by the group. The interviews were used as a complementary resource for analysing the questionnaire answers. The results suggest that listening difficulties were most commonly attributed to speech rate, colloquial language and unfamiliar words, and it is argued that these reasons were likely brought up due to learners’ ineffective decoding skills. Additionally, the results indicate that learners very often use repair strategies in order to compensate for gaps in their understanding. Finally, some pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.