“I Can See What I Hear”: Reading-While-Listening (RWL) to Develop Listening Fluency

Abstract: For many years, EFL learners have been struggling to develop listening fluency. It is also often stated that the less accessible listening process has made teachers test instead of teaching listening (Field, 2003). What teachers can do the most is to help them practice and learn; thus, a considerable amount of comprehensible input is a key factor to auditory comprehension. Unfortunately, learners often complain about being unable to understand what they hear due to the characteristics of spoken text. They need to visualize the words. Therefore, Reading-While-Listening (RWL) is like killing two birds with one stone. Combining both input types will increase comprehension; resulting in more acquisition (Long, cited in Ellis, 1994). This paper discusses the role of Reading-While-Listening (RWL) in EFL contexts. It explains why spoken texts are more difficult to acquire, discusses the benefits of Reading-While-Listening (RWL) as well as integrating it in input- and output-based practice in EFL contexts.

Keywords: Reading-While-Listening (RWL), listening fluency, input- and output-based practice