Effect of Answer Option Preview on English Listening Test Performance by Koreans

The purpose of this study was to examine whether viewing answer choices prior to listening improves listening comprehension test performance. 40 Korean pre-university students participated in an English listening test. The effect was assessed with specific reference to option length and L2 proficiency. The results suggested that answer option preview generally enhanced the L2 listening test performance, while the benefit became insignificant as the choices were long and the learners’ L2 proficiency was low. Two-way ANOVA supported the statistical significance of the effects. It was discussed that a preview of answer options can be advantageous when the answer choices are accessible to the test takers. For a preview to be effective, the options should be short enough to refer to within the given time and/or during listening, and the vocabulary and the structure should be easy enough for the test takers to recognize the meaning. This interpretation was in part supplemented by a survey analysis. Some implications were drawn for the control of the linguistic complexity of answer choices, with respect to the purpose and the target of a language test.