Identifying student and classroom characteristics related to primary school students' listening skills: A systematic review

This study presents a systematic review of the empirical research on primary school students' first language listening skills. In total, 27 studies were selected and reviewed. The purpose of this review is twofold. First, outcome variables of listening skills were labeled according to the conceptual HURIER model of Brownell (2006). Results showed that most studies evaluated listening skills as the ability to remember, understand or interpret the auditory message. Second, important correlates according to the model of Palardy and Rumberger (2008) were related to primary school students' listening skills. At the classroom level, a significant relationship was found between students' listening skills and teaching practices (e.g. listening strategy instruction) as well as classroom features (e.g. classroom noise). At the student level, a significant relationship was found between students' listening skills and their cognitive skills (e.g. working memory) and background characteristics (e.g. socioeconomic status). Based on these results, suggestions for further research and practice are discussed.