Abstract

This pilot study aimed to develop and compare the English listening skills of students at Rajamangala University of Technology Tawan-ok using a learning management plan combined with three strategies for developing English listening skills in the English for Communication course. The three strategies were: 1. Engaging Stimulation 2. Teacher Reinforcement, and 3. Engaging Learning Media. Designed as a pilot study to manage expectations regarding generalizability, the research involved 202 participants enrolled in the English for Communication course during the first semester of the 2025 academic year. The research instrument was a 15-item listening skills test. The statistics used in the research included percentage, mean, standard deviation, and paired samples t-test. Additionally, Cohen’s d was utilized to determine the effect size of the instructional intervention. The research findings revealed that students who participated in the three English listening skills development activities achieved pre-test and post-test mean scores of 4.79 and 10.03, respectively. The comparison of students’ English listening skills before and after the course showed a statistically significant difference (t(201) = -43.015, p < .001). Specifically, the mean score after the integration of the three listening strategies was significantly higher than before the experiment, which was consistent with the research hypothesis. Furthermore, the effect size analysis yielded a Cohen’s d of 3.03, representing an exceptionally large effect size and demonstrating that the instructional strategies had a highly meaningful practical impact on developing the students’ English listening skills. However, this study has certain limitations; because the three strategies were combined pedagogically rather than tested separately, the isolated impact of each individual strategy could not be determined. Additionally, the sample was confined to a specific institutional context, and the study lacked a delayed post-test to evaluate long-term knowledge retention.

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