A Comparative Study of Explicit and Implicit Mediators at Iranian High Schools: Students’ L2 Anxiety and Listening Comprehension

As conceptualized in Vygotsky’s (1978) theory of mediation, the present quantitative study scrutinized the impact of explicit and implicit mediators on high school students’ L2 listening anxiety and listening comprehension. Over six months, two groups of 34 Iranian high school students were exposed to pronunciation instruction (explicit mediator-using phonetic rules- and implicit mediator-without phonetic rules), and a control group of 17 students received no pronunciation instruction. Pretests and posttests were used to measure learners’ improvements in listening anxiety and comprehension. Small changes were observed in both variables for the control group, whereas significant progress was found for both experimental groups, especially the explicit group. The results revealed that pronunciation instruction is a meaningful mediator in developing listening comprehension and decreasing listening anxiety among high school students, even when instructional time is restricted. This study has some practical implications suggesting that Iranian school teachers and book designers should consider pronunciation instruction effects when teaching listening to school students.