The Role of Sequencing Tasks in Iranian High-Proficiency UndergraduateStudents’ Listening Comprehension: Unexplored Variables of ± IntentionalReasoning Demands and ± Few Steps

The purpose of carrying out this study was to explore the strength of sequencing listening tasks incomprehending them as per Robinson’s (2022) SSARC (stabilize, simplify, automatize,reconstruct, and complexify) model, along with simpler tasks strength in comprehending the verycomplex task. Two groups of female students in a non-profit university in Tehran were chosen asper their Oxford Placement Test results. One group of high-proficiency participants (eighteenstudents) carried out simple non-intentional reasoning and few-step tasks, complex non-intentionalreasoning and many-step tasks, and very complex intentional reasoning and many-step tasks insequence. In contrast, another group (fifteen students) carried out those tasks in the reversesequence (very complex, complex, simple sequence). The listening comprehension performanceof participants in two groups was compared. The second comparison was made between the qualityof performance on the very complex task carried out after simpler tasks and that of performanceon the very complex task that was not preceded by simpler tasks. As indicated by Mann-WhitneyU test results, a statistically significant difference neither existed between tasks carried out by thetwo groups nor between the very complex task preceded by simpler tasks and the very complextask that was not preceded by simpler tasks. The outcomes of this research can be beneficial tosequencing tasks with various levels of cognitive complexity as an essential tool for successful L2learning.

The Role of Sequencing Tasks in Iranian High-Proficiency UndergraduateStudents’ Listening Comprehension: Unexplored Variables of ± IntentionalReasoning Demands and ± Few Steps Keywords:

Intentional Reasoning Tasks , Listening Comprehension , Many-Step Tasks , Sequencing Tasks , SSARC Model