First-year university students’ agency as a mechanism to improve listening skills in English as a Foreign Language

Abstract

This paper addresses the question, ‘What is the agency of first-year English as Foreign Language (EFL) students in acquiring listening skills at universities?’ Few studies have paid attention to this topic and this paper contributes knowledge to narrow this gap. It draws from a study that explored the influence of the English Listening course of Ethiopian universities on first-year EFL students’ listening skills. A total of 35 first-year students from three universities participated in the focus-group interview, and four instructors from the three universities participated in the individual-based interview. Thematic data analysis was followed, using ATLAS.ti7 to guide the process. Findings indicate selectivity and decision-making as key agential concepts that promote the use of different strategies to learn listening skills in the EFL context. Recommendations are made on how students can break the barriers to listening in EFL classrooms through different agential initiatives.