The Influence of Applying Note-Taking Strategy on Improving Students’ EnglishListening Comprehension Skills at ArabAmerican University-Jenin

The main goal of the present study was to examine the influence of applying note taking strategy on improving students’ English listening comprehension skills at Arab American University-Jenin. The study investigated the influence of the following variables: (teaching strategy, gender and academic level) on the students’ performance in a listening comprehension test. To achieve the main goal of the study, the researcher used a standard listening comprehension test to assess the influence of note taking strategy on the students’ performance. Pre and post listening comprehension tests were given to a sample of 60 advanced students who study advanced English course at the English Language Center (ELC) in the Arab American University-Jenin. The sample consisted of two groups. The control group involved 30 students and was taught in a traditional way and the experimental group that included 30 students and was taught by using note-taking strategy. After conducting the experiment, a statistical analysis was used to analyze the collected data. The findings of the study showed that there is a positive influence of applying note taking strategy on improving students’ English listening comprehension skills. There were significant statistical differences between the results of the control group and the results of the experimental group in the post test in favor of the experimental group. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher recommends including the note taking techniques in the Palestinian curriculum since they are effective in increasing learners’ comprehension and training teachers on how to use the different techniques of note taking in an effective way. The researcher also suggests conducting more research on the techniques of using note taking.