Pixel International Conferences

Notetaking is regarded as an academic skill necessary to pursue ones academic studies. Note taking while listening to lectures is a challenging activity, especially for non-native speakers studying in a foreign language. It is advised that non-native students should be trained in listening and note taking which will help them to improve their listening comprehension and notetaking skills. Also, it is indicated that students express a positive opinion about such training (Flowerdew & Miller, 1992; Hayati & Jalilifar, 2009; Crawford , 2015).

This study aimed study first year English Language Teaching students’ perceptions on their progress in listening and notetaking. In the first term of their freshman year, students are required to take a Listening Comprehension course that aims at improving their listening comprehension skills. In the second term, they are required to take a Listening and Note Taking course that aims at improving students’ note taking skills. The study was conducted with 61 Freshman ELT students. Data were collected through a 3 point Likert scale with 8 items including aspects such as using abbreviations and symbols, noting down only important information, and organizing main ideas and details. According to the results, students expressed to have progresses in all notetaking skills. However, the most progress was reported to be in using abbreviations and symbols and noting important words.