A Cross-Linguistic Study of Lexical Stress Sensitivity and Listening Ability of Iranian EFL learners: A Comparison between Monolinguals and Bilinguals

The current study aimed to examine the correlations between lexical stress sensitivity and listening ability of Iranian EFL learners with a focus on comparing Persian monolinguals and Baluchi-Persian bilinguals. The participants of the study were 44 monolingual EFL learners whose first language was Persian and 48 bilingual EFL learners speaking both Persian and Baluchi. Regarding their level of language proficiency, both groups were intermediate, based on the results of the Oxford Placement Test. A 30-item lexical stress sensitivity test and a 10-item listening comprehension test were administered to respectively determine the subjects’ level of lexical stress sensitivity and their listening comprehension ability. The results of the data analyses revealed that there is a significant difference between lexical stress sensitivity in monolingual and bilingual Iranian EFL learners. This may indicate the effectiveness of the mother tongue and the advantage of bilinguals over monolinguals when learning a new language. Furthermore, no correlation was found between lexical stress sensitivity in particular and the listening ability of either monolinguals or bilinguals in general. These findings imply that although bilinguals are definitely more sensitive toward stress placement, this sensitivity does not necessarily lead to better listening comprehension, indicating that recognizing the stress placement in individual words is perhaps only one among many of the factors that can be relevant to the overall listening ability.