Mobile-Assisted Listening Use and Perceived Listening Improvement and Confidence Among EFL Learners: The Roles of Listening Strategy Use and Listening Engagement

Despite the growing use of mobile technologies for English listening practice, the relationships linking mobile-assisted listening use with perceived listening improvement and confidence remain insufficiently understood. This study employed a quantitative cross-sectional survey design to examine the relationships among mobile-assisted listening use, listening strategy use, listening engagement, and perceived listening improvement and confidence among EFL learners. Following instrument validation, data were collected from a convenience sample of 715 Saudi undergraduate EFL learners and analysed using structural equation modelling. The findings revealed that mobile-assisted listening use was positively associated with listening strategy use and listening engagement. Listening strategy use was positively associated with both listening engagement and perceived listening improvement and confidence, whereas listening engagement showed the largest standardised coefficient in relation to perceived listening improvement and confidence (β = 0.427). The direct relationship between mobile-assisted listening use and perceived listening improvement and confidence was not statistically significant (β = 0.013, p = 0.770). In contrast, the sequential indirect effect through listening strategy use and listening engagement was positive and statistically significant (β = 0.069, 95% BCa CI [0.045, 0.098]). These findings suggest that perceived listening improvement and confidence are associated less with mobile listening use itself than with learners’ reported listening strategy use and engagement. Mobile-assisted listening use showed a significant indirect association with perceived listening improvement and confidence through the hypothesised pathway involving listening strategy use and listening engagement, rather than a significant direct association.