Abstract

The current study focuses on an e-learning platform called Furago designed to provide language instructors with exercises complementing activities already implemented in their classes. Its objective was to assess the impact the use of Furago could have on the listening skills of first-year Japanese university students. Statistical analyses that were used to outline the correlations between the main test variables (i.e., the grades achieved by students on two listening comprehension tests) and several predictor variables pertaining to the platform, such as the score the participants had accumulated or the consistency in which they use it, were all found to be statistically significant, albeit with correlation coefficients that were rather weaker than expected. Despite its users’ slow margin of progression, as evidenced by the linear model conducted during this study, such results confirmed the value of Furago as a means to improve students’ listening skills, especially, it would seem, at the very beginning of foreign language acquisition. Unexpectedly, these results also suggested that the users’ improvement might have more to do with the overall amount of time they put in their study (reflected here by their scores on Furago) than their consistency.

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