Participants
73 adult, Japanese males and females aged between 22 and 65 volunteered to take part in the
study. All were attending advancedlevel EFL courses at one of two English language
schools in central Japan. According to inhouse documentation, this advancedlevel was
approximately equivalent to IELTS 7.0 and above. A large number of participants were used
in this study to build a record of decoding errors which were relatively common (in terms of
the given listening material) and would prove insightful in guiding remedial action, and also
inform a proactive response for other such learners.