The presented study aimed to investigate students’ competence in English listening skills and vocabulary proficiency at elementary school level focusing on the correlation between students’ listening skills, vocabulary proficiency and out-of-school exposure. A total of 123 students of the 9th grade participated in the study. Standardized listening and vocabulary tests were used to assess the students’ listening and vocabulary skills followed by a questionnaire to find out the correlation between the students’ listening skills, vocabulary proficiency and out-of-school exposure. Results show that out-of-classroom exposure to English in audio and audio-visual forms is positively related with levels of English listening skills and vocabulary proficiency whereas there is no indication that playing video-games in any form in English may be related to levels of English listening skills and vocabulary proficiency.

This paper examines the relationship between students’ listening comprehension skills and their opinions and interest in learning English. The participants were 514 ninth-grade students in public elementary schools in the Republic of Kosovo. A standardised listening comprehension test was used to assess students’ listening skills, followed by a questionnaire covering a range of opinions and interest in learning English. The results indicate a significant positive correlation between proficiency in English listening and factors such as interest in learning English, perception of English as a motivating skill, and lower levels of learning difficulty. In addition, favouring a dedicated language school for learning English was found to be a significant factor in English listening proficiency.