The present study examines the impacts of match or mismatch of the head parameters of some languages on listening comprehension of English as a foreign language in Iran. It is a longitudinal survey of EFL learners at some universities of Iran from 2011 to 2012. It compares 20 Mazandarani learners of English with that of 20 Persian learners of English. Since English is mostly a head initial language, and Persian and Mazandarani head final languages, and there are fewer matches between English and Mazandarani parameters than that of English and Persian, then Mazandarani learners of English are expected to have more difficulty as far as listening comprehension of English is taken into account. The findings show that the match of the parameters facilitates the L2 listening process, whereas its mismatch hinders it.

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