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From http://www.eltresearchbites.com

Clare Maas summarizes a 2018 research study by Jian, Kalyuga, and Sweller, "The Curious Case of Improving Foreign Language Listening Skills by Reading Rather than Listening: an Expertise Reversal Effect." The researchers hypothesize that reading instructions in addition to listening to them will be more helpful for some proficiency levels than for others. For lower proficiency learners, reading may help to address the "transient information effect" in which "long and complex information cannot be retained for long enough to be processed by working memory," but for higher proficiency learners, hearing and reading at the same time may lead to the "redundancy effect" in which processing "redundant information can create unnecessary cognitive load and use up working memory resources." 

The overall findings support differences in what is most effective for lower-proficiency and higher-proficiency learners for listening comprehension, but exactly what interventions and at what levels remains unclear.

Read the research summary here: http://www.eltresearchbites.com/201810-improving-foreign-language-listening-skills-by-reading/