浅析大专高职英语词汇教学对听力理解能力的影响.docx

硕士学位论文论文题目 ：The Impact of Vocabulary Teaching on Listening Comprehension-From the Aspect of Higher Vocational Colleges高职高专英语词汇教学对听力理解能力的影响学科专业名称申请人姓名导 师 姓 名论文提交时间课程与教学论（英语）The Impact of Vocabulary Teaching on Listening Comprehension-From the Aspect of Higher Vocational Colleges高职高专英语词汇教学对听力理解能力的影响 Under the supervision of Professor Liu QianAThesisSubmitted toSchool of Foreign LanguagesOf Shandong Normal UniversityIn Candidacy for the Degree of Master of EducationShandong Normal UniversityJinan, Shandong,ChinaMay, 2012ContentsAbstract . I摘要. IIIIntroduction. 11.2.3.4.Background . 1Brief introduction to vocabulary teaching in Higher Vocational Colleges . 2Reasons for choosing this topic . 3Purposes of the study . 45. Layout of the thesis . 6Chapter One Literature Review . 81.1 A brief history of English language teaching . 81.2 Study of English vocabulary teaching and learning . 101.2.1 Direct and indirect vocabulary learning. 101.2.2 Vocabulary the learners need to know . 111.2.3 Approaches to vocabulary learning. 11Chapter Two Theoretical Framework . 132.1 Vocabulary knowledge . 132.1.1 Definition of the word. 132.1.2 Contents of vocabulary knowledge. 142.2 Lexical chunks . 172.2.1 The definition of lexical chunks . 172.2.2 The functions of lexical chunks . 182.3 Listening Comprehension . 182.3.1 The importance of listening . 182.3.2 Process of Listening Comprehension. 182.3.3 Factors affecting listening comprehension . 202.3.4 Taking advantage of lexical chunks to facilitate listeningcomprehension . 21Chapter Three Research Design. 223.1 Research Questions . 223.2 Hypotheses . 223.3 Subjects . 233.4 Instruments. 233.5 Procedure and data collection . 263.5.1 Procedure and data collection for the pre-test. 263.5.2 Procedure of the experiment . 273.5. 3 Data collection for the post-test . 35Chapter Four Results and Analysis . 364.1 Results and data analysis for the pre-test . 364.1.1 Statistics . 364.1.2 Further Comparison of Correlation Analyses in the Two Subsamples . 374.1.3 Correlation Analyses in the Small-Vocabulary-Size Sample . 384.1.4 Correlation Analyses in the Large-Vocabulary-Size Sample . 394.1.5 Comparison of Correlation Analyses in the Two Subsamples . 394.2 Results and data analysis for post-test . 404.2.1 The data of post-test . 404.2.2 The effect for improving students listening proficiency in theexperimental class . 414.3 Major findings. 41Chapter Five Suggestions for Vocabulary Teaching on Listening Comprehension. 445.1 Enhancing students motivation . 445.2 Raising students awareness of the lexical chunks in English . 445.3 Teaching listening with the help of lexical chunks. . 445.4 Emphasizing the importance of accumulation. . 45Conclusion . 46Bibliography . 48APPENDIX Applied English Test for Vocational Colleges (Grade A, June., 2010). 52APPENDIX Applied English Test for Vocational Colleges (Grade A, Dec., 2010). 55APPENDIX College English Test-Band 4 (June, 2010) . 58APPENDIX College English Test-Band 4 (Dec., 2010). 63APPENDIX Vocabulary Level Test (receptive). 68APPENDIX Vocabulary Level Test (productive) . 78Published Papers . 83Acknowledgements . 84 AbstractIn English language learning, the role listening plays cannot be ignored.Listening is an important way of language input, and it is the premise of successfulcommunication. However, in the practical teaching, the author found that most of thestudents have a poorer listening proficiency compared with their reading, speaking, orwriting ability. When doing listening practice, many students can only seize severalsingle words, from which seldom could students guess what is going on, let aloneunderstand the speakers implication or intentions. Chinese students lie in the Chineseenvironment, lacking an English environment, which adds difficulty to studentslistening practice. However, its true that no matter for the quality education or theexam-oriented education listening is in an increasing demand. Such situation raises aproblem for English teachers: How to effectively improve the students listeningability?Wondering about the solution to this problem, the author designed this study. In thisstudy, two research questions are raised in advance: (1) Does vocabulary knowledgecontribute to the success of listening comprehension and to what extent? (2) Canlexical-chunk-oriented vocabulary teaching benefit students in their listeningcomprehension?Based on related researches carried out by Michael Lewis about the relationshipbetween lexical phrases and listening comprehension, the author fulfilled theexperiment to explore whether lexical-chunk-oriented vocabulary teaching canimprove the students listening ability. Though lexical chunks are labeled in differentways by different researchers, in this thesis, all the linguistic units, larger than a singleword, having integral forms, idiomatically determined meaning and pragmaticfunction, and occurring commonly together are regarded as lexical chunks. Manyresearchers have researched on lexical chunks. Those of Michael Lewis (1993, 1997)and Nattinger and Decarrico (1992) have made special contribution to arousingpeoples attention to lexical chunks and laid theoretical foundation for later researchesIn this paper, the author introduces the psychological process and characteristicI of listening comprehension, and then points out in specific listening activities, thelistener should be fully aware of the existence of lexical chunks and actively applythem in order to promote listening comprehension. Lexical chunks can improve thelisteners short-term memory capacity, reduce information processing burden, andhelp the listeners to predict effectively, therefore, if the listener can accumulate acertain amount of lexical chunks and can make full use of them when doing listeningpractice, then the listener will greatly improve his/her listening proficiency.The participants of the study come from Shandong Economic ManagementCollege, majoring in accounting and belonging to two classes. Scores of listening testsin the pre-test indicate that the listening ability of the two classes doesnt have muchdifference, so the two classes are randomly labeled as the experimental class and thecontrol class. The experimental period is 16 weeks. During this period, theexperimental class are taught by the new teaching method, both in the vocabularyteaching and listening practice, while the control class continue to be taught by thetraditional teaching method. The listening tests implemented at the end of theexperiment shows the scores for the two classes appear significant difference: Theaverage score of the experimental class is significantly better than that of the controlclass. Thus, the results reveal that the students vocabulary knowledge has a positivecorrelation with their listening comprehension, which is consistent with the authorsdaily observation, and that lexical-chunk-oriented vocabulary teaching can improvelistening comprehension ability.However, there are many other factors influencing listening comprehension, suchas: students intelligence, their desire to improve, their enthusiasm, the psychologicalstate when doing listening practice, the difficulty of the listening materials and so on.The author couldnt separate one influential factor from another. Therefore, this studyhas many deficiencies, inviting other researchers to further validate the theory.Key Words: listening comprehension; vocabulary teaching; lexical chunksCategory number: H319II摘要在英语学习过程中，听力的作用不容忽视。听既是语言输入的重要途径，也是成功交际的前提。然而，在实际教学中，笔者发现大多数学生在听、说、读、写四大技能中，最为薄弱的就是听力。很多学生在做听力练习时只能抓住所听内容中的单个字词，却难以理解整句的意思，就更不用说理解说话人的言外之意或真正意图了。中国学生身处汉语环境，缺少听说的实际语境，从而使得学生的听力提高成为一大难题。而如今，无论是素质教育还是应试教育都对听力有着越来越高的要求。这就给英语教师提出了一大难题：如何行之有效的提高学生的能力。基于解决这一实际问题的需要，作者设计并开展了本文所述之实验。实验之前，预设了两个问题：1）学生的词汇知识对听力理解是否有影响？在多大程度上有影响？2）以词块为主的词汇教学是否能促进学生英语听力能力的提升？本文依托着 Michael Lewis 的词汇短语理论和听力理解的相关研究，通过实验探讨了是否可以通过词块教学来促进提高学生的听力理解能力。所谓词块，指的是那些出现频率较高，形式和意义都比较固定的大于单个单词的结构，它具有形式的整体性特征、语义的约定俗成性及一定的语用功能。虽然对词块的称呼不甚统一，但许多语言学者都对其进行过研究。其中 Michael Lewis (1993, 1997) 和Nattinger 及 Decarrico（1992）对词块的研究为词汇短语教学法奠定了理论基础，使词块的作用逐步引起了人们的重视。论文结合听力理解的过程及特征指出在具体的听力活动中，听者应该充分意识到词块的存在并主动利用词块以促进听力理解的有效进行。词块可以提高听者的短时记忆能力、减轻信息加工负担、帮助听者有效预测，因而如果听者积累一定量的词块并能在听力中充分利用，那么听者对听力语篇的理解能力就会大幅度提高。本研究的受试者为是山东省经济管理干部学院 10 级会计专业的两个班。听力测试表明在实验前两个班的英语听力水平没有明显差异，因而两个班被随机分为实验班和对照班。实验期为 16 周，在此期间，实验班接受新的教学方法，在词汇教授及听力实践时渗透词块相关内容，而控制班继续按传统的方法授课。实验结束后，听力测验显示出两个班的听力分数出现比较显著的差异，实验班明显III 好于控制班。因而，实验结论表明学生的词汇量及词汇深度知识与听力理解存在着正相关关系，这一点和笔者的日常观察基本一致，也表明词块教学有助于提高学生的听力理解水平。然而影响听力的因素有很多，比如：学生的智力水平、提高听力的愿望和积极主动性、听力测试时的心理状态、听力题目的难度等等，笔者在实验当时并不能摈弃这些因素的影响，因此，本研究存在诸多不足之处，还有待其他研究者对此类研究做进一步的验证，对该理论加以补充和完善。关键词：听力理解；词汇教学；词块中图分类号：H319IV Introduction1. BackgroundStudents of Higher Vocational Colleges come from different parts of the country,mainly from the located Shandong Province. They have developed their Englishlanguage skills for at least six years in senior middle school, some even for eight toten years, including several years in primary school. In Higher Vocational College,students have to receive one-and-a-half-year English class education to furtherimprove their English language skills. Listening comprehension seems to bear moresignificance as they will be required to apply English more than before, sinceinternational cooperation is strengthened and more chances are given to them tocommunicate with foreigners in English. Also in kinds of English language tests, theproportion taken up by listening comprehension is large enough not to be neglectedby both teachers and students, and meanwhile, the percentage of this part tends toincrease. Yet what about students current situation on listening comprehension?Mostly they look confused when they finish their listening materials. Some evendecide on the choices by drawing lots or head or tail. As asked about the contents theygrasped or understood, they would shake their heads. A better answer might be I gotsuch or such words. As a teacher, one cant restrain oneself from wondering aboutthe reasons.During the teaching, I have heard many a time students complain in puzzlement.I have studied English for so many years but it seems I havent made noticeableprogress in it. I am always using more or less the same words as I used in juniormiddle school in speaking and writing. And about listening comprehension, its all thesame. I never would know what they are talking about. This embodies the factualsituation of a considerable number of students.Ever since the beginning of teaching English as a foreign language in China, theprime mission of it is to cultivate such basic skills as listening, speaking, reading andwriting, and finally achieve the aim of improving students comprehensivecommunicative competence. Listening comprehension plays such a significant role1 that many researchers and professionals recognize it. Wilga Rivers (1981) pointed outthat in the process of communicative activity, the time taken by listening, speaking,reading and writing is 45%, 30%, 16% and 9% respectively. More importance beingattached onto communicative competence, both teachers and students have beenconscious of the usefulness listening expresses as a language for communication.However, in actual practice, teachers and students both find it a tough task tofulfill. To improve ones listening ability is no easy mission. Its an extremely activeprocess requiring the listener interpreting messages received through the ears withones knowledge of the world. The contradiction situation between the students poorperformance in listening comprehension and the listening requirements of collegestudents reminds us that some measures must be taken to change it.Many factors contribute to the difficulty of a better listening comprehension.Vocabulary, one of the three cornerstones of a language, should arouse awareness ofits important role it plays in listening comprehension. Many students may feel awfulwhen hearing a word but couldnt recognize it, even if he/she could easily interpret itwhen coming across it in reading materials. This commonly existed phenomenonraised a question for teachers: how could we teachers teach vocabulary effectively soas to better students listening comprehension capability?2. Brief introduction to vocabulary teaching in Higher Vocational CollegesHigher Vocational Colleges are generally considered as those of two- orthree-year-program colleges, with the aims of training students occupational skillsrequired in their later career. Most of the vocational college students score lower thanthose who attend universities in the National Entrance Examination. Due to theirpoorer achievements in English their motivation of studying English is comparativelyweak.For many years, the vocabulary teaching has been mal-treated or neglected duepartly to a specialization in linguistic research on syntax and phonology which mayhave fostered a climate in which vocabulary was treated as