英语论文文化背景知识对英语听力理解影响的调查研究

1、A Study of Cultural Background Knowledges Effects on English Listening ComprehensionAThesis Presented to文化背景知识对英语听力理解影响的调查研究 摘要：听力理解是一个复杂的过程，影响听力的因素很多，有诸如语音，词汇，语法等一系列语言知识方面的因素，也有一些非语言知识的因素，文化背景知识便是其中之一。为检验文化背景知识对英语听力理解的影响，本研究对60名非英语专业的大学生进行了一次英语听力检测实验。实验结果显示文化背景知识对听力理解有促进作用，具体来说，它在减轻听音前的心理压力，增强听者自信心

2、，培养听者英语学习兴趣等方面都有着极其重要的作用。基于以上结论，本文建议，在听力教学过程中，教师应尽可能多的增加文化背景知识的输入量。这不仅可以增强学生的英美文化意识，还可以培养学生的英语思维能力，从而间接地提高学生的听力水平。同时，教师还必须注意输入的策略，给学生制造轻松愉悦的环境，比如可以通过观看电影，课前演讲，文化对比等形式，以活泼的形式促进学生听力的提高。关键词：文化背景知识；英语听力理解；英语教学 A Study of Cultural Background Knowledges Effects on English Listening ComprehensionAbstr

3、act：Listening comprehension is a complicated process, which is affected not only by such linguistic factors like pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, etc., but also some important nonlinguistic factors, one of which is cultural background knowledge. The paper presents an empirical study on 60 non-Eng

4、lish major collage students with the aim to testify the function of cultural background knowledge in English listening comprehension. The results of the experiment reveal that cultural background knowledge has the promotive function in English listening comprehension; it can reduce the psychological

5、 pressure before listening, strengthen the confidence on one hand, and reinforce the interest of English learning on another. Therefore, the paper lends strong support that in English listening teaching, teachers should introduce a lot of cultural background knowledge which can not only improve stud

6、ents listening level and strengthen students consciousness of foreign cultures, but also cultivate the ability of thinking in English. In the teaching process, teachers should pay more attention to the input methods and create a relaxing and pleasant environment in listening classes. Such means as w

7、atching the movies, doing the class report, comparing cultures of different nations, etc, are all effective ones that will improve students ability and consequently facilitate students to form the self-study habit. Key words: cultural background knowledge; English listening comprehension; English te

8、achingCONTENTS摘要iAbstractiiIntroduction.11 Literature Review.2 1.1 Diverse Views on English Listening Comprehension.2 1.2 Category of Cultural Background Knowledge.3 1.3 Process of English Listening Comprehension and Its Influencing Factors3 1.3.1 Listening Process.3 1.3.2 Influencing Factors in Eng

9、lish Listening Comprehension.4 2 Experiment.4 2.1 Research Questions.5 2.2 Methodology.5 Participants5 2.1.2 Materials.5 2.1.3 Procedures.53 Findings and Results.64 Discussion.7 4.1 About Data.7 4.2 Influences of Cultural Background Knowledge8 4.2.1 Psychological Pressure.8 4.2.2 Self-confidence.8 4

10、.2.3 Learning Interest9 4.3 Learning and Teaching Strategies.10Conclusion 11Bibliography13Appendix A Testing Paper.14Appendix B Testing Items.17Table 3.1 .7Figure 3.1 .7Acknowledgements21IntroductionListening as the first step of learning a language has been studied for many years. Recent researches

11、 on English listening have focused on such influencing factors as vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, etc. What is new, however, is the analysis from the perspective of information processing, English listening comprehension is a complicated psychological process with the interaction of language and

12、 thinking. In addition, it is the interaction of listeners conceptual formation, background knowledge, and processing strategies. Research on English listening comprehension from the three angles of cognitive psychology can provide an inspiration for teaching listening and clear out the barrier in l

13、istening comprehension. (Ying Guoli, 2009: 82) Although many people have realized the importance of cultural background knowledge in English listening, few people made researches on how it affects the comprehension, and still fewer use it in listening teaching. With this question in concern, this su

14、rvey concentrates on how the cultural background knowledge affects English listening comprehension and how to input more cultural background knowledge in listening teaching.Deducing from database of sixty non-English majors, this paper makes an elaborate investigation and description of influences o

15、f cultural background knowledge in English listening comprehension through observation and comparison of the subjects distinct reations to the testing items. The participants are students from two non-English major classes of the same grade who have almost the same English cultural background knowle

16、dge, around 60 in total. In the first class, before the listening test, their teacher introduced the relative cultural background knowledge of the material firstly, then told the examinees that the following listening test will include the information they have learned. The second class listened to

17、the same testing materials directly, no cultural background knowledge was introduced before listening. By comparing the correctness rates of students of these two classes, we come to analyze the influences of the cultural background knowledge in English listening comprehension.The paper is divided i

18、nto 4 Chapters. The introductory chapter contains some basic issues for the study. Chapter 1 is the literature review part which will firstly present researches on this topic that have been made and the corresponding conclusions, and then introduce the category of cultural background knowledge which

19、 is “a complex matter, including knowledge, belief, art, morals, customs, and other capabilities acquired by people as a member of society”.(Zhang Cengyi, 2009: 7) The English listening process and influencing factors which obstacle the understanding of the listening materials will be included as we

20、ll. In Chapter 2, we will introduce our experiment that includes the research questions, methodologies such as participants, testing materials, and the procedures of the experiment, etc. We will report the corresponding results and findings in Chapter 3, followed by discussion in Chapter 4. And the

21、last part is conclusion of the paper. 1 Literature Review1.1 Diverse Views on English Listening ComprehensionWith the development of globalization, more and more people realize the importance of learning English. Researchers of the whole world have investigated kinds of methods to help people improv

22、e their English. And they reach the agreement that mastering a language means to develop abilities of listening, speaking, reading, and writing at the same time. Just as David Crystal (2002: 378) mentioned, “Language work is first heard, then practice orally, before seen and used in written form.” A

23、ccording to the statistics offered by Guo Jianmin (2004: 117), 45% of adults time connects with listening in daily communicative activity. And the latest National CET-4 Reform Program promulgated by the Ministry of Education in 2005 claimed that the part of listening comprehension rise to 35%. There

24、fore, there is no need to explain the importance of listening in English study.Many researchers, like He Fusheng (2006: 9-10) and Gao Guixiang & Pan Bingxin (2002: 2-5), analyzed the factors that influence the listening comprehension. They concluded that the listeners abilities of vocabulary, gr

25、ammar, pronunciation, intonation, etc, would affect correctness of listening.Recently, some other researchers, like Xiang YU (2008: 14) and Xiang Huyue (2008: 96-98), took such personal subjective factors as interest, motivation, self-confidence, etc, into concern in English listening comprehension

26、study. There are also some researchers who begin to pay their attention to the importance of cultural background knowledge in listening. Listening comprehension is a complicated psychological process. Linguists approach English listening mainly from psycholinguistic perspectives which identify two k

27、inds of information processing models that can be labeled as bottom-up and top-down in the listening process. H.Douglas Brown (2001) believed that bottom-up processing proceeds from sounds, words, grammatical relationships, lexical meanings, etc. to a final “message” while top-down processing is evo

28、ked from “a bank of prior knowledge and global expectations ” and other background information that the listener brings to the text. David Crystal (2002: 372) pointed out, “Today, learning a foreign language is likely to mean learning a great deal about the foreign civilization and culture at the sa

29、me time. It helps the learners to become more fully aware of differing ways of behavior, and reduces the risks of culture shock, foreigner stereotyping, and intolerance.”In addition, some researchers claimed the degree of the familiarity about the materials, the quantity of cultural background knowl

30、edge, and the listeners psychological diathesis will directly affect understanding of the listening contents. From all the above researches, influences of cultural background knowledge turn out to be obvious. After mastering the relative cultural background knowledge, listeners will become more conf

31、ident. Otherwise, they will be nervous and uneasy in listening. 1.2 Category of Cultural Background KnowledgeThe category of culture is both huge and ambiguous. It can be studied from such aspects as the physical geography, economy, history, politics, educational system, literature art, music, scien

32、ce, technology, media, sport, daily life-style, popular beliefs, folk customs, and social values, etc. That knowledge is huge and complex; no one can remember them at one time. What we can do is to accumulate them little by little in daily learning.Every nation has its own unique cultural background

33、. The process of learning English is also the process of understanding and mastering the culture of English-speaking countries. Any word or action can reflect the cultural connotation to some extent. And people always try to understand others based on their own cultural background knowledge and ling

34、uistic habits. Under the deep influence of mother tongue and homeland culture, in the process of listening comprehension, listeners usually analyze and understand English with Chinese thinking style, which would cause difficulties in understanding the speakers real intention quickly and exactly. So

35、in English listening teaching, teachers should try their best to guide students to learn cultural background knowledge as much as possible. We should make the category of cultural background knowledge clear, so we can pay more attention to them in daily learning. With regard to culture, I mean “the

36、pattern of learning embodied in symbolic forms, including actions, utterances and meaningful objects of various kinds, by virtue of which individuals communicate with one another and share their experiences, conceptions and beliefs” (Hinkel, 2001: 77).1.3 Process of English Listening Comprehension a

37、nd Its Influencing Factors1.3.1 Listening ProcessListening comprehension includes listening and distinguishing the single phoneme and successive speech sounds, as well as grasping the meaning. According to cognitive psychology, listening is the active process in which the listeners accept, understan

38、d and choose the useful information positively, and then preserve it into long-time memory. In other words, listening comprehension is not a passive accept, but involves positively analyzing the listening content by using their acquired knowledge, then choosing, arranging and classifying them. This

39、is a re-arrangement process. This process includes three stages, namely, the linguistic stage, the cognitive stage, and the met cognitive stage.1.3.2 Influencing Factors in English Listening ComprehensionThis part is concerned with the influencing factors in listening process. The activity of listen

40、ing can be further divided into 6 steps. First, it is the perception and recognition of the speech sound. That is to say, at the beginning of the listening, sound waves reached the ears. In this step, the pronunciation, intonation, stress, plosive, and rhyme, are the main influencing factors. Second

41、, it is the initial understanding of the exact materials. This step requires listeners to grasp the meaning of the words, phases, and sentences. So it is influenced by the vocabulary and grammar. Third, it is to preserve the material in short-time memory. However, “Information kept in short-time mem

42、ory will be forgotten after 30 minutes if it is not repeated” (Wu Xinchun & Zhang Jun, 2009:181). So, the forth step, which connects the listening materials with their own cultural background knowledge, is essential. Then, the listeners comprehend the materials and preserve them in long-time mem

43、ory. At last, the main idea and outline will be caught. From the last three steps, we can conclude that the listeners cultural background knowledge and thinking mode affect the listening comprehension deeply and widely.From the above statement, we can predict that cultural background knowledge has a

44、 great influence on listeners psychological diathesis in English listening. In the following chapter, the paper will present the experiment that will testify the function of cultural background knowledge in English listening. And based on the experimental study, the purpose of this paper is to clari

45、fy the function of background knowledge, make both students and teachers realize the importance of cultural background knowledge in listening comprehension and to bring the awareness of input of background information in English teaching at the same time. 2 ExperimentIn the previous chapter, we have

46、 discussed the category of cultural background knowledge and the process of listening comprehension which is a complicated psychological process. In this chapter, we will illustrate our experiment which is designed to testify the function of background information in listening comprehension. It will

47、 include the research problems, methodologies, such as participants, testing materials, and the procedures, etc.2.1 Research QuestionsBased on testing materials chosen from CET-4 and CET-6 which contain 5 short dialogues and 5 long passages, the specific research questions we set out to address in t

48、he present study will include: . Whether there is any influence of cultural background knowledge on English listening comprehension. . How cultural background knowledge will affect English listening comprehension. . Learning and teaching strategies in English listening comprehension.2.2 Methodology

49、In the following, we will illustrate our experiment in details, including its participants, stimuli, and procedures.2.2.1 Participants60 undergraduates aging from 20 to 22 take part in this project. Half of them are sophomores, from class 5, Physical Department of HeZe University, in Shang Dong Prov

50、ence. The rest 30 students are from class 2 of the same grade in the same department and university. The selection of the participants bases on three reasons. Firstly, all the participants are undergraduates aging from 20 to 22 who have the ability of mature thinking and prediction. Because the func

51、tion of the cultural background knowledge can only be revealed by associating with the context, then prediction and deduction of abstruse meaning are needed. Secondly, they are all from science department. Comparatively speaking, they are not familiar with the culture of English-speaking countries.

52、Therefore, in the process of the experiment, we can control the quantity of cultural background knowledge that they have learned. Thirdly, they have acquired the fundamental English knowledge, such as vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, intonationSo we can give prominence to the influences of cultur

53、al background knowledge in listening.2.2.2 Testing MaterialsAll these testing materials which contain 5 short dialogues and 5 long passages are chosen from CET-4 and CET-6 which suit the level of the participants. Among them, short dialogues 2, 4, 5 and long passages 1, 2, 4 are testing items about

54、cultural background knowledge which include the idioms, historical eminent person and his work, theory of language research, and the creation of basketball. In order to simulate the real listening test, the rest 2 short dialogues and 2 long passages do not relate to background cultural knowledge.2.2

55、.3 ProceduresBefore the tests, we select the listening materials carefully and collect the relative cultural background knowledge thoroughly. To arouse self-learning interest, the knowledge is illustrated as simple and interesting as possible.The two tests are carried out separately in English liste

56、ning classes. And in order to simulate the real atmosphere of examination, the explanation and operation are done by teachers. Before listening, students of the first class (class 5 mentioned in the participants) are told that the following cultural knowledge will be contained in the following listening test. Then their teacher explains the relative cultural background knowledge and asks them to listen carefully. Now, let us take the passage 1 and passage 2 (in Appendix A) of the test which will be mainly analyzed and discussed in this thesis, as an example. About pa