摘要
听力是听说读写译中最重要的一项技能,近年来正在受到越来越多地重视,但是大学生经常抱怨它是最难的一项。此前国内外的研究者对听力教学进行了大量研究,从认知学,认知心理学,心里语言学,语用学及文化等角度对听力技巧和听力策略进行了指导。尽管如此,仍然有一个问题没能彻底解决,即学生们虽然能够听辨出每一个单词,却没有足够的时间来理解这些输入的语言材料。有研究(Li:2002)已经发现这是由于听者的短时记忆容量有限引起的,并且少数的研究者已经通过对听力过程与短时记忆容量的关系的研究,提出可以通过扩大单位组块容量的方法来提高短时记忆的总体容量,从而提高听力理解能力。国家英语四级考试(CET-4)是一次大规模的外语测试,在中国已有二十多年的历史。作为一项重大测试,它已成为社会选拔人才的手段之一。越来越多的学生认为其听力部分非常难,而且很难提高,直接影响英语四级成绩。那么究竟哪些因素导致了学生的困难?如何提高学生的四级听力成绩呢?众多有关听力技巧和方法的教学中,词块法能有效提高听力能力,在提高记忆量、促进理解、加强学习动机、增强学习者的自信、提供可理解的语言输入和输出等方面具有重要意义。但是就词块对四级听力的研究甚少。本研究以中国学习者为研究对象,旨在研究词块法提高英语四级听力的可行性和有效性。本文从两个方面进行研究:
1.词块的掌握程度是否对大学英语四级听力成绩有影响?如果有影响,程度如何?
2.词块训练是否能提高学生的大学英语四级听力能力?如果能提高,提高的程度如何?
本文的研究对象为贵州大学90名2007级非英语专业大一的学生。为研究所提出的两个问题,本研究者设计了为期14周的试验。90名受试者分成两个班,每班45人。一个班为试验组一个班为控制组。对试验组进行词块教学法训练,而对控制组进行传统教学法训练。在训练前受试者参加两次测试,测试1是为了了解受试者的词块水平,测试2是为了了解受试者的英语四级听力水平。在训练后受试者参加两次测试,测试3了解受试者训练后的词块水平,测试4了解受试者训练后的英语四级听力水平。对四次测试的数据进行收集整理并用SPSS进行分析。在测试1之前随机抽取9名学生参加了访谈,在测试4之后也随机抽取9名学生参加访谈,并对访谈内容进行收集、整理和分析
定量的研究发现词块的掌握程度对大学英语四级听力成绩确实有影响。研究还显示,实验班的学生四级听力成绩显著提高,控制班的学生四级听力成绩明显低于实验班。从而证明了词块法在提高学生四级听力成绩方面是有效的。访谈在实验前、后分别进行,9名学生均承认词块法不同程度地提高了其四级听力成绩。
从研究方法及研究的过程和结果来看,本研究都具有可操作性和现实性。其研究结果对外语教师和学习者的启示是词块法能显著提高学生的四级听力成绩,同时可将词块法用于其他方面如阅读、写作等,进而提高其英语四级的整体成绩。
Listening is one of most important language skills among listening,speaking, reading,writing and translating.Although,recently,it has received more and more attention, college students still find that listening skill is the most difficult one of all the five basic language skills.The previous researchers both abroad and at home have made great contribution to the teaching and learning of listening comprehension and given the guide on the techniques and thc strategies from the perspectives of cognition,cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics,pragmatics and culture.However,there is still a problem that students have no enough time to comprehend the input linguistic data after recognizing each word of an utterance as it is spoken.The corresponding studies have found this problem is,to some degree,caused by the limited capacity of short-term memory.In order to find out the solution,some researchers,such as Call(1985) and Xu Fang(2005),conduct some cxperiments and use chunking to make up the deficiency of short-term memory.Their experiments prove that the memory for clauses is the predictor of listening comprehension success.But few studies were conducted to show the effect of chunk method used in the listening of CET-4.
CET-4 is a large-scale national standardized test for measuring English proficiency of non-English major undergraduates in colleges and universities.More and more students think its listening part is the most difficult part.It affects their scores.The present study is designed in attempt to find out the applicability and efficacy of Chunk Method in the listening of CET-4.In brief,the study attempted to answer the following questions:
1.Does the mastery of chunks influence the result of listening comprehension in CET-4? If it does,to what extent does it reach?
2.Can training students with chunk way improve students' listening comprehension ability in CET-4? If it can,to what extent can it improve?
In order to address the above questions,the researcher designed an experiment to prove them.There were 90 subjects participating the experiment.They were divided two groups,one is a control group,treated with the traditional method,and the other is an experimental group,treated with Chunk Method.There were four tests and two interviews designed in the experiment.Test One and Test Two were administered before the instruction with the purpose of investigating the participants' chunk level and their listening level of CET-4,and after the instruction Test Three and Test Four were conducted to check the effect of the Chunk Method in CET-4.The data of the four tests were collected and analyzed.As for the qualitative study,nine students were interviewed before and after the instruction.Findings generated from the research are as follows:
1.The mastery of chunks noticeably enhanced EFL learners' listening comprehension mark rate,producing much better results in CET-4.
2.Increasing the input of chunk can greatly improve EFL learners' listening comprehension ability in CET-4.
In conclusion,the study indicates that the Chunk Method as a listening skill can be effective in improving learners' listening ability.To be more specific,it is of great importance in enlarging listeners' memory,promoting their understanding,increasing motivation,increasing self-confidence and providing comprehensible input and output, and the like.Chunk Method offers a new perspective for CET-4 listening training. These findings have great pedagogic implications to the college English teaching.It is hoped that this study would shed some lights on the exploration of English listening teaching.
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