论文总字数：42585字

摘 要

Introduction 1

2. Literature Review ２

2.1 Theoretical issues ２

2.1.1 Listening comprehension ２

2.1.2 Question preview ３

2.1.3 Language proficiency ３

2.1.4 The interplay of question preview and language proficiency on listening comprehension ４

2.2 Empirical studies ５

2.2.1 Studies on the effects of question preview on listening comprehension ５

2.2.2 Studies on the effects of language proficiency on listening comprehension ６

2.2.3 Studies on the effects of question preview and language proficiency on English comprehension ６

2.2.4 Limitations of previous studies ７

3. Methodology ９

3.1 Research questions ９

3.2 Participants ９

3.3 Procedure １０

3.4 Data collection １０

3.4.1 Listening comprehension test １０

3.4.2. Questionnaire task １１

3.5 Data analysis １１

4. Results and Discussion １２

4.1 Results １２

4.1.1 Results of descriptive statistics １２

4.1.2 Results of two-way ANOVA １２

4.1.3 Results of questionnaire １４

4.2 Discussion １５

4.2.1 Effects of language proficiency on listening comprehension １５

4.2.2 Effects of question preview on listening comprehension １６

4.3 Effects of language proficiency and question preview on listening comprehension １６

5.Conclusion １８

5.1Theoretical implications １８

5.2 Pedagogical implications １８

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further research １８

References ２０

Acknowledgements

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to those who have helped me a lot with my BA thesis writing. Without their help, completion of this thesis would have been impossible.

My deepest gratitude goes to my supervisor, Mr. Han Yawen, for his painstaking effort in guiding me through the various stages of writing this paper. During my working on the paper, he helped me with choosing the topic, collecting the samples, and accessing the software for treating the data. His profound insights broadened my horizon in linguistic studies. The work would not have been possible without his patient guidance, continuous encouragement and generous support.

I would like to thank all the other teachers for their enlightenment, knowledge, encouragement and help throughout my undergraduate study at Nanjing Tech University.

Special thanks go to my dear friends and fellow students, who have accompanied me throughout the four years at the university.

Last but not least, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to my parents and for their love and support all these years.

Abstract

This study aims to examine how English language proficiency and formats of question preview affect EFL learners’ listening comprehension. Specifically, it addresses the following research questions:

1. Is there any effect of language proficiency on China’s EFL learners’ listening comprehension?

2. Is there any effect of different ways of question preview on China’s EFL learners’ listening comprehension?

3. Does the effect of different ways of question preview on listening comprehension vary according to the difference of language proficiency?

Participants included 54 English major juniors Nanjing Tech University. In addition to collecting their CET4 scores as a measure to divide the subjects into two groups with different English language proficiency, all learners were asked to complete listening comprehension test which entailed three different formats of question preview. The three formats were the full question preview format (FQP), answer option preview (AOP) and question stem preview (QSP). They also completed questionnaires which were utilized to interpret statistical results.

The two-way between group ANOVA of SPSS 20.0 was conducted with the data in the study. The major findings are as follows:

1. English language proficiency has a significant effect on listening comprehension. It indicates that participants with high language proficiency perform better in listening comprehension test than those with low language proficiency.

2. There are no statistically significant effects of different formats of question preview on listening comprehension. It shows that participants are not affected by the three formats of question preview (FQP, AOP and QSP) in listening comprehension.

3. There is significant interaction between different language proficiency and formats of question preview in terms of listening comprehension. It indicates that the influence of language proficiency on listening comprehension is affected by formats of question preview.

Key Words: listening comprehension; question preview; language proficiency

中文摘要

本实验考察了语言水平和预览方式对中国英语学习者的听力理解的影响。具体而言，它将解决以下三个问题：

1. 语言水平对中国英语学习者听力理解是否有显著影响？

2. 不同问题预览方式对中国英语学习者听力理解是否有显著影响？

3. 语言水平和不同问题预览方式对中国英语学习者听力理解是否有交互影响？

南京工业大学英语专业大三学生参加了本次试验。首先收集受试者大学英语四级的试卷分数,根据这一分数将受试者划分成具有不同英语语言水平组别。此后受试者按要求完成包含三种不同问题预览方式的听力测试，分别为问题干和选项预览，选项预览，题干预览。最后受试者参与问卷调查，问卷结果被用于解释数据结果。本研究通过SPSS 20中的双因素方差分析，得出以下结论：

1. 英语语言水平对于学习者听力理解有显著影响。结果表明，高语言水平的被试者的听力理解高于低语言水平的被试者。

2. 不同问题预览方式对二语学习者听力理解没有显著影响。通过分析发现，被试者的听力理解在完全预览, 选项预览和题干预览三种问题预览方式上没有显著差异。

3. 英语语言水平和不同问题预览方式对二语学习者的听力理解有显著的交互效应。结果表明，英语语言水平不同的被试的听力理解受问题预览方式的影响。

关键词：听力理解 问题预览 语言水平

Introduction

In recent years, research on listening comprehension has drawn much attention on second language acquisition (SLA). In listening tests, formats of multiple-choice question has been widely used to test listening performance, for example, College English Test (CET)、Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)、International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Whereas, different ways of question preview format are adopted in MCQ. It mainly consists of full question preview (FQP), answer option preview (AOP). The previous researches can present indications about the effects of different formats of question preview on listening comprehension but consistent conclusions were not been reached. Several researchers suggest that listeners should listen to questions in advance so that they know what they should listen for (Buck,1991; Chang,2004; Chang and Read,2006; Underwood,1989), whereas others have different findings. To sum up, the preceding studies tend to focus on only the effect of question preview and ignore the effect of language proficiency on listening comprehension. Therefore, this research is intended to investigate the effect of question preview and language proficiency on China’s EFL learners’ listening comprehension.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Theoretical issues

2.1.1 Listening comprehension

The meanings of listening have brought about quite many researches on the essence of listening comprehension. Traditionally speaking, listening and reading are regarded as sharing abundant number of similarities. Whereas, compared to reading, listening is less studied. As Weir (1993) claimed, “ much of the current thinking on the nature of listening comprehension is based on the earlier work of reading comprehension.”

In recent years, with the development of cognitive theories, people have obtained a wholesome understanding of the nature of listening comprehension. In contrast with behaviorists, cognitive researchers regarded that listening comprehension involved more than simply perceiving aural stimuli, and listeners are considered as active instead of being passive. In other words, listening comprehension has been now considered as an active process, in which listeners focus on selected aspects of aural input, construct meaning from passages, and relate what they hear to existing knowledge(O’Malley amp; Chamot,1990).

About the way we use to understand language, many researcher have reached an agreement on the language understanding system(LUS), which consists of several language processors and a general problem-solver(GPS). The language processors, once receiving stimuli about linguistic information, process lexical, syntactic and semantic information respectively. The GPS, is responsible for decision-making in language comprehension, through accumulating and reconstructing information from the subsystems.

In this case, listeners are not thought of as passive tape-recorder any more, but as an active processor. While in the course of listening comprehension, the unitary human system-LUS functions to extract or stimulate two kinds of knowledge: linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic knowledge which are two primary sources of information. In listening comprehension, linguistic knowledge make reference to knowledge of phonological, syntactic and semantic components of the language system. Non-linguistic knowledge constitutes knowledge, experiences and beliefs about the world. It has been generally acknowledged that linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic knowledge are activated differently in terms of the processing models.

2.1.2 Question preview

Underwood (1989) put forward that looking through a list of test questions before listening improved listening comprehension of beginner learners. It removed the stress of suddenly hearing something unfamiliar and thus being distracted from the next part of the listening text. Moreover, a quick pre-listening look at the questions would probably refresh listeners’ memories and force test takers to listen.

Yang (1996) regarded test question preview useful in providing contextual cues to predict the framework of the listening texts.

Brindley and Slatyer (2002) reported on an exploratory study that examined the effects of task characteristics and task conditions on learner's performance in competency-based listening assessment tasks. They investigated major variables such as the nature of the input and the response mode, namely speech rate, text type, number of hearings, input source (live vs. audio-recorded), and item format. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of test scores indicated that speech rate and item format affected task and item difficulty.

While many experts believe in the positive effect of question previewing on the listening comprehension, some researchers like Ur (1984) and Weir (1993) have disagreed. They believe that previewing questions before listening changes the nature of the listening process, probably distracts the learners’ attention, and puts a greater burden on them. Alternatively, it may have no significant effect (Zeng, 2013).

2.1.3 Language proficiency

L2 proficiency is a major variable that makes great contributions to L2 listening comprehension Faerch and Kasper(1986) hold that the rudimentary difference in the comprehension process when a listener listens to L1 and L2 lies in the accordance among discourse input and the stored linguistic knowledge as well as listeners’ experience. In the process of L2 comprehension, since L2 is not the listeners’ native language, hence, even for advanced learners, the competence to L2 is still restricted and limited contrasted with L1 competence, therefore, may attributing to some distortion in comprehension.

Huang Zidong(1998) put forward that language proficiency has a significant impact on students’ listening comprehension whether they are familiar with the listening context or not. From the perspective of Schema Theory, students with high language proficiency have rich knowledge about English vocabulary and grammar which help them activate relevant theories, therefore, they can comprehend listening context easily.

Because of the great significance of L2 proficiency attached to L2 listening comprehension, lots of researchers show great interest in studying L2 proficiency. In general, the results of investigation indicate that listeners’ L2 proficiency plays a significant role in L2 listening comprehension(Chiangamp;Dunkel,1992; Sherman,1997;In’nami,2004).

However, these studies have remained uncertain about the degree of those effects on performance. In addition, each study uses different definition of language proficiency, and thus it’s hard to generalize the findings beyond their context. In China, the main tests as College English Test (CET) as well as Tests for English Majors(TEM) are known to be the standard tests. Although arguments and disputes still exist among researchers, and the validity as well as reliability needed to be further tested, there are no other better ways to test language proficiency.

2.1.4 The interplay of question preview and language proficiency on listening comprehension

Wu Yi’an(2001) believed that question preview favored the advanced listeners, gave them positive clues to right options, but it didn’t lead the less able listeners to get right answers in the listening comprehension test. Chang and Read (2006) and Li Jingxin (2007) proposed that there was a significant interactive effect of question preview and language proficiency on listening comprehension. Generally speaking, question preview facilitated high-proficiency subjects’ performance much more than low proficiency subjects’.

Zeng Guoxiu(2013) believed that question preview has no great influence on listening performance of subjects who are in about same level of language proficiency. The effects of question preview can only be found in different question types. If students want to improve their listening comprehension substantially, they should put the enhancement of language proficiency in priority.

2.2 Empirical studies

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