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A Study of the Use of Authentic Listening Materials in English Class of Chinese Vocational Colleges

Author: LeiShiMei
Tutor: ShengYueDong
School: Zhejiang University
Course: Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Keywords: use authentic listening materials English class Chinese Vocational Colleges
CLC: H319
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2011
Downloads: 22
Quote: 0
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Abstract


This study is designed to investigate to what extent authentic listening materials can be used effectively with vocational college students in China. It aims to research the effectiveness of using authentic listening materials that are above their current level if they are guided by appropriately designed tasks, and the extent to which they can benefit from this. The students’as well as the teachers’beliefs and opinions about the current situation of teaching English listening in Chinese vocational colleges are also investigated in an exploration of the effectiveness of current English listening teaching in China’s vocational college class.The study is conducted among 116 students in Taizhou Vocational and Technical College and 22 English teachers working in the same college. The study consists of two questionnaires and a quasi-experiment. One questionnaire is designed for the students and the other is for the teachers. The two questionnaires are designed to investigate the students’and the teachers’ opinions of the current situation of listening teaching in vocational college English class as well as their attitudes towards using authentic materials to teach listening. In the quasi-experiment, the student subjects, who are from two natural classes with equal English competence, separately complete the two listening activities based on the same authentic listening material. After the listening activities, both classes are asked to complete a post-listening questionnaire.Findings of the study show both expected and unexpected results. The analysis of the questionnaire data reveals that most of the students and the teachers who take part in the study feel that today’s English listening in class is quite examination-oriented and cannot reflect the real-life listening. The majority of the student subjects express a desire of being given more opportunities to encounter authentic listening materials in English class. Also the teachers hold a positive attitude towards authentic listening materials. The comparison of the results of the 10 comprehension questions in the quasi-experiment shows that the class which have the pre-listening task have a better understanding of the authentic material than the class which do not. However, the post-listening questionnaire, on the other hand, presents considerably unfavorable responses regarding the actual piece of authentic material used.The mixed results of this study set the present researcher into a deep thought, which leads to the discovery of some notable problems in the experiment. Firstly, the duration time of the experiment is not long enough to ensure the effect. Secondly, the chosen material without much redundancy but with high requirement of background knowledge fails to interest and motivate the students but increase their nervousness during listening. Lastly, the pre-listening tasks are not so carefully designed as to successfully help expectation and information processing. At the end of the thesis the limitations of the present study are pointed out and suggestions for further study are also provided.

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CLC: > Language, writing > FOREIGN > English > Language teaching
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