摘要
The importance of decoding skills has long been neglected in L2 listening classes, especially in a Chinese EFL context. To help foreign language teachers and learners see the value of decoding skill instruction, a quasi-experimental study was designed to test the effectiveness of certain decoding skills in improving learners＇ general listening comprehension performance. Sixty non-English major freshmen were made the experimental group, and another 57 such students were made the control group. The intervention was 6-week-long explicit instruction of basic decoding skills, mainly based on the training framework proposed by Goh （2000）. Data was collected in pre-test, post-test and delayed post-test. The results of data analysis show that the performance of both groups improved in post-test and delayed post-test. However, the experimental group made significantly greater progress in both tests. This study shows that explicit instruction of decoding skills, together with well-designed skill training, contributes to learners＇ better understanding and control of the L2 listening processes and thus helps them improve their general comprehension performance. A series of recommendations for both L2 listening pedagogy and future research are also offered.
解码技巧的重要性在二语听力课堂上被长期忽视,这种情况在中国的外语教学中更为严重。为了帮助中国的外语教师和学习者了解听力解码技巧的教学价值,研究人员以Goh(2000)提出的系列课堂训练为基础精心开发了一套听力解码技巧训练教程并设计了一个准实验以测试此套教程的有效性。60名非英语专业的大一新生作为实验组和57名同样背景的学生作为对照组参与本研究项目。实验组的学生接受为期6周的实验性干预,干预内容为基本听力解码技巧的明确讲解与针对性训练。研究人员分别在干预前、干预后和滞后期三个时间点测试两组学生的综合听力成绩。利用数据分析软件SPSS 16.0对在三次听力测试中采集的数据进行的各种分析表明与干预前的测试成绩比较两组学生在干预后和滞后期的两次听力测试中都有进步,但是相比之下实验组的学生在两次测试中进步更大,而且两组之间的这种差异具有统计学意义。研究结果表明,听力解码技巧的明确讲授与针对性训练相结合有助于帮助学生理解和控制二语听力的心理程序,进而有助于提高他们的综合理解能力,因而值得外语教师在教学实践中推广。
