视觉辅助对外语听力语篇内容理解的影响

The Role of Visual Assistance in Foreign Language Listening Comprehension

为调查目前普遍采用的视觉辅助手段———字幕和视频———对外语语篇内容理解产生的影响,本研究通过控制对比实验比较了听力、听力字幕、听力视频和听力字幕视频四种条件下中低水平外语学习者的语篇内容理解,并通过问卷方式跟踪被试的认知资源分配。结果发现:虽然字幕提高了语篇内容理解,但是当听力能力和多模态信息加工能力有限时,为完成语篇内容理解任务,被试并不是通过听力而是字幕获取信息。本研究未发现单纯的字幕给语篇内容理解带来的积极作用,视频的效果也非常有限。研究结果说明,不恰当的字幕或视频运用不利于听力能力的继续发展。

This study explores the effects of the often used visual assistance(namely,subtitles and nonverbal video) in listening comprehension among lower-intermediate EFL learners.A controlled experiment was conducted to assay the role of subtitles and video cues,comparing listening comprehension under four conditions,namely,listening +subtitles,listening + video cues,listening + subtitles + video cues,and listening.It is found that apparently,subtitles enhanced listening comprehension.But with the help of a post-treatment questionnaire,it was further found that subjects mainly rely on subtitles to achieve comprehension because of their limitation in language proficiency and their ability to deal with multimodal information.Nonverbal video cues alone do not help listening comprehension.The findings remind us that inappropriate use of subtitles or nonverbal video may inhibit the development of listening ability.