In the teaching of listening comprehension, teachers should be guided by a learner-centered philosophy. Decisions about what will be taught, how it will be taught, when it will be taught, and how it will be assessed w...In the teaching of listening comprehension, teachers should be guided by a learner-centered philosophy. Decisions about what will be taught, how it will be taught, when it will be taught, and how it will be assessed will be made with reference to the learner. With the assistance and guidance of the teacher, learners will develop the ability of learning and therefore enhance their listening comprehension.展开更多
Learning strategies are usually regarded as one of the aspects of the cognitive psychology and reading is a cognitive process in which the reader engages in a conversation with the text or the author. Then is there an...Learning strategies are usually regarded as one of the aspects of the cognitive psychology and reading is a cognitive process in which the reader engages in a conversation with the text or the author. Then is there any relationship between learning strategies and reading comprehension？ To explore this, an experimental study is conducted in this paper. The conclusion is thereafter reached that reading comprehension is closely related to and greatly affected by learning strategies, especially cognitive and metacognitive strategies.展开更多
This empirical study investigates Chinese EFL students＇ attributions in reading. The purposes ot this study are to investigate the development of Chinese EFL learners＇ attributions for their perceived success and fa...This empirical study investigates Chinese EFL students＇ attributions in reading. The purposes ot this study are to investigate the development of Chinese EFL learners＇ attributions for their perceived success and failure in second language reading and to clarify the relationship between learners＇ reading proficiency levels and their attributions. The results show that （1） Nearly half of the university students feel ＂Just so so＂ in English reading; （2） Environmental variables such as teacher feedback, peers or classroom play an influential role in the learners＇ attribution. This paper concludes with a number of pedagogical suggestions for the teaching and learning of English reading.展开更多
This paper provides a detailed analysis about the themes and the thematic progression of a certain text, with Halliday＇s Systemic-Functional ideas as the theoretical foundation. Based on this, the paper discloses the...This paper provides a detailed analysis about the themes and the thematic progression of a certain text, with Halliday＇s Systemic-Functional ideas as the theoretical foundation. Based on this, the paper discloses the significance of theme and thematic progression in the development of text, which includes forming a semantic chain and achieving a comprehensive understanding of a text.展开更多
For years, researchers as well as language teachers both at home and abroad have taken great pains to study the process of reading and try to find out what is the most related to a successful reading, therefore, a lot...For years, researchers as well as language teachers both at home and abroad have taken great pains to study the process of reading and try to find out what is the most related to a successful reading, therefore, a lot of reading theories have been proposed. Some people emphasize the importance of words and their quick identification. Others emphasize the important role of reading skills as well as background knowledge. Still others emphasize that reading comprehension is both a process of word processing and a process of information processing by means of one＇s background knowledge. The author here, through an experiment, thinks that vocabulary is the main contributor to reading comprehension and reading skills are very important for students to comprehend, especially in advanced reading comprehension.展开更多
The ultimate goal of comprehensive English is to train students to acquire the ability to communicate in English. But the traditional way of lecture class can not meet the demand of the goal. It is agreed that the bes...The ultimate goal of comprehensive English is to train students to acquire the ability to communicate in English. But the traditional way of lecture class can not meet the demand of the goal. It is agreed that the best efficiency in comprehensive English class comes from effective cooperation between the teacher and students and also among students. Therefore, communicative methodology is widely promoted.展开更多
American English is predominantly prescribed as the primary English learning model at every educational level in Taiwan and limited attention is paid to other accents of English. It is therefore the intention of this ...American English is predominantly prescribed as the primary English learning model at every educational level in Taiwan and limited attention is paid to other accents of English. It is therefore the intention of this paper to investigate whether Taiwan Residents EFL learners have difficulties understanding British English after years of instruction in American English, and to identify differences between learners＇ attitudes towards these two varieties of English. EFL learners from two universities were randomly assigned to American and British English groups and required to listen to short texts recorded with either American or British accent. An independent simple t-test showed that no significant differences were found in listening comprehension scores, but responses on questionnaires revealed significant differences in attitudes towards American and British English. The influence of long-term instruction in American English was evidenced. Based on these findings, suggestions are provided for English language teaching in Taiwan and implications are drawn for the concept of English as an International Language （ELL）, that in order to pursue successful international communication with people of various native languages, EFL learners need to experience various accents of English.展开更多
As one of the fundamental language skills, listening is a medium through which listeners gain a large portion of their information. Especially in this day of mass communication, it is of vital importance that our stud...As one of the fundamental language skills, listening is a medium through which listeners gain a large portion of their information. Especially in this day of mass communication, it is of vital importance that our students are taught to listen effectively and critically. So the past years has seen a steady increase in the interest in studying listening comprehension. We can read considerable articles on listening skills and some related listening teaching strategies. In this article, some factors, which influence listening comprehension, were analyzed and some teaching suggestions were put forward to make the listening classes more effective.展开更多
English set phrases are one of the nightmares confronting Chinese learners. The main check is its ambiguity, in other words, they are apt to varying interpretation. In the paper three questions are discussed: the dist...English set phrases are one of the nightmares confronting Chinese learners. The main check is its ambiguity, in other words, they are apt to varying interpretation. In the paper three questions are discussed: the distinctive features of set phrases, the understanding of ambiguous set phrases and their variants. Under the guidance of Cooper's (1999) heuristic model of L2 idiom comprehension, this paper studies the comprehension strategies of Set Phrases and their variants as well as explores the implications to Set Phrase teaching.展开更多
This paper examines the problem of inefficient reading comprehension with non-English major college students, and tackles the problem with the teaching method of integrating grammatical information into lexicon teachi...This paper examines the problem of inefficient reading comprehension with non-English major college students, and tackles the problem with the teaching method of integrating grammatical information into lexicon teaching. The underlying idea is that working memory, whose core characteristic is its severely limited capacity, is of vital importance to language comprehension, and that the process of lexical retrieval from the permanent memory is much easier than the process of working our way through a syntactic structure. Therefore a hypothesis is formulated that to purposely increase the readers' awareness of storing grammatical information in the lexicon will bring about an increased speed, hence improved reading performance. Through careful design of the experiment, the writer proves that this method can lighten the burden on working memory, which consequently brings about significantly improved reading comprehension.展开更多
文摘In the teaching of listening comprehension, teachers should be guided by a learner-centered philosophy. Decisions about what will be taught, how it will be taught, when it will be taught, and how it will be assessed will be made with reference to the learner. With the assistance and guidance of the teacher, learners will develop the ability of learning and therefore enhance their listening comprehension.
文摘Learning strategies are usually regarded as one of the aspects of the cognitive psychology and reading is a cognitive process in which the reader engages in a conversation with the text or the author. Then is there any relationship between learning strategies and reading comprehension？ To explore this, an experimental study is conducted in this paper. The conclusion is thereafter reached that reading comprehension is closely related to and greatly affected by learning strategies, especially cognitive and metacognitive strategies.
文摘This empirical study investigates Chinese EFL students＇ attributions in reading. The purposes ot this study are to investigate the development of Chinese EFL learners＇ attributions for their perceived success and failure in second language reading and to clarify the relationship between learners＇ reading proficiency levels and their attributions. The results show that （1） Nearly half of the university students feel ＂Just so so＂ in English reading; （2） Environmental variables such as teacher feedback, peers or classroom play an influential role in the learners＇ attribution. This paper concludes with a number of pedagogical suggestions for the teaching and learning of English reading.
文摘This paper provides a detailed analysis about the themes and the thematic progression of a certain text, with Halliday＇s Systemic-Functional ideas as the theoretical foundation. Based on this, the paper discloses the significance of theme and thematic progression in the development of text, which includes forming a semantic chain and achieving a comprehensive understanding of a text.
文摘For years, researchers as well as language teachers both at home and abroad have taken great pains to study the process of reading and try to find out what is the most related to a successful reading, therefore, a lot of reading theories have been proposed. Some people emphasize the importance of words and their quick identification. Others emphasize the important role of reading skills as well as background knowledge. Still others emphasize that reading comprehension is both a process of word processing and a process of information processing by means of one＇s background knowledge. The author here, through an experiment, thinks that vocabulary is the main contributor to reading comprehension and reading skills are very important for students to comprehend, especially in advanced reading comprehension.
文摘The ultimate goal of comprehensive English is to train students to acquire the ability to communicate in English. But the traditional way of lecture class can not meet the demand of the goal. It is agreed that the best efficiency in comprehensive English class comes from effective cooperation between the teacher and students and also among students. Therefore, communicative methodology is widely promoted.
文摘American English is predominantly prescribed as the primary English learning model at every educational level in Taiwan and limited attention is paid to other accents of English. It is therefore the intention of this paper to investigate whether Taiwan Residents EFL learners have difficulties understanding British English after years of instruction in American English, and to identify differences between learners＇ attitudes towards these two varieties of English. EFL learners from two universities were randomly assigned to American and British English groups and required to listen to short texts recorded with either American or British accent. An independent simple t-test showed that no significant differences were found in listening comprehension scores, but responses on questionnaires revealed significant differences in attitudes towards American and British English. The influence of long-term instruction in American English was evidenced. Based on these findings, suggestions are provided for English language teaching in Taiwan and implications are drawn for the concept of English as an International Language （ELL）, that in order to pursue successful international communication with people of various native languages, EFL learners need to experience various accents of English.
文摘As one of the fundamental language skills, listening is a medium through which listeners gain a large portion of their information. Especially in this day of mass communication, it is of vital importance that our students are taught to listen effectively and critically. So the past years has seen a steady increase in the interest in studying listening comprehension. We can read considerable articles on listening skills and some related listening teaching strategies. In this article, some factors, which influence listening comprehension, were analyzed and some teaching suggestions were put forward to make the listening classes more effective.
文摘English set phrases are one of the nightmares confronting Chinese learners. The main check is its ambiguity, in other words, they are apt to varying interpretation. In the paper three questions are discussed: the distinctive features of set phrases, the understanding of ambiguous set phrases and their variants. Under the guidance of Cooper's (1999) heuristic model of L2 idiom comprehension, this paper studies the comprehension strategies of Set Phrases and their variants as well as explores the implications to Set Phrase teaching.
文摘This paper examines the problem of inefficient reading comprehension with non-English major college students, and tackles the problem with the teaching method of integrating grammatical information into lexicon teaching. The underlying idea is that working memory, whose core characteristic is its severely limited capacity, is of vital importance to language comprehension, and that the process of lexical retrieval from the permanent memory is much easier than the process of working our way through a syntactic structure. Therefore a hypothesis is formulated that to purposely increase the readers' awareness of storing grammatical information in the lexicon will bring about an increased speed, hence improved reading performance. Through careful design of the experiment, the writer proves that this method can lighten the burden on working memory, which consequently brings about significantly improved reading comprehension.
