以社會文化觀點探討學生的聽力過程：以一個國中EFL教室為例
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2010
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
聽力已被廣泛認可為第二語言習得的重要基礎，但與其他的語言能力相較，聽力的教學或是相關研究卻只得到的少量的關注。再者，大多數的聽力研究都是奠基於認知理論上，致使其探討的範疇往往只侷限於學習者本身，而聽力學習過程也因而多半被簡化為學習者認知能力的運作，而容易忽略學習本身潛藏的的複雜性。本研究旨在透過社會文化理論中的社會語言觀點(Language Socialization) 檢視學生在EFL教室中的聽力學習過程，以期能呈現教室環境中的聽力學習於其本質上是一個動態的(dynamic)且情境的(situated)的過程。除了觀察聽力在此教室的呈現外，本研究亦深入探討了學生的聽力學習與其情境脈絡(context) 之間的關係。
本研究的參與者為一英文課堂上的三十位國一學生與其英文老師。資料蒐集的方式主要是透過教室觀察以及半結構性訪談。在六週的教室觀察期間，研究者實際參與課程並記錄在這段期間進行的教學活動。此外，六位學生及其英文老師接受了數次的訪談。在資料分析方面，除了研究者於觀察時歸納出的方向，亦受到史坦(Stern)與杜鐸(Tudor)相關論述的啟發與導引。
研究結果顯示，此一教室的英語教學偏重於口說，而聽力則明顯不是教學的重點。某些活動設計的本質原本就是口說教學導向，例如議題分享(ask and share)和主題簡報(presentation)。即使在其他較多聽力學習機會的活動中，例如電影欣賞(movie-watching)和聽力練習(listening practice)，聽力的教學仍然不夠深入，著力甚淺。儘管如此，學生其實無時無刻扮演著聽者的角色，並以或深或淺的互動性(reciprocity)參與著教室活動。有別於一般英語教室中常見的非互動性聽力(non-reciprocal listening)教學，此教室中的學習者有機會在活動進行中判斷其所聽到的訊息並做出反應，並因此展現出互動性聽力(reciprocal listening)的學習。此發現體現了聽力在實際語言使用情境中的高度互動性，因此研究者認為聽力的定義必須跨越聽者本身「理解」的層次，進而包含互動中必需的「溝通」功能。鑑於社會文化理論對於情境脈絡(context)之於學習的重要性，本研究深入探討了來自於學校、老師、學生的脈絡因素如何形塑此教室中互動性聽力的呈現。結果顯示來自於此三方的脈絡彼此相互作用，且學習者的互動性聽力經驗與這些脈絡之間有著相互影響的高度關係。由此可知，語言學習在其本質上是脈絡式(contextualized)且情境式(situated)的一項經驗。最後，本研究提出了對於英語教學以及相關學術研究上的建議，並列出其不足之處，以供讀者參考。
Though listening is widely recognized as the foundation of SLA, it received little attention in both language research and instruction. While endeavors have been made to extend the knowledge of listening, the highly cognitive nature of most preceding investigations can risk ending up in partial understanding language learners’ sophisticated listening process. Therefore, the present study adopted a sociocultural approach—Language Socialization (LS) perspective to examine students’ listening process with the expectation to shed light on the dynamic and situated characteristics of students’ learning of listening in a language classroom. A case study approach of a qualitative design was used in order to obtain an in-depth understanding of students’ listening in an EFL classroom setting. The informants were the first-graders and the teacher of a particular English class from a junior high school in Chiayi. The data for this study has been collected mainly through classroom observation and semi-structured interviews. During the six-week observation, the researcher participated in the class and took field notes of the activities undertaken in the classroom. Later in the study, six students and the teacher were interviewed with questions developed from the observation to arrive at more sophisticated interpretation of the data. The analysis of the data has been guided by the researcher’s intuitions arisen in her stay of the site and enlightened by the insights from Stern (1983) and Tudor (2001). The results of this study revealed an unbalanced view on listening and speaking. The design of some activities, such as the ask and share activity and the presentation activity, was speaking-oriented in nature. The classroom practice has accentuated the role of speaking whereas listening was relegated to a secondary position. In other activities that were loaded with great opportunities for listening, such as movie-watching and listening practice, it was found that students’ learning of listening was treated in a pretty shallow and superficial manner. However, a deeper exploration into students’ listening process has revealed that students have actually acted in the role of a listener in every activity along the reciprocal listening continuum with more or less reciprocity. Unlike traditional EFL classrooms that often display a strong orientation of non-reciprocal listening, this EFL classroom has enabled students’ listening as a reciprocal process that provides listeners with chances to evaluate and to respond to the speaker. The reciprocal listening manifestations detected in this classroom indicated that the perception of listening should not be constrained to the prevalent comprehension sense, but to account for its communication function that is essential in real life interactions. Informed by the sociocultural perspective, a variety of contextual factors from the school, the teacher, and the students have been identified to examine how context shaped the two highly reciprocal themes which have distinguished this particular classroom from the traditional English classrooms around Taiwan. It has been found that the identified contextual factors have interacted with each other reciprocally and there was a highly interrelated relationship between students’ reciprocal listening experience and the context. The findings have pointed to the dialectic relationship between one’s language learning experience and the context, and informed our understanding of language learning as an essentially contextualized and situated process. Finally, implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research were provided.
Though listening is widely recognized as the foundation of SLA, it received little attention in both language research and instruction. While endeavors have been made to extend the knowledge of listening, the highly cognitive nature of most preceding investigations can risk ending up in partial understanding language learners’ sophisticated listening process. Therefore, the present study adopted a sociocultural approach—Language Socialization (LS) perspective to examine students’ listening process with the expectation to shed light on the dynamic and situated characteristics of students’ learning of listening in a language classroom. A case study approach of a qualitative design was used in order to obtain an in-depth understanding of students’ listening in an EFL classroom setting. The informants were the first-graders and the teacher of a particular English class from a junior high school in Chiayi. The data for this study has been collected mainly through classroom observation and semi-structured interviews. During the six-week observation, the researcher participated in the class and took field notes of the activities undertaken in the classroom. Later in the study, six students and the teacher were interviewed with questions developed from the observation to arrive at more sophisticated interpretation of the data. The analysis of the data has been guided by the researcher’s intuitions arisen in her stay of the site and enlightened by the insights from Stern (1983) and Tudor (2001). The results of this study revealed an unbalanced view on listening and speaking. The design of some activities, such as the ask and share activity and the presentation activity, was speaking-oriented in nature. The classroom practice has accentuated the role of speaking whereas listening was relegated to a secondary position. In other activities that were loaded with great opportunities for listening, such as movie-watching and listening practice, it was found that students’ learning of listening was treated in a pretty shallow and superficial manner. However, a deeper exploration into students’ listening process has revealed that students have actually acted in the role of a listener in every activity along the reciprocal listening continuum with more or less reciprocity. Unlike traditional EFL classrooms that often display a strong orientation of non-reciprocal listening, this EFL classroom has enabled students’ listening as a reciprocal process that provides listeners with chances to evaluate and to respond to the speaker. The reciprocal listening manifestations detected in this classroom indicated that the perception of listening should not be constrained to the prevalent comprehension sense, but to account for its communication function that is essential in real life interactions. Informed by the sociocultural perspective, a variety of contextual factors from the school, the teacher, and the students have been identified to examine how context shaped the two highly reciprocal themes which have distinguished this particular classroom from the traditional English classrooms around Taiwan. It has been found that the identified contextual factors have interacted with each other reciprocally and there was a highly interrelated relationship between students’ reciprocal listening experience and the context. The findings have pointed to the dialectic relationship between one’s language learning experience and the context, and informed our understanding of language learning as an essentially contextualized and situated process. Finally, implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research were provided.
Description
Keywords
社會文化觀點, 聽力, 質性研究, 英語學習, sociocultural perspective, listening, qualitative research, English learning