An Empirical Study Based On Multimedia-assisted English Listening Instruction

Listening plays an important role in language learning, but for the majority of English learners in China, most students lack interest and motivation towards English listening, and it is caused by many reasons, among which the traditional teaching method is an important reason.Multimedia-based computer-assisted language learning is the new trend in the development of language teaching. Nowadays much attention is paid to the research of CALL in many countries. Listening is the input process of language. It is of great significance to the whole language acquisition. Whether the Multimedia-based computer-assisted language learning can improve learners'listening ability is the focus of this paper. The present study aims to investigate the effects of Multimedia on learners'listening from the perspective of motivation, interest and listening strategy.A quantitative research method is adopted in this paper. The author first puts forward three hypotheses:â‘ The Multimedia-assisted English listening instruction can enhance students'motivation and arouse their interest.â‘¡Under Multimedia environment, students of the experiment group can use listening strategies better than before.â‘¢Compared with the traditional teaching method, Multimedia-assisted English listening instruction can better enhance students'English listening proficiency. Then an experiment is conducted to validate the above hypotheses. Subjects are from Chongqing City Management College, two natural classes of freshmen majoring in Gardening Technology. One class is randomly selected as the experiment class, and the other one as the control class. There are slight differences in sex ratios, the overall English proficiency and students'background between two classes. The experiment class adopts Multimedia-assisted listening method, while the control class uses the traditional method of English listening teaching. The experiment lasts one semester, and the author uses classroom observation, questionnaires and interviews, and obtains the following conclusions at last:â‘ Multimedia-assisted English listening instruction can enhance students'motivation and arouse their interest.â‘¡Under Multimedia environment, students of the experiment group can use listening strategies better than before.â‘¢Compared with traditional teaching method, Multimedia-assisted English listening instruction can better enhance students'English listening proficiency.Finally, some suggestions are made on the future of English listening instruction under Multimedia, in the hope of providing some useful reference on Multimedia-assisted language learning to English teachers.