A Study Of The Correlation Between Ambiguity Tolerance And Listening Comprehension In English Learning For Non-English Major’s Students

As one of the most important factors of individual difference, ambiguity tolerance has been reported to maintain a very close relationship with second language acquisition, which is attracting more and more attention from linguists and scholars at home and abroad. On the other hand, listening is an important and basic skill among the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) in English learning. At present, there are rather few studies on the correlation between ambiguity tolerance and listening comprehension in Chinese college students, especially in terms of non-English majors who have gained little attention before. Therefore, it is pretty meaningful and significant in both theoretical and practical way to explore the relationship between ambiguity tolerance and listening comprehension.The present study focuses on the correlation between ambiguity tolerance and listening comprehension. And the research questions are listed as follows:1. What is the general situation of non-English major students’ ambiguity tolerance?2. What is the correlation between non-English major students’ ambiguity tolerance and their listening comprehension? If any, is it positive or negative?3. What are the differences in listening comprehension achievement among non-English majors with different levels of ambiguity tolerance?The study is based on Krashen’s affective filter hypothesis and Hartmann’s ego boundary theory.166sophomores from Southwest Petroleum University were chosen as the subjects. And both quantitative and qualitative approaches were adopted in the study, namely the questionnaire, listening comprehension test, and interview. Then all the data and scores from the questionnaire and listening comprehension test were put into computer and analyzed by SPSS16.0. The research findings are presented below:1. Subjects with the moderate ambiguity tolerance are in the majority, while subjects with low and high ambiguity tolerance are in the minority. Moreover, the number of the subjects with high ambiguity tolerance is the smallest compared with those of low and moderate ambiguity tolerance.2. There is a positive and highly significant relationship between non-English majors’ ambiguity tolerance and listening comprehension by applying Pearson Correlation analysis.3. According to the findings of One-way ANOVA, there are extremely significant differences in listening comprehension among non-English major students with different ambiguity tolerance levels. Subjects with higher ambiguity tolerance tend to score high in English listening comprehension, while those with lower ambiguity tolerance are inclined to gain relatively lower marks.The result of this study positively confirms the essential role of ambiguity tolerance in English listening and supports Krashen’s affective filter hypothesis and Hartmann’s ego boundary theory. On the basis of the research results, several implications are concluded:carrying out listening activities more effectively and realizing the harmonious combination of language learning and teaching to the best; cultivating the sense of ambiguity tolerance in English learning; taking individual differences into full consideration in order to create more efficient class; guiding learners to make full use of listening strategies as much as possible based on oneself ambiguity tolerance; realizing the importance of efficient organization in class and scientific recreation of teaching content on condition of extremely understanding students’ overall ambiguity tolerance. Finally, the author points out some limitations existing in the present study, and then put forward several pertinent suggestions for future research.