A Study On The Correlations Among Non-English Majors’ Tolerance Of Ambiguity, Listening Styles And Their English Listening Performance

In English learning, listening is one of the most difficult language skills for language learners. For a long time, too much emphasis has been put on the training of reading and writing skills in English teaching while the cultivation of the listening and speaking abilities is often ignored. When learning a foreign language, learners exhibit distinct individual differences in affective states, learning styles, etc., which take a great amount of responsibility for the differences in their language learning achievements. As an affective factor, tolerance of ambiguity has been found to have a noticeable influence on second language acquisition(Naiman, 1978). The listening styles, as one part of the learning styles, also play an important role in the second language acquisition. However, very few scholars have conducted such research on the correlations among the tolerance of ambiguity, listening styles and listening performance. Therefore, the present study is designed to explore the correlations among the three variables. The 120 subjects of this study are chosen from non-English majors in the North University of China. Ely’s Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale and Tian Qingling’s questionnaire designed according to Li banban’s definition(2009) and Oxford’s learning style survey are adopted to measure subjects’ level of TOA and to define the the types of listening styles of the subjects. Besides, the listening part of the CET-4 is selected to test subjects’ listening performance. All the data are collected and analyzed using SPSS 19.0.This thesis is trying to answer the following four questions: 1) What is the general situation of non-English majors’ level of TOA, listening styles and listening performance? 2) Are there any correlations between non-English majors’ TOA and their listening performance? Do the subjects in different levels of TOA show any differences in their listening performance? 3) Are there any correlations between non-English majors’ listening performance and their listening styles? Do the subjects in different levels of listening performance show any differences in their listening styles? 4) Are there any correlations between non-English majors’ TOA and their listening styles? Do the subjects in different levels of TOA show any differences in listening styles?The results are presented below: 1) Non-English major students tend to have the middle level of TOA,the conclusion demonstrates that it is high time that non-English major students’ TOA should be motivated and enhanced. As for the listening styles, the ones with analytic listening style take up the majority in allthe subjects, the ones with global style listening and synthetic style are the minority. In addition, the subjects in this research do not get high points in the listening comprehension test. 2) The results show that there exists a highly significant positive correlation between listening performance and their TOA level(p=.000). Students with different level of TOA show differently in English listening comprehension. 3)The table demonstrates that there is a positive significant correlation between synthetic listening style and their listening comprehension performance(p=.025), the conclusion also shows it is no significant correlation between analytic listening style and their listening comprehension performance, and the same as the global listening style. 4) From the correlation analysis, the conclusion shows that there is a positive significant correlation between synthetic listening style and their TOA level(p=.015). 5) Subjects with the higher level of TOA perform the best in the English learning test, and tend to use the synthetic listening style. While the subjects with the middle level of TOA have obtained the medium listening scores in the English learning test, and tend to use the global listening style. And the subjects with the lower listening scores perform the worst in the English learning test, and tend to use the analytic listening style.In summary, in the teaching process, helping the students to know their TOA level and types of listening styles will be beneficial for the listening study. Choosing appropriate listening materials and teaching methods will be of great help for relieving their anxiety and better fit for the learners with different levels of TOA and listening styles. Students who have good knowledge of their levels of TOA and listening styles can help themselves be aware of their weaknesses so that they can improve them accordingly.