An Experimental Study On "Step-by-step" Dictation In Improving Students' Listening Comprehension

As an important language skill, listening is a process in which information is received passively and also a major form of obtaining information. But it is also a bottleneck in foreign language learning and an obstacle to communication, so how to improve listening competence is one of the keys to teaching study on foreign language. Scholars in this field have always been trying to explore an effective teaching model to improve listening competence and propel listening teaching by the changes of listening tests. Dating back to the early 20th century, dictation has actually been regarded as a teaching and testing method because of its simple design and convenient operation. However, studies at home and abroad mainly focus on the experimental researches of dictation not as a teaching device, but as a testing device. Although there are few experimental researches, the mode of dictation as a teaching device in these researches is single. Therefore, the present study tends to design"step-by-step"dictation through the combination of multi-dictation modes on the basis of Krashen's input hypothesis and then tries to explore its feasibility and efficacy for the improvement of English listening competence by contrast experiment, data analysis, questionnaire, and interview, etc., based on memory theory of cognitive psychology.The chief aim of the present work is to exhibit dictation theoretical basis, types of dictation, empirical researches at home and abroad. Moreover, it inclines towards exploring whether"step-by-step"dictation is significantly correlated to the development of students'listening competence and whether it can effectively enhance their listening competence. With 110 freshmen non-English majors from a University in Taiyuan as the subjects, the thesis employs both quantitative and qualitative methods. The contrast of pre-post tests and questionnaire are employed to undergo quantitative analysis while interview is selected to elicit qualitative data.The statistical package, SPSS 17.0, is utilized to analyze the data through independent sample t-test to prove"step-by-step"dictation can promote the great improvement of listening competence. Through questionnaire and interview, it can be concluded that"step-by-step"dictation is designed reasonably and recognized widely and that students are more concerned about the importance of chunks and selective attention and the necessity of learning strategies employed. Based on the data analysis and discussion, the author puts forward some tentative suggestions. This study can provide English teachers with some suggestions and inspirations to explore the effect on other skills, including oral, reading, and writing and probe the efficacy of new dictation types for improving English overall competence.