Two Types Of Input Modification And EFL Listening Comprehension In The Chinese Context: Syntactic Elaboration Vs Syntactic Simplification

This thesis reports on a study which investigated the effects of both syntactic modifications (syntactic simplification vs. syntactic elaboration) and question types (global question vs. local question) on EFL learners' listening comprehension in China. A listenign pre-test was administered to 90 second-year English majors from three intact classes in a University in China. Scores of the pre-test showed they were at the same level of listening proficiency. In the research test, the listening stimuli consisted of three listening text types: (a) unmodified; (b) syntactically simplified; (c) syntactically elaborated. The syntactic complexity contained in the three text types was measured by words per T-unit and S-nodes per T-unit. Comprehension was assessed by 17 multiple-choice test items. The results indicated that both syntactic simplification and elaboration were an aid to EFL learners' listening comprehension, but the facilitative effect of syntactic elaboration on listening comprehension was superior to syntactic simplification to a significant extent. A significant interaction between syntactic modification and question types was also found. Syntactic elaboration had a significant impact on the listeners' comprehension for information contained in both global questions and local questions, while syntactic simplification facilitated only significantly on the listeners' process of local questions. Implications for pedagogical listening materials, EFL learning and teaching are suggested.