Research On College English Majors’ Listening Comprehension Ability Based On Comprehensible Input Hypothesis

As a receptive skill, listening is the main channel of communication andinformation obtaining. According to Allen, in the process of communicativeactivity, the time taken by listening, speaking, reading and writing isseparately45%,30%,16%and9%. However, the Chinese College students’English listening comprehension is relatively low in second languageacquisition. The problem on how to find an effective and feasible teachingmethod concerns many language researchers and scholars. It has been anurgent issue to be dealt with.Based on all the previous studies on comprehensible input, especiallythat by Krashen, this study aims to explore how to take advantage of thecomprehensible input theory in the teaching of college English majors’listening class. There are three research questions:(1) What effect doescomprehensible input have on the listening competence of college Englishmajors?(2) To what extent do new words removal and backgroundknowledge lead-in aid college English majors in their listeningcomprehension?(3) Is the experimental class at a higher level of Englishlistening comprehension than the control class after the implementation of thecomprehensible input teaching methods?The sophomores of English majors from Honder College of InnerMongolia Normal University are selected as subjects of the study. Before thestudy, a pre-test and a questionnaire are given to the students for the purposeof getting to know their current level of English listening. Some commonfactors that influence students’ English listening comprehension are fixed. Atthe end of the experiment, a post-test and an interview are administered to seewhether the new listening methods based on comprehensible input areeffective or not and what students’ attitudes and feedbacks are toward two new teaching models. The experiment starts with a comparison between anexperimental class given comprehensible input teaching and a control classgiven random listening materials. The researcher conducts the experiment forone term and the listening level of experimental class shows very significantdifferences horizontally and vertically. The findings manifest that theperformance of the experimental class is better than that of the control class.Removing new words and offering cultural background knowledge haveinfluenced the students’ understanding and information input of listeningmaterials. It is concluded that students’listening competence is improved to alarge extent by providing comprehensible input in teaching listening. Newwords removal and cultural knowledge lead-in teaching ways are beneficial inenhancing English majors’ listening comprehension. The comprehensibleinput teaching model is effective in listening teaching.The thesis consists of six parts, the first part gives introduction toresearch background and significance; the second part is overseas anddomestic literature review of comprehensible input and listening teachinglately; the third part provides the theoretical framework of listening andlistening comprehension; the fourth part explains in detail the researchhypotheses, subjects, instruments, data collection, analysis and researchprocedures. The fifth part shows questionnaire, interview findings andcompare the results of pre-and post-test. The last part draws conclusion,presents limitations of the study and suggestions for further research.