A Study Of The Correlation Among Tolerance Of Ambiguity, Listening Strategy Use And Listening Proficiency Of English Major Students

Listening comprehension is a significant part of English teaching and learning.Listening strategy use is a well-studied aspect in SLA research. There have been many researches on its correlation with other language learning factors. However, its correlation with TOA(Tolerance of Ambiguity) was seldom explored. TOA is an individual’s tendency or capability to accept and deal with unfamiliar, complex and uncertain information. As the phenomenon is inevitable and prevalent in the process of language learning, especially in listening comprehension, it’s quite necessary to look into the correlation among TOA, listening strategy use and listening proficiency. The current research chooses English major students as its subjects.In particular, three research questions are put forward:1. What is the current state of TOA experienced by Chinese English major college students?2. Are there any relationships between English majors’ TOA and their listening strategy use? If so, what are they?A) Are there any relationships between the English majors’ high level of TOA and their listening strategy use? If so, what are they?B) Are there any relationships between the English majors’ low level of TOA and their listening strategy use? If so, what are they?3. Are there any relationships between English majors’ TOA and their listening proficiency? If so, what are they?The present study adopted a quantitative approach to answer the three research questions. Descriptive analyses, Pearson correlation analyses and independent sample T-tests were carried out in SPSS 17.0 to analyze the data collected from two questionnaires and a listening term paper. After careful analysis, the author found three major findings:1. The current state of Chinese English major students’ TOA level is relatively low.2. Students’ with a higher level of TOA are apt to use all sorts of listeningstrategies more frequently except mother-tongue-reliance strategy and new-word strategy.3. English major students’ TOA level is, in general, in positive correlation with their listening proficiency.The findings from this study are expected to have certain pedagogical implications for both teachers and students in respect of tolerance of ambiguity and listening strategy use.