Relationships Among Tolerance Of Ambiguity, Need For Cognition And EFL Listening Comprehension

This research rests on detecting the connections within personal factors:cognitive factors, internal motivation and English listening performance. In spite of the fact that a number of findings have been attained concerning about cognitive factors and external motivation in the second language learning, few studies have been conducted to investigate the associations between cognitive factors and inner motivation. The research scope is constrained to foreign language listening performance due to the individual difference and research contents. The present study is designed to check the relations with EFL tolerance of ambiguity, EFL need for cognition and foreign language listening performance. Four questions, which need thorough discussions, are:(1) Is there any relationship between EFL tolerance of ambiguity and EFL need for cognition? (2) Is there any relationship between EFL tolerance of ambiguity and English listening performance? (3) Is there any relationship between EFL need for cognition and English listening performance? (4) Is there any relationship between EFL tolerance of ambiguity, EFL need for cognition and various question types (questions of Details, Inference and Summary) in listening respectively? (5) What are the differences in the adoption of EFL listening strategies among learners with different levels of EFL tolerance of ambiguity?For the purpose of problem solving, this research adopts two approaches in qualitative and quantitative ways. In the quantitative study, questionnaires are introduced to measure the connections in the foreign language listening performance with a total number of 72 sophomore students as research subjects. Taken the validity and credibility of the scales into consideration, the present research employs the existing scale verified for college students in contemporary China. The data obtained will be further processed with SPSS119.0 for descriptive analysis, correlative analysis and ANOVA analysis.The qualitative research is conducted by means of face-to-face interviews in order to elucidate related use of strategies in performance of EFL listening comprehension. Four subjects were chosen from the quantitative study with two from high EFL tolerance of ambiguity and EFL need for cognition and two from low EFL tolerance of ambiguity and EFL need for cognition. After all the data collected, related strategies will be identified, classified and analyzed with results from the previous study in its correlation.The major findings are as follows (1) learners with different levels of EFL tolerance of ambiguity hold corresponding levels of EFL need for cognition in foreign language listening performance. Specially speaking, learners with high EFL tolerance of ambiguity have a high level of EFL need for cognition in foreign language listening performance. On the contrary, those with low EFL tolerance of ambiguity hold fewer needs in cognition during the performance in EFL listening comprehension. (2) They are positively correlated within EFL tolerance of ambiguity and foreign language listening performance as well as EFL need for cognition and foreign language listening performance. (3) More specifically, EFL tolerance of ambiguity has a positive correlation with the questions types of Dictation and Fill in the blanks (FIB), especially within Summary and Detailed Information in Fill in the Blanks. Although it has not been testified that there is a positive correlation between EFL tolerance of ambiguity and the question type of Multiple Choices (MC), the results obtained show that EFL tolerance of ambiguity is positively correlated with Inference in Multiple Choices. (4) EFL need for cognition is significantly relevant to the question types of Dictation and Multiple Choices, especially within Inference in Multiple choices. In spite of the fact that EFL need for cognition and the question type of Fill in the Blanks have no significant relationship, EFL need for cognition does have prominent correlations with Summary in Fill in the Blanks. (5). In terms of strategy use in foreign language listening performance, compensatory strategies will be employed more in the learners of low EFL tolerance of ambiguity while those in high EFL tolerance of ambiguity may adopt more metacognitive strategies. The frequency of affective strategies employed by learners of low EFL tolerance of ambiguity is almost the same as those of high EFL tolerance of ambiguity. The additional results from the qualitative study are that the frequency in the strategy use among learners with individual difference is relatively higher in the pre-listening and during-listening periods compared with those in the after-listening period.This study provides us insights into theoretical and practical issues of EFL listening research. The correlational results between personal factors:EFL tolerance of ambiguity and EFL need for cognition and listening performance reminds us that it is important to take individual difference into consideration during the research process. More importantly, this study provides credible empirical supports to corresponding learning methods and strategies in accordance with personal difference. Learners may eventually obtain better English listening performance by the means of appropriate adoption of question types, adjustment in the use of strategies and advances in learning motivation.