The Influence Of Structured Input And Communicative Output On English Listening Practice

In recent years, English listening is focused on more and more by Chineseresearchers. They are showing enthusiastic interests in the implementation of thelearners’ English listening ability improving. However, it is difficult to say which wayis the best. Much research contributes a lot to enhance the learners’ English listeningability. Based on the theoretical research, English listening results are influenced bymany factors, such as the learners’ listening motivation, memory, anxiety, linguisticabilities, and background knowledge and so on. In the traditional English listeningclass in China, the teacher plays the main role in the listening classroom, who playsthe recorder first and then read and explain the materials in details. Therefore,students only gain very limited linguistic knowledge, which would be forgotten soonwithout scientifical and regular repetition. How to organize these English listeningmaterials has become a major problem that confused a lot of teachers most. In thisthesis, the writer tries hard to manage all the English listening materials by a CALLsoftware. The following question that how to organize these materials effectivelycame then.This thesis emphasizes a study on the effects of structured input andcommunicative output activities (which were aided by the computer) on the teachingof listening comprehension skills to senior middle school students. It is widelyaccepted that the Krashen’s (1985) theory stated that the only way for people toacquire language is through understanding the information or accepting input. Theinformation of input must be comprehensible oral language. The Input Hypothesis(which claims that without enough comprehensible input, the learners can’t make theexpected output) changed people’s view of listening teaching. In Krashen’s (1985)theory, it is impossible for the second language acquisition happen without amount ofcomprehensible input. his idea was considered as the golden role in the SLA field.Swain (1985) optimized Krashen’s theory with the output hypothesis. he believed thatoutput is an effective means to evaluate the learners’ language intake. Output, as arequirement, could encourage the learners to transmit their explicit knowledge into implicit knowledge with the stimulation of the input material. In terms of the researchon the SAL and cognitive filed, Gass(1997) successfully illustrated the flow chart ofthe process which came from input to output. With it help, people know more clearlyhow the input work in the human’s mental systems.The experiment was made among three elaborately selected classes in the seniorhigh Grade2in Yunnan province. Two sets of completely different listening materialtypes were given to the experimental and controlled classes. The controlled class wasgiven traditional listening material which was designed by the situational input.The material of the experimental classes was made up by two parts, consisting of halfof the situational input of the controlled class and half of structured input (the amountof the two types of input material was the same). Compared with the experimentalclass1, class2was required to complete the communicative output activities based onthe structured input of each chapter. Software was designed to support this experiment.Students could see each examination chapter on the computer while listening tomaterial playing. In addition, the software includes the recording function, throughwhich the output of communicative activities could be easily collected. A16-weektreatment was carried out. The post-test data was employed to be the final result of theexperiment.Finally, based on the interpretation of the data analysis result, reliable pedagogicalimplications were put forward, that is1) Output activities facilitate the learners’listening, and2) The learners’ listening skills could be improved with the help ofCALL software.