A Study On The Correlation Among Tolerance Of Ambiguity, Listening Strategies And Listening Achievements In Senior Middle School English Learning

Research conducted by Chapelle(1983) and Ely(1995) indicates that tolerance of ambiguity is a factor which has great influence on second language learning, it can be used to predict English learning effects. According to Naiman (1978), students with high TOA (tolerance of ambiguity) perform better in listening comprehension and syntax structure. Another important factor influencing listening is listening strategy. As Chapelle puts, TOA can influence learners'selection and usage of listening strategies.The author investigated 80 students in grade two in Xi'an Tie Yi Middle School Bin He Campus. Resorting to the listening score of three exams, Ely's Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale and Listening Strategies Inventory for English Learning designed by WangYu (2002), the author investigated the conditions of the students' TOA and usage of listening strategies, then collected and analyzed the data by SPSS 16.0, thus the author explored the correlation among tolerance of ambiguity, listening strategies and listening achievements in senior middle school English learning.The conclusions of the study are listed below:Firstly, in general, a large percentage of students are in moderate level of tolerance of ambiguity(70.3%), the rate of high and low level of tolerance of ambiguity is 17.5% and 12.2% respectively. Besides, efficient students tend to be more tolerant than inefficient students;Secondly, the analysis indicates that generally, listening achievements are significantly correlated with students' tolerance of ambiguity and that tolerance of ambiguity is a factor which improves one's listening ability, the conclusion is in accordance with Chapelle's opinion that tolerance of ambiguity can predict learners' language proficiency;Thirdly, it's found that subjects employ all the five major listening strategies while listening, they usually use meaning strategy (consisted of reasoning, associating and predicting strategy) and formal strategy (new words and grammar strategy), sometimes they employ metacognitive strategy (planning, monitoring, evaluating and selecting strategy), mother-tongue reliance and social/affective strategy;Fourthly, as for the 11 subdivided strategies, there are significantly differences between efficient and inefficient groups in employing grammar, reasoning, associating, predicting, evaluating and monitoring. It's also shown that cognitive strategies and social/affective strategies are significantly correlated, but there is no significant correlation between listening scores and metacognitive and mother tongue reliance strategy.Finally, on a whole, listening strategies are significantly correlated with tolerance of ambiguity. To some extent, tolerance of ambiguity affects the usage of listening strategies. The present thesis also found, the more tolerant the students are when facing with ambiguous situations, the more selective and flexible they adopt the listening strategies; As for low tolerant students, although they are apt to use all listening strategies, they tend to employ them blindly and in a random way.Based on the above conclusions, the author put forward corresponding teaching implications:Firstly, both students and teachers are suggested to pay enough attention to tolerance of ambiguity and have knowledge about the conditions of students' level of TOA; Secondly, it's recommended that English teachers should attempt to cultivate students' metacognitive strategies, guide them to study autonomously and independently and enhance their usage of cognitive strategies; Besides, teachers have to lead students to employ social/affective strategies to decrease or get rid of anxious and upset feeling during listening. Last but not the least, in training and practicing listening strategies, teachers had better consider students" tolerance of ambiguity as well in order to improve listening capacity in a comprehensive way.