A Study Of The Correlation Between Chinese EFL Learners' Vocabulary Knowledge/Grammar Knowledge And Their Listening Comprehension

Language knowledge mainly consists of knowledge of sounds,vocabulary and grammar,which serve as the basis for comprehension and communication.As the two main important elements in language knowledge,vocabulary knowledge and grammar knowledge have always been paid much attention to in the field of second language acquisition.Furthermore,studies on the relationship between the two factors and L2 learners' English proficiency remain a hot topic.However,according to the literature reviewed,most researchers focus their attention on the relationship between vocabulary knowledge as well as grammar knowledge and reading comprehension.Few studies have been carried out to explore the relationship between Chinese EFL learners' vocabulary knowledge/grammar knowledge and their listening comprehension,especially empirical studies in China.In light of this demand,the present study aims to probe into the relationship between Chinese second-year English majors' vocabulary knowledge as well as grammar knowledge and their listening comprehension by testing their vocabulary knowledge,grammar knowledge and their listening comprehension proficiency.The present study tries to address the following three research questions:(1)What is the correlation between Chinese EFL learners' vocabulary knowledge(the breadth and depth of knowledge)and their listening comprehension?(2)What is the correlation between Chinese EFL learners' grammar knowledge(the implicit and explicit knowledge)and their listening comprehension?(3)To what extent do Chinese EFL learners' vocabulary knowledge and grammar knowledge contribute in predicting the variance in their listening comprehension?One hundred and thirty subjects from a university in Suzhou,Jiangsu Province of China participated in this study.They were all second-year English majors,who had at least nine years' experience of English learning.In the present study,the vocabulary levels test was used to measure the subjects' breadth of vocabulary knowledge:the depth of vocabulary knowledge test was adopted to test the depth of vocabulary knowledge;a timed grammaticality judgment test and an untimed grammaticality judgment test were used to measure learners' implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge respectively,while their listening comprehension proficiency was assessed by a test from the TEM-4 test paper.All the valid data collected from the study were put into SPSS 16.0 and analyzed by operating the Pearson Product Correlation Analysis and the Multiple Regression Analysis with the scores obtained from tests of vocabulary knowledge and grammar knowledge as the independent variables and the scores got from listening comprehension test as the dependent variable.After careful study,the major findings are summarized as follows:Firstly,it is found that vocabulary knowledge has a strong and close relation to listening comprehension.As to the two main dimensions of vocabulary knowledge,the correlation between the breadth of vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension is slightly higher and stronger than that between the depth of vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension.Secondly,the findings show that the grammar knowledge also has a positively significant relationship with listening comprehension.In terms of the two aspects of grammar knowledge,the implicit grammatical knowledge is more positively and closely correlated to listening comprehension than the explicit grammatical knowledge.Thirdly,the findings of the present study reveal that both vocabulary knowledge and grammar knowledge contribute significantly to the prediction of L2 learners' listening comprehension proficiency.Compared with the predictive power of grammar knowledge,the vocabulary knowledge functions as a better predictor in accounting for the variance in listening comprehension.These findings of the present study not only provide some empirical support for the future studies on the relationship between vocabulary knowledge/grammar knowledge and listening comprehension,but also offer some implications and guidance for second language teaching and learning in China.It indicates that,on the one hand,teachers should focus on the teaching of vocabulary size and vocabulary depth,especially some other aspects of vocabulary knowledge,such as collocation,synonymy and polysemy;on the other hand,teachers should also pay attention to the teaching of grammar knowledge,especially the implicit grammatical knowledge.By doing so,we can help improve L2 learners' listening comprehension.