| The purpose of the study was to investigate the separate and interactive effects of cultural content schemata and style of speech on listening comprehension ability of ESL students.;The subjects for the study were forty Chinese advanced ESL students studying at the University of Alberta. As a cross-cultural comparison, forty Canadian university students were also involved. Explicit and implicit multiple-choice questions were developed based on two spoken dialogues derived from both the Chinese and the Canadian cultures, each of which was written in both semi-formal and informal styles. The interactions among the cultural origin of the texts, the style used in them and the cultural background of the subjects were examined.;It was concluded that EFL teachers should be more familiar with the cultural expression of the group whose language they are teaching; resource materials about the target culture should be more widely used, and teaching methodology should be changed from a grammar-centered approach to a more communicative approach. (Abstract shortened by UMI.). |
