Effects of Two Advance Organizers on Listening Comprehension in Video Viewing— Pictorial Contextual Cues versus Verbal Contextual Keys

• Main Author: 張秀帆
• Other Authors: Huang, Shu Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/18878807875182588272

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 英語教學碩士在職專班 === 101 === This study is to investigate the effects of the two advance organizers—pictorial contextual cues and verbal contextual keys—on students’ English listening comprehension. There were many empirical studies examining the effects of pictorial or verbal advance organizers respectively. However, based on the researcher’s literature review, effects of these two distinct types of advance organizers have not been compared. Hence, the researcher intended to find out if the two advance organizers—pictorial contextual cues and verbal contextual keys—facilitate students’ English listening comprehension on watching video clips without captions. There were 87 9th-grade participants, divided into two experimental groups and one control group, receiving pictorial contextual cues, verbal contextual keys, and no treatment. In the beginning, all participants received a test, i.e. the listening comprehension section of General English Proficiency Test (GEPT) intermediate level. Then, the three groups received their respective treatments in three consecutive weeks. Each time after the treatments, participants watched a 5-minute video clip and took a listening test on the content they just heard. After viewing the three video clips, on the fourth week, participants filled out an attitude questionnaire to express their perceptions of advance organizers. Analyzing the results of the three listening tests and the questionnaire, the researcher found that both groups receiving advance organizers significantly outscored the control group. However, there was no significant difference between the two advance organizers. As for students’ attitude, more than half of all the participants agreed on the effectiveness of the two advance organizers. Yet, more students in the Verbal Contextual Keys group held positive attitude on receiving the advance organizer again. Though designing or preparing advance organizers and selecting suitable authentic/instructional video materials may take teachers much extra time and energy, students could be motivated when they learned the “real language.” Moreover, English listening training could be more interesting and diverse.