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【摘要】传统听说教学法观点视英语听力为一种被动的技能，因而传统教学忽略对英语听力的研究。然而，交际语言教学法认为听力能力是一种积极的能力，任务教学中不同的任务的类型可以对听力能力形成的影响。本文旨在研究任务教学活动对不同学习水平的中国二语习得者英语听力习得能力的影响，探究不同的任务类型与中国二语习得者的英语听力能力之间的关系是否具有显著意义，任务教学的哪几种任务对听力能力提升有显著影响。
【关键词】听力能力 任务教学 中国二语习得者 学习水平
【Abstract】Traditionally，audiolingualism assumed that listening is a passive skill Thus，listening comprehension has drawn the least attention.Communicative language teaching （CLT） and its subsequent branches considered listening as an active skill.Thus consider it could be influenced by different tasks.This study aims at examining the influence of task-based activities on listening ability of EFL learners and to identify whether there is any significant relationship between task types and Chinese EFL learners’ listening comprehension and what tasks correspond to the students’ language proficiency level.
【Key Words】Listening Comprehension； Task Types； Chinese EFL Learners； Different Proficiency Level
1.Introduction
1.1General background.Listening comprehension traditionally has drawn the least attention in terms of both the amount of research conducted on the topic and its place in language teaching methodology.Audiolingualism assumed that listening is a passive skill and merely exposing the student to the spoken language is sufficient for listening comprehension.In fact，little effort has been conducted on the part of English teachers to enhance students’ listening comprehension ability per se.
The most significant changes to language teaching practice over the last twenty years are those that is described as communicative language teaching （CLT）.As far as CLT is concerned，it paid attention to all the four skills of language—reading，listening，speaking，and writing.Listening was no longer believed to be a passive skill.CLT and its subsequent branches considered listening as an active skill.One of CLT’s subsequent divisions has been Task-Based Language Teaching （TBLT），which is based on using tasks as the core of language teaching and learning.
1.2Tasks for Listening Comprehension.Exercises for listening comprehension are more effective if they are constructed around a task.The students should be“required to do something in response to what they hear that will demonstrate their understanding”（Dunkel，1986，p.104； Ur，1984，p.25）.There are different types of tasks.However，few empirical studies have explored the potential relationship between task-based approach and language skills，specifically the listening comprehension. The present study is concerned with the investigation of the effect of four specific types of tasks on Chinese EFL learners’ listening ability and attempted to answer the following questions：
1.2.1Is there any significant relationship between task type and Chinese EFL learners’ listening ability？
1.2.2What type（s） of task correspond to the students’ language proficiency level？
2.Methodology
2.1Setting and participants.90 EFL learners as the participants of this study are chosen from a senior high school who have studied English for at least 5 years.They were divided into 3 classes based on their high school entrance score which is also correspondence to their English levels according to the result of the pre-test.Thus they are marked as three levels of intermediate，upper-intermediate，and advanced.
2.2Instrumentation
2.2.1Pretest.The pretest test is run in order to enable the researcher to judge the learners’ language proficiency level.All the participants take this test and their scores are compared with the results of the post-test.The test consists of 32 items including four sections，each devotes to one of the four tasks.The participants are instructed to finish the within 32 minutes at the same time.The tape is played only once.
2.2.2Post-test.The post-test is to determine the efficacy of the task types on the listening comprehension of EFL learners and to see whether there are any significant relationships between the tasks and students’ language proficiency level.The post-test has the same characteristics of the task-based pretest of listening comprehension.
3.Procedure
3.1Study procedure.The study is last for one term.Special listening tasks are designed for each group to be practiced through the task-based approach.The four tasks are labeling，selecting，matching，and form filling，which are applied according to the framework introduced in Richards （2002，p.244）.
Concerning the sequence of class activities，the following route-map is made and implemented throughout the course： a） lead-in，b） pre-task-work，c） the actual task，d） tape playing，and e） feedback on the task.
The tasks are ordered only on the basis of their complexity.Of the 18 weeks，2 weeks are used for administration of the tests，the first week for the pretest，and the last one for the post test.Each session lasts about 90 minutes，and the time is equally divided among the four tasks.The right and wrong scoring procedure is used in this study.A response receives a score of ’0’ if it is wrong and ’1’ if it is correct. 4.Data analysis and Findings
The data are gathered and subjected to the statistical analysis of ANOVA and t-test in order to see if the observed English proficiency level differences are significant.The researcher apply four paired t-tests to see if there is any significant relationship between each of the four tasks and the listening comprehension of the participants，disregarding their level of language proficiency.Furthermore the researcher conducts twelve paired t-tests （three for each of the tasks） to determine if there is any significant relationship between the task in question and the participants’ level of language proficiency.
4.1The results of the significance of participants’ English proficiency level.The result of two-way ANOVA on the participants’ performance in the three levels of language proficiency shows that the F-observed value exceed the value of F-critical （4.18） at 0.05 level of significance which indicate that the difference between the two means is statistically significant.This difference between the two F-values is high enough to make the researcher confident in attributing the difference to the treatment effect.
4.2The results of the participants’ performance on pretest and post-test tasks.The statistics of matched t-test of the participants’ performance on the four tasks shows that the t-observed values for the tasks of“matching，form-filling，and labeling”exceed the value of t-critical at the 0.05 levels，and only the t-observed value for the“selecting”task is lower than the critical t-value （2.0）.The above statistical procedures answer the first question： among the four tasks designed for teaching listening comprehension，only the effect of the selecting task is low and the three others improve the participants’ listening comprehension as a result of task-based methodology.
4.3The results of the participants’ performance on the tasks in each level of language proficiency.The matched t-test of the participants’ performance on the tasks in each level of language proficiency shows that the P-value≤0.05，df = 29，t-critical = 2.045.The result demonstrated that，at the intermediate level，all the tasks show some degrees of correspondence with the level in question except the task of“selecting”.In the upper-intermediate level，all the tasks correspond with this level except the“selecting”task.And finally，in the advanced level，the two tasks of “matching” and“labeling”show correspondence to the level in question，and the two others do not. 5.Conclusion
According to the obtained results，the listening-comprehension skill in EFL students tended to improve through exposure to task-based input.Specifically，the three types of “matching，labeling，and form-filling”not only affected the listening comprehension of the participants and improved it but also corresponded to the three levels of language proficiency and proved to be suitable for all the participants at all levels.
The findings help foreign language teachers to choose the appropriate way of teaching listening and give the researchers enough confidence that the study is well worth the effort and will enhance the existing theories on task-based methodologies.
References：
[1]Dunkel，P.（1986）.Developing listening fluency in L2： theoretical principles and pedagogical considerations.The Modern Language Journal 70，99-106.
[2]Richards，J.C.
【关键词】听力能力 任务教学 中国二语习得者 学习水平
【Abstract】Traditionally，audiolingualism assumed that listening is a passive skill Thus，listening comprehension has drawn the least attention.Communicative language teaching （CLT） and its subsequent branches considered listening as an active skill.Thus consider it could be influenced by different tasks.This study aims at examining the influence of task-based activities on listening ability of EFL learners and to identify whether there is any significant relationship between task types and Chinese EFL learners’ listening comprehension and what tasks correspond to the students’ language proficiency level.
【Key Words】Listening Comprehension； Task Types； Chinese EFL Learners； Different Proficiency Level
1.Introduction
1.1General background.Listening comprehension traditionally has drawn the least attention in terms of both the amount of research conducted on the topic and its place in language teaching methodology.Audiolingualism assumed that listening is a passive skill and merely exposing the student to the spoken language is sufficient for listening comprehension.In fact，little effort has been conducted on the part of English teachers to enhance students’ listening comprehension ability per se.
The most significant changes to language teaching practice over the last twenty years are those that is described as communicative language teaching （CLT）.As far as CLT is concerned，it paid attention to all the four skills of language—reading，listening，speaking，and writing.Listening was no longer believed to be a passive skill.CLT and its subsequent branches considered listening as an active skill.One of CLT’s subsequent divisions has been Task-Based Language Teaching （TBLT），which is based on using tasks as the core of language teaching and learning.
1.2Tasks for Listening Comprehension.Exercises for listening comprehension are more effective if they are constructed around a task.The students should be“required to do something in response to what they hear that will demonstrate their understanding”（Dunkel，1986，p.104； Ur，1984，p.25）.There are different types of tasks.However，few empirical studies have explored the potential relationship between task-based approach and language skills，specifically the listening comprehension. The present study is concerned with the investigation of the effect of four specific types of tasks on Chinese EFL learners’ listening ability and attempted to answer the following questions：
1.2.1Is there any significant relationship between task type and Chinese EFL learners’ listening ability？
1.2.2What type（s） of task correspond to the students’ language proficiency level？
2.Methodology
2.1Setting and participants.90 EFL learners as the participants of this study are chosen from a senior high school who have studied English for at least 5 years.They were divided into 3 classes based on their high school entrance score which is also correspondence to their English levels according to the result of the pre-test.Thus they are marked as three levels of intermediate，upper-intermediate，and advanced.
2.2Instrumentation
2.2.1Pretest.The pretest test is run in order to enable the researcher to judge the learners’ language proficiency level.All the participants take this test and their scores are compared with the results of the post-test.The test consists of 32 items including four sections，each devotes to one of the four tasks.The participants are instructed to finish the within 32 minutes at the same time.The tape is played only once.
2.2.2Post-test.The post-test is to determine the efficacy of the task types on the listening comprehension of EFL learners and to see whether there are any significant relationships between the tasks and students’ language proficiency level.The post-test has the same characteristics of the task-based pretest of listening comprehension.
3.Procedure
3.1Study procedure.The study is last for one term.Special listening tasks are designed for each group to be practiced through the task-based approach.The four tasks are labeling，selecting，matching，and form filling，which are applied according to the framework introduced in Richards （2002，p.244）.
Concerning the sequence of class activities，the following route-map is made and implemented throughout the course： a） lead-in，b） pre-task-work，c） the actual task，d） tape playing，and e） feedback on the task.
The tasks are ordered only on the basis of their complexity.Of the 18 weeks，2 weeks are used for administration of the tests，the first week for the pretest，and the last one for the post test.Each session lasts about 90 minutes，and the time is equally divided among the four tasks.The right and wrong scoring procedure is used in this study.A response receives a score of ’0’ if it is wrong and ’1’ if it is correct. 4.Data analysis and Findings
The data are gathered and subjected to the statistical analysis of ANOVA and t-test in order to see if the observed English proficiency level differences are significant.The researcher apply four paired t-tests to see if there is any significant relationship between each of the four tasks and the listening comprehension of the participants，disregarding their level of language proficiency.Furthermore the researcher conducts twelve paired t-tests （three for each of the tasks） to determine if there is any significant relationship between the task in question and the participants’ level of language proficiency.
4.1The results of the significance of participants’ English proficiency level.The result of two-way ANOVA on the participants’ performance in the three levels of language proficiency shows that the F-observed value exceed the value of F-critical （4.18） at 0.05 level of significance which indicate that the difference between the two means is statistically significant.This difference between the two F-values is high enough to make the researcher confident in attributing the difference to the treatment effect.
4.2The results of the participants’ performance on pretest and post-test tasks.The statistics of matched t-test of the participants’ performance on the four tasks shows that the t-observed values for the tasks of“matching，form-filling，and labeling”exceed the value of t-critical at the 0.05 levels，and only the t-observed value for the“selecting”task is lower than the critical t-value （2.0）.The above statistical procedures answer the first question： among the four tasks designed for teaching listening comprehension，only the effect of the selecting task is low and the three others improve the participants’ listening comprehension as a result of task-based methodology.
4.3The results of the participants’ performance on the tasks in each level of language proficiency.The matched t-test of the participants’ performance on the tasks in each level of language proficiency shows that the P-value≤0.05，df = 29，t-critical = 2.045.The result demonstrated that，at the intermediate level，all the tasks show some degrees of correspondence with the level in question except the task of“selecting”.In the upper-intermediate level，all the tasks correspond with this level except the“selecting”task.And finally，in the advanced level，the two tasks of “matching” and“labeling”show correspondence to the level in question，and the two others do not. 5.Conclusion
According to the obtained results，the listening-comprehension skill in EFL students tended to improve through exposure to task-based input.Specifically，the three types of “matching，labeling，and form-filling”not only affected the listening comprehension of the participants and improved it but also corresponded to the three levels of language proficiency and proved to be suitable for all the participants at all levels.
The findings help foreign language teachers to choose the appropriate way of teaching listening and give the researchers enough confidence that the study is well worth the effort and will enhance the existing theories on task-based methodologies.
References：
[1]Dunkel，P.（1986）.Developing listening fluency in L2： theoretical principles and pedagogical considerations.The Modern Language Journal 70，99-106.
[2]Richards，J.C.