（英语语言文学专业论文）影响英语电影听力理解的因素——基于100部电影语料库的实证研究.pdf

ma thesis ningbo university 影响英语电影听力理解的因素 基于 100 部电影语料库的实证研究 摘 要 英语电影在多种二语课程尤其是听力课程中得到越来越多的应用是一个不争的事实 研究影响英语电影听力理解的因素有相当重要的教学价值和实用意义本研究的主要任务 是探讨英语电影听力理解中源于电影本身的各种影响因素其目的是为英语电影在多种二 语课程尤其是听力课程中的实际应用构建理据平台影响听力理解的因素可以根据听力过 程的三要素刺激源传输媒介接收者分成三类虽然许多研究试图覆盖与三要 素相关的所有因素但是本研究仅集中于刺激源英语电影因为刺激源是英语电影听 力理解区别于其它听力理解类型的主要因素为了使实证研究更具科学性作者创建了由 100 部英语电影的字幕对白和独白等构成的达 906393 英文词的语料库并且在语音分 析中应用了由wasp 软件生成的语音分析图谱 本论文共由八章构成 第一章为引言论证了本研究的学术价值并介绍了本论文的框架结构 第二章为文献综述对听力类型听力定义的各种观点听力理解的处理类型听力 的定义等方面的相关文献进行了系统的介绍和评价 第三章分析了电影听力理解的特色并明确了本论文的研究方法通过对电影本身特色 的剖析和对电影与受众之间关系的考察探讨了电影听力理解的特色通过描述研究焦点 语料来源和使用的电脑软件等明确了本论文的研究方法 第四章至第七章对影响英语电影听力理解的因素分别从听觉刺激源因素视觉刺激源 因素语言因素和跨文化因素等四个方面进行了实证性的研究在分析过程中广泛借用相 关领域专家学者的现有研究成果而支持性数据和实例主要来源于自建的电影语言语料库 以及wasp 语音分析图谱 第四章研究影响英语电影听力理解的听觉刺激源因素从对白和独白与背景音两个方 面入手对前者的研究从说话者和口音变化语音和音系特征口语副语言特征半词和 ma thesis ningbo university 非词发音等方面进行对后者的研究主要是探讨作为背景音的音乐和歌曲各种媒体电 视无线电等噪音等与对白和独白理解之间的相互作用 第五章研究影响英语电影听力理解的视觉刺激源因素主要探讨身体语言和其它视觉 因素对口头语言的补充否定和替代作用 第六章研究影响英语电影听力理解的语言因素主要分为词汇因素语义因素句法 因素和语篇因素等四个方面进行其中一项重要成果是在语料库基础上测算出了英语电影 的基本词汇量 第七章研究影响英语电影听力理解的跨文化因素跨文化因素纷繁复杂本研究主要 选取了电影中涉及的历史知识地理知识宗教知识和政府知识等几个重要方面进行了细 致的探讨 第八章为结论对整个研究简要总结并指出进一步研究的课题 关键词英语电影听力理解影响因素 ma thesis ningbo university factors affecting listening comprehension of english movies an empirical study based on the corpus of 100 movies abstract it is an irrefutable fact that movies are used more and more in various tesl courses, especially listening course, therefore it is of fairly important academic value and realistic significance to research into the factors affecting lcem (listening comprehension of english movies). the purpose of this research is to explore the movies from all aspects to find out the various factors affecting lcem, and to construct a theoretical foundation for the application of english movies in various tesl courses, especially listening course. the factors affecting listening comprehension fall into three categories according to the three major elements involved in listening process: the stimuli, the media, and the receptors. while many researches attempt to cover all the factors related with the three elements, this study only focuses on the stimuli english movies, because it is the stimuli that differentiate lcem from other kinds of listening comprehension. in order to do the empirical study more scientifically, the author constructs a 906,393-word concordance corpus consisting of the subtitles (dialogues and monologues, etc.) of 100 english movies, and the wasp displays are also utilized for the analyses of the aural stimuli. this thesis is composed of eight chapters: chapter 1 verifies the academic value of this research and outlines the organization of this thesis. chapter 2 reviews the literatures of relevant theories and recent research findings that are applicable to this study. chapter 3 describes the main features of lcem and introduces the research methodology. the main features of movies are exemplified and the relations between movies and audiences are examined. the research methodology is defined through the description of the focus of this thesis, the data and the computer software utilized in this research. for analytic convenience, the various factors affecting the listening comprehension of english movies are broken down into four major categories: 1) factors in aural stimuli; 2) factors in visual stimuli; 3) linguistic factors; and 4) cultural factors. these factors are analyzed respectively in four chapters. the theories in the analytic process are mainly borrowed from the works of scholars and ma thesis ningbo university experts in relevant fields. most of the supportive statistics and examples are drawn from the concordance corpus or the wasp displays. chapter 4 investigates the factors in aural stimuli from two aspects: dialogues listening comprehension; affecting factors ma thesis ningbo university - 1 - 1 introduction 1.1 significance of the research 1.1.1 importance of listening brown (1987:5), one of the pioneers of listening research, claims that of foremost importance is the role of listening in language acquisition, the basis of all subsequent communication, the foundation of all life-long reading, writing, speaking and listening activities. studies (purdy 1997:4-5) have indicated that of the four basic communication skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening) we use the skill of listening most. from 42% to 60% (or more) of our communication time is spent listening, depending on whether we are students, managerial trainees, doctors, counselors, lawyers, or nurses. the dynamic expansion of interpersonal communications via the internet, world wide web, internet phones and personal videoconferencing continues to challenge our abilities to adapt as listeners. people are seeing an ever-greater need to be able to listen effectively in every part of their lives (purdy tomalin 1986; geddes baddock 1996; eken 2000; eken 2003) have done a great amount of substantial work about the application of videos in the classroom and the proper teaching methodology. this brief literature survey demonstrates that in the domestic as well as the international academia the research work done on the factors affecting or obstructing the listening comprehension of english movies utilized for esl purposes are insufficient. nevertheless, the above-mentioned academic works still pave a good way for the development of this research. 1 the brief introduction of relevant research in international academia is confined to the works related with movies, which have immediate relations with the topic of this thesis. ma thesis ningbo university - 4 - 1.2 organization of the thesis this thesis is composed of eight chapters: chapter 1 verifies the academic value of this research and outlines the organization of this thesis. chapter 2 reviews the literatures of relevant theories and recent research findings that are applicable to this study. chapter 3 describes the main features of lcem and introduces the research methodology. the main features of movies are exemplified and the relations between movies and audiences are examined. the research methodology is defined through the description of the focus of this thesis, the data and the computer software utilized in this research. for analytic convenience, the various factors affecting the listening comprehension of english movies are broken down into four major categories: 1) factors in aural stimuli; 2) factors in visual stimuli; 3) linguistic factors; and 4) cultural factors. these factors are analyzed respectively in four chapters. the theories in the analytic process are mainly borrowed from the works of scholars and experts in relevant fields. most of the supportive statistics and examples are drawn from the concordance corpus or the wasp displays. chapter 4 investigates the factors in aural stimuli from two aspects: dialogues 2) friends having an informal chat; 3) others talking on their mobile phones or in a public place; 4) songs and films; 5) small talk at a party; 6) discussing problems at work or at home; 7) on the phone; 8) attending a class or a seminar. obviously, these eight conditions only cover part of the possibilities we may encounter in real life. kratz (1995:10-12) divides listening into five types: 1) social contact: listening to bond. why we communicate is simply to make contact with or express our friendship to another person. 2) entertainment: listening to appreciate. listen primarily for enjoyment. listen to appreciate rather than to evaluate or analyze. 3) information: listening to learn and share information. listen in order to learn and retain information. 4) persuasion: listening to decide. when the message is persuasive, we need to listen critically. our goal is to discover the validity of the arguments that are being presented. 5) catharsis: listening to enable. its primary goal is to vent a particular emotion or feeling. kratz argues that in general people send messages or communicate for one of the five reasons. each reason results in a slightly different kind of message and therefore requires a slightly different kind of listening. although the five types of messages are distinct, they are not exclusive. in fact, most of our conversations are composed of at least two and sometimes five types. purdy (1997:11-13) also divides listening into five types, but his division is a little different from kratzs: 1) discriminative listening: listening to distinguish the aural stimuli. 2) comprehensive listening: listening for an understanding of a message. 3) critical-evaluating listening: the intelligent response to persuasive or propagandistic message. 4) therapeutic listening: listening that lends a non-judgmental, healing ear to family, friends, and professional associates. 5) appreciative listening: enjoyment of messages for their own sake. purdy claims that all of us engage in the five types of listening behavior. how well we listen, however, depends on a variety of factors that are influenced by our backgrounds and experiences. listening to the movies is a type mentioned by all the three above-mentioned scholars in their research, but obviously lcem in the tesl context is not just so simple as “entertainment” or “appreciative listening”, because movies are utilized as teaching and learning material rather than entertaining resources. hence lcem involves the two modes of ma thesis ningbo university - 6 - “entertainment” and “information” proposed by kratz, or the two modes of “appreciative listening” and “comprehensive listening” proposed by purdy. 2.2 various perspectives towards defining listening human cognition and communication are considered the most highly developed form of information processing that is known to us at present. certainly, one of the major obstacles to formulating clear definitions of listening comprehension is the fact that it is largely a mental process and is not, therefore, directly observable. it is difficult to translate cognitive operations into behaviors that can be studied and modified. scientists are still uncertain as to exactly how the mind works, how sound waves become transformed into neurological impulses that enable us to create meaning (brownell 1986:56). despite the tremendous amount of difficulties, scholars in different academic fields exert great effort exploring the mystery of listening and they have made fruitful achievements. rost (1990:6-8) claims that although many models of verbal understanding have been attempted, they are for the most part broad descriptions of linguistic competence or narrow description of verbal processes. the new model of understanding proposed by demyankov (1983) serves as a good example of a broad description of verbal understanding. according to this model, language understanding consists of the following stages: 1) acquisition of the linguistic framework of the language in question; 2) construction and verification of hypothetical interpretations of what is heard; 3) discernment of the speakers intentions; 4) assimilation of the spoken message; 5) coordination of the speakers and listeners motivation for participation in the conversation; 6) discernment of the tone of the message. while a stage model may appear to account for a range of causes for non-understanding or misunderstanding, it does not adequately characterize everyday instances of language understanding. the well-known work of clark 2) comprehending an extended text consists of using knowledge about the world and schemata about what a normal, plausible text should include; 3) understanding involves filling in gaps, introducing consistencies, and eliminating implausible interpretations, with a steady use of inference to assemble the different elements in the story into a congruent structure. schema theory is also introduced to analyze language comprehension (thorndyke 2) instantiation: a schema is instantiated during interpretation: a copy of the general schema is created, with data from the current input filling variable slots. 3) prediction: schemata permit reasoning from incomplete information; default values supplied by the general schema may be substituted in the description or anticipation of an event when the explicit information supplied in the description is incomplete or withheld. 4) induction: schemata are learned by induction from numerous previous experiences with various exemplars of the generic concept. kratz (1995:6-10) proposes a four-phase model of listening asserting that listening involves four phases: sensing, interpreting, evaluating, and responding. brownell (1986:56) argues that in order to understand what we hear, we must 1) recognize the words, 2) form mental images from sound cues, 3) identify the main purpose of the message and the thought relationships of the ideas presented, and 4) compare new information to knowledge already stored in long-term memory. ma thesis ningbo university - 8 - the acknowledged scientist of cognitive psychology, anderson (2000:421), in the fifth edition of his book cognitive psychology and its implications claims, it is fair to say we knew almost nothing about language processing when cognitive psychology emerged from the collapse of behaviorism forty years ago. according to anderson (2000:389), comprehension can be analyzed into three stages. the first stage comprises the perceptual processes by which the acoustic or written message is originally encoded. the second stage is termed the parsing stage. parsing is the process by which the words in the message are transformed into a mental representation of the combined meaning of the words. the third stage is the utilization stage, in which comprehenders actually use the mental representation of the sentences meaning. to make it simpler, comprehension involves a perceptual stage, followed by a parsing stage, followed by a utilization stage. these three stages perception, parsing, and utilization are by necessity partially ordered in time; however, they also partly overlap. listeners can be making inferences from the first part of a sentence while perceiving a later part. fenzl the second cycle, interpreting (the assignment of meaning), makes knowledge out of data; the third cycle, decision-making, makes practical applications from knowledge, and forms wisdom. 2.3 processing types of listening comprehension richards (1990:50) breaks down the processing used in listening comprehension into two distinct types, referring to them as “bottom-up” and “top-down”. in cooks discourse (1989) the “bottom-up” processing is described as interpreting the lowest-level units first, then proceeding to an interpretation of the rank above, and so on upwards. in other words, we sometimes need to rely on our knowledge of lexis, grammar, and syntax, and apply that knowledge when confronted with an incoming message in order to achieve comprehension. with gestalt psychology as theoretical root, the “top-down” processing is defined as interpreting discourse by hypothesizing about the most general units first, then moving downwards through the ranks below. this means applying our background knowledge to aid in understanding the meaning of a message. it is pointed out that the bottom-up model is insufficient on its own, because listeners would not be able to perceive speech as successfully as they do if they were in fact engaged in a ma thesis ningbo university - 9 - process of building up the recognition of words solely by attempting to identify their constituent phonemes (anderson brown 1990:10). some scholars (best 1989:349; goldstein 1996:438) prefer the interactive model, which suggests that successful speech perception is the result of top-down processing (based on knowledge and meaning) and bottom- up processing (based on the acoustic signal) working together. 2.4 definitions of listening just as there are various perspectives towards listening, so are there many different definitions. glenn (1989) in the journal of the international listening association lists fifty different ways of describing listening. glenns content analysis finds that the fifty definitions most often include the following concepts: perception, attention, interpretation, response, spoken cues, and visual cues. the international listening association has adopted an official definition (emmert 1996:2- 3): listening is the process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken and/or nonverbal messages. purdy (1997:6-7) claims that whatever definition of listening we choose we must know that listening is based on several premises: listening 1) can be learned; 2) is a dynamic process; 3) is an active process; 4) involves mind and body, with verbal and nonverbal processes working together; 5) allows us to be receptive to the needs, concerns, and information of others, as well as the environment around us. with these premises as a foundation, purdy (1997:8) defines listening as: listening is the active and dynamic process of attending, perceiving, interpreting, remembering, and responding to the expressed (verbal and nonverbal) needs, concerns, and information offered by other human beings. this definition of listening includes the following seven attributes: 1) volition, 2) focused attending, 3) perception, 4) interpretation, 5) remembering, 6) responses and 7) the human element (purdy thats the story which unfolds from beginning to end.” in a sense, we are more of viewers than listeners. therefore while we use the term lcem we dont mean that we attend to the movies with our ears only. actually, our eyes help us a lot in interpreting what we hear from the movies. in