The Relationship between language Aptitude and Fluency of L2 Speech Production语言学能和英语口语流利度的关系.doc

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1、晋 中 学 院 本科毕业论文（设计）题 目 语言学能和英语口语流利度的关系院 系_外国语学院_专 业_英语专业_姓 名_学 号_1203111107_学习年限 2012 年 9 月至 2016 年 6 月指导教师 申请学位 文学学士学位 2014年 5 月 1 日晋中学院本科生毕业论文（设计）Acknowledgements This dissertation is completed under the direction of my supervisor and teachers, who provide me meticulous guidance and help. Meanwhile

2、, I also show my great gratitude to my classmates and my family. In the first place, I would like to owe my success to my supervisor Dong. He left a deep impression on me not so much as a knowledge guider, but as a prudent scholar and selfless helper. But for his patient guidance and academic attain

3、ments, I would not have got through this research. He is more a loving father than a teacher. In the second place, I would show my deep respect and thanks to all my teachers. They gave me the basic knowledge and skills to complete my research. I have benefited a lot from the courses of professor Gu,

4、 professor Li and professor Bao. Last but not least, I would give my deep gratitude to my beloved classmates and family. The mutual help in the classroom provided me endless motive power to stick to my goal. Besides, it is my family that always backs me along my road. Therefore, I would thank all of

5、 them. Without their help and guidance, I would not have finished my paper.The Relationship between language Aptitude and Fluency of L2 Speech Production-A Case Study of Jinzhong College Abstract: Although the conclusion has been reached on the importance of language aptitude on second language acqu

6、isition in the academic, yet at home, scholars in foreign education do not pay enough attention to the study on it. In China, since 1988, in the College Entrance Examination, language aptitude test was cancelled for the enrollment of English major. The phenomenon of “dumb English” in public English

7、is attributed to the absence of training. There is little research on the influencing mechanism of language aptitude on various productive language skills. Especially, less research is conducted to explore whether oral English fluency, as one of the most important marks of language production is aff

8、ected by language aptitude. Therefore, the present study aims to study oral English fluency from the perspective of language aptitude. Research questions are as following: 1. What are the differences in overall language aptitude and its components among the learners?2. What is the relationship betwe

9、en language aptitude components and indices of oral English fluency? There also exists individual difference in the components of language aptitude under the same aptitude level, which has an effect on oral fluency. Students with strong phonemic encoding abilities have good oral fluency even if thei

10、r grammatical and inductive abilities are low. The reason is that phonetic encoding ability features prominently in input process and directly affects oral fluency. It is also found that grammatical and inductive learning abilities do not play a direct role in oral production.Keywords: language apti

11、tude, language aptitude components, cognitive ability, oral English fluency 英语语言学能和英语口语流利度的关系以晋中学院为例 摘 要：尽管在学术界语言学能对二语习得的重要作用已成为定论，但是，国内外语教育界对语言学能的研究仍然未给予足够的重视。在我国，自 1988年后，外语专业高考招生取消了对语言学能测试的要求。公共外语教学中的哑巴英语现象也均归结为训练缺位所致。语言学能对各产出性语言技能的影响机制研究甚少。尤其是作为语言产出重要标志之一的口语流利度，是否受到语言学能的影响更加鲜有研究。鉴于此，本文从语言学能角度研究口

12、语流利度，并提出以下问题： 1. 学习者的总体语言学能及构成要素存在什么样的差异？ 2. 学习者语言学能构成要素与英语口语流利度存在着何种关系？ 根据研究问题，本文对安徽大学江淮学院的 50 名英语专业大一新生进行了研究。通过问卷筛选出符合条件 41 名学生。整个实验包括问卷，语言学能测试和口语表达测试。最后经 Adobe Audition1.5 和 SPSS3.0 收集数据、分析得出结论。结果发现学习者在总体语言学能上存在优劣之分。总体语言学能与口语流利度有很大的相关性。高语言学能者在口语流利度时间指标上表现为：单位时间产出的音节更多，语段更长，停顿时间更短；在口语流利度的语言和表达指标上表

13、现为：发音更准确，修改的频率也较低。口语产出是一个信息加工过程，在此过程中，语音编码能力与输入处理有关，推理能力与语法敏感度在理解输入中起重要作用，记忆能力能使学习者在产出时易于提取存储信息，这就解释了为什么总体语言学能与口语流利度显著相关。语言学能的分项能力中，在同等学能水平下，语言学能构成要素也存在个体差异，对口语流利度产生不同的影响。语音编码强的学习者，即使语法敏感度与推理能力较低，其口语流利度水平也较高。这是因为语音编码在输入阶段发挥着重要的作用，直接影响着语言流利度。但是语法敏感度与推理能力与对口语流利度并不产生直接影响。关键词：总体语言学能，学能构成要素，认知能力，口语流利度 iv

14、晋中学院本科生毕业论文（设计）ContentsAcknowledgementsiAbstract in EnglishiiAbstract in Chineseiii Introduction1 Literature Review12.1 L2 Oral Fluency12.1.1 The definition of L2 oral fluency22.1.2The overview of L2 oral fluency research22.2The Definition of Language Aptitude and Development of Language Aptitude Te

15、st .2Methodology33.1Research Questions and Hypotheses . 33.1.1Research questions33.1.2Research hypotheses33.2Research Methodology and Variables43.2.1Research methodology43.2.2Variables43.3Research Design.4 3.3.1Subjects.4 3.3.2 The setting4 3.3.3Instruments4 3.3.4 Procedure.53.4 Pilot Study.6 Result

16、64.1 Data Collection Procedures64.2 Data Analysis on Questionnaire64.3 Data Analysis on Oral English Fluency6 Conclusion75.1 Summary of Major Findings .75.1.1 Summary of learners language aptitude.75.1.2 Effects of learners language aptitude on oral English fluency.75.2 Pedagogical Implications for

17、English Teaching.75.3 Limitations of the Present Study 85.4 Suggestions for Future Study.8Bibliography7Appendix8 IntroductionLanguage communication is closely related to human life. Especially today, for the Sake of national development and international cooperation, English communication plays a mo

18、re and more important role in the society. The cultivation of listening and speaking abilities are stressed to be placed in priority. Good oral English master, is on high demand. At the same time, education field has witnessed a booming enrollment in Chinese university. Though English professional h

19、as become a yellow card in joy hunting, many high institutes still increase enrollment of English major. The study of language aptitude in second language acquisition has quite a lot. Since the invention of Modern Language Aptitude Test, this field has caught a lot attention at home and abroad. Five

20、 parts consists of the paper. Chapter One is the introduction of the whole paper. It makes clear the background information, rationale and significance of the paper. In Chapter Two, the researcher reviews definitions of language aptitude and fluency, oral fluency research, the development of languag

21、e aptitude test and the theoretical framework. Chapter Three presents the methodology. Chapter Four relates the results and discussions. Chapter Five is the conclusion. In this part, the paper also points out the limitations, and suggestions for the future study. Literature ReviewPragmatic failure i

22、s caused by expressing in inappropriate time, ways or manners. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the study of pragmatic failure, which has attained rich achievements. In this chapter, the author will introduce the definitions of pragmatic failure and pragmatic competence, and

23、 some related studies both at home and abroad of pragmatic failure.2.1 L2 Oral Fluency There are many views about oral English fluency of L2 learners. “Accuracy or fluency” has become a heated topic in the past few years. Fluency is usually described as a label of communicative ability. With the dev

24、elopment of science and technology, oral English ability began to catch peoples attention. To satisfy the increasing need of talents, colleges and universities began to enroll large students majored in English. Meantime many researchers began to explore how to achieve fluent English quickly. Traditi

25、onal teaching methods were questioned by many scholars as “dumb English” became a common phenomenon. The form-focused teaching method was also criticized badly. And some scholars thought grammar translation method was not proper for language learning. Besides, first language learning theories have b

26、een applied to second language acquisition. Though oral English research has made a lot of achievements and people know more and more about the mechanics and nature of oral production, yet the study on oral English learning is far from an easy job for there are many variables affecting it, if we wan

27、t to communicate with native speakers effectively, we should not only depend on linguistic competence but also equip with pragmatic competence to pragmatic failure? The following will discuss the definitions of these two concepts.2.1.1 The definition of L2 oral fluencyDifferent researchers defined f

28、luency from different angles, which added new materials to fluency research. Faerch did not give a specific explanation on fluency. Fillmore concluded four aspects of native-speaker fluency: fluency, flexibility correctness, and creativity. However, not everyone is endowed with this ability; otherwi

29、se he will find it difficult to bring this ability into full play. 2.1.2 The overview of L2 oral fluency researchA lot of researches have been conducted to explore factors affecting oral English fluency, including internal factors and external factors.At abroad, Sajavarra concludes that the main fac

30、tor influencing oral fluency is the lack of necessary linguistic knowledge that can be extracted automatically (Cited in Qu, 2004). Similarly, Gatbonton & Segalowitz agree that the automatic extraction of information is a prerequisite for achieving oral fluency (Gatbonton & Segalowitz, 1988). At hom

31、e, Lang Xuhui exclusively examines the reasons of defluency in classroom situation (Lang, 2010). Specifically, Wu Wensheng examines foreign language speaking anxiety self-schema for undergraduate students (Wu, 2009).2.2 The Definition of Language Aptitude and Development of Language AptitudeThis pap

32、er is talking fluency from different angles. Meredyth Daneman assesses fluency in terms of total number of words in one minute, richness and reading time and error. Maicle Borges Mota defines fluency completely in temporary indices. This paper holds that a fluent speaker should have the ability to s

33、peak the second language smoothly, express the content coherently and logically, which should be also well accepted by the listeners(Zhang, 1992). MethodologyThe previous chapters review relevant studies on language aptitude and oral English proficiency. In this part, the study employs a survey desi

34、gn to find if there is any correlation between language aptitude and oral fluency. Three parts are included in this part: research questions and hypotheses, research methodology and variables and a pilot study. 3.1 Research Questions and Hypotheses3.1.1 Research questions1. What are the differences

35、in overall language aptitude and its components among the learners? 2. What is the relationship between language aptitude components and indices of oral English fluency? 3.1.2 Research hypothesesHypothesis1: Students may differ greatly in language aptitude. There also exist differences in the consti

36、tuent parts of language aptitude. Some students may be memory type (exemplar-based learning), that is, they have a relatively higher score on items of number learning and paired associates; some may be analytic type, that is, they have a relatively higher score on items of number learning and word i

37、n sentences; others may be a balance between the above two types.Hypothesis2: Subjects with higher foreign language aptitude tend to speak more quickly, pronounce more accurately and produce more in a speaking run. Hypothesis3: There are correlations between language aptitude components and oral flu

38、ency. Rote learning ability and phonemic encoding ability correlate positively with, PTR, AR, and MLR of temporary indexes, while negatively with ALP. Language inductivity ability and grammar ability may not have a strong correlation with oral English fluency.3.2 Research Methodology and Variables 3

39、.2.1 Research methodologyAn empirical research is conducted in this paper. The procedure and variables are carefully controlled. The current research is performed for the sake of finding whether there is any relationship between oral English fluency and language aptitude, so a quantitative method is

40、 adopted to measure and explain transcription.3.2.2 VariablesThe variables in this paper are an independent variable, that is, foreign language aptitude and a dependent variable, that is, oral English fluency.3.3 Research Design3.3.1 Subjects In this study 41 subjects are selected from two classes o

41、f 50 freshmen majored in English in Jinzhong University, and the selected 41 students have no knowledge of French. The selected 41 students have learned English from grade 3 and their proficiency is at the same level according to their college entrance examination scores. All subjects have something

42、 in common: firstly, they have been learning English for ten years. They all attend traditional English classes and the main source to practice their oral English is in the oral class taken twice a week. Secondly, their entrance grade on English implies that their written English is very good. And t

43、est of normality and independent sample test are also carried out. The former shows that subjects English scores are in normal distribution and the latter shows that their English proficiency is at the same level. 3.3.2 The setting The pilot study was carried out on Nov.13. The real test began on No

44、v16 and 17. In order to create a relaxed atmosphere, the students were told that the researcher was an English teacher and wanted to do a research about oral English, and the scores would not be counted into final exam score. Before the pilot study, the researcher had a chat with subjects and told t

45、hem the procedure. 3.3.3 Instruments In this study, the instruments are a background questionnaire, a Modern Language Aptitude Test and an oral English speaking task.3.3.3.1 Background questionnaire The distribution of the background questionnaire is finished two days before the pilot study. The des

46、ign of the questionnaire is close-ended, so it is easy for calculation. The aim of the questionnaire is to locate the proper subjects and guarantee that all subjects are placed at the same level, and the testing result is not caused by different language input modes, different learning time and etc.

47、 3.3.3.2 A modified Modern Language Aptitude Test The test in this study is based on Carrolls work on aptitude- the Modern Language Aptitude Test. The test is comprised of five subtests, involving four basic abilities. Part1: number learning. This part consists of ten items for ten scores, mainly testing audito