The Influence of Religion‐Specific Background Knowledge on the Listening Comprehension of Adult Second‐Language Students

Markham, Paul; Latham, Michael

doi:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1987.tb00563.x

Cited by 80 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Significant effects were found for topic familiarity and proficiency with no significant interaction between the two. A facilitative role for BK was also found in Markham and Latham's (1987) study on the effects of religious-specific BK on listening with a clear trend of increase in mean scores when there was a match between passage content (texts of prayer rituals) and religious background. Jensen and Hansen (1995), on the other hand, failed to find reliable BK effects in understanding academic lectures.…”

Section: Listeningmentioning

confidence: 76%

“…(a) a strong reliance on assumption-based indicators of BK as a predictor of task difficulty and on the basis of group level factors such as academic major (Bei, 2010;Lee & Anderson, 2007), gender (Lumley & O'Sullivan, 2005), choice of topic (Jennings et al, 1999;Tedick, 1990), religion (Markham & Latham, 1987) and cultural background (He & Shi, 2012) rather than measuring BK at the level of the individual. These group-level factors may be weak proxies for BK; for example, the use of academic major, particularly for pre-entry candidates, may simply reflect interest in a field of study.…”

Section: Summary and Methodological Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Topic and background knowledge effects on performance in speaking assessment

Khabbazbashi

2016

Language Testing

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This study explores the extent to which topic and background knowledge of topic affect spoken performance in a high-stakes speaking test. It is argued that evidence of a substantial influence may introduce construct-irrelevant variance and undermine test fairness. Data were collected from 81 non-native speakers of English who performed on 10 topics across three task types. Background knowledge and general language proficiency were measured using self-report questionnaires and C-tests respectively. Score data were analysed using many-facet Rasch measurement and multiple regression. Findings showed that for two of the three task types, the topics used in the study generally exhibited difficulty measures which were statistically distinct. However, the size of the differences in topic difficulties was too small to have a large practical effect on scores. Participants' different levels of background knowledge were shown to have a systematic effect on performance. However, these statistically significant differences also failed to translate into practical significance. Findings hold implications for speaking performance assessment.

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Section: Listeningmentioning

confidence: 76%

Section: Summary and Methodological Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Topic and background knowledge effects on performance in speaking assessment

Khabbazbashi

2016

Language Testing

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“…The results of the study suggested topic familiarity significantly affected listening comprehension at any level of proficiency. These findings corroborate those of an earlier study involving intermediate learners of English (Chiang & Dunkel, 1992) and learners of different nationalities and religious background (Markham & Latham, 1987), as well as a later study on English Academic Preparation (EAP) learners' familiarity with lecture topics (Jensen & Hansen, 1995).…”

Section: Text Authenticity and Relevancesupporting

confidence: 89%

Evaluating English listening websites for independent study

Ivone¹

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A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Queensland in 2013 School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies i ABSTRACTThe teaching and learning of listening has become more practical and affordable with the support of Internet technology and the World Wide Web. English listening websites are growing exponentially and promise an authentic and interactive language learning experience. This allows learning to be conducted outside class in the form of web-based independent study. Although learners in general show positive attitudes towards web-based materials due to their novelty, convenience, authenticity, and rich cultural content, web-based language learning materials have been criticised because of their quality and the way they explore the medium. Because they contain unregulated materials, English listening websites need to be thoroughly evaluated to determine their effectiveness, but studies that have focused specifically on the listening components of English learning websites are lacking.This study examined the benefits of using web-based listening materials in an independent study program to learners of English as a foreign language at university level. In order to do this, the judgmental and empirical evaluation framework proposed by Chapelle (2001) was adopted. This integrated approach has produced a comprehensive analysis of the characteristics of English listening websites and the use of these types of web-based listening materials in the independent study context. Seventy-eight English department students at a university in Indonesia participated voluntarily in the empirical evaluation. The study was conducted in three stages. In the first stage, the general, technical and pedagogical design features of English listening websites were evaluated using the Comprehensive Evaluation Criteria checklist for evaluating English learning websites developed by Yang and Chan (2008). In the second stage, the learning tasks were examined using a checklist adapted from the Task Appropriateness Criteria developed by Chapelle (2001) and the focus questions for selecting computer-based listening materials proposed by Chapelle and Jamieson (2008). For the empirical evaluation in the third stage of the study, quantitative and qualitative data from questionnaires, learning journals, group interviews, listening proficiency tests and course management system logs were analysed to describe not only learners' perceptions of the web-based listening materials but also the benefits they gained and the challenges they experienced in using the materials in the independent study program.The empirical evaluation findings confirm and supplement those of the judgmental evaluations.Although the participants found the web-based listening materials interesting, suitably varied in topics, tasks and accents, and useful for practising listening, the findings showed that improvements ii to the general, technical and pedagogical design of the evaluated English listening websites would make them gene...

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“…That is, the results indicated that cultural familiarization of the text has a significant effect on listening comprehension. Listeners are expected to achieve the writer's intended meaning by combining existing information with what they listen (Bacon, 1992;Chastain, 1988;Chiang & Dunkel, 1992;Long, 1990;Markham & Latham, 1987;Mueller, 1980;Schmidt-Rinehart, 1994). …”

Section: )mentioning

confidence: 99%