Dealing with English Majors’Difficulties with Dictation in Chinese Universities

张小平 郑红娟

Abstract： Dictation is a complicated process of decoding information and reorganizing meaning of an utterance and it has long been used to measure students language proficiency and help them to develop accuracy in listening and writing. However， many English majors have poor performance in dictation of TEM-4. The paper tries to discuss the fundamental factors that prevent students from obtaining a relatively high score in dictation and suggests some ways to deal with the problems. Key words： dictation； English major； Chinese university； TEM-4

[中圖分类号]H319.3

[文献标识码]A

[文章编号]1006-2831（2014）05-0039-6 doi：10.3969/j.issn.1006-2831.2014.02.008

1. Introduction

Dictation has been widely known as a device that can be used both as a testing technique for measuring language proficiency and， more importantly， as a learning activity which helps students develop their accuracy in listening and writing and reinforces structure and vocabulary （Morris， 1983： 125）. It reflects the whole process of communication and involves various language skills， which can be considered a good learning technique to improve learners proficiency （Rahimi， 2008： 33）. Likewise， Li Shaoshan （2001： 36） pointed out that dictation is an efficient way for foreign language teaching and its evaluation. Dictation is not only an important means in English testing， but also a positive， creative learning process， which can reflect quite accurately the learners general language proficiency （Deng & Zhang， 2004： 61）.

Test for English Majors Grade Four（TEM-4） is a standardized test in China applied to sophomores majoring in English， which aims at testing the students language proficiency after two years of basic learning in universities. A survey showed that majority of the students may lose points in listening section， especially in dictation （Yan， 2005： 59）. According to the statistics provided by Chinas TEM-4 Committee to the universities for the 2011 test， the average score in dictation at the national level was 6.83 points out of a total score of 15. The most common errors in dictation include： mistakes in words spelling， capitalizing and punctuations； grammar mistakes like part of speech， prepositional phrase， sentence structure， nonverbal structures， and conjunctions and so on； distortion of sequence， deletion and intrusion（Jin， 2011： 241）.

Therefore， it is of great importance to help students find and reduce the negative factors behind the poor performance. Based on the authors reading， research， observation， and years of teaching experience， this paper analyzes the factors affecting dictation in TEM-4 and offers ways that can help students to take dictation more accurately and thus strengthen their command of English.

2. Factors affecting studentsperformance in dictation

Dictation is a comprehensive process of applying both receptive skills and productive skills， which is influenced by linguistic competence factors and non-linguistic competence factors.

2.1 Linguistic factors

Linguistic competence factors refer to the factors of language itself， such as the knowledge of phonetics， vocabulary， grammars， structure patterns and so on.

2.1.1 Inadequate training of phonetics

Poor listening ability results from many factors， such as insufficient emphasis on listening by the whole society， immature teaching methodologies， ineffective listening strategies， and students lack of vocabulary（Wang， 2010： 562）. Listening and speaking are the weakest points of most English learners of all the five skills in China （Bai， Tian & Wang， 2011）. Few students have received systematic study of phonetics because of insufficient emphasis on listening by the test-oriented society （Zhang， 2011： 224）.

Chinese English learners have many problems with their phonetics， especially in dealing with the pronunciation variation like linking， weakening， assimilation and incomplete plosives. At the same time， many students neglect the pronunciation of words when they attempt to accumulate more vocabulary. Poor pronunciation prevents the students from finding the sound-spelling correspondences in their dictation， which can account for why many students feel some familiar words may sound strange to them， with the result of loss of marks in dictation.

2.1.2 Limited vocabulary

As the foundation of a language， vocabulary plays an important role in English learning. A sufficient vocabulary is the basis of good comprehension of a passage. Lack of vocabulary is frequently recognized as a key problem in second language listening comprehension （Flowerdew & Miller， 1992）.

English majors in China are required to have a vocabulary of 7，000 words after two years of university study. Students with a limited vocabulary may find there are many new words in the passage they read or hear which may lead to difficulty in understanding in listening comprehension or dictation. Moreover， some students mistakenly believe that if they do not know all the words， they cannot understand the passage. When they hear some unfamiliar words， they become nervous and stop to think about the words， with the result that they fail to seize the following sentences and lose more points. Another problem related to vocabulary is that the students know meaning of the words they hear， but cannot spell them correctly. Misspelling seems to be a tiny error in dictation， but the truth is that it is one of the easiest pointlosing errors during the process of writing.

2.1.3 Poor knowledge of grammar

Grammar is the description of patterns in the way English speakers construct sentences（Snow， 2007： 186）， which plays an important part in understanding sentence structure and sentence pattern in passage dictation. A good command of grammar can help students recognize the sentence pattern and capture the meaning of the speakers utterance. It can also help them find mistakes when they are checking what is written on the answer sheet.

However， the sad truth is that the students show little interest in grammar learning and they prefer to spend more time practicing communicating skills， such as speaking. As a result， the insufficient grammar knowledge usually leads to difficulty in listening and dictation. Sometimes， even if they get the meaning of the individual word or phrase， they still have some difficulties in understanding the sentence， because they do not know the sentence structure （Jia & Fu， 2011： 318）.

2.2 Non-linguistic factors

The non-linguistic factors refer to the knowledge of the culture background， shortterm memory， psychology quality and mental state， etc.

2.2.1 Shortage of the knowledge of culture background

Just mastering an amount of knowledge of phonetics， vocabulary and grammar is far from enough in learning a foreign language. Many students complain that they spend much time in listening， but little achievement has been acquired. An important reason behind is that they are unfamiliar with cultural background of the English speaking countries. Background knowledge including history， customs， and social environment， etc.， plays an important role in listening comprehension， as this forms a foundation for listeners to connect new information to their existing knowledge （Gilakjani& Ahmadi， 2011： 783）. Lack of knowledge of the target language culture， of the associations and references available to native users， can present obstacles to comprehension.

2.2.2 Short-term memory

Many students may have the experience that when they listen to the record， they can hear almost every word clearly， but when it is time to write down what they have heard， half of what they have remembered is forgotten. This phenomenon is closely related to the capacity of the listeners short-term memory.

According to the study of Miller （1956： 81-97）， the capacity of ones short-term memory is limited to about seven blocks or units of language or so. Short-term memory can only maintain a very brief time， less than a minute. Even though language learners may be able to recognize each word of an utterance as it is spoken， they may not be able to hold lengthy utterances in mind long enough to interpret them （Call， 1985： 766）.

Moreover， if the inputting information of language is overload， some less important information temporarily stored in short-term memory will be deleted. Then the memory will become so fuzzy that it may cause distortion of sequence， deletion and intrusion， thus causing the loss of points in dictation.

2.2.3 Psychological quality and mental state

Anxiety plays a very important role because the anticipation of foreign language use in receiving information can provoke anxiety. MacIntyre and Gardner （1994： 284） defined language anxiety as “the feeling of tension and apprehension especially associated with second language contexts， including speaking， listening， and learning”.

Horwitz and Cope （1986： 127-128） have asserted that foreign-language anxiety constitutes three elements： First is communication apprehension， which involves the feelings of irritation and apprehension that result out of individuals inability to express themselves to others or understand them due to their undeveloped vocabulary in the target language. Second， fear of negative social evaluation， is related to learners fear about being unfavorably perceived or judged by others because of their linguistic incompetence. Third is test anxiety， which refers to feelings of nervousness in assessment situations.

Listeners over-concentration on listening material leads to anxiety， especially in examination， when students are so eager to get high marks that they become too nervous and blank-minded to concentrate on the listening content. Study shows that there exist certain negative correlations both between English listening anxiety and listening achievement（Wang， 2010： 562）.

3. The countermeasures in teaching and learning

3.1 Improving pronunciation， stress and intonation

In order to train ability of discriminating sounds， students must learn to pronounce in a right way at the beginning of English study， especially when they are learning consonants and vowels. English teachers are suggested to spend more time in teaching them the manners of articulation and places of articulation.

It is also important to be able to identify stress and intonation， because different stress and intonation may imply different meanings in the same sentence. The awareness of the features of intonation will contribute to the development of learners listening comprehension （Chapman， 2007： 3）. Learners should be encouraged to imitate the native speaker， which has been proved to be a very efficient way of practicing speaking and listening. This kind of practice should be carried out through various activities， for monotonous practice for a long time may spoil studentsinterest.

3.2 Enlarging vocabulary

There are two ways to help students overcome the difficulties in terms of vocabulary.

Firstly， teachers should encourage the students to enlarge their vocabulary by making the students understand the importance to have an adequate mastery of vocabulary.

Secondly， teachers should encourage students to use not only the linguistic clues but also their non-linguistic knowledge to guess the meaning of the new word in listening comprehension. Teachers then can purposefully design different activities to train students to listen for information from context.

3.3 Using dictation to reinforce grammar

From the point of students， they have to learn grammar carefully and systematically. They should not only know the basic grammatical knowledge， but also acquaint themselves with the structure and usage of sentences patterns， especially some particular patterns， such as comparative sentence， inverted sentence， emphatic sentence and ellipsis sentence， etc.

Teachers presentation and explanation of grammar rules are needed in the preliminary stage in learning process， through which teachers can help make grammatical items as salient and noticeable as possible， and students could be afforded repeated opportunity to recognize and internalize the target models （Jia& Fu， 2011： 321）.

Dictation itself is a good way of practicing grammar. Teachers can ask students to proofread what is dictated by analyzing sentence structures and patterns. In this way the students can find the sentences that are ungrammatical and make the necessary changes. When the script is given， the teacher can choose some important or difficult sentence structures to explain so that grammar can be reinforced.

3.4 Reading to enrich cultural background knowledge

Language is a kind of cultural expression. Success in listening calls for understanding culture background about English-speaking countries， such as their history， culture， customs， habits， and even life styles.

Many people have this kind of experience. Listening to something familiar is easy， even if there are some new words in the material the listener can guess their meanings according to the context. However， when we encounter some unfamiliar material or something closely related to different culture background， we may feel it rather difficult. Many students with a large vocabulary and good pronunciation still have difficulty in dictation because they know little about western culture. The job of a language teacher is to help students realize the importance of knowing the culture of English speaking countries. Teachers can encourage the students to read extensively so that they can widen their range of knowledge.

3.5 Training short term memory

Recognizing linguistic elements， while essential to the process， is not sufficient for comprehending what is heard. Listeners must be able to retain these elements in short-term memory long enough to interpret the utterance.

The capacity of short-term memory is limited to about seven units， plus or minus two. The size of a unit varies with the type of input and also with the listeners previous experience in dealing with the particular type of material that they are processing （Call， 1985： 767）. The unit of language can be letters， words phrases or clauses depending on the previous knowledge of the listener， so larger units contain more information. The significance of this is that teachers can take advantage of it and encourage students to remember and understand listening material by chunks instead of single words. In teaching， teachers can also ask students to remember sentence structures by analyzing them structures grammatically. In dictation practice， students can write one or two letters of the words which they do not have enough time to write. The repetition of the letters can reinforce the short-term memory and give some hint when students are checking what is written.

3.6 Psychological training

According to Krashen （1986： 31）， “low anxiety appears to be conductive to second language acquisition， whether measured as personal or classroom anxiety”. The effective language teacher is someone who can provide input and help make it comprehensible in a low anxiety situation （ibid.： 32）.

As students eagerly hope for success in the dictation， they will feel anxious and frustrated when they fail to understand certain words in the dictated passage. This may cause a vicious circle， which affects performance of dictation.

In view of this， the teacher needs to pay great attention to raising students psychological quality in training. They can create a relaxed and happy atmosphere in listening class， making the students maintain the good psychological condition.

4. Conclusion

Dictation is a complicated process of information decoding and reorganizing meaning of an utterance. Some fundamental factors may prevent students from obtaining a relatively high score in dictation， such as the accuracy of the pronunciation and intonation， the mastery of the basic grammar and vocabulary， the English learners background knowledge， and the learners psychological state while listening. To do well in this part， students must first have a good command of the language， and develop a good psychological quality and writing skills in their daily practice. In the meanwhile， teachers should find the studentsproblems in listening and dictation and help them by giving appropriate information， background knowledge， setting proper tasks in and out of class and designing various and interesting activities to improve their listening comprehension and performance in dictation.

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