The Effect of Teaching Phonetic Information Through Repeated Practice of Dictation and Reading Aloud in L2 Listening Class

抄録

This paper reports a remedial approach to the study of improving lower-level processing in L2 listening. First, the perceptional problems in listening comprehension are reviewed, and the importance of the automatized bottom-up skills is discussed. Next, two studies are reported. In study 1, the possibility of teaching phonetic information to improve perceptional processing was examined, and the result showed a significant correlation between dictation scores focusing on phonetic features in spoken English and TOEIC listening scores as an indicator of listening comprehension. Based on the result of study 1, the efficacy of teaching phonetic information through repeated practice of dictation and reading aloud was examined in study 2. To examine what types of subjects benefit from dictation and reading aloud, TOEIC was taken by 74 subjects before and after the procedure. The Japanese version of Reading Span Test as an indicator of the efficiency of working memory capacity was also conducted after the treatment. The result of study 2 suggested a hypothesis that reading aloud exercises can benefit lower-level and low-span listeners.