A Tentative Study Of Dynamic Context And Relevance Theory For The Teaching Of College English Listening Comprehension

Listening comprehension is commonly recognized as an important language skill for English learners. The improvement of English listening can not only enable them to understand the language, communicate with others, appreciate various aural and visual programs in the language, but also promote their overall success in English learning. As a result, the study of listening teaching receives extensive attention from linguists and foreign language experts.College English teaching is now facing great reform. The State Education Ministry has made higher requirements for college students' listening and speaking abilities. However many teachers and students are not satisfied with the current situation of listening class in colleges. At this critical moment, a practical and scientific theory is fairly necessary to guide the teaching practice and promote the quality and efficiency of English listening teaching.In the thesis, the researcher tries to find out the current problems about learning and teaching English listening comprehension among non-English major university students, and to work out a right way to improve the efficiency of teaching listening comprehension in the light of dynamic context and Relevance Theory.According to the survey conducted by the researcher, most non-English majors admit the importance of listening comprehension, but have great difficulties in their listening and communicating practices. They are eager to obtain important strategies so as to improve their listening competence.In the thesis, the importance of dynamic context and Relevance Theory in communication and listening comprehension is explored. The researcher tentatively applies teaching pedagogies guided by these theories in the teaching practice. Various pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening activities are organized in the light of dynamic context and Relevance Theory, with the aim of helping students activate their schemata, form contextual assumptions and seek for optimal relevance. As is indicated by the research findings, dynamic context and Relevance Theory play a positive role in guiding the teaching practice, and is efficient in helping students master important listening strategies and improve their listening and communication skills.