A Study On Tolerance Of Ambiguity In English Learning Exhibited By Students In A Vocational College

With the development of research on second language acquisition, there is a shift of research interest from finding ways to improve teaching to exploring the individual differences in language learning. Of all the studies on individual differences in second language acquisition, research on tolerance of ambiguity (TOA) has drawn researchers'attention both abroad and at home.Nevertheless, a quick look at the literature in this research area shows that most of previous researchers have examined TOA in language learning by students from universities and middle schools, and little research has been done to investigate TOA in language learning by vocational college students. Considering these factors, I intend to investigate how vocational college students'English learning is affected by their TOA. It is assumed that, by understanding this group of students'TOA in English learning, I will be able to reveal some problems shared by all the students in the process of their English learning, and then find out some teaching strategies, in one way or another, to overcome these problems.With this purpose in mind, I will address the following three research questions: (1) To what degree do vocational college students tolerate ambiguity in the process of their English learning? (2) Are there any differences in tolerance of ambiguity in English learning between males and females? In what aspects are they different? (3) Are there any differences in TOA between students of high achievement and those of low achievement?150 subjects were asked to participate in this study. They were randomly selected from a vocational college. The instrument used for this research was Ely's (1995) second language tolerance of ambiguity scale. The data were analyzed by SPSS 14.0. To answer the three research questions, I employed Descriptive Statistics, Independent Sample T-test and an analysis of variance (ANOVA) respectively.The study has yielded several findings: (1) vocational college students in this study exhibit neither high tolerance nor high intolerance in their English learning processes. They can't tolerate the fact that they can't express themselves clearly and exactly when speaking and writing English, but they are willing to tolerate some uncertainty in English listening and reading. (2) There are statistically significant differences by gender in TOA. Females are significantly more tolerant of ambiguity than males on the whole. Specifically, females are much more tolerant of ambiguity than males in pronunciation, speaking, reading and writing. However, in terms of listening, grammar, translation, vocabulary learning and guessing of lexical meaning, there are no significant differences between males and females. Both females and males have intermediate TOA. (3) High achievement students have a significantly higher overall tolerance of ambiguity than low achievement students. High achievement students are significantly more tolerant of ambiguity than low achievement students in listening, speaking, reading, writing, pronunciation, and guessing of lexical meaning. However, there are no significant differences in TOA between high and low achievers in terms of translation, grammar, and vocabulary development.Several implications for English teaching and learning in vocational colleges can be drawn from this study. First, English teachers should try to arouse students'awareness of TOA, and then they should help students set up a positive attitude toward uncertainty in English learning. Next, English teachers should help students cultivate optimal TOA, and create a"student-centered"classroom teaching. Only in this way will teachers be able to help their students improve their English learning efficiency.