A Study On The Application Of Relevance Theory To Improving Students' Listening Comprehension Ability

Listening comprehension, as a basic language skill, plays a very important role in communication. The improvement of listening comprehension ability can make the English learners have a better communication with other. At the same time, according to Education Ministry issued"College English Curriculum Requirements"(2007), college English teaching target is to train students'integrated English language ability, especially the listening and speaking ability. As a result, how to improve students'listening comprehension ability receives widespread attention from linguistics.With the reform of College English Test Band 4, the proportion of listening comprehension increases from original 20% to 35%, and the topic of listening comprehension is more flexible. However, after so many years'study, college students'listening ability has been poor and can not be improved effectively. Under this background, it is crucial to have a scientific and practical theory to guide English teaching and students'learning and finally to improve college students'listening comprehension ability.The purpose of the study is to: based on the problems existing in the current listening comprehension teaching and the students'habits in the process of listening comprehension, apply relevance theory into listening comprehension and try to guide listening comprehension teaching under the framework of relevance theory, finally improve students'listening comprehension ability.Under the guidance of relevance theory, an empirical study was conducted between two parallel classes(N=103). In the process of the experiment, the sample was selected randomly. One was the control class and the other was the experiment class that they were taught by the same teacher. Research instruments used interview, questionnaire and test. Data collection employed through interview, questionnaire, pre-test and post-test. The period of the experiment lasted half an hour. Various data was analyzed and collected by the spss17.0 software. The scores of both pre-test and post-test were made quantitative analysis and significant test. The results indicated that after the post-test, compared with the score of the control class, the score of the experiment class had significant difference. Relevance theory plays a vital role in helping students understanding the co-text and improving their listening comprehension ability. Relevance theory stimulated the schemata in students'minds, helping them form contextual assumptions and finally achieved optimal relevance.Finally, the paper puts forward some pertinent suggestions and limitations from the study and makes some prospects for further study.