The Effect Of 'Xu' On Dictation Performance

Most research has proved that dictation helps improve L2 proficiency(e.g.,listening and writing)when it is used in language teaching.However,few studies have probed dictation from the perspective of coupling comprehension with production.The recent development of the 'Xu' argument(Wang 2016,2017),which highlights its role of 'Xu'(?)in facilitating L2 learning,makes it possible to examine dictation along this line.'Xu' or extension mediates between language comprehension and production and makes the latter align with the former,thus bringing about a learning effect.The present study was intended to study this alignment effect by looking into a dictation task that contains an element of 'Xu'.Participants of the study were a total of 68 L2 English learners from two classes at Grade Three in a middle school.Selection of participants was based on their English scores from a mock test called HSEE.They were divided into two groups of 34 each,with one serving as the experimental group and the other the control group.A passage was selected for use in a dictation task which was conducted in two different procedures.The passage was cut into two parts.The experimental group was required to read the first part of the passage and then perform dictation of the second part(This way of conducting dictation is called "reading-listening integrated dictation").The control group was asked to do the dictation of the whole passage.A comparison was made of both groups' dictation performance of the second part of the passage.In order to find out if the dictation continuation task(or the reading-listening integrated dictation task)was more effective in facilitating listening comprehension,all the participants were required to complete a comprehension questionnaire(a comprehension test included)in the dictation task.Finally,three participants from each group were selected to perform a retrospective interview upon completion of the dictation task and the interview data were analyzed for more evidence for or against the use of the dictation continuation task in L2 instruction.Results showed that the two dictation tasks influenced participants' deep comprehension on the input texts,which in turn leads to their attention on form.The learners in the dictation continuation task achieved higher inferential comprehension scores and allocated more attention to form than their counterparts in the traditional dictation task.Besides,the two dictation tasks induced an effect on the magnitude of alignment in dictation.Participants' alignment with the language use in the first part of the dictation text was significantly stronger than that in the traditional dictation task.That is,participants performing the reading-listening integrated dictation task tended to align more with those language forms that occur in the reading part.Furthermore,results of an independent sample t-test and two-way ANOVA indicated that the learners in the dictation continuation task made fewer errors of four types(i.e.,comprehension,meaning,structural and orthographical errors),especially meaning and structural errors,and their dictation scores greatly improved as compared with those in the traditional dictation task.The results of this study have confirmed the facilitative role of the element 'Xu' in L2 learning,as manifested in dictation.The reading input in the dictation continuation task served to motivate L2 learners to relate dictation to reading for better listening comprehension.The interaction between dictation and reading was capable of enhancing alignment between the two,thereby improving dictation performance.Moreover,the continuation dictation helped the L2 learners of lower proficiency level achieve better scores in dictation and it was conducive to the reduction of spelling errors.The findings have provided supporting evidence for the 'Xu' argument in L2 research and lent support to Wang's(2017:551)claim that language is learned through 'Xu'.