Effect Of Different Input Modalities And Cognitive Load On Listening Comprehension

Based on the cognitive load theory as well as the results of predecessors on input modalities,cognitive load and English listening comprehension,this paper studies English listening comprehension of third-year English majors with different input modalities and cognitive load.The specific research questions are as follows:1)What are the impacts of listening-only input modality,listening plus watching input modality,listening plus watching with English subtitle input modality on cognitive load?2)What are the impacts of listening-only input modality,listening plus watching input modality,listening plus watching with English subtitle input modality on English listening comprehension?3)What’s the impact of cognitive load on English listening comprehension?4)What’s the interactive impact of input modalities and cognitive load together on English listening comprehension?In this study,all 100 participants were the third-year English majors from University of South China,they all passed TEM 4.25 participants took part in pilot test,and the rest 75 participants took part in the formal experiment.The WP rating scale was used to measure the cognitive load of participants when they completed the English listening comprehension task in three different modalities.American situation comedy was used to be English listening materials.SPSS 25.0 was used for statistical analysis of the experimental data,and the results were as follows:Firstly,listening-only input modality,listening plus watching input modality and listening plus watching with English subtitle input modality will lead to different cognitive load.The average cognitive load of listening-only group was 6.4,the average cognitive load of listening plus watching group was 7.3,the average cognitive load of listening plus watching with English subtitle group was 7.0.The P values of ANOVA analysis of input modalities on cognitive load were 0.00 in three sessions,this shows there is a significant difference in input modalities on cognitive load.The result of post hoc analysis shows that there are significant differences between listening-only modality and listening plus watching modality in the three sessions,there are significant differences between listening-only modality and listening plus watching with English subtitle modality in the first two sessions,there are significant differences between listening plus watching modality and listening plus watching with English subtitle modality in session 3.Secondly,listening-only input modality,listening plus watching input modality and listening plus watching with English subtitle input modality will lead to different Englishlistening comprehension.The average English listening comprehension score of listening-only group was 28.8,the average English listening comprehension score of listening plus watching with English subtitle group was 39.0,the average English listening comprehension score of listening plus watching group was 37.0.The P values of ANOVA analysis of input modalities on English listening comprehension were less than 0.05 in three sessions,this shows there is a significant difference in input modalities on English listening comprehension.The result of post hoc analysis shows that there are significant differences between listening-only modality and listening plus watching with English subtitle modality in the three sessions,there are significant differences between listening-only modality and listening plus watching modality in session 2 and session 3,there are no significant difference between listening plus watching modality and listening plus watching with English subtitle modality in the three sessions.Thirdly,different cognitive load will lead to different English listening comprehension.When the average cognitive load was 6.4,the average English listening comprehension score was 28.8;when the average cognitive load was 7.3,the average English listening comprehension score was 37.0;when the average cognitive load was 7.0,the average English listening comprehension score was 39.0.The P values of ANOVA analysis of cognitive load on English listening comprehension were more than 0.05 in session 1,less than 0.05 in session 2 and session 3,this shows there is a significant difference in cognitive load on English listening comprehension.Finally,different input modalities and cognitive load together have great effect on English listening comprehension.The P values of main effect and interactive effect were less than 0.05 in the interactive effect analysis in session 1 and session 2.In session 3,the P values of main effect in the interactive analysis were less than 0.05,the P values of interactive effect in the interactive analysis were more than 0.05.This shows there is a significant difference in input modalities and cognitive load together on English listening comprehension.This study shows that different input modalities and cognitive load have a great impact on English listening comprehension,besides,different input modalities and cognitive load together also have a great influence on English listening comprehension.What’s more,too high or too low cognitive load will hinder students’ English listening comprehension.