This is a longitudinal study, investigating the impact of audio-visual media on English acquisition and learning in the Chinese context. In China, there are several issues in L2 English language education. The quantity and the quality of English language input are less than ideal. Furthermore, L2 English learner motivation is undependable. Since language input and motivation is important in L2 acquisition and learning, it is relevant to find an alternative input which contains authentic native English to facilitate and motivate Chinese-speaking learners' English acquisition and learning. Audio-visual media has the potential of becoming the alternative source of input on account of being a provider of rich authentic English language input and motivation stimuli. The impact of audio-visual media was tested in two distinct aspects, namely acquisition and learning. English genericity, and vocabulary meaning and form mapping were employed as test properties to examine to what extent audio-visual media can influence acquisition and learning respectively. A total of 52 Chinese university students participated in this one-year-long intervention experiment. The television series stimuli Doctor Who was only given to the experimental group during the input period. Motivation was a variable to allocate students in flexible groups for analysis after the immediate post-test. By conducting statistical tests, the results revealed that audio-visual media had a weak impact on English acquisition of genericity. The motivation variable was not influential in acquisition. In L2 English learning of vocabulary meaning and form mapping, audio-visual media had a strong and long-lasting impact in the self-learning setting. The motivation variable was positively influential in learning. When the vocabulary was applied to new contexts, the effect of audio-visual media and the motivation variable was not sustained. Based on these results, the Motivational Input Carrier Hypothesis is proposed to contribute to L2 research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:689322 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Zhang, Chen |
| Contributors | Gil, Kook-Hee ; Sen, Ranjan |
| Publisher | University of Sheffield |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/13470/ |
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