Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Series editors' preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- I BACKGROUND
- II THE SECOND LANGUAGE ACADEMIC LISTENING PROCESS
- Chapter 2 Expectation-driven understanding in information systems lecture comprehension
- Chapter 3 The effects of rhetorical signaling cues on the recall of English lecture information by speakers of English as a native or second language
- Chapter 4 Second language listening comprehension and lecture note-taking
- Chapter 5 On-line summaries as representations of lecture understanding
- III DISCOURSE OF ACADEMIC LECTURES
- IV ETHNOGRAPHY OF SECOND LANGUAGE LECTURES
- V PEDAGOGIC APPLICATIONS
- Conclusion
- Index
- Subject index
Chapter 2 - Expectation-driven understanding in information systems lecture comprehension
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Series editors' preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- I BACKGROUND
- II THE SECOND LANGUAGE ACADEMIC LISTENING PROCESS
- Chapter 2 Expectation-driven understanding in information systems lecture comprehension
- Chapter 3 The effects of rhetorical signaling cues on the recall of English lecture information by speakers of English as a native or second language
- Chapter 4 Second language listening comprehension and lecture note-taking
- Chapter 5 On-line summaries as representations of lecture understanding
- III DISCOURSE OF ACADEMIC LECTURES
- IV ETHNOGRAPHY OF SECOND LANGUAGE LECTURES
- V PEDAGOGIC APPLICATIONS
- Conclusion
- Index
- Subject index
Summary
Abstract
This study explores the lecture comprehension of a group of first-year electronic engineering undergraduates taking a course on “The Human-Computer Interface” in Hong Kong. Following Olsen and Huckin (1990), we focus on the way that discourse structure relates to the comprehension of a lecturer's main points. Our subjects had relatively few difficulties in identifying most of the main points of a chosen lecture extract, which described how filtering can be used to offset information overload in human information processing. There were, however, frequent misrepresentations and omissions in subjects' summaries of one of the main points concerning a warning that errors might result from overuse or misuse of filtering. These misrepresentations appear to have been prompted by differences between the type of lecture format that the students expected and the actual format of the lecture. We describe the implications of our findings for lecture comprehension and EAP teaching.
Introduction
Olsen and Huckin (1990) conducted an exploratory research study into ESL students' comprehension of engineering lectures. They concluded that some of these students “may understand all the words of a lecture (including lexical connectives and other discourse markers) and yet fail to understand the lecturer's main points or logical argument” (p. 33). As an explanation of such outcomes, they argued that many students only expect to gain information from lectures, and thus fail to recognise and appreciate evidence of more complex speaker intentions.
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- Information
- Academic ListeningResearch Perspectives, pp. 35 - 54Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995
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