Incidental Learning of Chinese Idioms through Academic Listening

Kang, Shuo

Incidental Learning of Chinese Idioms through Academic Listening

dc.contributor.advisor	Cai, Wei
dc.contributor.advisor	Carroll, Susanne
dc.contributor.author	Kang, Shuo
dc.contributor.committeemember	O'Brien, Mary
dc.contributor.committeemember	Koh, Kim Hong
dc.date	2023-06
dc.date.accessioned	2023-04-14T21:20:34Z
dc.date.available	2023-04-14T21:20:34Z
dc.date.issued	2023-03-30
dc.description.abstract	The present study adopted a pre-test/post-test between-groups design to examine whether Chinese as a foreign language learners could incidentally acquire and retain unfamiliar idioms through listening to a lecture on medical science. Moreover, it investigated the effect of different types of idioms on the incidental learning gains. It also employed a retrospective interview to explore the cognitive processes involved in idiom learning and the listening strategies used for idiom interpretation. Finally, it investigated the relationship between lecture comprehension and idiom learning. 159 medical students participated in the study. Six weeks after the pre-test that measured their prior knowledge of 18 target idioms, students in the experimental group one (n = 53) listened to a lecture where 18 target idioms were embedded; the experimental group two (n = 53) listened to 18 short paragraphs extracted from the same lecture, with each paragraph including one target idiom; the control group (n = 53) did not receive any input. Then, all participants wrote a post-test to show their learning outcomes. Five participants in each group were interviewed to determine what listening strategies were used for idiom comprehension. Twelve weeks after the post-test, all participants wrote a delayed post-test to measure their retention of target idioms. The results demonstrated that 1) the mean score of the post-test in the experimental group one was significantly higher than that of other groups, indicating the positive effect of lecture on idiom learning; 2) The mean score of the delayed post-test in the experimental group one was significantly higher than other groups, suggesting that academic listening could facilitate idiom retention; 3) Chinese idioms having translation equivalents in English were the easiest to learn, followed by Chinese idioms with some and no components in common with English counterparts. This indicates that cross-language similarity between Chinese and English has a significant effect on incidental idiom learning; 4) Proficient listeners could use their metacognitive knowledge to monitor the listening process and direct the deployment of various cognitive strategies; 5) There was a strong and positive relationship between lecture comprehension and incidental idiom learning. The results have important practical and theoretical implications.
dc.identifier.citation	Kang, S. (2023). Incidental learning of Chinese idioms through academic listening (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.
dc.identifier.uri	https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/1880/116072
dc.identifier.uri	https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/dspace/40918
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher.faculty	Graduate Studies
dc.publisher.institution	University of Calgary
dc.rights	University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.subject	incidental idiom learning
dc.subject	academic listening
dc.subject	idiom retention
dc.subject	mental representations
dc.subject	listening strategies
dc.subject.classification	Linguistics
dc.subject.classification	Education--Bilingual and Multicultural
dc.subject.classification	Education
dc.title	Incidental Learning of Chinese Idioms through Academic Listening
dc.type	doctoral thesis
thesis.degree.discipline	Languages, Literatures and Cultures
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Calgary
thesis.degree.name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
ucalgary.thesis.accesssetbystudent	I require a thesis withhold – I need to delay the release of my thesis due to a patent application, and other reasons outlined in the link above. I have/will need to submit a thesis withhold application.