Investigating the Effect of Cultural Schemata Activation on EFL Learners’ Listening Comprehension

Abstract

This study tried to find the possible relationship between listeners' cultural schemata and its activation and their performance in EFL listening comprehension. The participants of this study were two groups of 37 Muslim Iranian students. Firstly, the students were divided into two groups of high and low proficiency. Then, they were exposed to two audio files, one about mosques and the other about cathedrals. In one of the classes the recording about the cathedrals was played first, but in the other the order was reversed. The collected data were inputted into the SPSS program. The null hypothesis of the study was whether listening to a culturally unfamiliar topic (cathedrals) can activate low-level learners' schema of the culturally familiar topic (mosques). The hypothesis of the study was accepted implying that an unfamiliar text, even if it is conceptually similar, cannot activate a culturally familiar schema in the low-level students. This study has pedagogical implications for teaching listening comprehension.

Flipped Presentation of Authentic Audio-Visual Materials: Impacts on Intercultural Sensitivity and Intercultural Effectiveness in an EFL Context

“…Webb and Nation ( 2018 ) introduced four strands for teaching vocabulary, namely meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development, the first two of which target the receptive and productive skills, respectively. Drawing on Webb and Nation's ( 2018 ) and Brown's ( 2010 ) research, the researchers presented some e-vocabulary ( Appendix H ) mined from the episode to-be-watched to activate the participants' cultural schemata (Mahmoudi, 2017 ). This approach is also in line with Roell's ( 2010 ) pre-viewing activities.…”

O diário como instrumento metodológico no ensino e na pesquisa em inglês

“…Também dentro do conjunto de reações que o diário pode registrar, citado por Johnson e Johnson (1998), está o conhecimento de mundo dos participantes. A ativação dos schematas (CARRELL; EISTERHOLD, 1983;LEE, 2008;MAHMOUDI, 2017) interage com as atividades propostas e influencia a tomada de decisões.…”

“…O diário também permitiu verificar como os participantes estavam utilizando seu conhecimento de mundo, ou como a ativação dos schematas ocorria nas atividades (CARRELL;EISTERHOLD, 1983;LEE;2008, MAHMOUDI, 2017, e a relação de tal ação com a tomada de decisões, conforme demonstra o excerto abaixo: Excerto 3 -aluno 3 Procurei no google vídeos sobre robôs domésticos existentes atualmente; lembrei-me de um robô doméstico de limpeza que eu havia visto em uma loja da empresa xiaomi; passei a pesquisar mais especificamente sobre robôs domésticos atuais de limpeza As evidências coletadas apontam que o diário desempenhou um papel fundamental para o alcance dos objetivos estabelecidos para a investigação, constituindo, assim, uma ferramenta metodológica de coleta de dados eficaz. Caso o diário não tivesse sido utilizado, os dados teriam de ser baseados unicamente no produto final das tarefas, o que restringiria a análise do pesquisador.…”