The effect of discourse organisation on lecture comprehension

Allison, Desmond; Tauroza, Steve

doi:10.1016/0889-4906(95)00007-e

Cited by 33 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…However, even those with apparently adequate language skills may fail to identify the overall lecture structure and main points (Allison & Tauroza, 1995;Clerehan, 1995;Olsen & Huckin, 1990).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Discourse organizational cues have widely been advocated as a significant means of improving lecture comprehension, note-taking and recall (e.g., Allison & Tauroza, 1995;Björkman, 2011;DeCarrico & Nattinger, 1988;Jung, 2003;Kiewra, 2002;Lynch, 1994;Titsworth & Kiewra, 2004;Tyler, 1992;Williams, 1992). Nevertheless, surprisingly little is known about the verbal cues used to highlight important or relevant information.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Just remember this: Lexicogrammatical relevance markers in lectures

Deroey

Taverniers

2012

English for Specific Purposes

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Just remember this: Lexicogrammatical relevance markers in lecturesThis paper presents a comprehensive overview of lexicogrammatical devices which highlight important or relevant points in lectures. Despite the established usefulness of discourse organizational cues for lecture comprehension and note-taking, very little is known about the marking of relevance in this genre. The current overview of lexicogrammatical relevance markers combines a qualitative and quantitative investigation of 160 lectures from the British Academic Spoken English (BASE) corpus. These markers could mostly be classified according to their main element into adjective, noun, verb and adverb patterns. Verb patterns were the most common, followed by noun patterns. The verb pattern V clause (e.g. remember slavery had already been legally abolished) and the noun pattern MN v-link (e.g. the point is) are the predominant types of relevance markers. The discrepancy between the prevalent markers and what may be thought of as prototypical or included in EAP textbooks as relevance markers also demonstrates the need for corpus linguistic research. Implications for EAP course design, teaching English for lecturing purposes, and educational research are discussed.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Just remember this: Lexicogrammatical relevance markers in lectures

Deroey

Taverniers

2012

English for Specific Purposes

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“…Most of these studies had as their foci the comprehension diffi culties caused by the lecturing language and their causes. The reported challenges brought about by using English as the lecturing language ranged from issues caused by profi ciency (Flowerdew 1994, Thompson 1994, to vocabulary-related issues (Flowerdew 1994, Thompson 1994, cultural issues (Flowerdew/Miller 1995), and pragmatic issues related to the discourse of lectures (Rost 1994, Allison/Tauroza 1999, Mulligan/Kirkpatrick 2000, Bamford 2000, Hyuk 2003, Crawford-Camiciottoli 2004, Morell 2004). These studies, and many others which cannot be mentioned here, have contributed considerably to our understanding of the implications of lecturing in English to an international audience.…”

Section: Background: Lectures In a Second Language And Lectures In LImentioning

confidence: 99%

So You Think You Can ELF: English as a Lingua Franca as the Medium of Instruction

Björkman

2017

HJLCB

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This paper reports the fi ndings of a study on spoken English as a lingua franca (ELF) in Swedish higher education. The aim has been to investigate the role pragmatic strategies play in content lectures where English is a lingua franca, i.e. a vehicular language. The fi ndings show that lecturers in ELF settings make less frequent use of pragmatic strategies 1 than students, who deploy these strategies frequently in group-work projects. Earlier stages of the present study showed that despite frequent non-standardness at the morphosyntax level, there is very little overt disturbance in student group-work (Björkman 2008a and b/2009b), most likely owing to a variety of communicative strategies used during interaction and the questions raised (Björkman 2009a). It seems reasonable to assume that, in the absence of appropriate strategies and questions that serve as real-time signals of disturbance, there is an increased risk for covert disturbance in lectures. This view complies with the fi ndings of earlier studies on the importance of such strategies (Mauranen 2006, Airey 2009, Hellekjaer 2010. The fi ndings imply that the effectiveness of a speaker of English in academic ELF settings is determined primarily by the speaker's pragmatic ability and less by his/her profi ciency. There are important implications of these fi ndings for lecturers who need to operate in ELF settings. First, increasing interactivity by using pragmatic strategies suffi ciently frequently appears critical for those involved in English-medium education. It is also important that awareness is raised on target language usage in lecturing in English. Such awareness-raising can be achieved at the macro level by clearly-written language policies that include training for teachers and students who both need to be equipped with the skills needed to cope with the complexities of such settings, and at the micro level, by in-house training and courses that could be administered to both teachers and students.

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“…Pertinent research indicates that many L2 learners, even those with adequate English lan-guage proficiency, have difficulty comprehending academic lectures and fail to grasp the main points of the lectures (Allison & Tauroza, 1995;Hyon, 1997;Thompson, 1994;Young, 1994). A large body of research demonstrates that L2 learners' difficulties in understanding lectures lie at the discourse level as well as at the sentence level (Clerehan, 1995;Olsen & Huckin, 1990).…”

Section: Academic Second Language Listening Comprehensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Discourse Signaling Cues in Second Language Listening Comprehension

Jung

2003

The Modern Language Journal

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In contrast to the extensive research on reading, few studies have been conducted to investigate the role of discourse signaling cues in second language (L2) listening. Even the few existing studies provide inconsistent support for the beneficial effects of discourse signaling cues on L2 listening comprehension. Most of these studies also fail to show how these cues affect listeners' comprehension of different levels of information in the text. The current study examined the effects of discourse signaling cues on L2 learners' listening comprehension of high-and low-level information in academic lectures. The study involved 80 Korean learners of English as a Foreign Language. Of the 80 learners, half listened to the lecture with discourse signaling cues (i.e., signaled group), and the other half listened to the lecture without such cues (i.e., nonsignaled group). Half the learners in each group performed summary tasks; the other half performed recall tasks. The findings showed that discourse signaling cues play an important role in L2 listening comprehension. Compared to the nonsignaled group, the signaled group recalled significantly more high-as well as low-level information from the lecture in an accurate manner.

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The effect of discourse organisation on lecture comprehension

Cited by 33 publications

References 8 publications

Just remember this: Lexicogrammatical relevance markers in lectures

Just remember this: Lexicogrammatical relevance markers in lectures

So You Think You Can ELF: English as a Lingua Franca as the Medium of Instruction

The Role of Discourse Signaling Cues in Second Language Listening Comprehension

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