ADVENTURES IN INTERCULTURAL LISTENING By JONNIE LYNN HILL Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education Oklahoma Baptist University Shawnee, OK 1989 Master of Arts in English Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK 2000 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December 2006 ADVENTURES IN INTERCULTURAL LISTENING Dissertation Approved: Dr. Carol Lynn Moder Dissertation Adviser Dr. Ravi Sheorey Dr. Gene Halleck Dr. Nadine Olson Dr. A. Gordon Emslie Dean of the Graduate College ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To my advisory committee: to Dr. Carol Lynn Moder, who advised and coached me concerning the development of this draft, both in conducting the study and writing it up, and to Drs. Gene Halleck, Ravi Sheorey, and Nadine Olson, who shared their research interests in language learning and pedagogy and inspired me to develop this adventure, thank you for teaching, inspiring, and encouraging me in presenting this adventure. To others who walked beside me during the adventure: to Dr. Mark Freiermuth, who discussed the academic issues of intercultural listening and helped me understand listening from another perspective, to Mom and Dad, who took me on my first adventure in intercultural listening, and to my grandparents who have always cheered me on, I can never begin to repay the debt of gratitude that I owe you. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................1 II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE.......................................................................................7 A Metaphorical Definition of Listening Comprehension.............................................8 Listening as a Guessing Game................................................................................11 Listening as a Network ...........................................................................................13 Listening as Construction .......................................................................................15 Listening as Script...................................................................................................17 Evaluating the Metaphors .......................................................................................19 A Description of Intercultural Listening.....................................................................21 Roles of the Intercultural Listener ..........................................................................23 Settings and Purpose...............................................................................................25 Challenges and Strategies in Intercultural Listening ..............................................30 Research Questions.....................................................................................................50 III. METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................................52 Recruiting Intercultural Listeners ...............................................................................55 Linguistic Experience .............................................................................................56 Drive to Identify with the Culture...........................................................................57 Language Learning Situation..................................................................................58 Diaries & Data Sources...............................................................................................62 Data Analysis..............................................................................................................64 Step 1: Identify Roles..............................................................................................66 Step 2: Identify the Purpose....................................................................................69 Step 3: Extrapolate Challenges and Strategies........................................................71 Step 4: Interpolate Challenges and Strategies.........................................................74 Exploratory Questions ................................................................................................75 IV. FINDINGS................................................................................................................77 Roles ...........................................................................................................................77 Passive roles............................................................................................................79 Active roles .............................................................................................................87 Contrasting Active and Passive Roles ....................................................................90 Purposes......................................................................................................................91 Transaction..............................................................................................................92 iv Instruction ...............................................................................................................95 Social Interaction ....................................................................................................96 The Effect of the Purpose of Interaction on Comprehension .................................99 Challenges.................................................................................................................100 Difficulty...............................................................................................................100 Cognitive Strategies..............................................................................................111 Sources of Dysphoria............................................................................................133 Affective Strategies...............................................................................................141 Sources of Dissonance ..........................................................................................149 Conclusion ................................................................................................................159 Effect of Roles on Comprehension.......................................................................160 Effect of Purpose on Comprehension ...................................................................160 Common Challenges for Intercultural Listeners...................................................162 Most Frequently Employed Strategies..................................................................164 V. CONCLUSION........................................................................................................169 What Teachers Should Know ...............................................................................169 Implications & Applications.................................................................................176 Limitations and Extensions...................................................................................181 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................183 APPENDIX A...............................................................................................................197 APPENDIX B ...............................................................................................................199 v LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 2.1 Difficulties and Cognitive Strategies..............................................................31 Table 2.2 Dysphoria and Affective Strategies ................................................................37 Table 3.1 Differentiating Listening Roles ......................................................................66 Table 3.2 Differentiating Purpose..................................................................................69 Table 3.3 Challenges and Strategies in Intercultural Listening .....................................73 Table 4.1 Frequency of listening roles recorded in logs.................................................78 Table 4.2 Frequency of listening episode according to purpose.....................................92 Table 4.3 Challenges in the Cognitive Domain............................................................101 Table 4.4 Cognitive Strategies....................................................................................112 Table 4.5 Frequency of translation types.....................................................................119 Table 4.6 Challenges in the affective domain..............................................................133 Table 4.7 Affective Strategies......................................................................................142 Table 4.8 Socio-Cultural Strategies .............................................................................150 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page Figure 1.1 Map of Intercultural Listening........................................................................6 Figure 3.1 Entry from Shadrach’s Listening Log ...........................................................71 Figure 3.2 Entry from Jonnie’s Mandarin Listening Log...............................................72 vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Ten years ago, while I was picking up international students for an event that my